Art & Soul envy

So Art & Soul here in Portland starts tomorrow and just about a mile down the road from where I work. Sadly, that is where I will be - at work. I went back through their website tonight and followed many links out of curiosity to see just how many of the instructors are Pacific Northwest artists. I was pleasantly surprised to discover my suspicion seems to be confirmed. A disproportionate number do seem to live right here in the neighborhood. I wonder what it is that seems to make the Pacific Northwest such a mecca of artists! I added a few of the blogs and websites to the list at the left so I can "lurk" for a while and see what they have to say.

In the meantime I prepared for LK Ludwig's online class which starts tomorrow. I wonder how she is pulling that off, teaching at Art and Soul AND launching the online class. Busy woman! Anyway, I went to Staples and got a new cartridge of color ink since I know I'm almost out and I bought a pack of fancy genuine HP paper for printing the photos to use in my journal. I'm excited to get started and just hoping my little journal I got on vacation (at the hippie store) will hold up. The pages seemed pretty thin based on her recommendation so I glued them together in groups of three. That still didn't seem very sturdy so I went back and machine stitched them along the outside edge. We'll see. While I was there I found some REALLY cool paperclips that look like musical notes. They will be perfect for one of the "inspiration sets" I am putting together for the Etsy store I plan to open later this fall. Oh, oops, almost gave that away! Wasn't planning to talk about that just yet.

On another topic. I was very moved by Jenny Doh's blog post last night. It's the one dated September 29. It is the keynote address she gave at the Squam art retreat. It was very moving and at one point I sucked in my breath because it started to sound like she was saying goodbye. I might have to write her a letter. As editor of the Somerset magazines she provides SO much validation and encouragement by giving artist all around the world the opportunity to publish their work for a larger community to share. Long live Jenny Doh!