Gay for Clouds

Today is grey, so here I share with you some happiness!

Every morning and evening I get to say good-morning and goodnight to the Swift Supply. This makes me extremely happy. I guess temporarily living in the middle of the Palouse has its benefits.

For those of you that are unaware...
I kinda have a thing for the swift supply.
♥ ♥ ♥ Yes, I have a crush on a building (see why?).
I found a sweet little site called Gay for Clouds. It seemed to fit perfect, so I uploaded this photo ...to share it with other cloud lovers who may be secretly closeted Swift Supply lovers too!

Have a GAY day!

Clumsy Lover

I have really wanted to start doing Illustration Friday again...every week. So, we will see how that goes! But, for today here I share with you.

Topic: Clumsy

♥

Dreyer Press

After the RiverSpeak meeting Tuesday Brooke and I had an adventure.
Stalling the impromptu tour Chris Dreyer stopped to brew a pot of coffee. Chris likes coffee. It is a good thing then that he works as an artist for Doma Coffee...and they give him lots of it.

Chris strides around a Superhero, confident in his disguise of ink stained clothing and a messy workspace. He has a new studio downtown (over on Pacific just off Brown). It is nuzzled up against the train tracks in an old brick warehouse. There are a handful of creatives that rent the converted building. In Spokane when one drops the name Dryer Press, it comes with a certain reverence that is hard to explain. I had first heard about him a couple years ago at the Terrain Show. I was told he had printed the Zine pamphlet; and the way everyone kept saying "Dreyer Press" I knew he was special. Maybe it was something about Chris himself...his humor and casualness, or the fact that here was a local guy printing out of his garage with a hundred year old press he taught himself to use, or maybe even the shear talent of the man...whatever it is Chris = amazing!

Standing around you notice a sort of underlying romance with antiquated technology. The largest thing in the room is the letterpress, followed closely by the paper cutter (both of which I am eternally jealous of). He told me he cuts designs/shapes out with an exact-o knife before scanning them into the computer, instead of a light table he has a vintage window with a desk lamp, and ink mixing happens on top of the garbage can. Happy! Don't you just want to hug him? I wonder if the press has a name?

coloring

So....I got my ass whooped by a 4 year old. Actually tons of people did (which I think is awesome)! There was such a huge turn out...so many entries! I think this was a great pick for GRAND PRIZE winner. To get an idea here are some of the thumbnails:
The coloring contest was for for Rice Boy Sleeps. The singer Jon Thor (Jónsi) Birgisson from the Icelandic band Sigur Rós and his partner Alex Somers have been making music together and exhibiting artwork/staging exhibitions under the name Riceboy Sleeps for several years now.

I found out about Jónsi & Alex just recently...they were having a coloring contest. There was a free download of some of the images from their 40pg coloring book (here is the link). It surprised me....but I now love the idea that you should decide what the image is about. Here are the 3 I colored for the competition (I had so much fun):I think that maybe it is time to do another coloring book. The first one I did got such a positive response. I had quite a number of requests for a new one around the holidays. Children are sooo my people...not that only kids color, it just saddens me the lack of original artwork out there for them to choose from. As a child I HATED all the "Disney" coloring books...and cartoon ones. I felt like I couldn't change the colors of the characters because I already knew what they were "supposed to be".

Maybe a coloring competition could go along with my new images? This could be a way for me to get rid of some of my art that I love dearly but can't stand seeing laying around with dustballs in my basement. Grand prize: choice of painting from down below. I could frame the winning entry and hang it on my wall - we'd call it a trade. Jacinda did just surprise me with a fancy Wacom Tablet which could possibly save me from hours of scanning. I guess I better start using it and get over the learning curve! Have a lovely lovely weekend everyone! Oh...and stop by and check out the new Empyrean spot if you haven't already! ♥