I am embarking upon two new books! And I'm very excited about them. I want to write more about Haruki's amazing preface, but I must go get ready for the Urban Art Market opening! So I shall write more later.

Love,

Amanda

Friends of George.

Hello everyone! I recently found out about a woman who created a website, www.friendsofgeorge.com, to raise money for her husband George's alternative cancer treatment. He's been diagnosed with cancer of the prostate, and is opting for a new treatment which insurance will not cover. The treatment is $20,000. To raise the money, George's wife has created a cookbook of recipes which you can download for $1! She's already raised $16,000. I've added a link to my sidebar beneath "events". It's a wonderful way to help out this family.

2nd Annual Urban Art Market!

Hellooo! Tomorrow night is the opening of Glovebox's Second Annual Urban Art Market! It's hung salon style and features a lot of work. This show is up for a month! I have some framed prints for sale, and Rachel and Kate have pieces in the show, too! The opening is at Goody Glover's in the North End from 7 to 9 pm. I hope to see you there!

the great escape of pages.

Hello everyone! I just spent a nice weekend in Cambridge, hence the blog hiatus. I'm back now! I have two paintings in progress, that will hopefully be done and ready to show soon. I did complete a project last Thursday, but I'm not sure when I will post it here. This is my bookcase, circa July 2008. It looks a little different now. My bookcase is one of my favorite places in my room. I want to call it a place rather than a thing. I once read this amazing quote from some prestigious man of the nineteenth century about how a man should be able to give reason for every book in his collection. Every book should be like an old friend. I loved that quote as soon as I read it because that's exactly how I feel. My bookcase is in constant rotation, though it's always mainly made up of the same favorites. It's mostly finding room to add new ones. In addition to books are pictures and things that just make me happy. And lately, I have definitely been trying to surround myself with things that make me happy. I feel restless and want to plan a trip. I wanted to go to London this winter, but I'm not so sure now. I know that I want to go somewhere, though, and time will tell me where.

I wonder who it belonged to first.

Yesterday Mom and I went to Main St. on Clinton (across from the Strand, the very old and beautiful movie theater) to go to vintage shops. Clinton has really amazing vintage stores that have the kinds of things you dream of finding in such places. Viviana's Vintage is where I got all of these things. She has amazing vintage clothes, jewelry, hats, shoes, and art. These are the things that I got! I love this ring so much. It's a small glass dome with dried flowers inside of it. It immediately reminded me of a bell jar. A little bell jar I can wear on my hand! It's beautiful. I loved this fish-eye mirror because it's so nautical. I think it will look great on my future apartment's deep turquoise living room wall. :) I also got this scarf at Viviana's. I liked how it looked laying flat because it looked like Tiger was looking at her reflection in a little pool of water. I loved this photo. I have a thing for vintage photos, but of men in particular for some reason. They always seem to have the kindest smiles in the pictures I find. I loved this picture for the strong vertical lines the trees create. That's why I love to paint trees - the elegant shapes you can make with them, and the long lines they offer. And this ship - a handsome ship indeed.

...which is something that we play at.

"#5: fence birch at eleven am" - 7"x5" - pencil on card stalk

a day for sparrows

Tonight my mom and I went for a walk in the graveyard where my Nana is buried, which is something we often do. It's a beautiful place to take walks, especially at sunset. The sky has always looked strangely amazing from that place. Very pink and orange, and the clouds always look like clouds in some renaissance oil painting. The graveyard also happens to be a kind of collector of things belonging to a natural history category. It is home to many almost exotic-seeming kinds of trees that were planted intentionally rather than grown wild. There is lots of wild life - especially birds. Tonight in particular the birds were going crazy. It started when we had just gotten out of the car. I was looking down at the grass and felt movement directly above me. I looked up and an enormous flock of small black birds was in transit just a few feet over my head. I'm always in awe to see birds flying in flocks through the air, and how they all turn in the same direction all at once as though they were one moving body. It's one of a few specific things that always take my breath away no matter what. To look up and see them so close to me, that large mass of beautiful little creatures becoming one shape, it was almost haunting. It turns out they all took off out of the little tree that was right next to me because a falcon was in our presence. When I watched the birds fly away, I noticed a flock of Canadian Geese up on the hill. They looked like small dinosaurs. So, in honor of all the birds I met today, here is a page from my sketchbook from a summer trip I took with Rachel to the Harvard Natural History Museum. Also, I want to say thank you to everyone who came to the zine fair and supported me and the other vendors! It means a lot. And thank you to Ellen and Susan for being good company. :) Love, Amanda

zine fair, day one!

Today was day one of the zine fair, and it was a really big success! It was a lot of fun and there were lots of interesting people to meet. Ellen with our table! I'm very tired, but ready for day two!!!

baby prints and zine fair!

Hello everyone! The zine fair is upon us. Saturday and Sunday, from 10 am to 6 pm at AIB's 601 Newbury Street building! These are the baby prints that will be for sale! I'll also be selling my regular 8"x10" prints. I'm excited to see people and be at AIB again! I must sleep now. Big day tomorrow. Goodnight! :)

a big thank you.

Last night was One Art Show to benefit One Home Many Hopes, and the turnout was amazing. I just want to say a really big thank you to everyone who came, bid on art work, bought buttons, and showed their support for the organization. It was all so overwhelming. I'm so grateful for everyone's support and that my whole family and so many of my friends could be there. Photo by Kelly Ann Sullivan photo by Kate Castelli Photo by Kelly Ann Sullivan. And a special thank you to Liz, Jodie, and Lydia for making last night possible. :) It was wonderful.

It's finally here! Tonight is the auction to benefit One Home Many Hopes at Ned Devine's! All these pieces will be up for auction, as well as one 12x16" original painting not pictured here. They want to go home with you! Please come out and support this wonderful charity. Each original painting features the title hand painted on the back in a pretty color. a new original for the show - "Shipwrecked like a poet." 8x8" acrylic on masonite panel. I love how my two nautical girls look in these broader frames. - So everyone come tonight! The money goes to a great cause (like the write-up in The Dig said - 35 girls and a donkey named George!!). The silent auction is from 5:30 to 7:30, and the party goes until 10! DJ Driftski and DJ Yianni will be there to make everything spectacular. I hope to see you there! Ned Devine's Irish Pub, Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston.

there's no finer cat than I am.

Since I have the song on my blog now, I wanted to show the music video. Lady and the Tramp is my favorite Disney movie ever! The animation is beautiful. Aside from He's a Tramp, this song is probably my favorite (and showcases Peggy Lee's vocal abilities nicely!).

mammals, like frosting

This is a deer I made last October as part of a larger project. The deer on her own ended up being my favorite part of the whole thing. I named her Deirdre. I was laying in bed thinking about her last night, and about how making her was so different from my typical art. There are so many things that I want to do. Some are similar to what I do now, and some are much bigger, much different, much more adventurous. I used to kind of talk myself out of certain projects. Even recently, with the birch tree drawings I've been doing. I'll think things like, "this doesn't really fit in with my current work" or "it doesn't seem me at all", even if it's something I really want to try. I've decided not to allow myself to ever do that again. Being an artist is like having an entire life that's a giant blank canvas. You can do whatever you want. If it doesn't turn out to be the best thing you ever did, it was a learning experience. I'm so excited for what's to come. I'm so excited to see how the art of my friends evolves over the years. Being out of college now, with all of us starting to get what it feels like to be 'real' artists - it's just so strange sometimes. But it's starting to feel really nice and like a really big adventure that's never going to end. So that's that! I have new things in the works but so many at once that none are ready to put up here. Mostly I've been going crazy trying to get ready for the show on Tuesday. I must trim prints now!! love, Amanda. ps - a good scan of "I was too young to know how to love her."

Boston Zine Fair

Hello everyone! Just a quick note about the Boston Zine Fair! Its new location happens to be my alma mater, The Art Institute of Boston! It's all next weekend! I will be selling mini prints (5x7") of some of my favorite ladies who usually appear only in 8x10 form! For info about the fair, visit http://www.papercutzinelibrary.org/zinefair/. This lady, along with a certain tattooed one, will be among the prints for sale: I'm excited! I love little art and am looking forward to selling tiny versions of my prints. Ellen Crenshaw (see my sidebar of artist friends), who graduated from AIB the year before me and is a very talented comic artist and illustrator, will also be showing/selling her work! So everyone should stop by! love, amanda

small differences.

"#3: backyard birch at three pm" - 7x5" - pencil on card stalk. "#4: frontyard birch at three pm" - 5x7" pencil on card stalk.

Something that's never left me.

I am moved by fancies that are curled/ Around these images, and cling:/ The notion of some infinitely gentle/ Infinitely suffering thing. - T. S. Eliot, 'Preludes' (I tried to illustrate this poem for a class once and they told me my art wasn't sorrowful enough. I suppose that is why I am also a writer. I make art when I'm at peace and I write when I am feeling deeply. Sometimes I'd like for it to all just mix together, but I think it comes naturally to me this way and so I will let it be. I'm grateful for all events and emotions that cause me to write or make art.) Anais Nin and a man named Rupert and a dog. I feel like I should know who Rupert was to her, but I am too in love with the idea of she and Henry. Someday I will investigate the Rupert.

what can you see?

Here is a little (11x5") sign I painted last night: It reads "Live gently and with passion." The birch trees have little pink lines (rather than the natural grey/black), but it's hard to tell from this scan. I left the trees the white of the gesso over the masonite, because I love the way the grain shows through in streaks where the medium didn't go on as thick. I'm working on a new portrait right now. Other than that, just a lazy day at home. I like the grey sky outside.

spare-oh

Things I love: a baby package from Rachel! "A Young Girl Reading" by Jean-Honore Fragonard. I love her hand and her yellow dress. This picture I took of O'Malley around Christmas 2006. I loved winter nights reading in bed with Tiger at my feet and O'Malley by my side. I knew those nights were precious and wouldn't always be around, so I took a picture of it. I'm so glad I did. I remember I was reading T.S.Eliot and this was around the time I fell in love with "Preludes". I wish I could go back sometimes. It's almost a year since Malley left. I miss him so much.

you called me a poet.

a piece I finished today: "I was too young to know how to love her (Conifer, stay with me)" - 9x12" - acrylic on masonite love, amanda

birch bark

I've always loved birch trees and found them to be magical in some sense. They remind me of my nana for some reason, and of lots of other wonderful things. For this reason, I've decided to embark upon a small endeavor of birch tree studies. I'm really excited. This morning I sat on the ground amidst a suspicious scattering of small bluejay feathers (perhaps from the heads of our two bald blue jays - yes, I said bald bluejays) and drew our birch trees. "#1: backyard birch at noon" - pencil on cardstalk - 5"x7" "# 2: peeling fence birch at noon" - pencil on cardstalk - 7"x5".

names.

I like how you can think of ten thousand different variations for the title of a painting, but you always know without fail when it is the right one. And you always feel better about everything when you've found it.

leftover downpour and three graces.

I just spent a very nice evening and morning in Portsmouth, New Hampshire with Kate for her Enormous Tiny Show opening. The show was great, and if all goes as planned, I'll be in the February show of the same name! Shauna came to stay with Kate and I in the hotel. We saw a lot of good people, did lots of good shopping, and I was hugged by a pug which made everything all the much better. We stopped into a bookstore where I purchased The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. I fell in love with it as soon as I read the inside cover and I know it's just what I need right now book-wise. I want to run away (via a book). I want characters with lives so complex that I can forget about my own for a while. I think it will do all of this for me. I have two paintings in my head. They should be coming out soon. That's about all. PS - It was time to update the music on this thing.

little art!

yay! Buttons with my artwork will be available at the auction for One Home! I'm excited to see my art on buttons. :)

Frida and Diego

Frida and Diego by Frida Kahlo.

Art that shrinks like Alice.

This Friday (September 5th) is the fourth Enormous Tiny Art Show at Nahcotta Gallery on Congress Street in Portsmouth, NH. My friends Kate Castelli and Ann Kirchner are in it! So stop on by if you can. :) According to Kate, the entire town is having a kind of open-studios event and there are lots of great galleries to check out. It should be a nice almost-fall type of evening.

wear a bandana; be a bandit!

This is just a preview for some little things I've been working on for the charity auction! Some wearable art.
This one is hardly done, but I'm excited about it and wanted to give an update on the work that's in process for the show! These pieces were inspired by a printed scarf of my Nana's that I've been wearing lately. I wanted to take the modern concept of wearing a bandana around your neck (or hair or waist) and make it decorative with images and symbols that I imagine could be close to someone's heart (I know they're close to mine).
This morning I found myself sitting on the grass of a lumber yard in a dress alongside a small river watching guppies try to swim upstream while I waited for new masonite to be cut. I felt really happy. And the woodcutters are coming to my show! :)

Once I wrote a poem about two white rabbits.

I always dream about animals. At varyng times in my life, I've dreamt of white badgers, birds of prey, sea creatures (presented to me by a man who wanted to be my lover), and so on. Last night I dreamt of my cat and a raccoon, both in the car with me and my mom, and not knowing what to do. I was afraid my cat would get hurt. But I wanted to spend time with the raccoon, who seemed so tame. In that car, I looked out the window and saw a white speckled owl walking the ground, pacing with his tallons as though he were human, looking down at something. I thought it was something he had killed to eat. Now I am not so sure. Animals mean so much to me in my daily life that they come to me in my dreams as symbols of things I can't understand. Until I do understand, I'll trust dream dictionary meanings. Because they haven't failed me yet.