Dear CSA members,
Happy autumn!
It feels like autumn is a particularly CSA time of year. It’s harvest season after all!
So what exactly is in this art harvest?
You’re receiving an assortment of things whose seeds were planted several months back. This is the thing about creativity: you never really know what’s going to land, or what’s going to work out, but you plant the seeds anyway.
Back in the spring, I decided that I would once again try to do the 100 Day Project. If you’re not familiar, it’s a global creative endeavor that encourages people to do a creative project for 100 days in a row. I started making papercut silhouettes of local PNW plants and animals. Eventually I couldn’t keep up with the daily practice, but I did return to these silhouettes over time. The project ended up morphing into something else, and I slowly built up a collection of silhouettes that’s coming out this month in a limited edition newspaper-sized zine published by Torpor House called Broadsheet.
Broadsheet is curated and designed by Andrew Rease Shaw, and six different artists each have one of these zines. Mine is titled An Act of Observation and will be out in mid-October. The silhouettes featured in this postcard pack are a small selection of what is in my zine.
If you’re interested in checking out the Broadsheet project please head to torporhouse.com.
I decided that the banana slug from my silhouette series deserved to be a sticker, and who doesn’t crave a little more slowing down?
“Midnight Sun” Watercolor Print
Last summer when I was at the Singla artist residency on Arnøya in Northern Norway, I started painting a bunch of abstract horizon/sky grids. This summer when I was there to lead Hannah Viano’s and my creative retreat, I decided to return to that theme. This piece was made while sitting at a picnic table outside of a grillhytta, basically a little coffee hut/cabin that’s available for public use. It wasn’t made to depict a certain landscape, but I tried to capture a certain feeling. I’ve made lots of these grids and it’s the first time that I have turned one into a print and you are the first people to ever receive one!
I’m leading another retreat at Singla summer 2024! If you want more info head to starlightandstorm.org.
This is how that painting looked before I pulled the washi tape off. The rock is a favorite rock that’s just in the distance from where I was sitting when I made this painting. To give you a sense where some of the lines and forms are coming from!
A Random Handmade Print!
When I came back to the studio in September after many weeks away, it was time to work on my 2024 calendar. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but I did know that I wanted to do something different. At the Singla retreat, we had done a bunch of block printing. If you’ve never done any block printing, it’s SO fun. I decided to start there. I made some shapes, printed some paper, cut some paper.
The calendar ended up somewhere a bit different, but I wanted to share a little bit of my process, and at least give you a feeling of where the roots of it started. You’re each getting original print from an assortment of the blocks I made both at Singa and in my home studio. These are made with a stamp pad and are super loose. Far from perfect! But hand-making something for each of you felt like a much more exciting thing to share in a CSA than just some stuff I ship off to a printer and pay to get printed in enormous quantities.
So maybe more printmaking in 2024?
Truth be told: I actually made a printing mistake so this card wasn’t actually intended for this shipment. BUT what is the creative process if not a process of adjusting and making things work? I made this papercut many years ago, but it’s still one of my favorites, and I figured a seasonally appropriate card was a nice addition to this shipment.
As a 2023 CSA Member you get 15% off in my shop through the rest of this year. Use the code 2023CSASHARE
Thanks so much for being a CSA member this year! I’m planning on doing another one for 2024. If you’re willing, I’d love some feedback on this year’s as it will help me to plan out the next one. I have a little survey if you have five minutes to spare.
Thank you as always for supporting my work, it really means a lot to me!
-Anna