My next LIVE appearance!

On the off-chance that you are in the Bay Area this Thursday, I will participating in the California Academy of Sciences craft fair. The Craft Fair will be held on Thursday, November 29 in the Forum gallery (2^nd floor above the café), inside the Academy. The sale will go from nine o’clock am to four o’clock pm (9:00 to 4:00). I will have cards, buttons, the latest issue of Toast, and will be signing copies of my field guide, Golden Gate Beach Wrack.

Golden Gate Beach Wrack makes a great gift!  You can also order it here: http://hotfromthetoaster.com/fieldguide.html

no *@$^*% turkey, thanks

We continued with our no-turkey Turkey Day tradition of eating Dungeness Crab. By the time I thought to sketch, there wasn't much left. :) Thus, I turned my sketching skills to something less edible - 

We finished off the meal with pumpkin pie (from pumpkins I had slaughtered myself) and pecan pie. Yum!

Then today we had a lovely drive to Cow Girl Creamery in Point Reyes Station for a picnic of cheese, bread and fruit. The weather was lovely and though I drug my supplies everywhere, as the only driver, I didn't get much of a chance to sketch. I have a head full of pretty sights and a yen to paint in my studio, which is what a vacation is for if you ask me.

The Bear Bones

Posted this image over at the From the Stacks blog for the latest Illustration Smackdown. This fuzzy wuzzy smackdown I took on (unbeknownst to me until yesterday) the great Tracy Irwin Storer, founder of the UCDavis Zoology Department, author of California Grizzly, and the man who did the sketches of Monarch. Monarch was the last of the California Grizzlies whose image adorns the California state flag.

Election Night USA

I have worked Tuesday nights for at least the last four years. In 2008 I started what might well be a sketchbook tradition - Draw a map of the USA and spend the 4 hours on the reference desk (between questions, of course) filling in the "winning" colors. Due to time zones and all, the map does not get completely filled in for a day or more. However, there are updates below......