All Done!

Phil and Lois' excellent show adventure coming up!
I have finished the packing for the weekend's show in Lynnewood for the Northwest Bead Society. I am looking forward to selling a few beads ( please! ) and seeing fellow vendor friends and customers. I might even do a little shopping myself! Energies were weird today around me and although I remained happy and optimistic; for a few brief moments I had left the room to find trouble!

Began working on a drawing for a friend tonight. It is an angel surrounded by stars, the sun and a rainbow. I will post a picture when it is done. Tomorrow morning after some early unpleasant business, I get to do what I really like doing before leaving on any kind of a trip - pack up my bag with creative doings for the weekend! Sketchbook, colored pens and pencils, knitting, some embroidery and a good book. Wish me luck!

From The Sketchbook

For Rusty ....

This is Rusty with her son David, the sweet gentle soul that cared for her through all of her later years and was there tending her, loving her until the end. This is how they were - inseparable companions, thought of as one Rustydavid and kevetching devotees of each other. They are and were some of my best friends. They supported me in all I did often traveling out of town to see my art shows, writing long letters to me when they traveled around the US and Europe. I mattered to them and them to me and I will miss Rusty the rest of my days. Amazing woman, great friend, encouraging soul, laughing, twinkling eyes; a person not given to the modern un-friending of someone on facebook, a woman devoted to peace who would even from her wheelchair protest the wars going on now. A woman who went to college and received a degree at 60 and a masters in psychology a few years later. She raised 5 children after the loss of her right hand when she was a right handed individual. She learned to write, paint, nurture and everything a person needs to do, with her left hand. I am in awe of her.



Rusty as a young mother.


These are the handset poetry chapbooks that Rusty published herself with ONE HAND from her Sagittarius Press. A press that used handset type letters and ran with sheer brute strength with a hand turned wheel.

Rusty and David as I first met them. Rusty and the twinkle in her eye, the soul that was always smiling and encouraging.


Several paintings that Rusty did were placed around the foyer of the church. This landscape piece with its beautiful bridge made me think of Rusty crossing over into a beautiful garden and it gave me a great deal of peace. As if a painting she did years ago, was really meant to comfort and reassure us today.


A painting that Rusty did of a backyard playhouse.

I thank God I knew her and met her in 1976 and for all this time and all the time to come, I am honored and deeply privileged to call her friend.

The Boys !

This is Eric and Heather's beautiful place in Vermont and a day or two just shy of the peak fall colors. Eric is Phil's oldest son and lives with his wife, Heather and their two children, Eleanor and Isaac on a family farm in Starksboro. Next year, I am planning on going to Vermont in the fall, too. I want to knit and sketch where the trees are so beautiful!



Here are all the boys hanging out under a tree; Phil, Eric, Jacob and Isaac. What a handsome bunch!

Around Town - Film Fest 2010

Port Townsend's Galatea fountain all dressed up for the film festival. I particularly love the town's version of palm trees! We almost look like Hollywood! Most intriguing to me was the reflection of the statue's flowers in the water at the base of Galatea. Dyan Cannon was the fest's special guest and although I did not get to see her I heard from other shopkeepers how nice she was and so tiny a person.

Tonight's gonna be a good good night....

The sky tonight as I was driving out of town after work was incredibly beautiful. The clouds hovering above town, so artfully pasted into the sky, were like angel wings. I kept thinking " angel wings spread over Port Townsend. " Then, upon my arrival home, I glanced at the sky again and had to stop, dead still in my tracks as the clouds were painted the softest pastel pink and centered in wispy blue gray bigger clouds. Beautiful! Was my camera handy? Almost, but I did not want to move or stop looking at the sky and the dance of clouds long enough to retrieve it. So it is with words not even barely adequate to describe the evening sky that I leave you and wish you a good, good night.

Fiesta Fall!

Beautiful beach, light and shadow, sun and water. The grass still green from the wet, short summer. Fall has arrived.


A beautiful fall noontime at the beach in Port Hadlock. Perfect way to spend the first day of fall. The sun was shining and the air clean and blue.

Here is one of my favorite view points, Skunk Island, from the marina at the old alcohol plant looking towards the Wooden Boat Building School.

This Day

After running all the errands that have been accumulating on my " to do " list today, I sat down to finish some rosaries for the shop. All the sterling silver centers and crucifixes are pieces that I cast from antique pieces. Nothing relaxes me quite like the gentle zen act of making a rosary. The studio is quiet, no music or television, and as I turn and wrap and link I think each bead is made with a prayer uttered from my lips and certainly from my soul.





When I sit in the living room late in the evening as everyone else is sleeping or off doing their own thing, I ramble in a doodle. My mind wanders and the pen leaps at the chance to put the thoughts down on paper. You can see all the ramblings here. It's always a surprise to me when sometimes days or weeks later I look back at these doodles and wonder where my mind had been!

As A Rule....

I do not like spiders. I would rather have a tooth pulled, scrub a bathroom or dump the litter box than be anywhere near a spider of any size. I do not even go into Jacob's classroom because the tarantula named Rosie, " only escapes once in awhile, Mom " lives there so imagine my surprise at this nicely water jeweled web outside my studio.




I had dashed outside to the studio yesterday on my way to the shop ( again ) to grab a few things and the web was not visible until I came out of the studio door and the light caught the glittery water droplets just right. They looked like beads, maybe even like a piece of jewelry I would wear.

Pause Lois, in the beginning of a busy day, just pause and enjoy the little moments of beauty that spring upon you. Even if the beauty lies within a spider web.

Just Me

Doing the Self Portrait Fridays has been an interesting journey in acceptance and peace with and of myself. Acceptance of the changes in myself and being able to look at a picture of me and saying, " that's me and it is just fine. " I could stop doing the portraits but I feel I am growing as a person and loving myself. I think I will continue for awhile longer. Peace with me. Happy weekend, everyone!

Studio Work Day

A new work in colored pencil and marker in my " TV sketchbook ". I like that it has houses a common and recurring theme in my work and I particularly like the colors. One of these days I may even have to begin to title some of these pieces!


My hard working studio companions, well at least two of the three. They love it when I work out there and they can snooze. They will like it even better when the heat is turned on.



On another note, I have been in a funk all day with the loss of my friend Rusty. I remember our last visit and the kiss I planted on her cheek. I knew it was near the end/beginning for her and suddenly Port Townsend just seems a whole lot empty without her. I can not even imagine the loss her son David feels. They were inseparable. I think in my own life I need to love everyone a little more openly, a little more often and a lot more stronger. I just want to hold onto everybody.

Winds blow in Port Townsend
and I see all of us
on long, long tethers
blithely floating
out over the bay.

The gulls are astonished
(even an eagle or two)
outraged at this invasion.

Because of the leash laws
our dogs anchor us
to familiar yards and hedges.
They will not let us go.
We are their faithful companions
and they cannot afford the fines for strays.

Let’s make a day of it,
blowing kisses and bobbing
at the end of our lines.
O, it is fine up here
when the wind blows
in Port Townsend.
by Rusty North

Rusty North passed away on Sunday at the age of 88. She was one of the most inspirational and incredible women I have ever been honored to know. Artist, poet, mother,publisher, friend and someone I will miss terribly as she passes from my life. Memories will linger, her wisdom has become a part of me but I will feel her loss often.She was one of the first people I met when I came to live in Port Townsend. She was my elder in Quaker meetings. She encouraged my painting and my work. She always found time to see my art shows, to comment on my paintings. Many were the afternoons I spent sipping tea with honey in her kitchen, listening to the fire in the big old wood stove, watching her use her small press to print chap books of poetry. I will miss her but I am a richer person for having known her and having been able to call her friend.

Corn Roast

Today, on this fine Sunday afternoon; we went to a corn roast at Heather and Greg Reseck's farm. This is the end result of fresh corn roasted in a stone lined pit. Pretty to look at and wonderful to eat. Such a pretty afternoon and a wonderfully tranquil spot. You could smell fall in the air and the rainy season hovering right around the corner.











A beautiful feather that I found outside the hay barn's doors. I think it looks like a hawk's feather but then maybe it is from an owl of some sort. I did not see any birds in the barn itself and still wonder what pretty fellow lost this feather which I made Phil carry in his breast pocket so I could press it into a journal.It was a peaceful, relaxing afternoon before the busyness of the coming week.

Friday Rolls Around

It is that time of the week when I
take a picture of myself and call it a portrait. This time I have a picture of me taking a picture in the bathroom mirror. I like the religious iconography I have on the walls of the bathroom. Made by friends or found in Mexico, it gives me pleasure to look at them. Phil says every time he uses the bathroom; he feels like he is in a shrine! That makes me laugh heartily, even at this moment; I am smiling!

The purple painting behind me I did of a traditional english folk art, canal florals and it is done on a refinished wine case lid.

I have no great insights to offer this week but I am wearing one of my favorite shirts in the portrait made of over dyed bark cloth fabric by my friend Katya who now has a shop upstairs from me.

Good night sweet friends until I write again!

The Magic of Early Fall

It is an early fall here in spite of the calendar's date and it feels magical. The air has an edge of coolness to it and the sky fills between rains with the fluffy full clouds that I usually see in November. I feel relieved to have survived the heat of the summer, the down and dirty dog days of August and rejoice at the change in seasons. Energized! Can you feel it where you live? This sky greeted me outside tonight just as we finished dinner using fresh cucumbers and grape tomatoes from summer's bounty.



In this early fall between rain and windstorms; dandelions are making their last fluffy stands, spreading their beautiful yellowness to hide until next spring. gather them and make wishes before they send their fluttery seeds on their way!


This annual plant nestles in the corner by my studio door and bravely reaches out for the sun. Perhaps she will get enough light to finish her bloom for this summer and turn a wonderful pink-raspberry color. I love the shape of her leaves and think they will find their way into a drawing or a charm.



Jacob preparing his flying termite basher for the evening's hunt. I point them out, Daisy follows us and Jacob bashes them. They are everywhere and make a satisfying THWICK when you knock them from the sky. Daisy likes to eat them. Mmmm... special doggie treats!


Ripening tomatoes on the vine in a flower pot on the porch. These will probably not finish their journey to ripeness anymore this year but I will enjoy the feast both visual and physical these beauties will give me.




The beautiful evening sky as clouds begin to drift in over the Olympics. Dreamy, fluffy and just barely a whisper of pink coloring.
Blessed be the season's changes and in the haste of my daily life and your days too, may we never fail to notice the beauty that is just outside our windows and inside our souls.

I'll Admit....

I am a sucker for a cute picture! This one covers all the cute bases, too!

Port Townsend Sunday

Port Townsend on Sundays, a way to begin a new week and end an old one with journal entries of new drawings. I like Self Portrait Fridays and now comes Port Townsend Sundays. Next I will have to have a France day or Italian evening!

These are drawings in what I have come to affectionately call my " television sketchbook " or what I am working on while my mind kind of pays attention to a television show!

Loving Color

Well, it certainly is fun to fool around with the camera built into my computer. I can do a self portrait for Self Portrait Friday and never touch a tube of paint or a colored pencil. What would artists from the past 200 years think of that?

I am getting used to photographing myself and in this act of taking pictures, I am accepting me and being gentle as I realize that I am what is before the camera. Just me.

Stuff Happens!

From a tiny window crack grew enough broken glass to take out three big display windows! It looks as if Port Townsend is expecting a hurricane rather than the east coast but this is the view of the front of my shop with boarded up window slots minus the windows! It was not vandalism or an act of nature but rather time itself and a lot of wood rot that caused the windows to break! I am trying to remind myself of how nice new windows will look after their installation on Tuesday. Given lemons one needs to make lemonade!



These are what my front window displays look like on higher stools with their new plywood background. I know it is just temporary until the new glass arrives but it is challenging to merchandise around the boarded up windows. I am such a maniac for display that even something like broken windows makes my display juices begin to flow!