I found these two images that I did for the Washington Post Calendar section a ways back. A "Things to do on Valentine's Day" sort of piece. This is the cover (whoa, nice Michael Jackson jacket, lady) and an inside piece.

       

The rest of of this is a re-post of one I made a while ago on peaksisland. But Valentine's Day is tomorrow and I thought it would be a nice reminder of what a great place we live. The way things are going in the World right now, we could use a lot more of The Bandit's charms.

"One of the sweetest Peaks traditions is something that could be happening right now outside your window, down front, or down your street, and you will see when you awake tomorrow.
On February 14th you'll spy, here and there, big red hearts printed on white paper. Taped to walls, light poles, parked cars. Start Valentine's Day with a smile..the Valentine Bandit has been here.
We used to think it was an island thing. But the Valentine Bandit is like Santa. Everywhere. Even the Old Port.
And the Bandit knows all. The year Daisy was born we got several extra hearts stuck on our car, telephone pole, and stop sign. The hearts are mostly down front, but they show up all over the island.
Who is the Bandit? Nobody knows. Or if they do, they're not telling. Some people say the Bandit has a crew of helpers, but nobody's talking.
Some years lately there haven't been so many. Maybe times have been hard in the global Love Dept. But when the sun comes up...there they are.
It's nice to start the day with a little love."

I went into town last night for a meeting of the Maine Illustrators Collective (MEIC). I’ve turned out to be a poor member, showing up rarely for the mealtime gatherings. But with the event happening at Flatbread, the pizza place just across the pier from the ferry terminal, there was no way I couldn’t show up. I mean, how convenient can things get?

It was a fun evening. For the most part illustrators work alone, so it’s always a lift to spend time with peers, talking about work and what’s new with you?

Going to town is an everyday occurrence for a lot of people on the island. The boats run often enough to satisfy most people. But there are hidden costs to living life by the boat. The ferry schedule can have a subtle effect on a person’s behavior. There’s a constant calculation of how much time is left ‘til the boat. Is there time for one more errand, or will that be one errand too many? There is either time to kill, or no time to waste. 

I headed off to the meeting on the 3:45 boat, because the 5 pm boat would get me there late. I arrived in town with almost an hour to spend before the meeting. Not quite long enough to take care of any far-flung errands. I bought a book of tickets and spent some time at our town car, in the parking garage next to the terminal, strapping a repaired tire for the island car to our cart so that I could take it back to the island after the meeting. I wanted to have it ready to grab because the ferry would be leaving just 15 minutes after the end of the meeting.

You know how gatherings like that are. You think you’re leaving but you’re really saying goodbye to people, paying your share of the tab, finding your gloves. Then you have to bolt for the boat. People who know islanders understand and expect it, or at least put up with it. Have you ever been at an event in town...a concert, movie, party...and seen 8 or 10 people suddenly get up at the same time, put on their coats, and rush out? Islanders.



Then there’s the cart. Often derogatorily referred to in other locales as “granny carts” or “little old lady carts”, they go with the territory here, and few are the people who can manage life without one. They carry for us all the necessities of life that can be stuffed into or strapped onto them. The rest...must be sent as freight.




I illustrated the last cover of the island phone book. (Jamie did the cover of the most recent.) I worked with the idea of weathervanes that say something about island living. Here are two...



Hustling out of the meeting without saying goodbye to everybody, I was on time. I dashed across the pier and up the stairs to the third floor of the garage to the car to grab the tire. Back down in the elevator, to the gate, dragging my trusty cart onto the boat. Made it.

Just another night on the town, with my spare tire.


I’m also posting this on peaksisland 

The other morning, I was up at my usual time for a school morning, 6 am. Blearily looking out the hall window, I saw the full moon hanging over Portland. Very orange, hidden behind a slight haze of clouds. I later mentioned it to Jamie as we were having breakfast after Daisy was off to school on the 7:15 boat.
There was a full moon that played a big part in a hilarious play we just saw at Portland Stage, "The Mystery of Irma Vep". I don't want to give it away, but think full moon...werewolf...you get the idea.
A gang of us went, on a freezing evening, for a Thai dinner and an evening of laughter. Among us was Doug 
Smith, who did the illustration for the theatre poster. The play is a campy Victorian mystery performed by only 2 actors playing about 5 characters each. The quick-change costumes are as entertaining as the ever-twisting plot line. We had a great time.
Later, Jamie, reminded by all the lunar goings on, pulled out a Christmas card I had done a couple of years ago.
The moon shines on us all. Especially werewolves.

I'm starting to feel the way I do in late February...about a month too soon. The snow is crusty and gray, and the weather doesn't seem to want to do anything but be cold. I like Winter, but where's the fresh fallen snow? The icicles and sea smoke? What about a mirror of ice just waiting for a pair of shining blades? This is starting to feel like the dregs of winter, not the mid-point.

Here's part of a post I made on peaksisland  about New Year's eve...
"I was reading a post patriciaerikson  made about the Ice Pond, which is down the hill from our house, toward the back shore, and thinking about the history, and cutting ice, and the founding families whose spirit inhabits a lot of what we do and how we think of the island. We spent the last couple of hours of 2009 at the Ice Pond skating with another family. We had a great time shovelling the snow off the ice and gliding around by the light of candles and lanterns. There was a full moon that night, but it was only a hazy glow in the clouds. And then it became a new year."

That was tons of fun and, well, I'm still thinking about skating. I remembered an image I made for my Christmas card a few years ago. I dug it out for a look, and it pepped me right up. What do you think?



There is a piece of land down the road, just below what is now the Baptist Church, that was overgrown and woodsy. It was a place Daisy and a friend liked to go explore when they were younger. The property changed hands and the new owners cleared out the undergrowth. With the removal of the bushes and some birches, we discovered that a pond would form after heavy rain. It was only a few inches deep and would come and go depending on how wet the weather was. We started calling it the Duck Pond after a family of ducks spent a few months there. Cold came and the little pond froze over, and Daisy would talk about the fairies skating there. It was so magical an image that I decided to make it my Christmas card that year, with Daisy skating instead of the fairies. It's called "Dreams do come true".I still like looking at it.

Well, the weather changes. We'll keep a pile of skates by the back door, the sled and cross-country skis at the ready. We'll get the snow or ice.
We always do.

I'm new to this. Hold your snickers and rolling eyes, at least for a post or two, please. I'll get the hang of it.

I just finished my real first blog post, and I'm fairly worn out.

So to make this short post official, here's an image. You can't go wrong with a picture.



It's a piece I created for an exhibit, "The Classics Re-imagined", which the Maine Illustrator's Collective, of which I'm a member, had. I picked "Goodnight Moon", which was a great book to read to Daisy when she was little. But the bunnies in it just seemed so...serious. I wanted it to look a little more fun. Plus I like to use island/coast/Maine imagery when I can, and who can resist the moon on the water? Do you know what the moon's reflection in the water is called?

Moonglade.