I finished this painting last week. It's 40" x 60"; Oil on Canvas. It's the thirteenth painting in the Museum of Bad Judgement series (Click here for a full description of this series). The center is a portrait of the Polk County Courthouse where my grandfather tried many cases in his early career. Around it are more scenes loosely based his memoirs. It's actually four paintings in one, which is probably the reason it took so long. I actually started it in July of 2021, but I put it aside several times to work on other paintings. Here are some progress photos I took along the way:

I originally intended for this painting to be the last in the series. I thought I was done mining, and that I had gone deep enough. But, it turns out there are more images and ideas that keep coming to me, so I will to keep going. Stay tuned.... 

I am beyond honored to be included among so many amazing painters in the current issue of New American Paintings! 

I have been in love with this publication since the early 90's. I can remember working at Starbucks on the Ave in Seattle, and spending way too much time at Bulldog News looking through New American Paintings, because I couldn't afford to buy it. Each 9" x 9" issue was beautifully laid out on heavy paper, full of colorful paintings by emerging and established painters.  

​Here is a little more about them from the front of the magazine:

" New American Paintings was founded in 1993 as an experiment in art publishing. With over five thousand artists reviewed annually, it has become America’s largest and most important series of artist competitions. Each competition is catalogued in a unique volume: Northeast, South, Midwest, West, Pacific Coast, and MFA Annual. Featured artists are selected on the basis of artistic merit and provided space for free."

That's the great news. The not so great news is that because of COVID related shipping delays, this issue will be released in digital format only. While I was slightly disappointed not to be able to hold beautiful, colorful volume in my hands, the silver lining is that anyone with an internet connection can view the magazine and download it for free. I actually think more people will see the magazine, which is great.

To access your free issue, go to newamericanpaintings.com. When you get there, click the button that says "GO TO FREE ISSUE #157". When you get to the #157 home page, you have a couple of choices. You can  download a PDF of the magazine pages, or get a free copy on issuu.com by entering a special code which you will find close to the top of the page. The Issuu method takes a few more steps, but it is a great way to look through the magazine. Images of my paintings are on pages 152 - 155. 

Other than that milestone, my work continues in the studio and I have a group of paintings on exhibit in a salon in Tacoma called Studio 253 Salon. I don't have any other shows planned for this year (yet), but I am always willing to open and welcome visitors to the studio. Feel free to contact me if you would like to stop by. ❤️

Before things get too busy with the holidays, I wanted to let you know about my pop-up sale coming up in a couple of weeks. 

What: Pop-up Art Sale
When: Saturday, December 4th, between 11am and 3pm.
Where: Stocklist Goods (1936 Pacific Ave, Downtown Tacoma)

I will have a couple dozen small Pandemic Postcard paintings for sale at special low prices, as well as limited edition prints, and postcard packs. 

10% of my  proceeds will go to The Tacoma Rescue Mission and Stocklist will be donating a portion of their daily sales as well. It's a great way to support a local artist, a local business, and some people doing important work in our community. 

I am grateful to Stocklist for this opportunity. They are the greatest. This is part of The Low Key Pop Up Series that they started during 2020 to help artists in the community during the pandemic.  Hope to see you there! 

Here are a few samples of the paintings:

Grab your mask and come down to the Tacoma Armory on October 16 and 17 for Arts at the Armory! This event is replacing the annual studio tour this year. I will miss having people into the studio, but I am really looking forward to being together with all the other artists! The Armory is gigantic (20,000 square feet!) so there will be plenty of room for everyone to spread out, and stay socially distant. 

I will be there both days with 27 original paintings that I have been working on over the past year+. I call them the Pandemic Postcards. These are small, acrylic paintings with imagery based on my beloved postcard collection. I started with one, back in March of 2020, right at the beginning of the pandemic, and I just kept going. They are smaller, faster and more spontaneous than my big oil paintings and each one taught me something. The paintings will be for sale at special low prices. 

Last year, after I painted a number of of these, it seemed like a natural step to make a set of postcards of the paintings. That was Volume one. I kept going with that too, and I just got Volume 4 back from the printer. All four volumes will be available for sale as separate sets, or you can buy the entire collection (34 postcards total - pictured below.) I will also have some really beautiful giclee prints of my work for sale. Something for everyone!

Plus, there will be so many other awesome Tacoma artists there too. I hope to see you there!

Find out more details on the Tacoma Arts Month Website 

Here are the basics:
​
WHAT: Arts at the Armory
WHEN: Saturday and Sunday 10/16 and 10/17 11am - 5pm both days
WHERE: Tacoma Armory 1001 S. Yakima Ave.

Masks will be required, regardless of vaccination status.  

The Cabin burnt down this month. The historic and deadly Beechie Creek wildfire came down the river in Oregon, and destroyed the little cabin on September 8th.  My great grandfather (My mom's mom's dad) lived in Salem, and built the cabin in 1920. He called it Jessie's Inn, for his wife. The Cabin was only 25 miles from Salem, Oregon, close by today's standards, but I imagine back in 1920, it seemed like it was out in the mountains. 

Everything is gone now, except the river and the kind neighbors who have looked after the place for years. 

Many people in the Santiam Canyon have lost so much more than we have, and my heart aches for them. But my heart is sad for the loss of the Cabin, and I want to share about it, because I think it will help with my grief. 

The Cabin was very rustic and not in the best shape. And by rustic, I mean that you had to be prepared to share the space with rats ( wood rats- cuter than city rats, but big) spiders and bugs. And so many ants. There were several large ant hills on the property, and the ants had developed a complex network of highways for conducting their ant business. when I went there last week, the ant hills were gone, but the ants were still there, looking dazed and confused. I am confident they are rebuilding as I write. 

The outhouse was called Friendly Village. I never thought to ask my Mom why until we found out it was gone. She told me that my  great - grandfather used it as a church retreat in the 20's and 30's, and his church friends named it that. That didn't really answer my question of why, but it doesn't really matter. 

We kept a diary at the cabin, where usually people wrote about the weather and what we ate for dinner. There were diaries at the cabin, going back to the 1960s. In the stack of diaries (now gone) my dad wrote about my first visit when I was a baby. He wrote something like “Jule didn't have much to say. She has yet to say anything about anything because she hasn't learned to talk yet." 

Somewhere, I have video of my high school friends and I having a small party at the Cabin. We are drinking beer, dancing and singing to Tom Waits -Rain Dogs - getting progressively more into it, as time passes, and more beer is consumed. Thank god social media did not exist then. 

Most everything of value had been stolen from the cabin because it had been broken into countless times over the years. When I was about 21, I discovered one of the biggest robberies. They took many antiques including my grandmothers wedding trunk, an antique dresser, any dishes that had any value, and a giant rack of elk antlers.

The beds were all lined up on a covered sleeping porch, where you could sleep outside under crisp sheets and blankets, listening to the constant sound of the river as it lulled you to sleep. 

Memories of family, friends, boyfriends, husbands, wives, kids, music, dogs, games, the 70's clock radio in the kitchen that constantly played equal parts static and OPB -- if ever a space and place and a soul, this one did. It was a place that five generations of my family shared and loved in our own way. It wasn't insured, and really the only value it had was sentimental. 

I went there on Saturday for the first time since the fire. Every single thing that wasn't metal was burned, melted or broken. Of the house, only the chimney stood surrounded by ash, the crumpled metal roof, glass and nails. On the surrounding property, only the charred tall trees remain ( many of which will need to come down). On the edge of the property there were many charred cans and bottles which had been thrown from the road. Some cans were from the days before the pull ring openers. 

I rescued a couple of charred things out of the ashes. But I really am working on just letting go of that old place. This helps to write about it, and think of what that place means to me. That love helps me to move forward, and think about what the future holds. 

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to give an artist talk for the Pitzer@Home series on Zoom. I spoke about the evolution of my work and my current project. I was a little nervous, because I have never done something quite like this before, but it was great. It was so fun to share my work with a group of people I mostly didn't know, all from the comfort of my own home.  Here is the video of the talk. I'm to scared to watch it, I hope it isn't word salad!  I did notice that my cat, Elliott, makes a cameo.