Artfest Bound!

I have the best friends ever. I say that alot and it's because I know it to be true. Like yesterday, for example, one of my thoughtful and generous friends, Dawn emailed to say she is bringing me some birthday cuppy cakes. And yes, I know they're cupcakes but because of this little ditty, I've always thought of them as cuppy cakes.




In any case, it's a lovely gesture on her part, especially with all the insanity already associated with packing and getting ourselves and all our stuff to Artfest. It makes me feel very special that she's taking the time to bake me birthday treats- it's love with icing on top!



Also today the magic mailbox held a birthday gift that came all the way from England from my sweet friend Liz. (Liz what happened to your link?!?) It had the prettiest journal and notebook. The graphics are so cool-the notebook has a bird and flowers and vines in my favourite folk art colours and the journal has stylized dandelion fluffs in greys, black and whites. This one in fact. Both are by Angie Lewin. Instant fan here!



Liz also sent me a set of watercolour pencil crayons. I don't have any so it will be fun experimenting with them. I popped them into my pencil case to take with me to Artfest. THANK YOU LIZ!! As usual, you know me so well. xox



Speaking of Artfest, the adventure begins first thing tomorrow morning. I had better finish packing my clothes. (Of course I packed my art supplies first-I know what's really important!!) To all of you reading this who are headed for Port Townsend, travel safely and see you there! To everyone else, catcha on the flip side! *waves*

March's List

Reading: The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama by Pico Iyer. This was a birthday gift from my best friend Lisa. She always gives me such wonderful books to read about the people I admire. Last year she gave me The Science of Leonardo.

Watching: Ice Road Truckers on the History Channel. Deb and her son watch this one. They mentioned it to be awhile back, but it just started airing in Canada. It's really interesting and it's filmed in northern Canada-out of Yellow Knife, NWT.

Essentially what it's about is the roads built across the waterways of the north in the winter season. This allows trucks to deliver essential supplies and equipment to the diamond mines. It's an extremely dangerous job. If you like Deadliest Catch, you'd probably enjoy Ice Road Truckers.

Listening: Poseidon and the Bitter Bug (deluxe Edition) by the Indigo Girls. This album was just released on Tuesday and I think I've already listened to it 20 times. I love the Indigo Girls. They have such wonderful harmonies and they know how to write lyrics. They write the kind of music I like to listen to while I work in the studio. It's just easy and relaxing.

Drinking: My in-laws always send me a cheque for my birthday and this year I spent it on the Zarafina Tea Maker Suite. I saw it in a flyer before my birthday on sale for $30 (I see on the website it's $99!) and just happened to some across one the other day so I snapped it up. I love it. I can have tea steeped exactly how I like it. It makes both bagged and loose tea and is it ever fast! I can put it on and my tea is ready in less than 5 minutes!

Copyright Pilar Pollock 2009

Copyright Pilar Pollock 2009

Anticipating: Pressies in the mail! Today these goodies arrived from Pilar. She made me this gorgeous hand-dyed shawl in my favourite colour and this great heart ornie that says "tattered but whole". They are wonderful. THANK YOU so much Pip!!You spoil me!

There's a few more packages on their way, so I am keep an eye out. There's nothing better than artsy goodies in the magic mailbox!

Doing: Packing madly for Artfest! It always takes me about a month to get everything organized. I pre-packed my bag for the first day's class so I won't have to worry about it on Thursday morning. I am working on filling a bag with goodies for my roomie Tina and looking forward to time spent with the rest of my house mates.

I've also been playing "dress up" this morning-going through my closets to see what fits as I've been dropping weight like crazy. My favourite clothing store (which shall remain nameless) closed and I haven't found another store to replace it, so I haven't bought anything in my new size yet. I guess when I get home, I should go through my closet and take whatever's too big to a consignment shop-half of it has hardly been worn, if at all. I am nothing, if not careful with my clothes.

So...that's all the news I have for now. Off to make some lunch!

Happy Birthday to ME!

It was my birthday today and I wanted to say THANK YOU to all my friends who sent birthday greetings by email, ecard, in the form of funny videos, music videos or by snail mail.

It's become a running joke in my family that my birthday takes on a life of its own and morphs into a month-long celebration. Apparently this holds true again this year as festivities started on March 14th with a dinner out, followed by several lunch dates and more face time with my local peeps this coming week. There are also pressies winging their way from far and wide to the magic mailbox, so I think I can probably bask in the glow of birthday goodness for at least a couple more weeks! Honestly, my near and dear ones know how to make a girl feel loved.

*Happy Birthday to Tracy Roos, who is also celebrating today. I hope you had a wonderful day Tracy, filled with lots of laughter and love. I was thinking about you today!

I wanted to give you the head's up that Portals Zine, issue #7 is now available for pre-sale. I am especially excited about this one because it's a theme that I tend to explore alot: HOME. I can't wait to see all the artwork for this one!

I've written an article on the subject and shared some of my house-themed art which has become a bit of an obsession. I keep re-working this theme over and over and it pleases me no end that every time it comes out so different than the last time. I talked a bit about what houses mean to me in this post awhile back about personal imagery. This article is in many ways, an expansion of those thoughts and sharing how I've explored the house theme so far.

I seem to be in a fairly reflective state of mind lately and I am looking forward to Artfest which is in a mere NINE days. It's going to be so good to fill up my creative well again. I am excited about feeding my spirit and taking in all the creative energy that is Artfest. I always come home exhausted, but deeply satisfied. I can't wait!

Making Change in the World

Charm for TTB-"Love Lifted Me"

I wanted to share with you that a project I participated in, Ties that Bind, which is a fundraiser for ovarian cancer, has reached another mile stone. The doll, which was being made from a series of altered ties and handmade charms is now complete. If you click the link on my sidebar, you can read the latest post about the project. You may also click here to view the photo album of the doll in all her glory.

Charm for TTB-"In Honour of Gilda Radner"

What is most incredible about this piece is that this doll stands almost as tall as a person! When I was working on my charms for the project, I was thinking it was only about 12 inches tall. I don't have a clue where I got that idea. It's impressive that doll artist Jan Brown was able to create such a cohesive piece, given the scale of the project and the wealth of materials involved.

The doll is on its way to be photographed for publishing and then it will be raffled off. 100% of the profit goes to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, in support of their mission to help ovarian cancer patients and their loved ones. Be sure to keep an eye on the Ties that Bind blog if you wish to buy tickets for the raffle. I am sure they will be announcing it before too long.

In other news, I suppose I should say a word or two about the fact that if you attempt to visit my website, it is no longer. Yes, it's true. After much thought, I decided that in simplifying my life, that was one thing I could let go of.

My feeling is that while I had lots of visitors to my website, my blog is by far easier to keep updated. To contact me (other than by commenting here on my blog) you will find my email addy with my Blogger profile. I am not 100% impressed with the blogger profile template, so I am working on figuring out a way to alter it to suit me. (Meaning my profile would contain important info, not just trivial things like what kind of music and movies I like.)

I am hosting all my art photos on my Flickr, which you can access via my sidebar. One of my Flickr albums contains all the books and Zines I have been published in, so if you are looking for that info, that's where you will find it.

It's a work in progress, but I think it will make it much easier to keep on top of things. My philosophy is that if a thing is worth doing, then it's worth doing well and I think in this case, less is more. It was time for a change and I am embracing that opportunity.

And So It Goes...

Copyright Pilar Pollock 2009

So the magic mail box is filling up with birthday cards the last couple of days. This one is the work of my friend Pilar and as you can see, it's a riot of red. I just LOVE it. What made me laugh though was that when I opened it, it had "Happy Birthday Rockstar!" printed inside. That cracked me up. (It's a bit of an inside joke, but my girlfriends call me that.) I'm going to frame it and hang it in my studio-I know it's going to make me laugh every time I look at it.

I am madly preparing for AF, still. It's only 12 days away and I still have a ton of photocopying to do and I need to scare up some fabric. I am also finishing up a project I hosted for my Housemates. It's almost finished and I'll post about it when I get back from Artfest.

I gave the studio a good purging and it's much neater now. I have two boxes of goodies to share with my housemates. There's no Art Asylum happening this year at AF, so we decided we'd just have our own little one in our house and bring stuff to share. At first it was only one box, but then it morphed into two, which tells you how much cleaning and sorting I did.

I don't know why, but cleaning and organizing is hugely satisfying to me. I bought myself a book called "The Organized Life" by Stephanie Denton and I've found it had a ton of helpful ideas. I liked it so much I tabbed and made notes on post-it notes throughout the book. I am working my way through, room by room.

Speaking of cleaning up and simplifying, my friend Lisa got me turned on to Google Reader. It's the best little blog reading program ever! You just add the URLs of the blogs you like to read and then set Google Reader to be your browser's home page and every time you open your browser, you will see the latest blog update right there! You can even "star" posts you like and want to refer back to later and it will save them for you.

It's super simple to use and no more wasting time going from blog to blog seeing if there's been updates. As soon as you open your browser, the reader has them all right there for you! You can also customize your page to show things you will use and make it pretty. I love it and I wish I'd know about it sooner.

As for "being the leaf", I've had days where it's been easier than others to just relax and let life unfold, but I am committed to doing my best. If one day doesn't go as planned and I don't so so well with being Zen, then tomorrow is always another day. Each day is a clean slate. So far though, opportunities have come knocking and there will be more writing in my future. I am excited and happy about that.

I had a unique opportunity to do something altruistic the other day and help someone develop their empathy and compassion skills, as part of their education. It felt really good to be able to share my knowledge and experience and to know that in some small way I have influenced how this person will treat the people he encounters in his professional life. It reminded me that everything we do makes a difference. Even if we don't get to see the results, our interactions with other people affect how the world is. Our words and actions matter, sometimes more than we will ever know.

Who's That Girl?

For the most part, I am kind of shy talking about myself, (I'd rather talk about art!) but recently I agreed to do an interview with Dawn Supina. If you want to learn a little more about yours truely, she's just posted it to her blog and you can find it here.

Thanks Dawn for coaxing me out of my comfort zone!

Artfest Preparations

So at long last, some art for all my faithful readers. I have been chipping away at preparations for Artfest. It always amazes me that it takes me about a month to hunt down and gather everything I need for the classes I am taking and get it all organized and packed. I know some folks pack the night before and that leaves me dumbfounded. How do they do that?!?

As it is, I have already had a couple nightmares that I've gone to Artfest and arrived with no supplies. How crazy is that!? The other morning, my son woke me up just as I was dreaming that I was in a class and we were about to learn how to make a book with a wooden spoon as the binding mechanism. I was so annoyed that I didn't get to finish that dream!

Anyway, pictured above are some luggage tags I made for my trades. I did similar collages for the Artfest ATC book. I like the image of the girls that I used. I chose it because I think the curly headed girl looks kind of like me.

For those of you not in the know, this year's theme is "sea monsters". I'm not much of a sea monster girl, so I went with more of an oceanic theme. Living on the west coast, I have a deep appreciation for the ocean. I spend alot of time walking along the sea wall in my beloved Stanley Park and beach combing whenever I get the chance. It's a favourite pastime.

I also made some magnets from some of the ATCs I've made over the years. I didn't make as many trades this year as I have in the past. I've just been too busy.

I've also been working on a housemates exchange that I host every year for the ladies I room with at Artfest. This year we're doing something really cool. I will post it after I get back-I don't want to spoil the surprise.

This is the journal I made for my trip. I whipped it up today and it's Moleskine size. I like the smaller format, as I tend to like to glue things in that I collect in my travels and make brief notes about what I learn in class. I'm not heavily into writing longhand in my journals. I find that my problem has always been that my hand can't keep up with my thought process, which is why I prefer to blog. Anyway, this little book should do the trick. The Octo on the front is something I drew (be kind-I am not that kind of artist!) for an article I wrote for my friend Tina's zine. She creates zines as her AF trade and they are wonderful.


Lastly, this is a journal I made for a friend who is undergoing treatment for breast cancer. I have a thing for vintage medicine labels (I own about 300 of them!) and I thought she might enjoy having a place to record/reflect/vent about the experience.

I mailed it to her and she got it late last week and said she really likes it. I hope it will help her cope with her treatments. There's nothing worse than getting news like that. She's being a really good spot about it, but still, it's not the kind of thing anyone ever wants to go through. I hope this will bring her some comfort.

This weekend, Indy, my sweet, sweet boy is celebrating his first birthday on the Ides of March. (The 15th.) He's grown so quickly, though he's not as big as some breeds of Labs are. He weighs in at a respectable 60 lbs. so far. I don't think he's going to grow much bigger, but he'll likely fill out a little. He's solid muscle as we exercise him alot-lots of walks, lots of time playing at the dog park. It sneauxed here this morning and so we took him out in the yard to roll around in it. He loves the white stuff-he should have been a rescue dog.

My best friend loves Indy so much that she and her husband are getting a puppy from the same breeder. Indy's mum was bred this weekend to the same dad as Indy had so soon they will have one of Indy's siblings for their very own. I am excited because it means I can enjoy another Lab puppy without all the work! The puppies are due in late May. I can't wait to see them!

Okay, time for me to sign off. I am so tired I think my eyes are going to fall out of my head. Off to dream about Artfest some more!

For the Love of Zines

So the Jewelery Zine by Catherine & Deryn arrived late last week. It's chock full of inspiration and information-it's a nice balance of eyecandy and instruction. The zine is about a 1/2 inch thick and has full 8 1/2 x 11 pages.

I've been reading my way through it little by little, as I am wont to do and "meeting" all kinds of talented artists I didn't know about before. If you're interested, you will want to order your copy now, as it's a limited run. Ordering info is here.

Also new in the land of zines is "The Creative Life Ain't for Sissies!" by Jeannine Peragrine. This one talks about the 5 myths of creativity and how to deal with dispelling those myths. Jeannine is a very insightful and talented artist and I am dying to read what she has to say. She actually wrote this zine longhand during a power outage! Curious? You can order your copy here.
I love zines. They are one of my favorite things. I think it's a great way to get your work and ideas out there and there are so many good ones available right now.

I've been busy creating, as always, but can't share what I'm making at the moment. Soon, I promise. March is always a busy month with preparing for Artfest, celebrating my birthday and this year, Indy, the best puppy ever, will be turning a year old on the the ides of March. (The 15th.) I see good times and cake in my future!

Speaking of cake and birthdays, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my fellow March babies, Linda Woods, Karen Dinino, Catherine Witherell , Barbara Atwell, Patricia Anders & Tracy Roos. (Tracy and I were both born on the 22nd.) I am in very fine company indeed!