So, this here is a fun little project I painted for a Sasquatch themed show.  The show, "Wild & Wooley", is currently hanging at The Arbor Lodge Coffee House, 1507 N Rosa Parks Way.  The show will hang until March 15, on which there shall be a closing reception that I hope you can plan on attending.  The art at this show is all available to purchase, but it is also a contest!  Stop in, grab a cuppa'joe, check out all the Yetis and then you can vote for your favorite!  It's a fun show and the coffee is strong, so pop on it if you are in the area.

Next up, one of my favorite shows is coming up and I have been invited to participate again this year.  "The Love of Portland" show is a great collection of beautiful and thought provoking works that showcase the many reasons Portland is such a lovable place to live.  This is a group show, so the art is a great representation of all the diverse perspectives that are naturally found in our creative community.

I am submitting a limited edition print of my "View from #52: Then and Now" piece.  The first one I made has sold (yeay!), but the beauty of this technique is that it's actually a photograph, therefore making prints easy to make and affordable to buy.  

"The Love of Portland" show will have it's opening reception on February 15th, 5pm -9pm, at The Peoples Gallery.  ( 700 SW 5th Ave., third floor)  Hope you can come out for it!

There is going to be another awesome group show at good:a gallery that opens up next month.  I've started working on this one, since it's going to take me some time to make the project I have set in my mind.  That's all I'm gonna say about for now...but I am looking forward to this show!

Finally, a little bit of somewhat exciting news.  Due to a surprising demand, I have had "Nell's Farm" professionally scanned.  The high res scan now enables me to have SUPERB prints of this piece made.  I recently had a print made on canvas and could not be happier with how beautiful it turned out.  I can make the prints larger or smaller than the original and they can be on canvas or archival paper.  Prices vary depending on size and printing material, but are far less than the original painting would cost.  Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in have a "Nell's Farm" print in your life.

Well, that's whats what for now.  Updates on my future shows will be forthcoming...!

So, here it is, December already!!...and MONTHS after I last updated my art blog.  SO MUCH is going on, and that is the main reason why I have not updated.  That's what I tell myself anyway....they don't call me Di Procrastinault for nothing.  Haha.



Anyhow...let's start with the Monster Mash Show.  It was a very fun show at Good: a gallery on N. Mississippi Ave.  This was a group Show that I was pleased to have two pieces in.  This show is now over and these pieces have not sold and are still available!  Let me know if are interested.

Aren't they fun?  I had a blast painting them.  So next up, I was invited back for the 2013 Siren Nation fine art show.  The theme this year was "Then and Now".  I decided to revisit one of my fav paintings I did way back in '94 when I lived at SW 11th and Clay.  We had such a lovely view of The Old Church from the balcony of our apartment.  I painted that church many times, but only kept one of the paintings, "View From #52".  
I decided to incorporate that painting into my Then and Now project.  I first went to google maps and searched out what that intersection now looks like.  The church is still the same, but where the Benson House used to be, now sits a 26 floor condominium.  (Needless to say, the view from #52 ain't what it used to be!)  Using the google map images, I made a black and white image of the intersection.  (Have I ever mentioned how much I love sharpies?!)  I posted the image on a board set on my easel and then projected the image of my old painting over the top of it.  I then took a photograph of the image that was made on the board.  That became this:

I like how the "Then" part came out all ghosty and slightly blurred, much like our old memories can be.  This show, at Albina Press on SE Hawthorne,  is actually ending tomorrow.  Sorry for the late notice, but whaddaya gonna do?   This piece is spoken for, but the beauty of this technique is I can make beautiful prints.  Let me know if you want one.

I currently have a bunch of my paintings hanging up at the Kenton Family Wellness Center at 8315 N. Denver Ave.  If you are over that way, I hope you will stop in and take a look.  Most of the paintings hanging are available for sale, so contact me if you want one.

So, just today I dropped off my three pieces for another Good:a gallery group show.  This show is called "The Art of Giraffe".  Scott Foster, the gallery owner (and fantastic artist himself) always has the funnest group themes.  This show opens up next Friday, December 6.  Hope you can come out for the opening reception 7pm-9pm and check out all the awesome Giraffes!
Good:a gallery 4325 N Mississippi Ave Portland Oregon.

Also, the Big 400 is coming up.  Some of you may remember the 10 pieces I did for the Big 300 of last year.  Well, the show has grown again!  Super exciting is the fact that my daughter Leni was invited to paint for it, too!  We both took ten boards each and had a blast working together in the studio.   The opening is Saturday December 14th, 2pm-9pm, at the Peoples Art of Portland Gallery, located on the third floor of the Pioneer mall (700 SW 5th Ave).  This opening is OVER THE TOP!  Really, ya gotta be there to believe it.  Over 400 artists means almost 4000 pieces, all 8" X 8" , hung in two galleries.  Add music, including opening ceremony bagpipes, beer, wine and crowds all searching the walls for a treasure.  All paintings are $40 each, cash/credit and carry, no matter who painted them.  Part of the proceeds go straight to the Oregon Food Bank, so this art event is a true winner.  Hope you can come out for it.  Oh, and please bring a can (or two!) of food for the OFB collection!

FINALLY...just for fun.  I participated in a group event called "Flood the streets with Art".  The idea was to leave a piece of art in a random location for someone to "find" and keep.  The day after Thanksgiving  was chosen as "Drop" day.  I thought it would be fun to do so I made a small (7" X 8") copy of my "View from #52: Then and Now" and mounted it to wood.  On drop day I left it on the yellow MAX line in downtown Portland.  I hope whoever found it enjoyed finding it as much as I enjoyed making it and leaving it.  So fun.  There is a page on facebook where you can check out some of the stories about the art drop, which ended up being an international occurrence.  check it out here:  

Well, I think I'm about caught up.  So excellent to be busy making art.  

I also wanted to mention that not only are my paintings available for sale, I also have prints, photos and note cards available.  There is nothing like giving a local handmade gift, and 'tis the season for giving coming right up.  Please feel free to contact me if there is something I have made that you would like to have in your life, or in the life of your loved ones!  Cheers!

Yeah.  I love science fiction...(especially Star Trek. Old school S.T. that is.)  I also like Star Wars.  So when I heard about an open call for artists for this Star Wars themed group show I knew exactly what to do.  
Yoda is by far my favorite character of the Star Wars persuasion.  He is wise and he is also a bad ass.  He's sorta cute, too.  In my quest to know more about Yoda, I found that his origins and his entire "childhood" is shrouded in mystery.  (See, I told you I was a nerd...I've spent HOURS researching this.)  There is no record of exactly when and where Yoda was "born".  No home planet to speak of, no fond stories of time in a family home with his "parents".  The earliest info I could find on Yoda's life was that he became a Jedi knight at the age of 96 years old, which is a youngish age when you consider Yodes lived until he was 900 years old.   With that info, I sort of figured that he aged alot slower than human beings.   I started thinking about how his "childhood" would have been.  It sort of amused me to think about young Yoda in mundane human child scenarios.  So the subject of my painting for this group show was pretty easy to come up with.  A young, five year old Yoda, celebrating a birthday with a very human-child rite of passage...a good ol' fashioned birthday party pinata-smashin'.  


That's all I'm gonna say.  The painting is posted on my painting page if I've tweaked your curiosity and you want a look-see.  Other wise, I hope you will consider coming out to Good: a gallery this Friday, May 3rd to check out this show.  It's going to be a good time (pun intended) and I'm gonna be there enjoying the art and the sentiment.  

...that Art and Soccer could meld together into one super exciting evening?!  Well, it happened here in Portland just the other day.   The Portland Timbers wanted to do something a bit different this year as they unveiled their new Kits for the season.  They contacted the Art on Alberta peeps and Green and Gold: a Tribute to the Portland Timbers was hatched.  Set to unfold at one of NE Alberta St's Last Thursday events, and with artistic rockstar Chris Haberman curating, the buzz and excitement grew.  NOW, the totally exciting part of this for me was when Eve Connell from AoA contacted me and Peggy Pfenninger and wanted to know if we wanted to do an Installation in the mobile art gallery, Red Rover.  We thought it sounded fun and so we agreed.  The situation was perfect for my longtime dream of putting a forest INSIDE a camper.  I mean, who gets to do that?! The timing was perfect for us as well, as there were plenty of live Christmas trees available.  We set to work in the camper and made our Timber's Forest come together.  We actually had to sign a non disclosure agreement that we would not leak info about what the new Kits were like.  Whoa...secrets and all.

The night of the event was nothing short of amazing.  The crowd that came out for this event was an interesting blend of soccer fan and art lover...some were both!  The art in the galleries was awesome, and our Red Rover installation was parked right out front on the street.  All the Timber's Brass was there and the hoopla surrounding the unveiling was electric.  Music blaring, lights dimmed except where they were focused on the mini stage, and news cameras clicking away.  I personally have never been in such a crowded opening, so that was exciting in itself.  The greatest news (to me) of the evening: the Timber's Peeps loved the installation so much, they are going to haul the trailer down to the stadium next week and show it there for next weekend's game.  Yeah!  (High Five, Peggy!!!)

Anyway, here are some pics of the process of making the installation and also some pics of the event.  The pics of the night of the actual event are photos that KATU news took, I was too busy to bother with my camera!

SO, yeah.  It was pretty cool to be a part of it all.  The Gallery shows will hang till March 25 if you want to get over to the Talisman Gallery and have a look see.  The Red Rover will be parked there to see as well, until sometime at the end of the next week when the Timbers are going to haul it across the river to the Stadium!  Yeay!



NOW on a totally different note...all the Timber's excitement should not make me neglect to tell you about other awesome things I am currently involved in.  One being that the Love of Portland show is still hanging and waiting for your eyes to look upon it's awesomeness.  I have a piece in that show and it's at the People's Art Gallery, 700 SW 5th ave, third floor.  It's a great show filled with images that remind us of just how awesome our fair city is.  

Secondly, last night a show opened at Lane Gallery called "The Farm".  I have a painting in this show and I am very excited about hanging in this gallery.  The Opening reception was very nice and the works of the other artists are beautiful.  If you are in the neighborhood of Lane Gallery, I suggest you stop in and check it out.   It's at 2627 SE Clinton St., and the show will hang through April.

Anna Bannana's has a new location they just opened up!  You can find it at the corner of NE 24th and Alberta, where they are serving up awesome coffee, pastries, sandwiches, beer and wine.  I feel honored that they invited me to hang up my paintings in their new, bright space for the month of May.  Please stop in to check it out if you are in the neighborhood!