Goodbye, Portland!


Today is our last day in Portland. In a way it's a little sad, but it will be nice to get home. Travel is always fun and exciting, but it can be exhausting and taxing.

We taught two full-day classes Saturday and Sunday, and we were able to make it into the nearby Alberta neighborhood for lunch yesterday. We plan to go back today for breakfast before heading to the airport to catch the plane for the east coast.


I thoroughly enjoyed my visit, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to teach at Art and Soul. Our classes Saturday and Sunday were small, but that lead to a nice intimacy with the group. It was much easier to customize and individualize the experience for the students and build stronger connections. We spent Saturday's class exploring a variety of ways to work in the journal sharing materials and methods that we regularly use. On Sunday, we explored alternatives to the self-portrait as we looked at how line, shape, color, collage, and image transfers can be used to convey a sense of self and identity. The images below are from this workshop. The first image is the opening exercise, and the second image is of some of the results from the day-long class.


I am grateful to everyone who came out to take a class with us and who made the trip so special. It was such a wonderful experience, and I am looking forward to coming back to Portland and to Art and Soul. If you missed us in Portland, we've got other workshops and classes coming up! I'll post more about these once I get back to Virginia.


Until next time, Goodbye, Portland!

Adventures in Portland


Our adventures in Portland continued over the last two days as we were able to explore the city a bit more. On Thursday, we wondered mostly around the Pearl District and other nearby downtown spots. We even went back to Powell's City of Books a couple of times where Dave found a copy of our first book. That's kind of rare since North Light Books stopped printing it, and it's now only available through Amazon print-on-demand.


We did venture into the south east part of the city to partake in some vegan goodness at Herbivore Clothing, Sweetpea Baking Company, and Portobello Vegan Trattoria. Dave's not vegan, but he humors me. We even took a bit of a break at Base Camp Brewing Company for some liquid refreshment and a few games of farkle.


Yesterday we ventured back into downtown to hit up the Portland Art Museum to check out the eclectic collection of art they have there.


An installation by Kenny Scharf was probably the wildest thing there, besides Dave and his goofy faces.


We headed back to the hotel so that we could teach our first class last night for Art and Soul, and we had a good time drawing, doodling, and collaborating with the students for our Journal Stripped Bare class. We're looking forward to teaching our full-day classes today and tomorrow. So far, we are really enjoying our time in the City of Roses.

The JFJ Invade Portland


After nearly 9 hours on a plane (we flew to San Diego first, and then to Portland) we arrived in Oregon. We headed into downtown Portland for an early dinner, and the we hit up Powell's Bookstore where we found a copy of our second book.


We're very excited to teach our three classes at Art and Soul this week!


Portland Bound


Tomorrow we fly to Portland, OR for Art and Soul. It will be our first time teaching at this art retreat, and we are very excited to expand our teaching circle. This will be my first time in Portland, and I am thrilled to be able to spend a little time in this city.

There's just something that seems to pull me to Portland, though I have never set foot there. Perhaps it's Portland's reputation as a hipster and art mecca - a place that prides itself on being weird. Perhaps it's all of the vegetarian and vegan places to eat and drink. Perhaps it's the coffee and craft beer. Perhaps it's the proximity of mountains and outdoor adventures. I have it in the back of my mind that I might like to live in Portland. There's just a lot about Portland that seems to gel with my personality and my interests, and I am excited to visit.

But what should we see while we're there? Let us know in the comments.

(The above image was taken from www.travelportland.com.)

More Small Work


I've been working on some smaller pieces over the last few days as well as larger pieces in the studio. I can easily sit in front of the tv and work on these 4x6 inch pieces on paper. With the face above, I began by creating a watercolor texture background, and I drew the face with black and white acrylic paint markers.


It was a similar process for the radiating designs, but I began with backgrounds that were started with watercolor and watercolor pencil. I really like how these small works turned out, and I am looking forward to trying them larger.