Snow Dogs Redux

Am I doomed to battle with my scanner for the rest of my life? It never quite gets the colors right. If it looks close to the original on-screen, it's too washed out in a print. If it's good in a print, it's garish on-screen. Sigh... technology... I love it! I hate it! I love it...

Here was the sketch for this piece. We're actually expecting snow this afternoon... time to light a fire and make cookies!

Monday Map: North Carolina Cat Story

My very first cat came from North Carolina. Years ago, fresh out of art school, I worked in the art department of a golf trade magazine. One nice perk was that I was able to assist on a golf fashion photo shoot at Pinehurst Resort. (Talk about luxurious... too bad I don't golf!)

We were shooting in the stables one day, where a barn cat had recently had kittens. The hair and makeup woman fell in love! She managed to bring a kitten home in an open box on the plane. (Can you imagine that happening now?) But after about a week back in Connecticut she decided she couldn't handle him any more-- so I took him. His name was Bandit, he was shiny and black, and he was one of the sweetest cats I've ever known.

(*Note: Pinehurst isn't located in Carrboro. Actually, Carrboro has nothing to do with this story, apart from the fact that it is in North Carolina. A tenuous connection, but, hey-- it's Monday.)

The Poet Laureate Says...

As the poet laureate of the United States, what are you doing to increase the public’s interest in poetry at a time when cultural alarmists insist that reading is on its way out? Poetry doesn’t need much promotion. It is doing quite well in this country. I gave a reading the other night in Concord, N.H., with two former poet laureates — Donald Hall and Maxine Kumin —and 740 people came. That’s a lot of people!
(read more here...)

Full Moon

It was a full moon around here a few weeks ago. This was what it looked like from my front door-- eerie and beautiful at the same time.

Mon Nouveau Film Favori

I confess that I barely watch TV anymore. (Unlike as a kid, when I was even a card-carrying member of the Keith Partridge fan club. How could you not love Keith?) I do, however, adore movies.

To me, films are like picture books in the sense that the director has to balance the verbal and the visual parts of a story. And then there is the way scenes are designed-- the crop, the angle, the pacing. There's so much to learn.

This past weekend, out of the 218 movies currently on my Netflix queue, we watched Paris Je T'aime. (Yes, Paris! So I, of course, am enthralled!) Without spoiling the film for those who haven't seen it-- it's a collection of 18 different shorts of 5 minutes apiece by 18 different directors. (All in Paris!) Some are better than others. I laughed at some, cried at some, and was aching to know more about some. Some had fascinating twists. Some were "arty" and I didn't quite get them. Some were more slice-of-life, and some felt like a nugget of tiny, perfect little story. So much to absorb! So much to think about! So much I can apply to my own work. This one I must own.

Oh, and did I mention that they all take place in... sigh... Paris!

Love a Good Mystery?

It was a dark and stormy night when... two very good old friends of mine decided to chuck it all and move to Vermont. To do what, you inquire? Why, no mystery here-- to open a new bookstore. Yes, a new independent bookstore! (Oh, how much fun to write that!)

So if mysteries make your blood curdle, check it out-- it's called Mystery on Main Street, and it's located at 119 Main Street in Brattleboro. They've started a blog, too.

Monday Map: Cowgirl Country

This is a map I did about 5 years ago for a book called Holding the Reins: A Ride Through Cowgirl Life, by Marc Talbert and Barbara Van Cleve. (Apologies for the grainy scan!) Sadly, the book appears to be out of print, but it was an interesting story about four different girls growing up and working on ranches in Utah and Colorado, Montana, Wyoming and New Mexico.

Lately I've been reading more and more books thinking-- I wish there was a map in the frontispiece. Flipping back and forth between a story and a map, imagining where a character is when I'm reading-- makes me slow down and savor the story even more.

Friday Find

I was cleaning out my tiny studio/room last week and came across this old watercolour paint box perched high on a shelf. I'd saved it from my grandmother's house about 15 years ago, and forgotten all about it. (Guess I'm not the greatest housekeeper!) I've never actually used it and don't know who did last-- it had been in her basement for who knows how many years. (I wonder if the paint is still good?) But I had always loved the retro picture on the tin. It's stamped on the back- "Page" and "London." So, because all items of even passing curiosity in our house get plugged into Google- I came up with this.

Eureka, we're in the money!