Some X-cellent Valentines for you!

My friend Amy and I created some nerdy X-Files Valentine's to share. 

If you're a fellow nerd and would like to print them out and spread the love, click here to download.

Our ugly bathroom.

I'll admit, there was, and still is, a lot of ugly happening in this house that we bought last November. However, I'd have to say that most of it pales in comparison to our ugly bathroom. 

The toilet was leaking when we moved in so, instead of wasting time and money to fix the pink monstrosity, we turned it off and closed the door. Luckily we have two bathrooms and it has since been nothing but the room where we keep the litter box. Finally the time has come for us to make it into something that's functional and less nauseating.

Andrew has already removed the cabinets, toilet, and lovely hardware. I can't wait to rip all that pink faux marble laminate off the walls. Did I mention that the ceiling is also wallpapered? 

Oliver Jeffers.

This man's illustrations and stories have been inspiring me for several years now. It was really delightful to see this video of his daily process.

I still dream of being able to spend my days in my home studio. Just creating.

Winter walk in the woods.

"A year ago I don't think you could have convinced me to do this..." Andrew admitted as we walked. I had talked him into going for a walk with me through one of Cleveland's Metroparks on New Year's Eve. The day's temperature was reaching it's height at around 30 degrees. I hadn't been feeling particularly well for several days and bundling up and breathing in the brisk air was exactly what I needed. Winter walks are one of my most favorite things. I remember, when I was in college, how calming it was to walk home from classes with the snow falling and the city slowing it's pace and becoming quieter. I remember it being really wonderful and I miss that. 

I stopped to make a tiny snowman on top of a fence post.

2013.

To be honest, I rarely think about any resolutions I may have made for the new year past the end of the month. Its not that I don't want to accomplish them, its just that with everything that goes on in life they seldom stay on my mind. I was reading something that Donald Miller wrote about New Years resolutions and it really made me think about what I've been wanting to accomplish lately and how I could make that happen. 

For years I have been wanting to go to Alaska. It has a little to do with my childhood love of Northern Exposure, and a lot to do with my need to see the aurora borealis. Much like my desire to get to Arizona, I want to be able to experience a new landscape and explore our "last frontier" for myself. So I wrote it down so I could hang it up and see it often, but truthfully, I think about Alaska often enough that it would be challenging to forget about this goal. So my goal is to evaluate every purchase I make, decide if it's really necessary or not, because every dollar not spent is another step closer to getting to Alaska. I hope that I will be making my way there within the next two years. 

Bon Hiver!

I'm missing the snow terribly. I want poofy flakes that burst when they hit the ground. Branches heavy with white. It's not winter without it.

I've had the phrase "Bon Hiver" in my mind for a few days. It's french for "Good Winter" (not a misspelling of Justin Vernon's Bon Iver - although it is pronounced the same) and I've written more about my relationship to the phrase in the past. A page in my sketchbook was filling up with some hand lettering ideas and I decided to turn them into desktop wallpaper. If I can't have snow outside of my window, I might as well dream about it while I'm at my computer.

The images are available for download on my Flickr page here and here.

Chapel of the Holy Cross.

I didn't get enough time at the Chapel. We arrived fifteen minutes before they locked up. It was a bit of sensory overload. The architecture, the sun setting over the red rocks, and the overwhelming scent of the hundreds of candles lining the chapel walls. I've never felt so compelled to sit and just breathe and listen to God. But I didn't, and before I knew it we were being ushered out. It's the one thing I regret about the trip.

I don't have enough quiet moments in my life. I want to change that. 

(All of my Arizona pictures can be seen here.)

Plein Air Painting.

My goal for this whole trip to Arizona was to try something completely new with my art. New subject, new environment, new process. I got exactly that. 

I took a "hiking to paint" plein air workshop taught by Michael Chesley Johnson and spent four days learning all about the way he works and trying it out myself. To be honest, I was completely discouraged after the first day. I hadn't done any landscape painting in almost nine years and the whole experience of painting outside and on site was a bit overwhelming. I didn't even want to look at what I had painted that day. But after spending the evening attempting another piece using a photo reference I was feeling ready to try again.

I had to remind myself that I wasn't there to make a masterpiece. I was there to learn and try new things.

The last day that we painted was the most interesting and challenging due to the weather. Our view was sunny one minute, cloudy the next, followed by partial sun, a rainbow and more clouds until finally we decided to pack up right at the moment it started to pour on us. But that is the nature of plein air painting. It's constantly changing and as an artist you need to constantly adapt.

My two favorite paintings that I completed during the week (or the two paintings that I'm not completely embarrassed to share):

When the sun returns to Cleveland I'm going to try and connect with some plein air painters to continue to expand on what I learned. I'm interested in mixing more of my own style into this more traditional way of painting. I have so many ideas and images in my head from Arizona that I want to develop over these winter months.

(Some of Michael's paintings and photos from the week can be seen here.)