I'm having my annual Valentine Open Studio Sale this coming Sunday on Feb. 4th. It will be from 12-5 at 1780 Autumn Avenue in midtown Memphis. I've got new "Midtown" note cards (that several people have been requesting for a while), bunny prints, watercolors, and some oils on paper of clouds and skies. Please come see me if you're around this weekend, and feel free to invite any friends you think would be interested. I'm working on a new tree print as well and hope to have it ready and dry by then.

There's a lovely article in the Presbyterian Mission about the upcoming Book of Common Worship that I spent a lot of last year doing illustrations for. It's coming out in May in three different editions, all with my Tree of Life linocut stamped into the cover. I am beyond excited and can't wait to hold it in my hands. I'm going to have to get the smaller personal prayer edition as well as the desktop one. The third is for pastoral use during hospital visits, weddings, etc. -- also smaller to carry around. 

One of the great things about Christmas being over is that now I once more have time to make art for myself. I love commissions, but I have a backlog of ideas that I am now champing at the bit to get to. Steady readers of this blog will remember this block from back in October. I had meant it to be a single, black and white (or brown and white) image, but I began to wonder about putting color behind it. I've carved a second block, and yesterday was its first test run. I have to fix places where the color drops down into the figure, and I'm doing a bit more refinement as I go, but it's close to what I want. The orange definitely amplifies the 70's vibe it already had, but I'm a child of the 70's, so that works for me. I'm hoping it conveys the joy I feel when I play music.

for my upcoming show at Eclectic Eye in November, but I also enjoyed a good chance to do a print that has been dancing in my head and wanting to get out. It's still in progress, but the first full proof is below. Keep an eye on this space as I work on it and also get back to oils on paper. I've been giving myself a few quiet, slow days to recover from the craziness of last week, but each morning I've gotten up wanting to work on this print for a little while with my morning tea. That's how I know I'm living the life I've wanted to -- vacation is a chance to do more (if perhaps different) work that I love.

I enjoyed running my press again for the first time in several months. I had a commission to print -- an edition of prints for Dixon Gallery and Gardens, but I can't show those yet until they unveil them. It was only 140 or so, and I still had energy and ink, so I decided to get a jump on Christmas presents and run some stationery as well. I always enjoy having something nice to use, and I had a bunch of paper that was a bit too light for postcards, and stationery is the perfect use. These are all solo letters I've either been given or picked up at a huge, marvelous flea market in Paris. I adore the "k" and wish I had a full font of that, but antique dealers routinely break up sets and sell off individual letters. I don't often reward that behavior, but I have occasionally picked up one or two letters. I've also gotten some nice wooden decorations to use with my posters.

I used my iPad (new to me this summer, since I was doing so much work on the road) to record my press in action. It was fun to get a little video. It's a beauty when it's moving, so silently and gracefully.

Several years ago I did an Arts and Crafts inspired series of travel prints. Not the big national park places, but places that were my peculiar heart places. I've added a new place this summer, and I decided to add a new print as well. This is smaller than that first lot, t-shirt sized, since the bakery owner here might use it for just that. The idea came together quickly my last week here, and it was fun to have a small, autonomous project just for fun, after the big push of finishing the book illustrations. I printed several by hand yesterday to leave a few here (I'll be traveling back across the country starting tomorrow, so art blogging will be on hiatus for a bit), and I'll print some more when I get home to my press. I may do a second one with the iconic concrete silos that welcome visitors. It would be fun to do them of my favorite nearby parks as well. We'll see if I have the time and oomph for a whole series.

Here is the block in progress plus the first proof, so you can see how I refined it for its final form.

I am deep in the midst of carving linoleum block prints to illustrate the upcoming edition of the Book of Common Worship for the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. There will be 15 prints about 5.5x8" plus another 13 or so tiny 1.5" ones. Plus 19 ink gesture drawings. It's definitely my biggest commission ever. Work is due in early July, so I'm nose to the grindstone until then. I can't share the full images, but my editor said it would be fine for me to show some process shots and details of the blocks as I'm working. Despite the modest size, I'm including as much detail as I can. The carving has been a lot of fun.

WKNO fm, Memphis's local npr station, hosts a daily arts interview show called Checking on the Arts. They are kind enough to host me to talk about my shows even when I'm not exhibiting in their lobby, but they certainly saved me space on the calendar for this show, "Autobiography," and Kacky Walton interviewed me last week. She and Darel Snodgrass both do serious homework for these interviews, look at work, read websites, and come in prepared to have a great discussion, which is a huge boon for those of us not professional at being on the air. I had a great time with Kacky, and I appreciated her kindness talking about this much more personal than usual work I've been doing lately. Here is the interview with some back story about the exhibition in case you'd like to listen.

I finished printing the first batch of "Midnight" this morning. The print is based on a journal sketch I did of Amanda Parer's art installation Intrude at the Brooks Museum in Memphis. I did a number of color tests on this one and ended up with a lighter sky and paper. I had thought that perhaps a darker gray would be nice, but it didn't pop as much.

I was completely enchanted with this lit up installation. I have a major illustration project in house right now for the national Presbyterian Church, and I have a show to hang March 1, and all my brain can think is "BUNNIES!! I want to make art about BUNNIES." You can see that I caved. Sometimes you just have to go with what's calling your name at that moment.

Here are the color tests I did.

And here is the original sketch.