My Heaven On Earth

It's been exactly 4 years since our father/daughter meet in Asheville trip. I had two kids, Andrea had none. Now she's getting ready to have boy #2 and we wanted to get away before it's newborn season again.  So we hopped in the car and headed down to meet dad for four sweet days away.

Getting six hours of uninterrupted conversation time with this girl on the way down AND way back is sister GOLD. The rolling hills of Kentucky to the mountains of North Carolina, iced coffee, a cooler filled with La Croix, Andrea's killer playlist, laughing, and non-stop talking. Perfection.

 We ate delicious slow food at every meal (that someone else made!), wandered aisles and aisles of antiques, poured over magazines, drank coffee for hours, and explored the streets of Asheville.

 And! AND! We went to my new favorite place on earth---The Biltmore. Magical. Literally heavenly. As in, I went back to our room at the end of that day and re-read Revelations 21 and felt like I had seen a tiiiiiiiiiny glimpse into the beauty that is to come. (Also John 14:1-4)

I mean, seriously.

I don't know when I'll go back but, oh, I'll go back.

This is the souvenir I brought back--a silky vintage grey slip with lovely pleated lace details. When I'm not wearing it, I'm pretty sure it will be hanging on our bedroom wall. It's art.

I think the trip changed me a bit. It inspired me to be more intentional about raising our boys to be cultured gentlemen with a love for art, music, literature, history, travel, food, and adventure. It reminded me that I serve a very extravagant God. Every castle, every designer gown, every ornate silver serving dish set, every epic feast I've ever had the pleasure of pinning on Pinterest ; ) is quite plain compared to the stuff God comes up with.  Read God's detailed instructions for building the Tabernacle---it was faaabulous. He knows what He likes. I spent a lot of time thinking and talking about God as a designer. I mean, Genesis 1:1---this whole thing starts as an epic story about a (the) Artist. And He's very VERY good.

Arian : )

Follow The Good King poster

I usually don't hang my own art up on the wall. Not sure why, exactly. But as soon as this poster arrived back from my local screen printer, up it went! I love how the metallic gold ink looks on matte grey paper. And the printing process captured my brushstrokes perfectly. I'm itching to get more things screen printed!

If you love it too it's now available in my shop!

A little "in progress" shot : )

Arian 

The Good King Opening Night!

Oh man, Friday night's opening of my first solo art show The Good King at Fort Thomas Coffee was soooo sweet. When I first decided to do a solo show, I contemplated not doing an opening night because, well, it's risky. What if no one comes?? But man, people came! There was a steady flow of folks the whole evening--old friends, new friends, family, strangers. So. Cool.

Andrea manned the square and took orders all night long.

I can't wait to show you pictures of all my new products, including leather goods and super cute baby things. Til then I've added new The Good King prints to the shop!

 (Heads up, I have plans to do a more ethnically diverse line of these son/daughter prints!)

I hope you had a great Mother's Day weekend! 

My boys gave me chocolate. They know me well : )

Arian

Come Say Hi!

Two weeks from tomorrow! If you're in the area or feel like making a road trip I'd LOVE to see your face! I've been working very hard on so many new things! Can't wait to show them to you all!

Here's the Facebook event if you'd like more info!

Arian

Urban Archaeology

So much life happening these days its a bit hard to keep up. I'm in full on art show mode, creating as much as I can before the opening of my first solo show on May 9th. Plus we're in the final stages of buying our first house. It could still all fall through (like, say, after inspections this afternoon). But if all goes well, we'll be moving into a 100+ year old home very soon. The busyness of this season is making it hard to keep my mind asleep at night and focused during the day but I'm doing my best!

For one morning last week, however, the boys and I escaped present craziness and traveled briefly back in time. My sister was part of a music video shoot in the now vacant old Woodward High School building (also formally the School for Creative and Performing Arts). So we took advantage of the open door and went exploring.

Room after room, floor after floor. I'm pretty fearless when it comes to this kind of adventure---urban exploration. Not sure exactly where we were "allowed" to go, not sure what (or who) we'd find hidden in these spaces, the four of us opened doors, climbed staircases, peered in closets, and meandered the halls.

And we found so many treasures. An easel graveyard.

One of TWO swimming pools. One for men, one for women. That's how they rolled 100 years ago.

If I could have figured out a way to sneak this chalkboard home I would have. Finders keepers, right?

I needed this day with the boys. A break, an adventure, a memory, and lots of photos : )

Arian

Papa.

Papa passed away yesterday. He was 93. He told my mom at night that he didn't think he'd be here the next day and he was right.

On days like yesterday I feel most comfortable on the front lines. I want to stop everything. I want to be there. I want to go see the body. I want to cry all the tears. I want to take pictures because I know it's a sacred day and I want to remember it always.  

So that's what we did. We cleaned out Papa's nursing home room (I'm glad he wasn't there too long), we made a trip to the funeral home and said goodbye to his body, we cried and laughed and cried, we documented the day in photos,

It was beautifully sunny and icy. Pictures don't do it justice.

We went back to his house and started sifting through his clothes...his old military uniforms, flannel work shirts, and leisure suits from the 70's. We got out photos and worked on the display for his memorial service.

What a stud. I see why their blind date wasn't their last.

I'm working on a "5 Lessons I Learned From Papa" post.

Til then I'll just say thank you, Papa. I'm VERY proud to be your grand daughter. Life is better because of you and won't be the same without you.

Arian : )

Follow The Good King

I'm hard at work on my first ever solo show--YAY!! It's opening the beginning of May at Fort Thomas Coffee. Last year Daniel, Jason, and I did a show called "Love Stories" there and it was a big success. So I'm excited and a bit nervous to face the challenge of filling the space on my own.

The show is called "The Good King". I'm creating prints and characters and patterns and new products all around the idea of living in a kingdom and following the Good King.  Kind of my own tinier, cuter, girlier version of C.S. Lewis's Narnia or Tolkien's Middle Earth. : )

The hope is to use this show as an opportunity to try my hand at some new ventures, like fashion and fabric design, home goods, and paper goods. To help fund some of these new projects I'll be slyly releasing the new prints in my Etsy shop as I create them.

Testing out some samples.

Here's the first available print! Daniel had a vision of sorts come to mind at a young woman's funeral last year. It was all these tiny dots moving through space. Each one seemed small and insignificant but when you stepped back you noticed that they were all moving together as part of one form. They were parts of something bigger, being moved together to be something greater than they could be on their own.

I love that idea. And that in part inspired this print. Small dots coming together to form something bigger and more beautiful and more meaningful. When we follow the Good King we get to be apart of something grand, even if we can't always see it up close : )

It's in the shop if you're interested!

Arian