A slice of summer

This summer has been fast and furious. But fruitful!

I attended my first Illustration Institute event of this season in late July, a workshop with illustrator-in-residence, Carin Berger. It was held at the TEIA, the most breezy spot for gathering makers.

Carin’s fellow Faison Resident James Ransome was also participating!

Carin made a wonderful presentation about artists and their collections, the food for inspiration found in artist studios, and she shared her exquisite picture books and process. We each were given a small shallow box in which to create a collage of any kind. Plenty of ephemera fluttered in the sea breezes!

Kirsten Cappy, Executive Director of I’m Your Neighbor Books, found a vintage textbook she couldn’t resist dissecting.

My memory box became an anniversary gift for my husband, Marty. The first four years of our marriage we lived in San Francisco. Maps, stamps, tickets, moons, all momentos of our chapters together.

We departed a couple of days later for a getaway, celebrating our 34th anniversary. Time flies when you share it with a soulmate who likes cake!

We spent our anniversary in Franconia Notch, hiking to Artists Bluff. I grew up in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and it felt good to touch home base.

I made a quick sketch from the summit. A steep trail called for some slow looking, and making the moment last!

These mountains inspired an illustration that will soon appear in The Milky Way by Gunnel Larsdotter, to be published by Fulton Books this fall.

The realms of night skies have beckoned me always. I am delighted to be in a group exhibition, Seeds of LIght, at Zero Station Gallery in Portland, Maine.

I’m in the company of incredible artists who share this passion for cosmic dust and nebulas. Please go visit!

Meanwhile I continue to work on two book projects. Here’s a sneak peek from Oh, Chickadee! by Jennifer Jacobson. This non-fiction picture book all about chickadees will be published by McSea Books in 2023. I drew one of my favorite buildings on Peaks, a small red barn right around the corner from the Illustration Institute guest houses.

Marty and I attended a stellar presentation by James Ransome on August 4 at the Portland Public Library.

I love when we learn all the background: where he grew up, how he found art in the local pharmacy (comics for sale), his high school art teacher in New Jersey who encouraged him. Art takes A LOT of support. He shared his early work from high school, and his first illustration jobs. His award-winning author wife, Lesa Cline Ransome, read their book, Before She Was Harriet. Their four children “keep me in my studio” he said. Jerry Pinkney was a mentor for ten years, and James told us he likes to “entertain the eye and think like a filmmaker.”

What a gift to meet them!

Up next was the wedding of my beloved nephew, Garrett Sanborn, to his beautiful bride, Marlee Huston. I made this drawing for them, after learning he proposed during a kayak paddle on a lake in Maine. Yes, those are little sparkly gems stuck on the drawing!

Their ceremony was August 6 under sunny skies at the magical Wanderwood Farm in Nobleboro, Maine. What a joyful day! Every detail was thoughtful, delicious, and I still get weepy savoring it.

But wait, there’s more! Our daughter, Daisy Braun, has installed another exhibit of her incredible sculptures at the Wells Reserve Gallery in Wells, Maine. Her show, being the current, will have a reception tonight, August 11, from 5 – 7 pm. Details HERE.

A former island neighbor, architect Dick Reed, provided astute assistance with the installation. These works are bouyant, made of reed, ribbon, and string, yet they require careful handling and suspension from multiple points.

Meanwhile, I am part of a new group show, Islands. My neighbor, Danielle Madore, has bravely created a daring place for art and conversation at the Crow’s Nest Gallery on Island Avenue. Please stop in this Sunday, 1 – 4 pm.

I am showing a series of gouache paintings I began late last year, after a woodsy walk with Robert Vandersteenhoven, island sculptor and mushroom master. Somini Sengupta in the New York Times says fungi are “agents of reincarnation.” I can tell this topic will provide inspiration for a long time.

Big exhale. So much going on. More to come! I hope you will enjoy the full moon rise tonight, August 11. We hope to catch a glimpse on the ferry ride returning from the Wells Galery reception. May all the powers of nature and art fill you with the same sacred awe that it does me. Enjoy this slice of summer, and gobble it up. My niece, Cristel Hamilton, read a poem at her brother’s wedding, Mary Oliver’s Don’t Hesitate.

Don’t let joy be a crumb!