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Sam and I had a lovely weekend staying at a little farm on Whidbey Island.

We met Velvet,

a very sweet jenny(female donkey), a bunch of buttheaded goats, chickens, ducks, an overwhelmingly enthusiastic young german shepherd named Savannah and a sweet kitty whose loft-leaping prowess has been sharpened to ninja-worthy extremes by Savannah’s ebullience.

Many thanks to Ginger, Delayney and Caden for sharing their beautiful place with us. It’s a gorgeous cabin and the loft was very cozy and happily for Sam, the dog could not climb ladders. Sam and Caden had a ton of fun bouncing madly on the giant trampoline out back.

Whidbey is beautiful too. We browsed the Langley galleries with their gorgeous bronze animals, awesome carved wood thrones and glass menageries and spent long, luscious afternoons on the beaches.

I made a sand dreamer

and Sam and I created a fort with three entrances and three bridges to reach the tunnels in the outer walls..

Beware the catapults of doom!

‘Twere a loverly weekend, capped off with a waffle(to the joy of my waffle-crazy boy) brunch in Langley on our way home.

Not so lovely to come home to clouds of flies hiding out in my eyrie and corpses all over the kitchen! Apparently Sophie waged war against the midges while we were gone and the ones that didn’t get bombed to death all flew upstairs. Gack.

More pics here. Of the trip, not the fly massacre.

Delayne sent me some of the pictures he took at the PNE. I added them to the flickr set.

He also posted some on his deviant art site. Which you really ought to check out-it’s free to register and there’s tons of great art on there.. But, for those of you whose head will asplode at the merest whisper of a thought of filling out yet another profile, I’ll have mercy and pilfer my two favorites to show you.

Behold, my bunny of awesomeness:

(click to enlarge)

and sculptin’s amazing tunnel of doom.

(click to enlarge)

Is that not the prettiest sand forest you’ve ever seen?

Had a sweet, sweet weekend up in Vancouver.

Delayne was carving sand into a rollercoaster for the PNE and I got to assist him and meet the rest of the team-what a great, goofy, talented bunch! It was so fun, the sand is amazing-so fine and silty and perfect for shaping. It holds it’s form exquisitely too. Such a joy to work with and so cool to learn new techniques and use all the clever tools(other than my own two hands!).

We made a little forest on the side of the rollercoaster, which I populated with birds and a rabbit.

Unfortunately, I was too absorbed to take many pictures, but Delayne snapped some, so hopefully he will get ‘em to me(nudge, nudge) and I’ll show y’alls later.

Despite an SUV vs. train wreck that caused my bus to sit(with me in it) for TWO HOURS at the King St Station before departing, much drenching rain and a certain lack of privacy(ahem), it was a succulent and rejuvenating trip and I daydreamed of sandy goodness, of smooth jazz and salty, sun-bronzed muscles, of the superfox waitress serving us luscious mussels in her tiny, slinky, sequined, suspendered minidress while we kissed and spun tales, all the long busride home.

Man, oh man, I needed that.

Life is gooooooood.

Once we nabbed our Delayne from the Coho, we hopped on 101 west to curve and twist and wind around the lovely, sparkly Lake Crescent on our way to Fairholm Campground.

Fairholm is a gorgeous, large campground and we lucked out on a spot not far from the lakeside that just fit our humonguous tent palace. Hurray for tall trees, chortling ravens, campfires, wading, cookin’ over campstoves, giggly tent mornings…

We hiked up to Marymere falls, where Delayne played Fallsmonkey.

(photo by Rita)

Sam collapsed dramatically at the top, almost missing the sight of the falls itself in his grand display of exhaustion. Downhill is always reinvigorating though and we found a wonderful wandering stream to follow as we got lost on the way back to the car.

D built an exquisitely balanced, pretty rock stack by the stream side whilst Sam and Rita skipped stones and I dreamily clambered about on the many wondrous logs piled topsy turvy over the river.

The next day the ocean beaches were calling us, so we piled in the car and followed a road that kept getting narrower and narrower, but did eventually bring us to the promised coastline and a perfectly marvelous beach.

We spent the whole day there exploring it’s bumpy cliffs, tidepools, amazing islets, driftwood fortresses and kelp whiptastic beaches.

Delayne showed Sam how to build sand pancake arches and drip trees, Rita made an awesomely spikey fort,

and I created a sleeping Sea witch.

Arrr, it were a grand day!

My full set of flickr’d pics live here and Rita’s(I must confess I stoled some), here.

Rita joined us the next morning(such a courageous road warrior-she took buses all the way from Seattle!) and Sam and I showed her our favorite coffee shop, sculptures, bookstores, grotty underpiers and of course, the beach.

I made a rock-happy sea monster while Sam and Rita conducted a major giant squid vs. supersoldier battle. I believe the squid won.

Sam made his first sand dragon too!

We picnicked and skipped rocks and lounged in the brilliant July sun ’til it was time to go meet Delayne’s ferry.

As we waited, the sun painted abstract works of fine art on the water, using the Clipper terminal as it’s medium.

Miro, eat your heart out.

Sam and I left Seattle behind today on a wander in Carkeek park.

We discovered a wonderful log-jammed stream, waded into an alternate universe…

…followed the silty sun-dappled water way down to the joy of triple culverts-

-emerged from the dark wet tunnels into the bright sunshine beach world full of stinky muck and glittering streams. Sam wandered off to discover the mysterious origins and ends of all creeks and I set off along the railroad embankment to find a spot o’ sandy goodness.

We rendevoused for a rock climb and Sam created strategic battle terrains whilst I coaxed a rhinoceragon out from the sand(they’re quite shy, when not terrorizing tourists).

Yay summer! More pics here.

I made this heart for Svadesh, my friend and meditation/massage teacher. He had a heart attack last friday. He’s recovering well, but I figured he could use a little heart strengthening energy. The yellow irises striped it sweetly with their lovely shadows.

It’s been a strange week, Sam’s summer vacation started this week, but he came home from his dad’s sick.. Then my mom’s message about Svadesh(I hooked her up with his extraordinary massages a while back and they’ve become good friends) and today, a kitty emergency-Kaya, my mom’s kitty who used to be ours, had to be rushed to the kitty critical care.

Apparently she’d tried to eat a barbed seedpod and the darn thing bit her back!-it was working it’s way up into her nasal cavity-yikes!

Anyway, man and cat survived and Sam is sniffly but on the road to recovery, making strange origami things on the bed whilst I blog…

So, on we go with this precious, messy, fragile, silly thing called life.

My show opened last weekend. It was glorious and fun and delicious.

So cool to see all the paintings and sculptures I’ve been working on all spring proudly sprouting up on the walls next to Sophie’s haunting impressions of dilapidated industrial spaces. So wonderful to be surrounded by my friends and community.

I’m a lucky girl.

The performances were awesome, passionate and inspiring. My momma read my favorite poem of hers while Maris played the flute and Jean danced. My chi gong/meditation/massage teacher, Svadesh honored me with a participational chant and a reading on the Tonal. Cody and Amy danced a delightful, hilarious routine on love and bologna sandwiches, Alex and Vanessa did a wild yearning butoh piece, Courtnee sang her lovely Last Breath song and Jean finished us up with another gorgeous dance. The food was luscious and abundant(thanks Kim!)-indeed, so abundant that we’ve been eating it happily all week! Mmmm… Cherries and chocolate.

Yay for creative friends! Thank you all SO MUCH! I love you.

Oh, and I read my artist poem:

I’m an artist.
Or so i remind myself
when i get those looks.

Wrinkling with incomprehension
as things fall out of my mouth
in less than discernable order.

It’s all grippable though,
I have to believe that, even if
so much fertility is hard to handle.

Winter’s frozen poetry thaws
on my tongue, trickling a thin line,
tart and sweet across the canvas.

Big, strong, veiny hands spreading,
stroking, caught in their
fervent reverie.

The squirming painful surges
every bit as dynamic as
pleasures hottest urges.

Don’t worry my bones into
a semblance of sense,
just look, touch, taste…

Soak it up or leave it
flapping vexatiously in the periphery
of your week’s routine.

Until you’re ready to yield
some part of yourself,
some of that nagging conviction perhaps?

Don’t fret, you can always snatch
it up and put it on again
(if it’s not too tight).

Take my hand for a moment,
Perhaps it will help to know
I’m here too.

Playing in the dark.

There was much art viewing, mingling and sparkling conversation, I sold three paintings(woot!), we cleaned up(hurray for Delayne , king of dishes and humming), goofed off and then, came home and had a wonderful bonfire party! D got the fire blazing whilst I threw together a lamb spaghetti sauce and pasta(I’m told I can’t call it spaghetti iffen it’s not actually spaghetti noodles) dinner and we all toasted our toes, drank sake and port and told silly jokes(really silly-we had to ban poop as a subject-much to Jason’s chagrin).

More show pics here.

It’s almost here!

If you’re in Seattle May 18th, come and see what my three month long painting frenzy has yielded.

Sunday, May 18th, 1 to 6pm

You are joyously invited to ‘Invoking Drala’ at the Little Red Studio Gallery. The art of Zan Edson and Sophie Brunet.

Trees, roots, rocks, earth, water… The natural world calls me and collects me, bringing my often furiously swirling human mind back to the moment, back to the breath filling my chest, the ferns tickling my legs, the warm rock, or rough bark against my cheek.

In celebration of this intimate, priceless, abundant, endless source of connection and in gratitude to Drala(a Tibetan word for natural magic or the spirits of nature), I’ve created a series of paintings and sculptures.

My friend Sophie Brunet will be gracing us with her Industrial series-paintings of crumbling industrial spaces-which both compliment and contrast the rooty glory of mine and remind us that beauty is also found in the least likely places.

Please come and enjoy! The opening will be from 1 to 6pm,with performances beginning at 5pm, so stop by at your leisure to peruse the art from 1 to 5 and stay if you like, for some amazing dance, music and poetry. Refreshments will be provided by Chef Kim, so they’re sure to be yummy!

Love,
Zan

Invoking Drala
Sunday, May 18th, 1 to 6pm
The Little Red Studio Gallery
406 Dexter Ave N

I pried myself away from my mad painting frenzy for a sweet weekend tryst with the Ice King.

We wandered beaches, defied hail and snow, scrambled up rocky rooty cliffs, stood giant driftwood snags on end,

worshipped gnarled trees, majestic waterfalls, tangled roots, each other… Rolled kegs around all weekend, wandered through scarey shopping malls vainly searching for tubs, made a water-catching frame

to hold his gorgeous ice mask, movie-snuggled, sang, danced, partied, ate sushi and gigantic omelets, discovered that his new bedframe squeaks like a pirate ship in a hurricane.. and abandoned it for a sunny, mossy, snowy mountainside.

Oh, and since someone forgot to mention that the party was a masquerade, I haphazardly cobbled together a mask out of a crabshell and other beach flotsam.. Fortunately, they had mask blanks available at the party.

Aaaarh! Good times, excellent inspiration..

-Back to work now, much twisty turny rooty dryadic goodness to paint!

Oh, more pics flickring here.