LizzyHouse

And Now for something completely different.

I feel like I go through life collecting people, from different times and places. Squam was a major collection, but bigger than that was school. I got my degree from BYU-Idaho. Me, the girl who no one can keep track of, because she's in another city. I was in southeast Idaho for 4+ years, and while I was there I found so many amazing people to add to my collection of people I am grateful to know.

It's a good size list. I was effected by some professors, a few good roommates and classmates, and one or two really amazing church leaders. But near the top of the list is Gerald Griffin. I took a class from him the first semester I changed my major to art. It was a lecture class, so there were at least 100 people in the room, and still somehow I managed to be a loud enough smart-mouth, that by the end he knew my name. He eventually taught a class for me that he wasn't going to teach anymore, because I told him that I had been waiting to take it from him. I was harassed every day for that, but it was worth it. I guess I've always been searching for father figures in my life. Someone whose opinion I really respected and could knock me down to size every once in a while, all the time respecting and trying to appreciate me. I felt that for Jerry. It also doesn't hurt that I love his wife, and his son is one of my bffs.

Aside from being a good person, Jerry is an incredible artist. He is a great painter, and a widely skilled seriographer. While I was still in Idaho at the beginning of the year, he was working on a show, and he taught Ben and I how to screen print. We were able to help print the show. It was so cool, and those are skills I am so grateful to have! But the exhibit he was working on was really amazing, and for me inspirational.

The show is called Eternities View, and deals with "early Mormon, and 19th Century Symbols". Please take a look, you don't have to be Mormon to appreciate all of these images, and aside from being really cool pieces, they are beautifully printed. I am grateful to have been able to learn, and help, and I'm just glad to know him and his dear family.

 

Shop Update!

I did it! Updated my little ol' shop. There are new prints and some stationery, and soon to follow a few canvas bags with "embedded" and "all hands on deck" printed on them.

a little more whole.

I know that we are supposed to be self sufficient. That we should be able to find peace and happiness just from existence. I'm always trying to do that. I think I try too hard. I think I think that if I do it all my self, if I can figure it out by myself, my life, my reason, my whatever, that I will some how be stronger for it.

One of my main goals this year was to not be an emotional robot. I have been one for years, because I felt like that way I would be less hurt by people, by hard times, by failings... but in doing so, I have separated myself from people who would love, and care about me, and in that I hurt myself...

So, I've been working hard to be better. To except people into my life as good, and dear, and broken, and helpful, and beautiful, and funny, and whatever... and this past week at Squam made me feel like it's all possible. I can be open to all the emotion this little world has to offer, and that's ok. There are enough people who love me in this world that I don't have to be afraid of anything.

I've been putting off this post because I didn't know how to say what I felt, or what it possibly meant to me. I have been changed, seriously changed. Not that I needed a major overhaul, but we should all always be working towards our personal betterment, and I feel like I am a little closer, and a little more grown up for it. I am so touched to have met, and been inspired by so many beautiful people.

So here are some little letters. My best way to express all this right now:

Dear Nirvana,
What a blessing it was to share that time and space with you. How grateful I am that it was each of you. I feel like you all took me in, and I am in your debt. I hope that somehow we can be together again soon.

photo by dreamer Laura Nelkin

To my students,
I can't say enough how impressed I am with each of you. The work that each of you produced in the short time that we had together was mind blowing for me, and I always felt like a proud little mama, when a whole section of the gallery table in the dining room was ours, because you were proud too. Please keep producing. Please take risks. Please keep going, and please keep in touch. Always know that any service I can be of to you, I'm yours. Thank you for letting me cry through class. I was moved by your honesty and commitment to whatever it was that you were tasked with. You're just brilliant, and I can't wait to be with you again next year.

Dear Jen and Jonatha
thank you for making me feel like the prettiest most popular girl at camp. Your love has inspired me.

Elizabeth,
Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for picking me out of a crowd, and trusting me with something that is so special to you. Your faith, and love, and commitment to harboring all of the inspiring events that make up Squam have, and will change peoples lives for the better. Thank you for letting me be a part of it.

photo by new favorite Maya*Made

To all of you,
If you need to feel a little more whole, need a break, want to be a part of something magical, then make the time, and the effort to do this for yourself. Squam happens twice a year. No prior experience is neseccary, just come as you are and leave as you want to be.

love,

lizzy

Squam Art Fair!

Dear Peeps,

Camp is great. Everyone is being very nice. The mosquitoes are pretty bad though... but in happier new news, this Saturday, here in beautiful New Hampshire, at the amazing Squam Art Workshop, there will be an Art Fair! Cool thing is you didn't have to attend Squam to attend the fair!

Here are the full details:

Saturday, June 6th
7:30 pm - 9pm
Rockywold-Deephaven Camp (Holderness, NH)

For a map to get to RDC: click HERE

The fair will be taking place in the Deephaven Dining room, building #67 on the campus map. Have no worries about finding it as there will be lots of people (and signs) to direct you in.

There are going to be so many great artist selling their work! I have been truly amazed by my fellow teachers so it's bound to be not only inspiring, but a fun event. For Reals...

I will be selling a couple of books, and my fine art prints! I even have a stack of fabric that I think three people have claimed... we'll see who ends up with it.

If you are in the area and can come, come say hi to me! I'll just love you forever

cheers,

Lizzy!

Portland Sale!

I have posted new items in the shop in hopes of luring you into helping me move. As always your support means everything to me... literally.

There is a second edition (and last edition) of Shakespeare's 12th sonnet, for anyone who missed out on the first, and I've created a second print in a series of what will be three prints. It is Shakespeare's 59th sonnet, and I was really pleased with how it turned out. Plus, they look sweet action together.

I hope you enjoy it too.

click here to read the 59th sonnet

cracking myself up.

I can't even express how happy I am that spring is here, mostly. We wake up to snow about twice a week, but by the mid afternoon it's all gone. March was a cruel mistress in that way, deceptive and rude. But I think it's pretty safe to say, we made it out alright.

like I mentioned before, I am working with Red Letter Day for a bunch of new projects to launch with the lines release, but I couldn't help but show you this fabric. I was cutting it all yesterday, and I have to say it just cracks me up. The ducks, the ribbons, the trees... It's a good way to be when you are cutting fabric for a couple of hours... cracking yourself up. But of course when you have Red Letter Day, and you are cutting for hours, I will be the one who is cracking you up, and know that the knowledge of that is in fact cracking me up right now.

Have any of you read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close? If you haven't, you can purchase it here. I have a copy of it somewhere but I think one of my sisters has it. Anyway, the lead character, Oscar, is always cracking himself up. It makes me think of him, and that makes me happy too. For real though, have any of you read it? Does anyone want to talk about it? This is one of those books I could talk in circles about. That's how great my love is for it.

Wow, I have so much to do today, but none of it seems to be getting me down. It's amazing what the sun can do for a girl who doesn't even have seasonal depression.

ps. I am having a little help Lizzy move to Portland SALE, similar to my Help Lizzy with her BFA sale, (which by the way you were all so helpful and instrumental in). My little kitchen kittens will be up for Sale come Friday when I launch the whole thing. New prints, new books, new kittens, and what have you. Come one come all, or I will be sleeping on the floor in my new room in Stumptown.

a break

I just got back from a little trip to Utah! We are talking lil trip. We left Wednesday afternoon, and got back Thursday night! I was amazed at the good it did me. It was like therapy. For free! I traveled down with Carla and my dear friend Kyoung, and it was just perfect. I can't believe all the things we did, and how many people we saw in the short time we were there.

When we arrived we went to Anthropologie where I broke my own heart by passing up this necklace. Not that it was out of control, but I've been a real cheapskate lately with the looming move. We then journeyed to and through Ikea. I am always amazed at the energy and capacity it takes to get through that store. I hadn't eaten in a while (I always eat at the wrong times on trips) and at one point I walked off by myself and forgot who I was with, and where I was... it's like a vacuum.

then I met up with two of my favorite people in the universe, Court and Kurt. We went to dinner at good ol' CPK and then found some Gelati at this sweet little place called Maestro's Gelato in Provo on Center Street. I got hazelnut and pistachio like a regular dream come true. THEN we met up with the presh Cas Barney and went to Glen Roland's amazing antique store Cat's Cradle Antiques and art, just a few doors down from the gelati shop. He and Carla are old friends so he opened his shop for us at 9:30! HOLY COW! What beautiful stuff. I actually bought a great necklace and earrings. They are from the 40's or 50's, and they were a great deal! I also remembered my great skill to pick out the most expensive object in the room/ case/ box. A talent I was born with, and it never waivers. I don't even have to practice.

If you are in Provo, for whatever reason, please stop by Glen's shop. It's on center and next to a hotel and a yarn shop called Hildebrand... or something like that. Again, he has some amazing stuff and some really good deals, BUT, Glen alone is worth going to into the shop for. What a charming person. I am so glad to have met him. Just one of those people that you are grateful to know. So go already, and tell him I sent you.

When we left the shop we went to the Barton's. So good to see Jennifer! We talked and shared new quilts, but then she showed us a fun craft she had been working on with her daughters. She purchased a bunch of bouquets of silk flowers from a dollar store, and pulled them all apart, and then she just rearranges the petals to make flower pins, or hair things! We stayed up for an extra hour making flowers. It was too fun. And what a great idea! Super easy, inexpensive, and a great thing for a party for little peeps, or anyone really. We were having a great time... and we're not so young.

I took out the fuzzy center, mixed about 5 different white-ish flowers, restacked it, added a neat faceted button to the center and hot glued a little clippy on the back! It looked great!

woke up, got ready, and went to BYU for the exchange! It was so great to see Amy! I always miss her so much!!! But it was a cool thing to meet with so many other print makers, and exchange work. I feel really lucky to have been invited to participate. 

THEN! we went to lunch at a Korean place. Kyoung is Korean so she was really happy. I'd never had it before, but it was great. I love the little side dishes that they bring you, like the crunchy black beans and then the little egg wraps, but I really loved that the rice was purple.

then we said all our goodbyes to our Provo peeps. And on our way out, we stopped by Wayne Kimball's studio for a couple of minutes. What an incredible man he is. He is one of the very best Lithographers in the country/ world, and it is easy to see why. We got to look through a framed show, sitting on his floor. It was such a neat thing, and then he showed us some new projects he has been working on, and as we were leaving he gave each of us a print! How special! It was a really important experience to me.

Then we headed back to SLC and picked up my sweet Ashlee. She played a couple of songs for us, and she just amazes me. She only continues to get better and better! It's amazing!

Have you heard of this grocery store? It is the epitome of what I was talking about here. Liberty Heights Fresh is a perfect magical mini grocery store. If you go in, try the Castletrovena(?) olives. They are a really bright green, and they are really just dream olives. Also, speak to the owner, because he will be there. What a neat man he was, and he cares so much about what he is doing.

Then we went to an Asian market, and I bought green curry ingredients for the next 15 years of my life. Amazing, and amazing prices. Then we dropped off my little Asher, which is always hard. But we drove right back to Liberty Heights Fresh to get dinner for the road. And then just like that we were on our way again.

We were really fortunate that the roads were clear, and I was able to give everyone a break by driving us home. I keep wanting to say it was a weekend, but it was just a Wednesday/ Thursday. It was so important. And in meeting with so many wonderful people, I realized how important it is to have genuine people in our lives. The sincerity and the meetings of those days filled me up. What a blessing. I'm so grateful to have so many dear experiences and people in my life.

ch-ch-ch-changes!

HOLY COW! trying to move is really hard! That's probably why I stayed in the same apartment for almost three years... no really. Just so you know... here I am. Alive. I know that I owe you some Red Letter Day, but I have something better.

Look what I got!

I'm working on the quilt for market using Red Letter Day! It's going to be really fun.

I have some sad news. Sad for me anyway. I will not be going to market this spring. I will have just moved so it's going to be the easiest thing for me to just not go. So, please, even though I won't be there, please show my new line a lot of love. If you are a shop make sure that you go place an order because it's going fast. It comes in three color ways:

Pond

Galosh

and Feather

there are 18 pieces total, and each plays a part in the story of Red Letter Day. I can't wait to show you the quilt! You're gonna flip. In a hypothetical way, unless you have an acrobatic background...

It looks like I am going to need a new camera soon...

In other news I have taken part in a print exchange with some BYU-I+BYU peeps, and some Utah artists. I will go down to Provo with some friends later this week to do the exchange on Thursday morning. I am really excited to see Amy, the Bartons, and Courtney!!! and also, 26 people did the exchange and all of the prints that were done up here in Idaho are ones that I am happy to receive, so it was already worth it. Lucky me! We've been joking about who will be the dog of the exchange. I'm just hoping it's not me. No really.

here is a little pinch of the image I have been working on...

other things...still moving to Portland... I might go home for a bit in a week or two after I get all my stuff moved out of this apartment... might go see my favorite band in Paris or Brussels, and I'm still mad at Allen for not having a passport. I owe a few people presents, and as usual I am running behind trying to rap everything up here in Idaho. I'm just one little person! Working on finishing up a new line... and so much more...

anyway I'm still alive....

i'm out again

Real quick! Would you believe that all of my Shakespeare prints are gone? I can't. Thanks Leah at More Ways to Waste Time and to Nole at Beautiful Paper, they all disappeared from my little shop. So I think I am going to do a second edition, and also a new one or two... another sonnet, and perhaps the poem "sigh no more" from Much Ado About Nothing. It's just one of my favorites. But I am open to color suggestions for the second edition of the 12th sonnet. Let me know what you are thinking. Maybe some purple because it talks about the violet hour..?

 

I'm off to New York for the week... visit friends, drop off a new line, maybe see a show, make some contacts, eat some good food, nearly freeze to death, you know... usual travel stuff. It will be a really good week, but mostly because my best boys will be there.

have so much fun this week, or get a lot of work done and feel really good about it!

SHOP SALE

I'm trying to make way for some new work so I am having a bit of a sale. Both the Whale Print: Call me Ishmael, and the 2nd Cathedral Print are on Sale. Quite the discount too. Plus, I know how lovely they would be in your home.

help me, help you.