tiny changes/ big announcement!

My husband gave me a copy of Frightened Rabbit's Midnight Organ Fight for Christmas and it whole-heartedly sucked me in. I know it came out a couple years ago and I cannot account for why I hadn't heard them sooner, but the first weeks of listening to them nonstop in the car was like embarking on a new relationship: it was really exciting, heart-skipping, breathless. The songs consumed my mind like I might think of a new lover in his or her absence-just wanting to be near again, wanting to nestle into those new warm arms, and trying not to giggle when we kiss.

(I am absolutely writing this with a straight face.)

It's actually a break-up album full of sadness, anger and brutal heartbreak- yet there's something so sexual and passionate about it, even hopeful. Scott Hutchison's voice and words will tear you to shreds and then stitch you up gently, ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

Their latest release, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, really does live up to its predecessor. The lyrical content explores the wild world that exists outside of, and in spite of, broken hearts while staying true to the personal and inner-workings nature Frightened Rabbit lovers have come to adore.

I traveled to Boston to see them in April, and I'm totally serious: my life changed. Remember, I'm married, I'm a mom, I'm an artist, I live in one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen,; I've been moved, I've experienced profound changes, and sometimes wonder what else could possibly move me. The answer? Frightened Rabbit live. That's the truth- pure, whole, open- three words I'd also use to describe the presence of the men themselves and how I felt on the four-hour drive home after the show, singing at the tops of my lungs through New England's overnight fog.


Now that you know exactly how I feel about Frightened Rabbit, it is with absolute joy that I tell you I've spoken (via e-mail) with Scott Hutchison himself and he has granted me permission to create Quiet City art inspired by his songs.

(That sound you just heard was the quiet thunder of my heart beating twice at the same time.)

Much like the music of matt pond PA drew pictures and painted scenes in my head, Frightened Rabbit has done what little other music does to me: inspires, consumes, creates. I plan to spend a great deal of time this fall using Mr. Hutchison's lyrics to build illustrations and collages, so new postcards, prints and originals will be popping up in the coming weeks.

I just can't wait to see what happens!

Picnic Festival, this weekend!

Don't forget, my friends! The Picnic Music + Arts Festival is happening this Saturday, August 28, at Lincoln Park in Portland.




I am so excited, I can hardly contain myself!

Quiet City will be offering postcards, note cards, stationery sheets, art prints, photography prints, original mixed media canvas panels, and tree ornaments! Make sure to come see me at Booth 55. My brother Ian will be helping man the booth, too. My day is going to be awesome!

While you're there say hello to my friends Mandy of Grandma June and Katie of Gertrude Knickerbocker.

See you this weekend!

lately

It's summer, so I've spent a lot of time outdoors. I did a little running and bicycling before it got hot and humid, and I take a lot of walks with my son to fill these long, bright days. On the weekends my husband and I pack up for our small-family trips to the beach or we'll go on a local hike. Picnics on the lawn are quite common. My son and I planted a beautiful garden that is producing tons of grape tomatoes, sugar snap peas, red lettuce, zucchinis and summer squashes.

Outdoors is just where I like to be, and that's been reflecting in my recent artwork. (I've also been listening to the new matt pond PA album, The Dark Leaves, and Frightened Rabbit's Winter of Mixed Drinks. Everything sounds like the forest and oceans.)

Here is one of the pieces I hung at Verbena over the weekend:




"WILD" is acrylic paint, ink drawings on magazines and a paper grocery bag, plus sealants on 8"x16" canvas. See it in person at Verbena between now and October 15- it's located at 103 Ocean Street in South Portland, Maine. (You'll also find really delicious food and coffee there as well as Mandy, one of the cutest baristas you'll ever see.)

hello.

Oh my!

Seven and a half months with no updates. This is partially due to the fact I forgot my login to Blogger until it popped into my head tonight, and also because I've not completed a whole lot of work until recently.

Ahem.

I hope someone, anyone, still reads this. :)

I am pleased to inform you that I am actively working on new projects. On Sunday I will be installing some of my mixed media pieces at Verbena in South Portland, Maine! My artwork will live there near beautiful Casco Bay for two months.

Coming up on August 28 is the 3rd annual Picnic Music + Arts Festival in Portland. Ahhhh, I am so excited! I was a vendor last year and I feel like I learned a lot- mostly, what to do differently and BETTER- and I am really looking forward to sharing new work with the people who wander over to my booth.

You can view what I've been working on here. Happy mid-August to you and yours!

Happy New Year!... (cough cough threeweekslate)

I realize it's a pretty bad idea for me to leave this blog so deserted when I'm using it, technically, for my business. But friends! The holidays were crazy! I had several custom orders for tree ornaments, and that made me so happy. It kept my hands so busy, all caked in Mod Podge and tiny flecks of paper. I had a table at the Captive Elements holiday show and my Etsy shop was a-bustlin'.

I even had a custom mixed media order from a woman I went to school with from first grade until we graduated from high school (which was nearly a decade ago)! The wonders of the internet (more specifically, Facebook) reunited us and we found we live just a couple blocks from each other now. Back when we were teammates in elementary school softball, I never would have imagined our adult lives intertwining in such a way, but it's a sweet surprise.

She asked me to create a piece as a Christmas gift for her boyfriend. All she wanted was artwork depicting the two of them and she gave me artistic freedom. I panicked and paced for a while but eventually was quite pleased when I stepped back from the canvas to see this:


"John & Vanessa," December 2009

It's acrylic, papers, ink and sealants on canvas. Paper sources included clippings from a vintage ledger, antique encyclopedia, a French novel, a German hymn book and a map.

I have new projects in the work but I'll keep it under wraps until everything is shiny and finished. Don't you forget about me.

Cyber Monday

I've extended my free shipping offer until today because, DUH! I almost forgot about Cyber Monday!

So, any order placed before midnight tonight tonight qualifies for free shipping. Simply enter code FS1109 into the "message to seller" box when you check out, and you'll be refunded via PayPal for the shipping charge.

Also, I'm giddy with anticipation so I can hardly contain myself! Yesterday I placed an order with overnightprints.com for some note cards for my shop! I printed my postcards with them last year and was (and am still) SO thrilled with their quality. My new note cards will feature a selection of my photography and I'm anxiously awaiting their arrival to my doorstep!

Right now I'm in awe that it's already the last day of November. ALREADY! Unbelievable!

I would like to gently suggest avoiding the crowds this weekend and shopping online instead...

... and buying and giving handmade for the holidays!

From today until Sunday, November 29, shipping for your purchases from the Quiet City Etsy shop is FREE! This applies to everything except items from the "collage and mixed media" and "prints" sections- shipping for THOSE items is half off!

Type in code FS1109 in the Message to Seller Box when you check out. The shipping discount will be given via a PayPal refund.

(Please contact me with any questions about this discount!)

I hope you all had a beautiful Thanksgiving with your friends and family. Let this be a Bright Friday! Stay home this weekend, eat leftovers and support handmade! :)

Quiet City stationery

I do use a lot of e-mail and other electronic forms of communications. With friends and family throughout New England and Texas, and now a few in-laws based in Kentucky for the military, text messages and Facebook are quick and easy ways to stay in touch.

Despite this, I have always loved handwritten notes and letters sent through the mail. Ever since I was little and my family moved from Massachusetts to Maine, I've had pen pals. Opening up the mailbox and seeing an envelope with my name handwritten on the front has always been a thrill. On my end, I love folding up a card or a letter, neatly addressing it and sending it off with a little stamp in the corner.

I have almost every letter or card I have ever received- thankfully they don't take up a TON of room- but I have shoeboxes full of correspondence from elementary school until now. I LOVE writing letters. In fact, one day a few years ago when I was sorting them all out (yes, I actually did that) I found that the most letters I have ever received are from my best friend Laura, and most of her letters were sent when we lived just four miles apart.

My heart is so warm when I think of that.

And now, Quiet City visitors, I present to you illutsrated stationery sheets.





They are 8 1/2" x 11" sheets with illustrations along the edges, left in black and white so you can color them yourselves. The set includes envelopes. I have three designs available now, and more to come!



Please check the shop for my stationery sheets! And don't forget I have postcards too for the quick and sweet correspondence.

xoxo Courtney

ornaments, take 2

I have the photo-to-blog problem figured out (I think?) so I'd like to share with you a few pictures of my ornaments.







The first two have found happy homes, and the last one is still up for grabs in my shop.

You can also find my new gift tags in the shop, and lots more photos on Facebook.

baby art

An old friend of mine is having a baby soon and for part of her shower gift I made some wall art for her daughter. For some reason it did not occur to me to take a nice photo of the finished product before I gave it to her, but I can share the almost-finished-image.



It's paint and paper on an 8"x8"x1" wood panel. I've done a couple other pieces on this same size wood, and I love the way it feels and looks when it's done. The size and texture seem perfect.

new and newer ornaments

I've just updated my shop with a new selection of tree ornaments!

Won't you take a look?

(Sorry, but I am unable to post photos on my blog right now!)

PICNIC

On September 12 I took part in my first art festival!

The Picnic Music + Arts Festival was held in Portland's Lincoln Park on a rainy and chilly mid-September day and I love, love, LOVED being a part of it.

The Picnic folks will be having a holiday festival (I won't be a vendor but I'll surely be attending!) so please check it out if you can!

A Yo Gabba Birthday

My son turned two in June, and I had planned a fun Yo Gabba Gabba-themed party with awesome handmade decorations and a big awesome Plex cake.

Something happened the week before his party though, which I'll talk about later, and I was sidetracked and unable to make the decorations or the dream cake. I settled with a yellow tablecloth, a smaller cake and I drew the game the kids played with a dry-erase marker on the front of my washing machine. *shakes head*

My son may not have had the perfect themed 2nd birthday party but he and his friends had a ton of fun, and no one seemed to mind the lack of construction paper Brobees or Munos. :)

We played Pin the Antenna on Plex! The kids made antennas by coloring short Popsicle sticks and gluing glittery pom-poms to the top.


And they "pinned" them to my impromptu dry-erase art. The kids were totally cute and luckily too young to judge me!

The won stickers, bubbles and slinkies for doing such a good job.


I made a chocolate-banana cake that ended up smaller than my original plan, so I had to compromise Plex's actual features- but that didn't make him any less yummy.


Lesson learned: make decorations and plan cake two to three weeks in advance.


In this photo, I am showing my son the artwork I made for him.

Once I add the jellyfish, it's going up on the wall over his new big-kid bed, which he's getting this weekend. It says "Everything you want to be/ I can't wait to see you be," which is from the matt pond PA song "Everything Until the East Coast Ends," from the 2007 If You Want Blood EP.

Close-up of the finished version coming soon.

Happy happy birthday to my sweet, awesome son- I can't even explain how excited I am that I get to spend my life being his mom.

gardening update

I started my garden almost three months ago now, and we've been enjoying some homegrown peas for the past week or so.

They are sweet and snappy and perfect.

I've had some mishaps in gardening though, which I expected since this was my first garden and our weather has been very strange this year. Because of the weather and uncontrollable indoor climates, the seeds I started indoors failed twice, so that leaves me with no tomatoes, peppers, carrots or spinach this year. I also learned to plant my pea seeds further apart, which I'll keep in mind when I plant for a fall harvest. In the garden, the cucumbers and lettuce are taunting me with nothingness.

The broccoli, summer squash and cantaloupe seem to be thriving, though, so that's a good thing.



I can't wait to find new vegetables waiting for me.

July already

It's been nearly two months since I last updated; my apologies for such a delay. Life has been throwing a good deal of distractions at me (both good and bad ones), such as migraines, swimming, a death in the family, a weekend trip to Brooklyn, my ability to concentrate again on reading novels, gardening, bike theft, my son's second birthday and the party associated with such an occasion, his blossoming vocabulary and conversation skills and a great need for housecleaning.

I need to get back on track in order to whip my Etsy shop back into shape and start making art a habit again. I did start making a collage for my son for his birthday, which is almost finished. As soon as it's done you'll be able to see it here. My mind is brimming with ideas for new work, and I'll be cracking down soon in order to share it.

More posts and pictures to come soon! Thanks for checking back in after all this time!

I missed the fiddleheads.

I've been seeing them unfurling on the roadsides, spreading into great green ferns. I somehow missed the point when they are still tightly curled and edible.





Fiddleheads remind me of my paternal grandparents.





Specifically: ten years ago this spring, my parents and my little brother and I went to Bethel one Sunday to visit Grammy and Grampy. After lunch, my mum and Grammy stayed in while I went with the guys to pick fiddleheads. Grampy led us across the street to the farm his friends owned. We passed the house and the barn, following an overgrown path cleared by farm equipment to the great sweeping field. Squinting across the green, the field stretched perfectly flat until it met the foot of a strong gray-blue mountain.

I watched my dad and Grampy gathering the tight green coils into their folded paper bags. They looked so much the same- tall, serious and quiet, but warm, too. They stood and bent in the same manner, almost like watching a man and himself stand side-by-side, a comparison of his ages.

We went back to the house when Grampy grew tired. My dad held onto his arm as we slowly made our way back to the house, where Grammy cleaned the fiddleheads in the sink.

Grampy passed away later that summer, and Grammy followed him five years later.





I see them in the glowing green fiddleheads.


.Photos by Courtney at Lake Andrews, Bates College, Lewiston, Maine.

chills

This trailer is magical, just like the book the movie is based on.





Anyone else counting down the days until October 16?

(Hmmm. Is there a way for this video window to be smaller?)

Memory Lane

My very late teens and early twenties have been haunting me lately, but in a good way.

*********

First, my brother found a mix tape I made when I was 19. I don't know where it was buried but he found it when he was visiting my parents. He listened to it before bringing it to me, and he laughed about New Found Glory and Showoff- bands we loved almost a decade ago but try to pretend now that we didn't. For about a week straight, I listened to it on my little stereo in the kitchen that I use every time I cook, clean and wash dishes. I cringed a lot. I chuckled. I got a little misty-eyed.

It's amazing how my 19-year-old self is still sleeping somewhere deep inside of me, awakened by the songs that used to always be in my head and in my lungs. Laura and I would sing at the tops of our voices on summer nights, driving with the windows down past gas stations and shadowy cemeteries and under overpasses. I thought about the things I used to worry about, the things that kept me up at night, the things that made me cry- and also the things I laughed about, dreamed of and the people who made me smile.

The tape contained songs I still love and always will, for one reason or another, even if it may be considered un-awesome to admit (Saves the Day, Thursday, Get Up Kids). There were songs I didn't even remember until someone started singing. Lyrics came back to me in fragments, my voice skipping over the words, fumbling. Some of the lyrics, though, are tattooed in my memory and in one case, tattooed on my arm (literally).

It had the Juliana Theory (eeek!) song that I used on my audition tape when a band in Ohio wanted me to sing on a few of their songs. It never happened- I think they broke up?- and I can't even remember their name now or how we ever got in touch with each other in the first place. The tape had a handful of other songs I'd sung at the Yellow Dog Cafe when I was 18 and a new student at Salem State College. My heart fluttered a little to remember the open mic nights and the smiling faces of my friends watching me the last time I sang there.

I wrap myself almost completely in the music I listen to now- in my car, in the kitchen, when I have living room dance parties with my son- but when I was 19... man. Reliving that was INTENSE.

********

For the past two weekends I've been excavating the clutter/memorabilia that has been building up across five or so apartments over the past six years that my husband and I have lived together. (I'll take responsibility for like 95% of it.) In donating eight boxes to the Salvation Army, setting aside six boxes for the consignment shop, filling two recycling tubs and three giant trash bags, I have been sifting through my early twenties scrap by scrap, box by box. It's been really freeing- feeling like I can finally let go of random, mostly meaningless things that were really just amounting to less livable space and dead weight every time we've moved.


(Age 21, complete with lip ring, self-cut and dyed hair, and a shirt I actually still wear but am ready to set free.)


I found photos I had forgotten about, love letters and cards from when my husband was still my boyfriend, aging mix tapes from Laura, concert ticket stubs and show flyers, embarrassing poetry, old artwork, my hospital bracelet from surgery at age 22 and forgotten craft supplies. I only kept the REALLY important stuff, photos and letters and ACTUAL keepsakes like ultrasound images.


(Age 22, in my Portland apartment.)


I'm still not finished but we just gained several square feet of floor space in the bedroom.

spring green

It feels like it was only last week (although it was nearly one month ago) that the bare trees were showing small, budding signs of spring growth. With the rain, everything's exploded- the leaves are now open and stretching like ceilings, casting bright green shades on everything. Even the lilacs are blooming and some of my pea plants are four inches high!



(same trees)


There's a reason that green is my favorite color. And this is it.

Today is a very good day.

The three best things about today:

1. My pea seeds have rooted and are poking up through the soil! Thanks to two days of spring showers.

2. Governor Baldacci signed LD 1020 to establish marriage equality in Maine. !!! I'm so proud to live here.

3. My son said "I love you" for the first time WHILE I WAS EATING SPAGHETTI, making the moment so unbelievably perfect. My favorite person, my favorite food, verbally declared affection from my toddler. Sigh. Nothing better.

xoxo Courtney