Book of Fours by Joyce Ellen Davis

My friend and writer/poet/blogger/nature-lover/people-lover-especially-grandchildren-lover, Joyce Ellen Davis, has recently published her (at least) 3rd book of poetry, A Book of Fours.

I love the cover, but I might be biased -- it's my artwork -- :-} and after I read her poems (which I know I will love because I always do appreciate Joyce's language and insight and flowingness) I will write an update to this post.

It's an honor, Joyce, to have my collage with your poetry. Thank you.

Off to buy Joyce's book!

Portland Urban Art Exhibit

Live Painting Sol Ball, originally uploaded by Gabe Shaughnessy.

photo by Arian Stevens

Exhibit of Paintings by artist, Gabriel Shaughnessy
To my Portland blog readers who also happen to love art, I encourage you to attend the opening for Gabe Shaughnessy's art exhibit on Thursday night. Even if you don't live in Portland, if you might visit P-Town in the near future, the show will be up until the end of June.

full disclosure: Gabe is my son

Gabe will be exhibiting 16 oil and acrylic paintings and four large UV reactive paintings in a one-man show at Berbati's in Portland. The paintings are from the last two years, with some new work. Gabe will be creating a live painting (left) at the opening.

Opening Date: Thursday, June 7
Time: 5 pm til whenever
Venue: Berbati's Restaurant
Address: 231 SW Ankeny, Portland view map



Gabriel writes that he is

"looking for potential collaborators for the opening night, June 7th. It'll be on the first thursday art walk and listed in the papers. I'm into whatever, the restaurant is open for music, performance, art production."

from Gabe's P-Town sketchbook:

for a little retrospective/perspective, a few illustrations from Gabe's (much) younger years:




a thank you card for his Grandma ...

Experimenting with a new look for my blog

Weed Beauty, originally uploaded by MontanaRaven.

Hello dear blog readers, thank you for continuing to read Raven's Nest blog even though I post somewhat less regularly this time of year.

I am experimenting with a new look for Raven's Nest. I would really appreciate your honest feedback on the changes I have made. The most dramatic change is that now the background is white instead of black. Hopefully this is easier on the eyes -- easier to read (for those of us with vision problems, myself included) I have always liked the way my artwork and photos glow vibrantly against a black background (as it still is at my photoblog, Land of Little Rain) but I think in the interest of keeping my readers happy over here where I post more text, I might keep it white like this.

I am still tweaking the banner at the top (am working on a new design-graphic for the title bar), the sidebar and the html -- My ultimate goal is to clean up the blog, simplifying it so it is super easy to find old posts on topics of interest to you.

Please tell me what you think -- honestly -- of the changes. Thank you very much for any feedback.

pass GO, collect 50 ideas and get out of jail free

a journey of a thousand steps begins with the first step ...