Sticks, Stones, and Paper Stew Blog

Rings to Bark

Whew! I finally worked through the initial stage of this particular portion of a larger work. The “tree rings to bark” represents a conifer cut down a year ago in the very early stage of decay. The wood rounds have been exposed to weather and checking/crack lines have formed over the surface. The bark has started to pull off the main trunk. Bark actually has properties that keep it from decomposing quickly in comparison to the rest of the tree structure.

The rings vary, sometimes becoming more squished together, probably due to something that confined the tree more (the house, shade, who knows!). I only cut 41 years of growth, but it was more like a 50 years old tree. Some of the early years were too difficult to cut.

Now it will need an application of acrylic washes, mounting to mulberry paper, and eventually a frame with back-lighting. Many more opportunities to flub things up!

Half way there

It’s Monday afternoon and I’m just getting back home after several hours in Eugene with my brother. This is day 2 for the week, having spent Sunday afternoon taking him shopping and for a nice drive through the Rhododendron Garden. The Rhodies are still going, but it’s certainly past peak bloom. The paper project had to wait a bit. No cutting has happened since Saturday, but things certainly feel like they are progressing forward.

Another thing of note was the arrival of Karen’s book, via Anna, in the mail today. A little piece of Australia in my home! Recently, we’ve had problems with our mail getting dropped off at other people’s homes which made me rather concerned for the package. Fortunately, it arrived safe and sound. Looking forward to working in it very very soon!

Sunday Frog

I had to share a photo from this morning. The Pacific Treefrog (pseudacris regilla) wasn’t terribly camouflaged as it rested on top of a Heuchera. We hear them around the yard but don’t often find their hiding location. It’s always nice to find amphibians in the yard.

Tree rings

No dog drawings today. Instead, I set about transferring and starting cuts on the tree ring portion of what will become my submission to the Rot Project. Growth rings are not the easiest to cut and I’m not even certain I like where it’s currently heading, but time will tell. The conifer tree I referenced was only about 50 years old. Rather young in comparison to the trees I saw last weekend. We had it cut down a year ago due to major ice/snow damage. I’m still waiting for someone to take the rounds away! Since it’s been sitting and weathering, lots of cracks have formed which make it somewhat easier to keep the cut rings together (or so I hope!). The tree experienced lots of early growth that was too impossible to cut, so I jumped out a bit in it’s time line. The completed growth ring piece will measure 8.75″ x 12″ (22.25cm x 30.5cm). You can assume from the dimension that I won’t be creating the full tree round, only a portion.

Along with tree rings, I’ve started the working sketches for mycorrhizal fungi, another tedious cut opportunity. Loads of mistake potential available for that piece too! Nothing like lots and lots of skinny skinny lines!

Have a great weekend and hopefully I’ll get this all cut before Monday!

Unfinished Moby

Some days one gets inspired and then it fades…. So was the case with the Moby image today. He was laying on a sofa with his paws dangling off the edge and head resting at an odd angle over one of the fore legs. I started with graphite and never quite captured his nose and eyes correctly. Then I tossed a couple of washes over the micron pen and it still wasn’t working. Now it’s relegated to the back burner. At least it felt more productive than reading research papers on forest ecology, rotting wood, soil, carbon sinks, bugs, plants and probably other stuff that’s dropped from my brain since yesterday. When I jump into a specific scientific based project I try to read as much background information as possible to help my brain figure out the best approach to the project. Hopefully I don’t waste too much time with it all!

Time to get out and feel productive. I have a whole bunch of grass and weeds screaming for a haircut!

9″ x 9″ (23cm x 23cm)

Materials: Micron pens, water color, graphite, Arches 140# CP watercolor paper

Coastal Research & Weeding

Over Memorial Weekend, we stayed in Yachats at the family house. We spent a large majority of the weekend working on yard chores, but we did take a good break Sunday for a little forest research.

Cape Perpetua is situated a few miles south of Yachats along Hwy 101. There are numerous trails and a great visitor center open year round. We chose a short trail out to the Giant Sitka Spruce. We encountered numerous dogs and people but Moby coped extremely well. I think there were so many other distractions, he wasn’t concerned with what was passing by. Below are a couple of shots of the Giant Spruce.

This particular tree happens to be around 550 years old. It started life growing on top of another dead tree (nurse log). It had reached a height of 225 feet when, in 1962, a huge windstorm blew off about 35 feet. It still remains an impressive tree!

The one thing I can say about our forests is that every square inch is covered by something. Fungi to mosses to woody shrubs to trees. Life is in constant renewal.

More trees growing over stumps or logs. Eventually they might even reach the same size and girth as the Heritage tree. Wood Sorrel, ferns, moss, liverworts, lichens, huckleberry, salmon berry, thimble berry, salal…. the list goes on and on for plants. Below are images of the wild Lily of the Valley, Wood Sorrel, and Deer Fern.

After negotiating the trails, we headed north to Newport for lunch out on the dock. Dave had to replace a cable on an oceanographic instruments moored off a boat in the Yaquina estuary (part of his job). Moby had a series of learning experiences: ropes tied to the dock are not out to kill him, jumping on/off a boat that shifts position is a serious challenge! (All I could think of was “Mind the Gap” one hears in the London Tube) He managed all that plus waiting patiently with me while Dave purchased crab. The shop was situated along the waterfront in old town where scores of people walked by. Pretty stressful for him, but he did an excellent job. We’ll have to practice that more on a different trip.

Now I get to sit back and try to figure out what to glean from the forest trip. So many ideas….

Letting the light through

The skinny cuts seems to have held together, nothing ripped or distorted too terribly much. Next step will be figuring out what color to tint the paper and the overall size/shape. More to contemplate through the weekend. Fortunately, I’ll be working on research for the project while getting away for a few days.

Back to Letters

I packed up the collaboration book today for it’s journey to Australia. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to visit FedEx since the electric car lacked charge. Our only gas vehicle was in use by Dave as he played host to work visitors from India and China.

Today was spent working on enlarging my grandfather’s writing to a size I can manipulate. Initially I tried a silly tracer projector that doesn’t work worth a darn. Then I moved on to working with the scanner and computer. It might have gone faster if I had loaded it into the photoshop program on the OTHER computer, but it just seemed too painful to work on 3 machines. Maybe, someday, all the machines will communicate together easily. Tomorrow I’ll lay out the script and start cutting. Hopefully I have enough xacto blades to work through the piece.

Collections Project

The Collections collaboration book is finally ready to leave the desk! A feeling of relief washed over me as I completed the last portion of the book. It was started by Minnesota artist Cathe Jacobi. You can check out her blog Amaryllislog HERE. Her book was the first to arrive and I now have a taste of adding work into the collaboration. Two more books to go!

On the first page I added marbles from my childhood collection. They seemed appropriate to accompany the Atlas jar.

Opening page of the Collections Book by Cathe Jacobi.

Next Page: Cathe’s stones and feathers have such a delicate feeling. I too have quite a pile of stones but thought it would be better to add a few bone drawings. The skulls are overhead sketches of a bird (from a friend at the coast), and the more menacing one was extracted from an owl pellet a few months back. I got a bit pen crazy on the vole skull!

Cathe’s full spread is elegant and beautifully arranged. Her lettering is well crafted and placed on the page….. I’m totally in love with her subject and style!

Cathe Jacobi's full page spread. — Cathe Jacobi’s full page spread.

For my full spread, I went eclectic. It was difficult to choose items because I have so many things tucked all over the studio. Shells, bones, seedpods and tools survived the eraser. Actually, there was an awful lot of eraser work that happened on this spread and the walrus tooth and fish jaw didn’t make the finals. I’m thankful Cathe used really good paper to withstand the changes! So what’s on the page? I included a wishbone waiting for a wish, a welk and urchin shell, magnolia and iris seedpods, ginkgo leaf, and a mystery tool that has been solved thanks to Cathe, Anna and Karen. The items were arranged as I worked through the page. The lettering (like my brain and studio) was haphazardly placed throughout the work.

Gale Everett's full page spread. Samples from the studio collection. — Gale Everett’s full page spread. Samples from the studio collection.

The book will now travel to Australia and the desk of Anna Warren and finally to Karen Bailey to finish thing off. I still have a couple of little things to add, but it should head out by Wednesday!

Dog Distractions

I’m not certain what’s happened to this weekend, except we have an extra dog. Ms Maggie came for a short visit while her parents have a dog free mini-vacation. She’s not a stranger to our home, typically visiting several times a year. This particular visit has been extra enjoyable, probably due to only having one dog and the cats (no giant Labradoodles to contend with). Her mom’s birthday was on Saturday so I wanted to create a quick pet portrait of Maggie. I’ve not taken the opportunity to drawn her before. I really like her flopped and upright ears.

Moby has been starved for another dogs attention since the departure of Reggie and Zeek. We’ve been holding off on adding a second dog because we’re still debating on what to bring home and when. It’s been nice seeing Moby enjoying Maggie’s company (and vice-versa!). Below are the two watching for rabbits in the back yard.

I’m hoping to finish up Cathe’s book today and reveal the additions on Monday…. if I can pull myself away from sketching cute dogs!

Sketch info: 5.5″ x 8.25″ (14cm x 21cm), graphite, micron pens, Arches CP 300gm watercolor paper