This summer my sister Rayna joined me at Potions Press. I need an extra hand because I'm expecting my first child this August, and Rayna offered to help me keep the print business going. She has been learning to print and helping me out with shows, and she will soon take over so that I can be on maternity leave. Besides allowing me the freedom to take the time I need for my growing family, this partnership has also resulted in new collaborative works of art!

It has been so cool to hand over a simple black ink on white paper block print to Rayna and see how she will bring it to life with watercolor. She is so thoughtful with her color choices and how she creates variation in tone. And it has felt great working in a studio alongside another artist for the first time in a few years. It makes me feel inspired to make new designs with this sort of collaboration in mind. Although with the huge change that's about to rock my life, who knows when that will be! I guess I can't truly know what balancing art and business with motherhood will look like until I get there. I'm so grateful to have a supportive sister to help me figure it all out. 

​If you are in North-Western Vermont this Summer or Fall, we would love to see you at a market!

You can find us at the BTV market in Burlington's City Hall Park on a number of Saturday's between June and October. This market, put on by Love Burlington and Burlington City Arts, also has hot food vendors, live music, and kid's activities including the splash fountain. 

On Saturday June 25th we'll be at the Jeffersonville Art Jam (rain date June 26th). Put on by the Cambridge Arts Council, the Art Jam features an art market on Main Street in addition to exhibitions, live music, and demonstrations at two downtown art galleries.

And to round out the season, we will be at the Old Fashioned Harvest Market on September 24th and 25th in Underhill. Put on by the Untied Church of Underhill, the Harvest Market is a giant craft and flea market with a parade, fun-run, kids games, live music, and classic fair foods such fried dough, fresh-squeezed lemonade, roasted corn, hamburgers, hot-dogs, and fries. 

'Cliffside Columbine'
Inspired by the wild columbine that bloom in the springtime on the rocky shores of Lake Champlain in Burlington, VT. This is a four layer print made with transparent primary colors (blue, red, and yellow) which overlap to create the secondary colors (purple, green, and orange), and then a final key block in black. 

'Contemplate Decomposition' 
This print is not actually new, but this is the first time I've tried coloring it in. The stump in the middle is a hemlock, you can tell by the reishi mushrooms growing out of it. And the new tree in the middle is a birch, which was Jamie's suggestion based on how readily they grow from old stumps. I love how the color brings life to this print, and helps clarify what certain things are, such as the russula mushrooms in the bottom corner, and the pixie cup lichen on the stump. 

'Living Room'
​This was my first new print of the year, carved after a very busy holiday sales season. I wanted to capture the feeling of finally relaxing after months of hard work. The coffee table is based on the one Jamie made from an oak slab salvaged from one of his logging jobs, and the candles are based on bees wax dippers that my sister Rayna makes. Carving this one taught me a lot about different textures and patterns (such as the wood grain in the table and floor and the paisley on the cushions) that I hope to carry with me into future prints. 

'Sun Moon Earth'
This is a two layer reduction print with a color gradient for both layers. Reduction printing uses a single block to print multiple layers by carving away more of the block between each layer. On the left you can see the first layer and on the right is the completed print. I am quite obsessed with astronomy/astrology, and I have been wanting to make a print about moon phases for a while now. I don't want to explain too much, as I'm hoping the image can speak for itself with a little study and contemplation. But I will give you a hint and say that eight smaller circles represent the moon at different points in it's cycle, and that the moon closest to the sun is a new moon, and the one farthest from the sun is a full moon. 

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