shining egg

been sitting in the sunshine

i forgot to mention that we were going to the beach.  there was all of the business that goes along with the end of school, complete with potting plants for teacher gifts and a kindergarten play and spirit day and the like; and there was a visit from grandparents; and there was a photography job; and there was that first week of summer vacation when everybody feels as though they've been set free and acts accordingly; and then we were off to the beach for a glorious week in the sunshine.

it was a perfect way to jump start summer.  it was a much needed break from the rain.  it was a joy to be with family and watch cousins play together and take showers outside and paint in the sand and sit and watch the waves.  

and now we're back.  we're unpacked except for my backpack which is half-full of sand that i just can't bear to shake out.  i'm making these cookies to pack in lunch boxes for the first day of camp tomorrow.  i have a long long list of things to do in the coming weeks - things that i'm looking forward to sharing - things like painting and printing and goccoing and printing photographs and possibly printing note cards and making prints of paintings and possibly a fiber project.  and a big game of capture the flag.  and a whole bunch of barbeque-ing.  and lots and lots of seashell-sorting.  and there's more, too.

but first i'm going to take a deep breath.  and make a peach cobbler.  because it's summertime.  at last.

a few thoughts on echoes

today marks the beginning of our second week of the summer is... series at echoes.  have you been over to visit?  it's hard to know, now that we've turned off the comments.  i feel really good about the decision to turn the comments off - in hopes that you'll enjoy the four pieces together without feeling any obligation to comment.  (of course, if you want to comment, you can always click over to flickr to do so.)  in any case, without the comments, it's hard to know whether you've been visiting and whether you've been enjoying the series so far.  (have you?  i hope so.)

i'm enjoying echoes immensely.

 

i love collaborating with my talented friends.  i love the feeling of being immersed in a project that makes me feel like it's summertime (even before it really is summertime).  and i love thinking about what summer is for me. 

 

this summer, i'll be printing my echoes using a variety of monoprinting techniques.  i'm excited about the printing (i've been playing with monoprinting over the last few months, but have only recently had any success in achieving the effects i was hoping for), and also that my pieces for this summer's echoes project will be a series of sorts.  add to that the joy of printing on the porch in the sunshine, and it's all so good.

two final thoughts on the subject.

the first is that we hope (we wish, we want - really and truly) that you will join us in this summer of echoes by creating our own small artworks that capture bits of what summer is for you.  of course, photos are artworks - but we hope that you will pick up a paintbrush or colored pencils or crayons (or even a sharpie marker!) and make lines or colors or marks (or even words!) on a piece of paper to illustrate in some way what summer is for you.  and then!  and then we hope (and wish and want) that you will add those small artworks to the echoes flickr pool so that we can enjoy and appreciate and be inspired by how you capture those bits of what summer is for you.  (and so that we can feature your echoes pieces in our friday posts)  so play along, won't you?  it will be fun.  i promise.

and finally.  the icing on the cake for me?  i found this in my mailbox on friday:

 

heather's echoes this summer are postcards, and the first one was written to me!  and mailed to me!  (along with some other goodies!)  lucky lucky me!

standing on a fancy bench in a flouncy skirt when there is so much work to be done

it's the last week of school.  summer is brewing.  grandparents are arriving for a visit.  the beach is beckoning.  i have lots to type about here - mono-printing and camera lenses and table linens and more, but it will all have to wait while i cram in the last moments of painting before the floodgates open.

echoes summer

it's june, and there's something happening at echoes.  

it's been quiet over there since we finished up our thoughts on process back in january.  but summer is where it all started at echoes, and we're excited to savor another summer together again.  this time, with a twist.  or two.

this summer we'll be exploring the theme, "summer is..."  and we're inviting you to join us - inviting you, encouraging you, hoping that you will - by posting your own interpretations of "summer is..." to the echoes flickr pool.  (read the pool rules to learn more about what and how to post there.)

alicia, heather, rachel, and i will be posting our own work on the echoes site on mondays and wednesdays, and we'll be posting four pieces from the flickr pool at the site each friday.  i do hope you'll play along!

i can't wait to get started.  i love summer (you know that, right?).  and this is going to be fun.