Category: Sources of inspiration

Big Fat Announcement

For a few months I’ve been dancing around the subject of a Very Large Project on the horizon. Today is the day to tell you all what it is. It isn’t a very well kept secret, just a non-published-on-this-blog secret.

If you know me, you know I love to draw in pencil and that I love to draw cabins. Little cabins, big cabins, they inspire me to draw. So, The Cabins of Wilsonia, a book of drawings of (duh) the cabins of Wilsonia is underway! It will be similar to The Cabins of Mineral King.

There are differences.

1. It will contain very little history because I’m an artist, not a historian, and the history has already been written in several forms.

2. I will be doing this one solo instead of with Jane Coughran, the very qualified former picture editor from Time-Life Books who was my partner on the Mineral King book.

3. It may not contain any photographs, because there are more than 3 times as many cabins in Wilsonia as in Mineral King.

4. It will take longer than a year to produce because it is a bigger book (226 drawings, at least 128 pages and probably more) and I have to learn how to do the designing on my computer all by myself. (deep breaths, deep calming breaths. . .) I’m aiming for Memorial Day of 2013.

5. The cabins won’t all be represented – there are just too many!

6. The cabins won’t be identified by name. They will be in chapters by street names.

There are similarities.

1. It will contain pencil drawings.

2. It will contain quotes from cabin folks.

3. It wil be hardcover (yes Brad, I listened to you!), horizontal in format.

4. It will contain some history and explanation of Wilsonia.

5. It will be self-published. This is the way Janey and I did our book in 1998, except technology has changed DRASTICALLY. There are plenty of assisted self-publishing sites out there like Lulu and Blurb and West Bow Press, but I won’t be using them.

There are challenges.

1. 226 drawings to complete and scan.

2. 40-something quotes to gather and verify.

3. Adobe InDesign to learn to use.

4. Writing the text.

5. Finding a printer.

6. Finding a binder.

7. Selling them all!!

Happy New Year!

This California artist blog will resume the blog’s regular posting schedule of Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on January 3, 2012.

Wilsonia

Dry December, continued

On the trail, the snow was doing this cantilevered melting thing around the edges.

This chick wouldn’t have been eligible for Gideon’s army! (see Judges 7: 4-8 in the Bible)

A little decorating project using found objects.

Is that a hand knit scarf?? How festive! (and is this really December in Mineral King??)

Snow in the shade and on the north facing slopes below Sawtooth.

Is this an ad for Dodge?

Farewell, Farewell. It is time to pray for rain and snow.

Mineral King

Dry December

Because December has had no precipitation, we were able to drive to Mineral King this week. I’ll share the photos today and tomorrow.

The same and yet not the same. Sigh. (See this)

My request for pruning the dead branches on the cottonwoods that stab into my photos was ignored.

A Cabela’s model and a representative for Terratrack were on the bridge.

We walked up to Crystal Creek.

If you’ve crossed it in the summer, you may or may not recognize this view. It was flowing under the snow, but that curly looking part is frozen.

This man bravely tested the snow bridge over the creek, following the tracks of animals.

More tomorrow, same bat time, same bat channel!

Mineral King

Behind a Locked Gate

Last week I got to spend a day in a place behind a locked gate. (It’s always Who You Know.) It was cold, and there was about 20 minutes of sunshine available in the middle of the day. I walked, enjoyed, and took photographs to share with you. You all deserve to share in the enjoyment without having to break any rules yourselves!

It was really cold.

Kind of makes you want a sweater, hunh?

Don’t those frozen drops look as if you could just unzip the rocks?

You shiverin’ yet?

Very very little snow, only in the shade. That’s why we were able to go there at this time of year.

Starting to figure it out yet?

Be the first to tell me where we were, and I’ll send you a little prize! (Not you Diane because I already told you! And not you either, Cathy, for the same reason!)