Tag: sketchbook

Allie Yacina at Happy Anyway

Dear Liza,

Auntie Bridgett and I walked out in the rain the other day to see the new show at Happy Anyway. This small, delightful shop is just a few blocks down on SE Belmont here in Portland, and is one of our new favorite places.

Besides the usual quirky antiquities and tchatchkies, there is a show this month and next of Allie Yacina’s sketchbooks and art.

I quickly fell in love with Allie’s color palette and blend of observation and style, almost like Matisse… but not quite. I stared at the opened sketchbooks posted on the wall, and flipped through the one on the counter. Each one seemed to show me a new way of seeing.

Because these are Allie’s sketchbooks, we see the lines and corrections, the process of how she makes the image happen. This makes all this beauty feel very “do-able”… very possible, even for me. Allie is holding a small workshop and “sketch time” on January 19th, so folks can all hang out with this talented lady and do art together!


Since Allie lives in our neighborhood, and paints what she sees, many of these sights are familiar to me. Lone Fir Cemetery. Shop fronts on Burnside. Laurelhurst Park.

Steph Sheldon, the owner, is always fun to talk with, about art or any other subject. She has a positive attitude that is not starry-eyed, but strong and almost defiant. “Happy anyway” is her response to “The world is a mess”.

We spent a delightful hour at the shop and walked back home through our dear, soggy neighborhood. As so often happens after looking at art, every curb and branch became an object of wonder and appreciation.

And that’s why we love art!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Scrapbooking Fifty Years

Dear Liza,

I’m making another book, because I really love making books! Also, with Grandpa Nelson and I celebrating FIFTY years of marriage, it seemed like a retrospective was called for.

My first thought was that it would be a simple photo album, maybe a picture or two from each of our 50 years. But the more I thought about it, I realized that I have some skills and imagination, and if I put them to work, this could be something worth sharing, maybe even passing down.

First, I needed a book to build the album in. Down at Belmont Books, Joe has all sorts of possibilities. I chose this one because it is sturdy, lays flat, and has enough (probably too many) pages to work with. Collage always makes a book much thicker, and I can tear out the leftover pages when I’m done.

For the covet, I found just the right papers in Auntie Bridgett’s collage boxes. A very 1970s vibe….

I went through my own collage boxes for postcards, maps and ticket stubs that will help tell our story. I also pulled dozens of photos. Since original photos from back then were printed on stiff paper, I used my scanner to make more flexible copies.

I’m afraid Grandpa and Bridgett are putting up with the dining table being a bit cluttered!

Still, slowly, page by page, front to back and with lots of moving and shifting (and not gluing anything down until I’m sure it’s in the right place!) it is coming together. I use mod podge as my adhesive, making sure to let each page dry and get pressed before building the next one. Each page will also have some sentences about what was happening at the time… I’ll type them in Bridgett’s vintage typewriter to feel old fashioned and cool.

As I collect pictures and remember more adventures, I keep shifting things… like real life, this project is going to be more complicated than I first thought.

But each page will tell of another adventure… even though some are not very detailed yet. All I can promise is that it probably won’t take a whole fifty years to get it done!

Love,

Grandma Judy