ReTree 2023

For the Yampa Valley Sustainability’s ReTree this year, the theme was wildlife and biodiversity, so you know I was excited to create this image!

Instead of planting cottonwoods along the Yampa River through Steamboat Springs, this time we went to the Nature Conservancy’s Carpenter Ranch near Hayden Colorado. It was a gorgeous fall day with a blue sky behind bright golden trees. There was a stretch where the bank of the river had been repaired and needed new trees. Hopefully these baby cottonwoods will grow tall and strong.

Silas Axtell, an artist friend was our tree planting coach!

In addition to family this year, there were lots of friends who came to plant trees! Here are two fantastic artist friends, Joanne Orce and Ann Feldman with me in the middle.

Earth Day 2023

For the second year, we are having an Earth Day event bringing together different environmental organizations at the base of the Steamboat Ski Resort. I hope you can make it, April 8, 10-1, if you are in town! This year, I created an Earth Day linocut painted with watercolor to advertise the event and celebrate Earth Day. $100 from each linocut will be donated to an environmental fund administered by the Yampa Valley Community Foundation to be used by local environmental groups. Thank you to the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council for organizing this event!

ReTree 2022

This year we planted cottonwoods along the Yampa River right in the middle of town with the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council for ReTree 2022. YVSC now has great volunteering opportunities throughout the year with their Climate Crew. Sign up for updates and opportunities!

Thanks for the great shirts, Ohana!

Mandala for Steamboat Springs

Creating the 2022 mandala at Bud Werner Library.

In August 2022, Tibetan Buddhist monks from Drepung Loseling Monastery return to Steamboat Springs for a residency at Bud Werner Library, where they will create a Mandala Sand Painting from Tuesday, Aug. 9 through Sunday, Aug. 14 in Library Hall. Learn about the monks’ visit here.

In addition, community members will have the opportunity to try the technique of sand painting by filling in the line drawing I created. This Steamboat Springs mandala has many of the unique activities, landscapes, icons, and wildlife that make our home special. 

To create this mandala, I drew it full size, 4x4 feet in diameter, and then traced it with sharpie. This is the size that the community sand painting will be in real life. I photographed the drawing and cleaned up the image digitally. Then I had it printed on my fine art paper, 18x18 inches across, and painted that with gouache. I had several line drawings printed and plan to paint an edition of 5 that will be available for sale. Please contact me if you are interested in an original painting.

As a fundraiser for the library, Ohana did a limited edition print run of the mandala on t-shirts. We got to pick our shirt and ink color, it was so fun! Thank you, Ohana!!

The closing ceremony of the Monks’ visit was really wonderful. The completed mandala was blessed and then only had about an hour before it was swept into a swirl of sand. Most of the sand was given to those present in little bags, but some was carried in a procession and poured into the Yampa River.

Earth Day, Steamboat Springs 2022

I’ve always wanted to make an Earth Day poster! There are so many possibilities for combining illustration, landscape, wildlife, and environmental action. In my town, April 22 is a VERY slow time of year, though. The ski area has recently closed and schools take a late spring break with most of town leaving for warmer places.
This year, because I had an art show about wildlife in March, I decided to go for it and design an Earth Day poster anyway, and hang it in the show.
I reached out to the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council about my Earth Day image and they helped plan an event including local environmental organizations. It was held at the base of Steamboat Resort on their closing weekend. This is a really fun time with lots of entertaining events and bands to celebrate the end of another ski season. Our Earth Day Celebration added info about local groups advocating for the environment, sustainability, wildlife, the Yampa River, and so much more.
All proceeds from the sale of Earth Day prints are going into an Environment Trust managed by the Yampa Valley Community Foundation. You can get a print, poster, or sticker in my online shop!

Wildlife Zines

Fall 2021 I was accepted into an Art + Science program through CU Boulder. With a cohort of artists and scientists, students and professionals, we were guided through designing a project emphasizing community engagement and climate change.
My project evolved into several layers of art and action around Rocky Mountain wildlife. First, I spoke with wildlife biologists and photographers about their work around a wildlife species. With much interviewing, editing, reading, and design help, I wrote up their background and interesting stories, combined with information about the animals and their challenges, including climate issues.
I also created original artwork to hang in a show at Pine Moon Fine Art with beautiful wildlife sculpture by Sandy Graves.

Taking these new linocuts and others I’ve made in the past, I printed and trimmed the original black and white prints to become book covers for the articles I’d written. I have a long history of loving hand made books, so it seemed natural to want to turn the articles into books. Paulina M. Johnson gave the content a classy, easy-to-read look, and I got to work sewing books. While sewing, I realized these were zines! A zine is a self-published, non-commercial print-work that is typically produced in small, limited batches. So now, they are officially called Wildlife Zines. :) I will be sharing them online on my new blog, This Wild Life: Art, Science, and Animals of the West, or get in touch if you’d like a physical copy.

ReTree 2021

I’m glad I was able to create artwork for the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council’s ReTree event again this year. We will be planting about 500 trees along the Yampa River on October 2, 2021. You can sign up on their website!

Carnival of the Animals

When I heard what Strings Music Festival was planning, I couldn’t wait to dive in and start creating animals for them. They are putting together a video featuring Project Trio performing Camille Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals. Some of the movements use the traditional music, but different instrumentation, and some are entirely new movements written for different animals! This is a fun video for kids. Check it out here.

COVID Commitments Posters

I was really happy to be selected to paint 6 public health awareness posters for the City of Steamboat Springs, Routt County, Colorado, and Steamboat Creates. These posters show the Commitments to Containment to help stop the spread of COVID-19. They were looking for a clear message, local imagery, and maybe a bit playful. I even wound up on 9 News Denver!

Update- in the spring of 2021, I finally got to create a poster encouraging vaccination. Yay for vaccines!!

ReTree 2020

I was very happy to create a new design for the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council’s ReTree program this year! In October my daughter and I waded across the Yampa River to plant baby Cottonwood trees with other volunteers. Thanks to the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council for hosting another great event, and thanks to Ohana for printing this year’s shirts. They turned out beautifully!

Yampa River Fest 2019

For Friends of the Yampa’s River Fest 2019, we used my graphic wave linocut image on t-shirts and all advertising. It worked really well as a shirt design!

ReTree 2019

This was my third opportunity to create artwork for one of my favorite programs, ReTree Steamboat. This is the 10th year the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council has put on this program to plant trees with the Steamboat Springs community. You can sign up to participate on their website.

Ukuleles at the Library

The Bud Werner Memorial Library in Steamboat Springs, Colorado is the best! And they've just started a new program where you can check out a ukulele, isn't that great? I got to do a design to advertise the ukes online, in print, and on lots of great goodies.

Here we are at the launch for the ukulele program! I'm on the right with a bunch of rock-and-roll librarians- photo by Jennie Perry Lay.

And below are a couple of process photos from creating the linocut.

Here is some info about the launch, here is how to check one out, and here is a nice page about the art I created. My daughter and I are excited to check out a ukulele and practice!

Yampa River Festival

The Friends of the Yampa has a River Festival every year that includes fun boating competitions as well as talks relating to the Yampa, and independent river films. This year, I got to do artwork for their t-shirts and advertising.

And in fact, I actually carved the long Yampa is Wild linocut during a camping trip to Echo Park where the Yampa meets the Green River. What a special place!

The Yampa Is Wild Linocut

I've been working on something really big.... 250 miles, actually! That's how long the Yampa River is, from the Flat Tops mountain range to the confluence with the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado. The Friends of the Yampa is a non-profit organization that supports the environmental and recreational integrety of the river, and they asked me to create a mural that features the Yampa River- beginning to end. To help me work through the design, I decided to scale the mural way down and create a 1/2 inch to 1 foot drawing. Next, I turned that into a 35 inch long carved, printed and painted linocut. Now I have both a mural design, and a new edition of original prints.

Each of these linocuts is printed by hand with brown oil-based ink, and then painted with gouache which is very similar to watercolor. They are numbered and the first three prints have been donated to the Friends of the Yampa to help with fundraising for the mural. I'm continuing to work on this project and as I make progress, I will share updates here and on Instagram. If you'd like to help and donate to the mural, contact Friends of the Yampa. If you'd like to help me with mural painting, let me know!

There is a really nice article about the mural project in the Steamboat Pilot and Today. 

ReTree 2018

I am working on a t-shirt and poster design for ReTree 2018 in my town, Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I got to do the design two years ago also, and you can see more about that here. This is a great community tree planting program put on by the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council and the Colorado State Forest Service. I love this program, I love doing the art for them, and I love trees! Love, love love!

Check back for updates on ReTree 2018, including a link to volunteer to plant trees in October. 

The t-shirts are printed with one color, but I also got to create a painted, color version for a poster that you can see below.

Here is how the shirts turned out!

Christopher Farrell CD Cover

My friend, Christopher Farrell is a violist with the Nashville Symphony who recently recorded the first album of his own compositions of chamber music. He asked me to create artwork and design the layout for his CD cover. I was so excited to work on this project! I'm a former musician who is still a huge music lover and I've always wanted to do an album cover. Chris' compositions are fantastic. Please visit his website to learn more about him, and if you love classical music, I recommend buying his album, Works for Chamber Ensemble. 

Winter Carnival Poster

My town, Steamboat Springs, Colorado has had an annual winter carnival for over 100 years! But starting in 2016, Steamboat Sotheby's Realty began sponsoring a poster created by a different local artist each year to be sold as a fundraiser for Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club. And they chose me for the first year! It was a real honor and I had a great time making this large poster. You can read an interview here about creating the poster and a Steamboat Today newspaper article here.

ReTree 2016

ReTree Steamboat is a project of the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council. Each year the Steamboat Springs, Colorado community plants trees with expert guidance from the Colorado State Forest service. This is such a great program and I was really happy to design the artwork for their t-shirts and poster in 2016. You can read an article from the Steamboat Today here.

I'm in the middle above with my family and friends after a busy day planting trees!