String Theory Opening on Friday!

I'm excited about my opening at 23 Sandy Gallery this Friday evening. We hung the show yesterday, and the on-line catalog is up on the 23 Sandy Gallery website. If you are in Portlland, there are more items to see in person in the gallery! Please stop in, the show is on view through December 18th.

Shadow Lantern Workshop at 23 Sandy

I'm teaching a workshop at 23 Sandy Gallery, where my work will be on view November 5-December 18. Join me on Sunday, November 21 from 1-4pm and make a Shadow Lantern.



In this workshop, participants will create a shadow lantern, composed of lightweight wooden panels featuring cut-outs that cast shadows onto a second layer of paper. The unique flexible Japanese hinge flexes in both directions, creating a versatile structure that can be assembled as a book, lantern or screen.

Portland Fashion Week!

Mother Tree and a handful of my other dresses are on view at Portland Fashion Week now through Sunday. Lam from HiiH Gallery and I went down to see the show last night. Anna King from ANKA did a fabulous job curating the art for this event (well, perhaps I am biased, but there was other great work there too).

Alpha, Beta, ...

I'm working on an editioned alphabet book featuring an arts & crafts font by Dard Hunter, but more on that later. Today, I've been making a deeply pigmented burgundy paper, with a watermark of a "made up" alphabet.



The pigment will (hopefully) run to the edges of the letters, so that when dry, you'll see a subtle alphabet pattern on the sheet.

Radio Show Taping

My art group pals Diane Jacobs and Shu-Ju Wang (Anne Greenwood couldn't make it) taped a radio segment today with Kristie Lesser on her show Everyday Cooking on AM 1360 KUIK. It was 30-minute taping, so we all got to say quite a bit. Kristie was a great hostess, and she had good questions. We talked about the genesis of the project, our individual pieces, what we think about food and our reasons behind our installation. I think we all enjoyed it! The program will air on Saturday at 11am. After it airs, I'll post a link to the segment.



Back in the studio, I prepared my traveling papermaking kit for The Paper Club, a once-a-week after-school class which begins tomorrow! There is a whole art to figuring out how to manage seven children making paper at once!

I also had a nice conversation with the program director at Ethos. They are the new tenants of the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, and I hope to offer some workshops there next spring. I might also be able to screen the Mother Tree documentary in their theater!

In The Studio

I had the pleasure of working with Tobi Taboada in the studio today... she's in Portland all the way from Yucca, California, also doing some work with fellow papermaker Marilyn Wold. Tobi wanted to learn what she could about overbeaten abaca in a few hours, so we pulled sheets, embedded strings and wires and did some experimenting with air vs. restraint drying.

Sound Blocka

I'm designing five block letters (the vowels). I've got four done... and the "O" is my last challenge. Here's a partially cut out "A". I'm still pondering the five papers for the five letters. I'll have these laser cut at Leaf Display, and then I'll be a busy bee assembling them. I'm working on a design for a box to house them all, and then there are dreams of making them really big so that you can walk through them.... they are very architectural.

Fertility Dress

Thanks for clicking on my blog! Here's a photo of one of the dresses that will be featured in my Dress Mobile, which will be on display at the Oregon College of Art & Craft next month! The opening reception is Thursday, October 7th, from 4-7pm.

A Papermaker's Garden

I just took this show down today at the Kenton Library. It was the culmination of a year-long project I did with 3rd and 5th graders at the Portland Village School, where we planted, grew and harvested papermaking plants, took a field trip to Ariadne Garden in NE, made handmade paper ornaments and more.





Here I am with the Multnomah County Cultural Coalition (which funded the project) co-chair Dennise Kowalczyk and NoPo artist Bonnie Meltzer, who attended the opening reception.



The 5th graders made these lovely botanical illustrations and wrote poetry and prose on their own sheets of handmade paper.