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Thinking about Words: Crisp and Fragile
Perhaps inspired by David Lynch's daily weather report– which always sandwiches in the words, "I was thinking about…" between low and high temperature readings – on my walk this morning I was thinking...
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Response: "United" Linocut Card
I never set out to make a print, or anything, really. An invisible elbow nudges me, and I comply. And so, after the election, and hope restored, this card. I look forward to a better year in 2021.The...
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A Chime of Wrens: a New Textile
I had been hearing a particular bird, and have concluded, by its upright tail, longish beak, white eyebrow, and the way it clung to the Japanese maple that it was likely a wren of some kind. It was...
View ArticleHear Alisa Read in the Video: Birds of the Bible: Raven
The California Society of Printmakers' 106th Exhibition, which was postponed due to the pandemic, begins on November 15, and is open on certain weekend days through December 5, 2020 at Piedmont Center...
View ArticleNew Video for Birds of the Bible: Vulture
It's not too late to learn a new skill. It may even keep you up at night with the excitement of exploring a strange new world. I made one short video to accompany my book Birds of the Book: Raven in an...
View ArticleVideo: Birds of the Bible: Quail
The third book in the "Birds of the Bible" series is now a video. I have been having a stimulating and challenging time interpreting my work in a movable, listenable form as well as the visual aspect....
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Some Extra Squash for Today
For those of you in the United States, here's wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving! I am grateful for all of you. Today, 100 Word Story published a tiny story of mine online, "Building the Butternut."...
View ArticleBird Migration and Video: The Third Light
Bird migration makes me think of The Clash's song, "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" I watch my backyard trees for movement; is it someone I know or a new visitor? The house finches, crows, towhees, and...
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Falling in Love with an Idea
I'm interested in how other people who do creative work describe how they get their ideas. Not where, but a description of how. How they visualize this process. In an interview, David Lynch describes...
View ArticleVideo: Not Yet Nest
Part of the practice of book artists is making a work that is a process of discovering, an experience. For me, this usually means a book and/or objects in a container. It's a gift within its own...
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Star 82 Review Issue 8.4 Now Available!
Star 82 Review, the magazine I founded and produce, is now in its 32nd issue, heading into its ninth year. I suppose if you read them all you would get a pretty good idea of the subjects, approaches,...
View ArticleVideo: Alphabetical Lichencounters
We've just started to get a little much-needed rain in our corner of California, which wakes up the lichens and mosses on the trees and rocks. I'm fascinated by symbiotic relationships in nature,...
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New Art Quilt: The Hidden Owl
I wasn't always an owl person, or an identifiable bird person, for that matter. But once I was introduced to an owl in my neighborhood, I was smitten. I made a one-of-a-kind book-box in 2018, inspired...
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Things I Learned in a Book about Trees: Wildwood
Since reading Robert Macfarlane's book Landmarks, which I wrote about here, I've been gathering books he's mentioned. The first was a short little book, The Living Mountain, by Nan Shepherd. In it you...
View ArticleIf It's Sunday It Must Be a Video: I Found Out
I carry a small Moleskine notebook with me for fragment-jottings: phrases, ideas, overheard conversations, and such. And for about ten years I've been taking photos up the hill as things change on my...
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More Teachings from Trees: Coppice & Pollard
I've always been intrigued by a certain tree, one that I first saw on the University of California, Berkeley campus, and that is still there with its family group, in a plaza next to the campanile,...
View ArticleVideo: The Hidden Owl
A gift of a discarded book, the enchantment of a neighborhood owl, and the discovery that Joseph Cornell had made a box out of a book all merged in a 2018, one-of-a-kind book art project called, A...
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The Hidden Cat: Art Quilt
Following my art quilt of The Hidden Owl, I began thinking about what the other thirty-five hidden animals might be. I found I liked working with small colorful squares and enjoyed making a quilt based...
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Happier New Year: Searching for the Light
I went out early for my walk today. Sometimes I like to catch a sunrise on New Year's Day, but today the sun didn't look like it was going to rise over the ridge until later, so I set out to find it....
View ArticleVideo: Snapshots of Sea Glass
A reader reminded me of Glass Beach recently, and as I was combing through my books I found a simple one I had made about my visit there, which felt right for the next video. Thinking about how we see,...
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