Starring me and my freaky fun friends! And yes, dryads do like watermelon excessively, why do you ask?

April 30th through May 3rd, L’art erotique has a venue.. SEAF is going to be amazing this year-a gorgeous panoply of art, performers, writing, music and dancing. Come party with us!

Check out the line up here. Scroll WAAAAAAAAAY down and you’ll find Rita and I-and see what we’re up to.

WOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!

It was so FUN! Ben played with the band in the cafe space and The Nasty Habits played in the performance hall, where we did our bodypainting act.. Best New Year’s Eve ever!

The juggler, Cody, saw me paint Rita and asked me to paint him too, so I did a double header.

Then we all rocked out on the dance floor. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah… SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO needed to shake some bootie!

More pretty NYE pics here. Don’t miss me new xmas pirate sox! AAAARH!

1. Intelligent
2. Informed
3. Capable
4. NOT STUPID
5. Open minded
6. Celebrates diversity
7. Did I mention NOT STUPID?
8. Actually gives a shit about people and the planet.
9. Is not a war monger
10. Is not likely to humiliate us every goddamn time he opens his mouth on the world stage.

God, it’s like xmas came early this year! Woohoooooooo! Election night, Sam and I were so happy we celebrated our new president by melting chocolate chips on waffles, drinking kombucha, doin’ the presidential happy dance~

~and generally being on goofy cloud nine.

Their beautiful son, Kalen-born a few months ago. Beth flies off to warmer realms for the winter, so they managed to keep the entire pregnancy and birth invisible to the whole community.

What a couple of tricksters! We couldn’t believe our eyes when she walked in with the little boob-nibbling cutebug. What a sweet baby-he flew all over the dance floor, bourne aloft by his parents loving hands and the ebullient adoration of the swirling, revolving Turtles.

Hurray! Welcome to the world, Kalen. May your dance on this planet be a glorious and propitious one. I’m sure you will be as much of a sweet, creative imp as your parents are.

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.

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

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.

But apparently, he can FLY too. Not to mention his killer, booby-grabbin’, bar-leaping, tapdancing striptease skilz!

(Note to self: rent Pennies from Heaven).

I love the way the back turned out! More Nantastic pics here.

I think the old man would have approved.