IMC Report - Part I

I can't recreate the awesomeness that was my week at IMC in a day-by-day way (drat that dead laptop!), but I will try to at least cover some highlights. Today, we'll take a look at the studios -

The downstairs studio - tables ringed by easels. Some digital people as well.

The upstairs studio - primarily easels and full of busy bees!

And this year, the new addition of a digital studio. All computers, all the time!

There was nearly always some faculty member or other circulating around the rooms giving input (Greg Manchess dispensing expert advise here, I'm sure..)

Scenes of creative productivity!

(We had a couple of chilly days - so much so that people were wearing their coats in the studio! or bathrobes, or whatever scarce warm-wear they had brought with them.)

And here's the awesome painting tag-team of Scott Fischer and Greg Manchess - here working a bit on Charles Santoso's fabulous piece.

Studio Spotlight -

This week I made a visit to the studio of Kathleen Kemley, one of my POBL cohorts. She generously volunteered to help me lay out initial sketches on a new book project of mine (I am sort of over-scheduled [what's new, you ask?] and she is killer-fast at this).

She lives in a darling house (complete with gardens and backyard chickens - she's one of my role models!), full of original pieces of art and inspired accents.

Her [very clean and orderly] studio is lovely - filled with character and light. A terrific combination of functionality and personality.

It's especially fun to see someone, whose work you are quite familiar with, in their 'natural habitat'. :-)

Studio details... (I am totally coveting her light fixture.)

It was a lovely afternoon of fabulous surroundings, good company and a big head-start on my latest project. Thanks Kathleen!

Maps...

(click on image for a larger view)

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Finished map for senior son. Am now heading off to Kinkos to get it scanned so that he can add the country boundries and other info necessary for game playing (this part done digitally).

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After all my griping about being stuck in the studio for the past months on end, it was actually nice to be here (and working on a *little* project for a change!)

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I think that will be my goal - still spending studio time, but avoid the projects which make doing anything else impossible. When practical at least.

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Balance balance balance... Elusive but oh, so attractive!

Happy Mother's Day!

'Had a lovely day - filled with all the things it should be-

Flowers - (and garden things..) -

-and chocolatey stuff.

And, although this was not a Mother's Day gift, I did want to show you my new 'baby'. A (pretty) Dell Inspiron 1720 . It is huge - a 17 inch screen (wide-screen ratio, so that you can watch movies in the correct format. :-) and enough bells and whistles for my studio needs. It even matches my green organza curtains that cover my studio closet. It is spiffy, sleek and fast. Such a treat after our old, creaky laptop. Now that I'm not chained to my desk however, we are not spending nearly enough time together... Soon, though, I'm sure... I do have more projects coming up.

In the meantime, I am on total illustration hiatus until July 1st (garden, garden, here I come!). My folks are in town visiting for the next couple of weeks, and tomorrow morning we are leaving for a 3 day jaunt to Victoria!

See you later this week! And hope your day was lovely.

Updates...

Spring is sprunging all about. Crocuses still out along with the miniature daffodils. The early blooming pink trees, a few white ones, golden forsythias, white and pink camellias and even a few early rhododendrons. I feel like I'm missing it being mostly inside!

On the inside/studio front, I have finished painting 12 'magical' horses across three covers and am now tackling the backgrounds. Hope to be done with all three by the end of the week.

Oh, and Dr. Galubrious has been making discoveries. (and of course, he'd love to hear from you!)

Where do I live anyway?

I thought it was the Pacific Northwest. You know - the place where it *rains* all the time, but NOT snow...?? We're having yet more of the suspect, icy, white stuff. Woke up to enough of it to cause school and business cancellations (even our garbage pick-up wimped out on us. Seattle is SO not equipped to deal with traditional winter.)

I had to venture out onto the frosty roads to take my latest finished cover to the FedEx man - and even my close-by-local-drop-off was closed because of weather.

Having survived having to venture even further afield to find an open drop-off, I returned to that other place I seem to live - the studio. It is still January, and in honor of the new year, I really thought it ought to be somewhat cleaned. Since that is a fairly novel experience (a clean studio) of late, I'm photographically commemorating it for posterity, and lucky you can follow along this mini-tour-

Look! A cleaned desk! I can't tell you the last time that's happened (and it will only last until I finish this blog entry and pull out the next set of sketches) -

-newly framed by artsy origami lights, made for me by my son for Christmas. Thanks babe! :-)

As of *this minute* everything is back on its shelf and in its place -

- including the ultra-cool *bones* I received for Christmas! (Nothin' says "I love you" like a human skull reproduction from your dad. :-)

I didn't quite get all the way to my bulletin board - which is overflowing with 'treasures' (astute blog readers may recognize pieces of this crazy collage...)

See the too-cute bunny scissors! Love this kind of design - found on an art supply run...

And this basket is just indicative of the lovely things I am surrounding myself with - from so many of you lovely people out there - handmade books from Chantal, paper cutting from PG, darling felt mushroom from Julia, art cards from Joy and Carol, tin-of-treasures from Ulla - it goes on and on!

I may predominately 'live' here, but I am encompassed about by mementos and inspiration from so many kind, creative, supportive, like-minded people, I don't feel so isolated - even when house-bound by Seattle snow.

Painting by Lantern Light...

Do you ever feel that the Universe is conspiring against you? With just a few days left before my next deadline (and far too much paper to cover) we spent *hours* yesterday with no power. [Apparently some contractor with a backhoe had dug into buried power lines. It took a very long to fix...]

Luckily the day was somewhat sunny and not too cold, so I still had some light to work by and only needed a light lap blanket to stay moderately comfortable, but by late afternoon with waning light and dropping temperatures, I was getting a bit (ok, a LOT) crabby and headachey from eye-strain. Deadlines, you are my nemesis! (I'm feeling terribly sorry for myself. Can you tell?)

Power is back on (SO grateful!). This wash is dry. Going to work some more.

Still Stuck in the Studio...

...where Mia has taken up permanent residence on top of my file box of fairy 'stuff'.

Hope to be back next week sometime (BIG deadline on Tues.)

ttfn-

On to the next thing...

Enlarged detail from the *latest* cover I just sent off yesterday. Did a bit of interim studio tidying (how does it completely explode with every assignment?) before pulling out the next stack of projects to tackle. Had our first band concert of the year last night. Luckily my husband made it back from his biz trip in time so that *he* could record it and I was free to read my next galleys and sketch while listening. ah, multi-tasking...

Today is absolutely dreary. We are getting our first wind advisories of the season, which can lead to branches and trees down, as well as very inconvenient power outages (some people were without for nearly two weeks last year after our biggest wind storm). Despite the grey, you will get your colorful -

Quote of the day:

Now Autumn's fire burns slowly along the woods
And day by day the dead leaves fall and and melt.

--William Allingham

Extricating...

Detail from the ginormous cover I've been drowning in... I may get to surface long enough for a quick studio tidy and to say hello to my parents who are passing through tomorrow...

Maybe not...

Help!

A tornado has hit my studio, and I can't get out!
(where's Dorothy and the Munchkins when you need them?)

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Hopefully I will emerge after the next deadline...

Taking a break...

Deadlines are looming once again. Must go cloister myself in the studio for a bit.

Will be back when I can.

(illustration from "Firefly and the Quest of the Black Squirrel")

Stuck in the studio again...

On deadline this week. Will emerge soon.

(There are gardening shots to post!)

(And more lovely Italy photos to report on...)

(I'll return as soon as I can...)

One down...

One big ol' deadline down -

another equally large to go...

This is the 'cleaned-up' version of my studio at present (which still pretty much looks like a tornado has blown through). I had to unbury my desk enough to get to the next book.

One thing I am looking forward to - cleaning up! Studio, house and garden! Ah... Sometime in May...


One treat in my week - I received a couple of lovely items that I ordered from Sarah over at Muddy Red Shoes. I've been taken with her painting-a-day venture, and when she advertised having a 'sale' on her daily paintings, I had to jump at the chance to purchase one. It was hard to choose between the many fabulous choices - so I chose a 'standing stones' original and also got a copy of the book she has put together showing 100 of her daily paintings. They are both fabulous (and thanks Sarah for the French chocolate). If you haven't checked out her various blogs, treat yourself to a gander.