The March Hare Arrives!

Are you mad? Am I mad? We’re ALL mad here….. That’s my ode to Alice in Wonderland and the March Hare, but also to the madness of March. I have been prepping for an art show while also getting ready to move, and boy am I feeling loopy! To relieve some stress, however, I’ve been running Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathons. Having never watched the show before, I’m thoroughly enjoying it. I adore all the outfits and sass. Gosh, I miss the 90’s.

As much as I’d like to be in a park with all this late February sunshine, I am in my office gluing and organizing for the art show at the Library. This is a little dream of mine that’s finally come true. Since I was a kid, I LOVED looking at the art that was exhibited each month around the Napa Library. This March, I get to install my original paintings from SOMETIMES IT’S BRIGHT, the book I published last year, pretty much in time for its 1 year “book birthday”. Hooooray!

If you’re in the Napa area, please feel free to join! You can register for this event via this link. The Napa Bookmine will have books for sale at the reception, I’ll be signing copies, doing a reading, and sharing some hand painted bookmarks for those in attendance. It’ll be my FIRST in person event since this book came out during the pandemic. I look forward to sharing SOMETIMES IT’S BRIGHT and celebrating creativity with my community.

The unglamorous side of having an art show. I bought inexpensive frames (because honestly you could spend thousands of dollars on frames no joke) so I have to glue d-rings for some wires. My sounds track is Lake Street Drive, and I’m fueled by….um, no coffee these days. I’m fueled by “sheer will.”

I haven’t been able to work on my picture book dummy and paintings all month But after next week the extra art show prep work will be done-zo. I’m also moving out of this studio in April, so I’m trying to relish the time I have left here! It’s been a wonderful space to occupy for over a year. My new rental home has a studio space in the garden, and although I’m sad to leave this adorable space, I’m so grateful to move into the new studio and be able to pull some weeds on my lunch breaks.

Wishing you a wonderful March, and I’ll see you on the flip side!

Back to basics

If you've followed my posts for a while, you know that I'm always trying to get away from the internet so to speak. I did meet my husband online, so thanks world wide web!, but otherwise what was my quiet, sacred painting life pre-2013, morphed into an array of screens, text messages, and endless emails. (2013 is the year I got a smart phone). The internet also opened up work opportunities for me, so I am grateful for that, but my body would say differently. It would remark- "whaddaya doing here? I was having fun and you made it all stressy."

Even when I was young I had a similar impulse about the net. I recall my mom getting AOL for us when I was about 10 years old. I was enamored by the Nikelodeon chatroom. a/s/l? I met cyber bullies and super sexual beings that pretended to be all kinds of ages and genders. It was the wild west and I quickly found that it was a little too wild for me. My intuition set off an alarm. My sister got into building web pages, but I went back to wandering around outside on my bike.

I had adventures though, and I found inspiration outside. I have good memories from this time. I watched people, took notes, found hidden trails, made picnics, did painting projects, and sang songs to myself. I enjoyed my chidhood, and I guess we're all here, trying to live a life we enjoy. So I look back to that time and what I used to do, as a roadmap for getting from technical chaos to inner peace.

This new year, I am going to do that thing that lots of minimalist people do, so it's not special. I'm quitting social media. I will still send out newletters and write blog posts, two things I used to do more of and really enjoyed, but stopped when social media seems to be more "efficient".

I'm also establishing my scared painting practice, and a sacred writing practice, which means to me that I must be quiet and not aim to produce anything in principle. I am wokring on some new books, and hopefully they will see the light of day, but they deserve to be cooked in my creative writing womb for a while, methinks?

This impulsive but necesary move was inspired by a few things- Cal Newport's book, Digital Minimalism, which I read severals months ago but at that time I didn't have the guts to step away from tech enough to be with myself. I was also inspired by Flow, by Csikszentmihalyi, which I read several years ago almost entirely at the gym. Both of these books talk about the importance of undistracted, concentrated time, where we can find our depths of creativity and delight. I've had a hard time finding this as podcasts are so easy to pop on while I work, text messages flood in, and emails never stop. My bad habits are too easy to foster, hence my attempt to break their spell once more.

Lastly, I was influenced by a women's circle, which creates a sacred space for everyone involved. I've found this to be an exptrememly healing presence in my life, and I can't help but want more of this undistracted, sacred time.

But, what is sacred? A friend told me that nothing is sacred anymore, but I don't beleive that. I think the sacred is created upon will, and it is a place of full presence with yourself and the divine. It's accessible to everyone. I would like to see more "sacred spaces" rather than "safe spaces". I don't think sacred has to be pretty, or religious, or even fun. But it can be sexy, delicious, midevil, and liberating. I'm aiming to transition into sacred time with my screens and learn how to love them in a new way. But first...

...Back to basics.

In Pursuit of Persimmon

I remember the first time I saw a persimmon tree. It wasn't that long ago, actually! Maybe five years?

I was on a walk with a friend in Mountain View, CA on a brisk December morning, and I saw these bright orange globes dangling on an otherwise barren tree. The stark contrast of the fruit against the cool grey sky was stunning. "What are those?!" I said to my friend. She scoffed at me like I was a goof and said, "Persimmons, Annie. You've never seen them before?" I hadn't! We grabbed one that was haning over the sidewalk, and when I tried the gooey, sweet, almost nutty bite of 'simmon goodness, I fell in love.

As these orange fruits have graced us with their presence once again, my pal Eveline suggested we make a bread with them. I googled some recipes that were both vegan (for my friend and my husband) and paleo (for me), and luckily I found one that looked delicious and full of whole ingredients.

We substituted the egg for a flax egg and otherwise followed the recipe from Bakerita to a "Tee." I turned out moist, cakey, not too sweet, nutty and textured perfectly with all the chunks of walnuts and pecans that we used. It tasted like Winter and warmed our hearts AND bellies.

The best part was baking with a sweet friend and eating the bread together with our husbands. In Holland, they have a wonderful work for this simple and intimate moment of comfort with others: Gezelligheid.

Earlier in the week I went on a walk at a new park in the hills surrounding my city. It was quiet out there and I felt a different kind of closeness. It was a kind of solitude and reverie, and I felt near to my own heart. If the Dutch have a word for this, I wish I knew!

Expanding The Spacious Tarot

Hey guys! I've been quiet on here, working diligently on the new expansion pack for The Spacious Tarot with Carrie Mallon. We knew we wanted to stay in the "Spacious World", and when Carrie thought of this old Minchiante deck that has an additional 22 cards, we both felt that exciting burst of butterflies!

We've been working on these cards for over a year now and we are finally close to printing them!

Right now we are finalizing the last two cards, and I'm laying out the guidebook. I recently stopped freelancing (it's been good) and I'm devoting my time to either my work wth fly.io, or the Spacious Tarot. Carrie is no longer having to ship all these decks, and we are thoroughly enjoying the focus and creativity.

Back to Expansion...

This oracle-like deck has 12 Zodiac signs, four Values, and the four Elements. It's a very grounded deck, and you can draw a card daily as a practice, add it to your tarot deck, etc. It will feel and look like the Spacious Tarot, but--fun fact-- I am illustrating it in Procreate this time rather than Photoshop. I think it'll have a slightly different feel but much richer over all.

We are making updates on when this project will be out via Instagram, so please hang with us over there!

Carrie posted this recent photo from when we got together last month in Salt Lake City. (Note the little kitty face in the lower left corner) I don't have any pets, but she has four of them, so it was a pleasure seeing her, her partner, and so so so many soft snuggles with all the animals.

Have a creative rest of your month and Happy Halloween!

-Annie