Fig 1.

Against all the advice I was given, I neglected this vehicle. 
After three weddings, a funeral, an exhibition and studio opening, I finished this summer with a different kind of exhaustion. I wanted to dive, loose limbed into the deep and scream underwater for one more blistering day. 
 

I made a summer tote bag for the show, a screenprint from two of my paintings. It was actually terrifying to invest in myself, but it was quickly picked up by various muses and favorite stores. Love Adorned in New York, Ottoman Empire in Fremantle, Chee Soon and Fitzgerald in Sydney. So now I have this very summer at my side. With collected memory.

Temperatures risin', it's hardly surprising

Creamer Street studios are kicking along despite the heat and the stink of a mighty New York summer. A smoked fish factory up the road adds brine to the rich olfactory mix established by the exhausted rubbish and industry that surrounds us in our crook of Red Hook.

The last commission was framed and well received and a plethora of exhibition opportunities have arisen since I last plotted word. Tomorrow I fly to Chicago, and drive to Wisconsin for the wedding of a former studio mate, Evan Gruzis and his girl wonder Nicole Rogers. It is at a former Latvian summer camp for boys and girls. I was commissioned to make their invitation.. I won't get lost, as it is a map and after drawing this, it is well and truly situated in my head. I am thrilled, the bride and groom and their circle are a lot of fun and this campsite of sorts blows my tiny mind.
Ahhh canoe time.

Let them eat cake

I am gathering with a circle of remarkable lady illustrators tomorrow. Our hostess Catherine Lazure will open her french doors to the likes of Giselle Potter, Katherine Streeter, Juliette Borda and my girl Sophie Blackall. They can have my cake. And I will say a hearty cheers. They deserve it.

Go Daddy Go

My Dad still tells the same jokes that were fresh when I was a knee high. Now I tell them. I am still telling people that he looked like the Prince of Monaco, was aptly named after the great economist John Maynard Keynes and raced cars when cars looked racy. I have come to admire his fortitude and persistence, and wish that life beyond retirement was a lot easier- the kind of fun he used to have when he looked like a royal.