Highlights
Hi folks. Here are a few things that made me happy lately.
The New Cat
We have not located the owners of the stray cat that showed up in my chicken coop the night before Halloween. Now we all love him and hope he stays forever. We can’t reach consensus on a name though.
My names:
Zeus
William / Will / Wim
Jupiter
Marcel
Lucky
Jacques
Merlin
Stephen Fry
James
Hugo
Bear
Colin’s names:
Eno
Magic
Cat-astrophe
Asterix
Obelix
Sooty
Chaz
Chaz-Longe
Schweitert
Coop
Pseudodragon
Mouse
Spooky
Turtle
Otak
Archimedes
Milo and his D&D club call him DK, which is short for Dungeon Kitty. Hank has suggested a handful of obscure demon names. Feel free to weigh-in in the comments. I got over 1,000 cat name suggestions on Instagram and none of them managed to do the trick, but maybe you know the one perfect name that will unite my family. Right now the top contenders are Eno and Hugo.
The Most Fair Beauty Bright
I love this Jean Ritchie song. I listened to it a bunch of times yesterday. When she sings, Oh oh, this pain I could not bear, my eyes always fill with tears.
Quilting
I haven’t been doing a lot of illustration work lately. For the first time in about 18 years, I’m not working on a book,* and I’ve been taking on very little editorial or design work. I love illustration. If I have a calling, I think that’s probably it. But, to be honest, I’m a little burned out.
I seem to have undying energy for this quilt though. Everything about quilting is energizing to me. I love the scale. I love the meditation of endless handwork. I love the problem solving. I love teaching myself the skills I need to make the solution happen. I love listening to audiobooks while I work. I love the functionality of a quilt. I love the long tradition of American quilting, populated for centuries by unsung women artists.
I’m casually looking into whether or not I could earn a living sewing pictorial quilts and so far the answer seems to be, NOPE.
Clear, Sunny Days
They are rare this time of the year in the Pacific Northwest and we’ve had a string of them. The sun feels different here in the winter. When it comes out, it casts a dreamy, euphoric spell over everything and we all feel great. Look at these cheery calendulas. They’re the last flowers blooming on the farm.
Okay, that’s all for now. I’m getting a new llama on Tuesday.
Stay tuned,
Carson
* By the way, I do have a book lined up. I’m illustrating a journal that I kept in January of 2001, the week I moved to Portland. Chronicle is publishing it and Bridget Watson Payne is my editor. I had to step away from some big projects this year for personal reasons and Bridget kindly gave me a big extension on this book, but I’ll start working on it in the spring. It’s gonna be great, but it’s full of bad behavior and won’t be for kids.
Thank you for the picture of the flowers, I put them in my sketchbook called ‘greenhouse’.
thank you Carson. It is great to get paid for doing your art, but sometimes that becomes a burden as well. I have seen some amazing cloth art from Africa (Ethiopia I think), which would fit the image of a quilt, though it isn't exactly that. Huge amount of time put into them, what they get paid for each one you can't really turn into a, 'what is this per hour?' because it just makes you cry.
I think independent wealth is what you should strive toward as then you can do whatever you want with your time. But needing to pay the bills and actually have to work to do that is like everyone I know. Read what Adrian Piper said about artists who support themselves off of their art. What you make is so wonderful that people should be throwing money at you to keep making it.
Hope you get there.