The Wolf is Here!

I am so excited to share that The Wolf Who Ate the Sky has been published by Heyday Books! 

When my daughter Anna was 3.5 years old, we created this story during car rides to and from preschool. In telling it again and again, it grew into the story that is now in this book. My father, artist Charles Hobson, did a fabulous job illustrating and designing it. This 3-generation project is now on Amazon, heydaybooks.com, and in local bookstores. Signed copies will also be at my next Open Studio on April 25 & 26 in Muir Beach.

Here is a taste of the plot: "A very hungry wolf eats the sky, plunging the whole world into darkness, but a brave boy and a menagerie of animals are determined to bring back the light."  

To learn more about the book and the illustrations in it, please visit Charles Hobson's web site.

Below is a very sweet video of Anna at 3.5 years old telling a version of the story. Enjoy!

Practice: Art + Text

Last week, I received a delightful package in the mail. A simple brown cardboard box yielded these treats – loose leaf tea, a tea strainer, and five copies of the journal, Practice: Art + Text, which includes reproductions of my series, Bottle Dreams. As a participant in the journal, I receive these gifts plus a small stipend. I have enjoyed sitting down with my hot tea feasting on the literature and images published here.

In particular, I love the interview with Alec Finley and his discussion of “letterboxing.” Alec has planted wooden boxes in the landscape, each containing a “circle poem.” Directions are made available to those who would like to find them and they become a hiking destination. Each box has a “keeper” – a local friend who plants the box and caretakes it. Alec is currently half way to his goal of creating 100 of these around the world. I love this idea of planting art in the earth to be discovered as a hidden treasure.

I am also honored to be in such good visual company in this journal. Paddy Sutton’s absorbing photographs of the ocean are made more haunting by his statement in which he reveals that each of these locations marks the death of a ship and its crew during World War II. Colette Calascione’s paintings (one is featured on the cover of Practice) are wonderful surreal explorations that blend human figures with the animal, and composite references to art history and natural sciences. Aaron Cruse’s pinhole photographs are marvelous in the way they inscribe a circular photograph in the center of a black field that leaves the impression of looking through a peephole or tunnel at the outside world.

You can enjoy these images and texts yourself by ordering a copy of Practice at www.practicejournal.com.

A Good Review

In a recent issue of the New Yorker, artist Julian Schnable answered the question, “What is the worst thing you can do as an artist?” with the response, “Try to get people to like you.” I agree. Yet, nevertheless (for better or for worse), it is quite thrilling when they do.

So I was delighted to read the positive review of my show at the Bolinas Museum in the June issue of Artweek. Thank you to contributing editor Frank Cebulski for articulating such a full picture of my art practice and honoring its surrealist roots. For anyone who would like a pdf copy of the article emailed to you, please send me a note. Or you can pick up a copy of the magazine at these locations.