I signed a book deal!

And it's not about bunnies! But since it's about Little Beaver and I don't know what Little Beaver looks like yet...you get some bunnies on Segways!

Little Beaver's book is written by Gretchen McLellan and will be in print spring 2018 from Holiday House. Needless to say - I AM EXCITED!!! And someday I'll tell you how that all came to happen. 

So much mystery. So much to discover. 

Oh! I almost forgot. The title. It's called I'm Done. Which feels very ironic for me right now. And at some point in the distant future, it will feel just right.

Process

I've been applying to a few art festivals recently and most of the applications ask about process. This seems necessary to me for certain crafts or innovative designs but for drawing? Doesn't everybody know what that is? Or maybe it's what I do and it's just harder to talk about my own work. So I started paying closer attention to what drawing is for me. Here's what I gathered from a recent start to finish:

I drew these elephants first in my sketchbook. Sometimes it takes a few rounds before I land on one that's right. And right is just a feeling. It's some kind of internal compass or maybe barometer that let's you know what's up. It's not something I can articulate or quantify really, but it's there and you can't get around it. It's something like a tension inside yourself that says 'this isn't quite working' and so you draw another one, and probably another one until you having a sneaky feeling that you just drew 'the one' but you draw one more to confirm and then there's this little kid excitement that comes over you and you can exhale a little bit because now this internal meter is pointing at 'this is right. this is communicating.'

The ultimate goal is to make my drawing feel the same as my internal heart/head/gut is feeling when I consider a particular emotion.  And in considering an emotion that I want to communicate, I usually go straight from a gut emotion to drawing. I feel it in my body, that weight or lightness or comfort or sadness, and then I draw it in the figure. So, I skip words. For me, it's a more direct path to someone else's gut. There's no translation. Of course, this all has to change when working with a client. When you're working with other humans, at least in a professional setting, it almost always has to start with words. For those scenarios I try to absorb the words until I don't have to think about them anymore and it's just a part of my mindset, and in my muscles...and then I draw. One step back, two steps forward. Still the same process.

After that? It's about hitting the same bell with the final drawing/painting that rung with that first sketch. Am I adjusting the figure/composition in ways that make it better or have I gone astray? Did something get lost? Is it too tight or more fully realized? Of course, in the end it's still pretty subjective. Shoulder shrug. But hopefully it resonates with someone out there. 

Dream Bears

I love drawing bears. They show up all over my sketchbooks and in different ways, but they keep showing up. Here are some swimming through the dark pools of sleep.

Winter is near

Holiday parties and photo booths and velvet capes and hot cider and blankets and books and

______

______

______

______

______

______

___ ______ ! 

No one plans for this.

This illustration was done earlier this year for OHSU's online magazine NEXT. The article calls attention to thousands families that have to completely uproot their lives, from as far as Alaska or California, sometimes without any warning, and often while one parent stays home to continue earning money, so that their child or other family member can receive the specialized care that OHSU/Doernbecher can offer here in Portland. Long winded sentence, I know, but there are so many factors that make this a difficult situation for many families. The good news is that there are plans for a new facility to be built on the South Waterfront to better serve this need, but they need to raise $40 million for the project. Here is a link to the article if you'd like to learn more about it. 

Playing with Animation

Animation in it's most basic form - more like a comic strip that moves a little. Add some piano and voila! 

A video posted by catherine lazar odell (@cat_odell) on Aug 14, 2015 at 2:33pm PDT

This was my first experiment with my new photoshop brushes by Kyle T. Webster. Anyone out there looking for digital brushes that really connect to the analog experience (pencil in this case, but that is only the beginning), I highly recommend his Mega Pack. 

Bunny and the Fox

The beginnings of a story. What happened before this? What happens after? Each frame is 5x7 and was done with sumi Ink on Arches 300gm watercolor paper. I'll have them with me at the Saturday Market this weekend. 

Sleepy Volcano Art Pairings

image >> sound >> image >> sound

Inspirational cycles.

Pacific Whales of An Imagination was painted to the sounds of Dischordant, a structured improv piece whose musicians where told to visualize themselves as whales talking to one another. Get it? Okay, cool. 'Cause this could be a recurring theme. The print comes with a download of the music, which was recorded live using binaural microphones...which recreate the experience of listening in a specific space, with it's unique reflections and dimension. This piece will take you to the Old Church in downtown Portland on the evening of March 31, 2015. Wherever else it takes you from there is entirely up to you. 

The illustration below is based on a whole album, one I've had the pleasure of listening to throughout it's recording and now a year later as it spins on the record player in my studio. Having the benefit of time, I was finally able to put pencil to paper and capture my own reaction, something I wasn't able to do a year ago. There's hope in our shadows. There's growth in the night. It's good to feel where we stand. The album is Green Hills Alone. 

Greetings.

hello. (English)

I inked up 55 Greetings in honor of my friend Rebecca Clay Cole's show last night. She put out an album last year on cassette tape that was recorded right here at Sleepy Volcano. It's a wonderful sonic journey that also exists digitally for those of you who didn't keep your Sony Walkman lying around all these years. The inspiration for 55 Greetings came from the Golden Record aboard Voyager 1 (which entered interstellar space last year!). These are all the languages that were recorded onto that record...just a wee sample from our planet: hello. Is there anybody out there? It was a really fun experience to write them all with brush and ink, very meditative. Some shapes were completely foreign to me (as a resident of earth), which really gets your mind spinning on communication and sound and line and all the ways we put it together to say what we really mean. 

I will have the 55 Greetings print for sale at the Saturday Market tomorrow, and it comes with a download code for the album.

Happy Holidays!

Earlier this year Matthew and I went through a serious rekindling of our love for all things Jim Henson. I was inspired to pull down a box of forgotten fabric from the attic, plug in the hot glue gun, and just see what came out. Nothing complicated, nothing mechanical, but something that made us laugh. What came out was Jinx. He's the pink guy. To be fair he's more like a neon salmon, whose color can only be fully appreciated in person, but for now we will do our best to capture him on screen. We took him camping and learned that he was an avid bird watcher, and we let him watch basketball and before long he was asking for his own Blazers jersey...which I had to make, cause he's a weird size. And then he started asking for friends. And now they're calling themselves Mitten People. So here they are, with their first Christmas Song:

Never underestimate a hot glue gun. 

Show at Black Wagon

I have a show at Black Wagon - this amazing children's boutique on Mississippi Avenue. They have all the coolest and cutest clothes and toys. I'm hanging some new work there and it will be available starting on Thursday. Originals and prints. Come hang out if you're in town from 5-7 this Thursday, October 9th! Oh, and look up at the walls! 

View fullsize

Also, I now have a booth at the Portland Saturday Market. I can be found there every Saturday and Sunday. Yes, Sundays too. I know, I know it's confusing. I've met some wonderful artists and I'm really enjoying meeting all the people that come through. We will be there through December. By then I will be bundled up and hovering over a heater. I will share it with you. 

Getting mail is so fun.

The poster I designed came in the mail, and I can still smell the ink!  ahhhh...

View fullsize

My friend Kim stopped by the studio and snapped a pretty picture for me. I would like all future photos of myself to be taken just like this. 

There are still a few of these for sale if you happen to be a fan of John Prine or Emmylou. 

Doernbecher Children's Hospital

I was honored to be a part of this campaign for OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital..."where braniac teams lead daring battles against the scaries." On their website they've created a place where patients and families can share their stories. Box of tissues highly recommended. 

View fullsize

Here's a close up of the castle on the hill:

View fullsize

If you're standing in line at New Seasons, be sure to pick up a copy of the Portland Monthly - it's tucked inside!

Worthy Opponent cont.

I love pencil. There, I said it. No matter what mediums I experiment with, digital or analog...at the end of the day, I always come back to my friend the pencil. The smell of graphite and wood right after sharpening, getting the faintest barely visible line when you're just finding the mark, the way it goes from sharp to dull and you can twist it around to vary the line in a single stroke, the fact that an eraser is just as important for drawing as the graphite itself. And above all, I still feel like I have so much to learn. So many ways to grow with one simple tool. 

These Jackalopes are a continuation of a series called Worthy Opponents that I started...last year? The year before!? Yikes, how time flies. Anyways, it's not quite as adversarial as it sounds. 

View fullsize

Watercolor Bears

I was inspired by the small watercolor pieces of Kelley Burnett - go check them out because they are so lovely! Now, full disclosure - watercolor is not my medium - but I love it's finicky nature. It's so delicate and it always dries with more variation than what you see when it's wet. Patience is key, and so is confidence. My goal was to make a lot of little pieces and just keep going. So here is a selection of what came of that. They are all 4" x 4". Palm sized.

Now I'm keeping a stack of blank minis in my studio, and making a habit of watercolor sessions. 

I'm a Lego Lady!

This is me as a lego lady...looking super fierce. The overalls are spot on, and the giant binoculars feel appropriate too, not for birding per say but just the visual exploration of things in general. If you spent hours playing with lego's as a kid, and happen to find yourself at a Lego flagship store, like the one at Rockefeller Plaza in NYC...this is a really fun break from other touristy excitement. There's bins of pieces for short kids and bins for tall kids too. 

The only way to know, is to keep going.

If I had to reduce my own work to it's simplest form it would be: figure at the center of a blank page. No background. And that's been by choice, I think. I like all the focus to be on the emotion and body language. All the subtleties I can pull out of a character...or two. And I like the graphic element of which limb sticks out where, and the negative space. I like what it leaves to the imagination.

But what if I did do a background? A landscape? And what if at the same time I changed a few critical steps in my process? Well, I did that. And it's the strangest feeling...like I almost don't recognize my own work. 

This is a scene I created for a story I'm currently working on. It's probably more of an experiment along the way, but I'm really excited about where this might lead. I've always relied heavily on pencil and outlines, and this has neither, which is probably why it feels so different. Artists are so often defined by their medium and process, that I find myself asking - Is it still me? 

There's only one way to know really, and that's to keep going. 

Underwater cameras and the PNW

My friend Kevin Freeny has one of those cool jobs that takes him to beautiful places, like the Nat Geo amazing planet kind of places. While I'm sitting in my studio flipping through old books, looking for reference imagery for a series of watercolor bears...he's out there sitting across the stream from a bear, filming it as it climbs the rocks and wades in the water to swat at the salmon. He'd hate that I'm saying this, but when I see those coors (bud light?)...whatever, those beer commercials where the guys are climbing glaciers and leaping from one iceberg to another...I think of Kevin. 

We were lucky enough to collaborate with him to make this video, featuring a song from Harlowe's album. No bears in this one. Gotta leave something for next time. 

2014, I'm on to you.

Seriously, no posts since September?!? Major internet absence. I get an F. But it's a bright new year so let's just start fresh!

Things I'm most excited about:

1) A new art space in the Towne Storage Building. A magical place I've admired from afar since I moved here 8 and a half years ago- beautiful old brick, painted signs, tall ceilings, big windows and mystery. There's a big 12ft wall with lots of natural light waiting for me starting February 1st. :)

2) Embracing the ipad as a sketchpad. A new tool with strange limitations and curious possibilities, a medium that can be more spontaneous. 

3) More cello. An instrument I let sit untouched as I devoted my time to jumpstarting other endeavors is finally getting some more playtime. We've been busy over at Sleepy Volcano recording some of Mike Beaton's masterpieces. Just you wait. 

Here's the first ipad sketch. I didn't have to get a single paintbrush wet or sharpen any pencils. Pretty neat, huh?

Picture book progress

Color complete! And I'm so excited about the way everything has turned out, I want to post every page! But then I'd be a total spoiler. Nobody likes a spoiler. So here's just a taste of what will soon be bound up and ready for story time:

View fullsize

I'm finishing up text and other layout stuff this week.