...the vauge ghost of corace future...

so, just a quick few updates of what's going on, where you can find me...a lot of these items have no specific dates, but you can revel in the idea of "it's gonna happen! soon! sometime!" think of it as a nice surprise.

1. "uniform" is available as a print at a paper tiger. it's a good sized print...not as large as the original, but larger than any print i've had made.
2. three more prints will be available at art star gallery in philadelphia...soon! sometime! i have them at my house and just have to sign them and send them on their way. if you are interested i would contact the ladies and get on their email list.
3. two new if'n books journals are coming out...soon! sometime! we're doing things a little differently this time. so if you have been lulled into a comfortable zone w/ the usual corace journal and hate change, sorry. but if you have been looking to put the zip back into your journaling and sketching life then have we got something for you.
   
4. most importantly, i am donating a piece to the handmade nation silent art auction. it takes place on july 19th from 6-10 pm. at 510 south hewitt #506 in los angeles. visit the site, check out the trailer and get more info on this event that is sure to be amazing. i am so excited to be a part of this event and with so many other incredible artists.

i would also like to update that i think i have found a good substitute for my concentrated watercolor woes. thanks for all the support and suggestions.

...shitters...

so, over the past year or so an unstoppable reality has been closing down on me. i am about to run out of my supply of luma and i am not quite sure what i am going to do about it.

luma concentrated watercolor has been my primary medium over the past four or five years. i found it during the days of 'little pea' and my search for the ultimate pea green and found that it was the perfect answer to all of my art making needs...concentrated enough to work as an ink, stable enough to be watered down and used as everyday watercolors. it also performed really well on rives bfk...that bitch of a printing paper i love to torture myself with by drawing on it.

about three years ago i found out that daler rowney who produced luma was discontinuing the line. panic set in and my hoarding began. first i cleared out the risd store...students drool, alumni rule...then the local art supply stores and finally i scoured the web. i even managed to eke out the last two bottles of coffee brown from an art supply store in portland, oregon. these were desperate times...but i was thinking ahead and my stash allowed me to live in a state of denial for awhile.

but here i am, years later and i am hesitant to count how many bottles i have left. i am too afraid to look.

over the past year i have been keeping my eye out for a suitable replacement. over the past few months my active concern has transformed into full fledged 'okay, what the hell are we going to do?' it seems as if concentrated watercolors are a dying breed. there are only two companies that produce them anymore: dr. ph martin and pebeo.

dr. ph martin's radient concentrated watercolors are an automatic no go. the colors are too concentrated...saying 'too concentrated' reminds me of a time when my brother and i cooked ourselves a vegetarian dinner at my sister's house for christmas and it was proclaimed 'too flavorful' by my brother in law.

so, yes, they are too concentrated and by that i mean when i have watered them down they are somewhat unstable when they dry...they get all uneven and weird. how's that for a savvy description? they are also too bright for my needs...painfully bright. i have seen other artists use them in their work and they are awesome at it. i end up feeling overwhelmed.

what truly seals the doctor's fate is that the radiant series aren't lightfast. their primary use is for reproduction work. which kills me. what's the point? lemon juice on paper is more permanent. my only hope with the doctor is a second series called synchromatic. it is primarily used for photos and film. i am crossing my fingers.

as for pebeo i can't find anyone who sells the colorex inks in the united states. the lie that is pearl art supply (seriously, we are on the outs. i am about to write them a break up letter) says they carry them but whenever i order them they are out of stock. i have come to realize that 'out of stock' for pearl paints means 'no longer carrying' since the last time i looked the list of 60+ colors has dwindled down to one lonely bottle of purple. i contacted pebeo via a british art supplier who is now referring me to their german supplier since they don't ship to the u.s. it's pretty ridiculously complicated. for some reason, however, i have a gut feeling that pebeo is going to be the answer to my problems...so in the end it might all be worth it.

until then i have all sorts of varieties of inks slowly making their way across the country to me. i spend a lot of my time in art supply stores staring at the ink section and pulling at my bottom lip, deep in concentration, trying to figure it all out.

...saturday nights in beacon hill...

while this photograph totally outs me as a saturday night homebody it's the first and only evidence of interspecial harmony in this house...a family portrait if you will. there was no hissing, no freaking out, no pretending to be curious and loveable only to turn the tables with a fast swat to the dog's face. it was a good night of grandmaw sweaters, bed, blankets, snoring animal bookends and catching up on emails.

speaking of grandmaws...i am back from the cruise!

first and foremost, the time i spent w/ my family was awesome. i wouldn't trade it for anything. we had a great time cavorting and playing cards, and playing bingo, and snorkeled and swam and played shuffleboard and ping pong and watched all sorts of on board entertainment, drank and ate and all sorts of other cruise business. it was bright and sunny and hot which are three things that aren't up my alley...but i think i dealt with all of it very well...almost like a pro.

second and secondmost, cruises are totally evil and that is all i am going to say about that.

...what are you supposed to do with the sun and moon when you are a pisces?...

this was said to not so much to me but the bus load that i was included in one day by a very loud, pontificating man. it was the number 7 bus. a bus i had long suspected of being the ultimate crazy bus of seattle. that day was the first time i had ever taken the 7 and my old preconceived notions proved true by that one individual. it's okay. every town has that one bus. in providence it's the 99. it goes to pawtucket.

before the 7 i swore the crazy bus was the bus that ran down aurora. i took it in the ye olde days when i was the display slave at urban outfitters. the aurora bus took me to the closest lowes/home depot...and i based my assumption on the fact that it was a triple digit bus. triple digit buses scream trouble. the aurora bus was in the three hundreds...so triple the trouble.

but back to the seven bus...

"what are you supposed to do with the sun and the moon when you are a pisces?" was professed by a man who seemed/admitted that he was surprised to be preaching to the bus. apparently he had no intention of doing so that day. funnily enough his words did not fall on deaf ears being that i was there and the day before was my birthday. i turned 34. i was a 34 year old pisces. i couldn't help but feel that i had an idea of what he was going on and on about.

i can't explain it to you. you wouldn't get it. if you are a pisces you already know.

anyhow, sooooooo much time has passed...unintentionally. that is the thing about time. it doesn't care how much of it you meant for it to pass...it just goes. and tomorrow, the 19th i am 34 years and one month. it's pretty spectacular. i love getting old.

i can't tell you where all the time went. mostly it would bore you. i've done some work. i have procrastinated on some work. me and mr. pants have made a lot of headway...so much so that he goes by leonard now. my super honey has visited me twice, my hair has grown, i've gone back to yoga classes, gone back to the y, gone back to crosswords, become addicted to scrabulous and scramble on facebook, kept on my new year's resolution, kept secrets, gossiped, finally got my lawn taken care of, eaten the most delicious, fancy version of vietnamese tofu sandwiches many many times at my local coffee shop several times, gotten back to letter writing and was thrilled to get back to 'lost'.

i have gotten a few emails about my lack of updates...which i apologize for. but what can i say...i am an a+ hermit.

irregardless of that here is a point by point update of what to vaguely expect from me in this year:

• i have a few pieces in a group show at project: gallery in los angeles.
• "little hoot" is out and about.
• "hansel and gretel" makes it's debut in september via hyperion.
• i am working on two other books that will be out in 2009...a book about darwin and the third installment to the "little" series..."little oink".
• the april issue of o magazine has a piece on tiny showcase featuring the first print i ever did with them.
• i have a series of illustrations in the april issue of real simple.
• prints are available through project: gallery. more prints will be available through art star in the near future.
• i have a feature in an upcoming issure of corduroy.
  
• i have several shows tentatively planned for this year...one group show in portland, a solo show with giant robot...both dates tba and a group show with tiny showcase in september. the tiny showcase show is particularly exciting to me b/c i will be collaborating with my brother jason. i don't know how you all will cope with the power of two coraces at once. good luck.
• i uploaded a bunch of sketches on my flickr account to keep you occupied.
  
• most importantly...on saturday i leave for mexico on a cruise with jason and my sister's family. and if you know me at all you would say "you? on a cruise?" it's true. many capers and awesome photos will abound. i already have the cruise pants to get me started. they are what i call "uncle frank green". you might not know my uncle frank...but he is a man who is famous for his "go to hell pants." my pants aren't specifically go to hell pants...but for me they are the closest thing.

so that is my update for now.

i am hoping to have a cruise recap.

xo
jen

...i spy...

i don't have a larger, singular image of this, but little pea has hit the big time: bake sale! i love a good bake sale.

...you should know...

'little hoot', my second book with amy krause rosenthal and chronicle books is out and about in the world. i think it made it's way into the stores on the 8th. it semi-slipped my mind...because, you know, i am a little more preoccupied with teaching the dog his name and trying to remember the last time he went out...

...amazing...

here is a better photo that fully encompasses the awesomeosity of my new bike. it's mind blowing. emily did an AMAZING job. she's an amazing person and amazingly talented in things and ways beyond bike building. and bike building is a pretty spectacular craft so imagine the above and beyond amazingness of one miss emily klass. you can't because it's too nuts. you'd have to be hospitalized.

my posts, like my brain right now, are piecey and spotty at best. someone/a lot of people/everyone in the world has said that having a dog is like having a baby. i have never had a baby. i have seen other folks have and care for babies. i have heard the unending conversations about stages and poop and diapers and potty training and possible mutterings of first words and what products are best for what and the newest baby book and the newest theories about rearing and on and on and on and on. i have seen and heard all of this with my own eyes and i have thought....what is up with THAT? no thank you.

well here i am on the other side.

i think about the dog and what it is doing and wait...is it peeing in a room where i can't see it and how am i going to structure my day and why isn't he eating and i thought we had a good 'going outside schedule' yet the pile on the bedroom floor is telling me different and i thought all dogs loved to walk and here are one thousand other things i never read about french bulldogs and who is the best vet to take him to and will all the learning we've already been done be lost after the big snip next week because he'll be so bummed and what kind of collar or leash or harness is best and on and on and on.

when people call, it's all i talk about.
my friend sarah came over last night and conversation kept coming around to the dog.
i have started refering to mr. pants and i as 'we'.
what is up with THAT?

i know it hasn't even been a week. i know it's going to let up and become everyday normal. i know i have nothing to complain about because he's a totally chill and awesome dog and we are all still transitioning. it's all good.

it's all good.