October/November Zines

Posted on by Alexandra Schaefers

Here is the painting that made up the postcard zines for October and November, text below. Thanks for reading!

 “…shrank, leaving just enough space for two humans; the rest was wilderness.

All week, all I want is to be in the woods, to melt into Being and sketch the shapes trees make. But now it’s  Saturday, I am in the woods, and I’m wishing. Wishing I could share the walk with him—the sunlight, the temperature of my hands. 

Not so long ago I was alone. I don’t just mean that I was single, which I am still, despite the exciting emails. But I was trying to be enlightened and believed I shouldn’t need any of the  companionship I longed for. Instead, I took lots of ambling, wooded walks while solitude wove it’s poignant silver light into every leaf, bramble, and sliver of shade to buoy me with a sense of intimacy I sometimes miss now.“

August and September Zines

Posted on by Alexandra Schaefers

Here is the art for the August and September Zines. This is from an essay called “One Tiny Thing” I wrote for my blog, Landscape Diaries, about ten years ago. I tried to make all the essays from that blog into a Novella. But, since illustrating this piece, I have realized I am not interested in making up a cohesive plot, so I will just take my favorite ones to revise and illustrate. This essay will take 4 more months to finish in the meantime!

 text from the art:

…and a Downy Woodpecker hops around the trunk of a tree right by the trail. When I arrive at at the park, three ravens soar in an arc over the slope of oaks, then disappear into the woods, scolding each other. The mud is thick on the hiking trail as I slip between the bushes at the base of the hill. The sparrows and towhees, surprised by steps, dart from the path into the brush on either side.  They remind me, suddenly, of a dream I had last night. He and I lay together—as if it was settled—and the haunting calls of Varied Thrushes sounded all around us as the room…

June and July Postcards: Landscape Diaries

Posted on by Alexandra Schaefers

June’s postcard started a new project, illustrating my essay collection, “Landscape Diaries as a fictional art Journal/Illuminated novella. I am revising the story as a go along which probably isn’t the best approach for good writing but I wanted to get going on it as it will take me many years to complete. Sometimes you have to do the fun thing instead of the reasonable thing.

I wake up to fog shrouding the gravel lot full of weeds between my front porch and the auto shop, then send my new love interest a clever email which I quickly realize may sound more ambivalent than coy. I make chocolate chip pancakes in the old cast iron skillet and consider whether another message could fix any upset, or make it worse. I eat the pancakes, decide on worse, and then lay on the couch imagining how cozy it would be together. We haven’t met yet. It’s suspect, I know. But his precocious emails are the most fun I’ve had in months. Hopefully, I haven’t ruined it already.

I put on warm clothes and hop on my bike for Bald Hill. Nothing is left of the fog with its gripping sense of mystery but the January sun is nothing to complain about in the dreary Willamette Valley winter. 

I pass the university’s livestock barn, riding along a paved path through grassy fields and oak groves where a Red-tailed Hawk swoops off a power line into the grass…

April/May Zines

Posted on by Alexandra Schaefers

May’s Zine was quite late this month. My printer broke the day I was going to print and send it. I have been anticipating my printer dying at some point and decided I would not replace it since I am not making fine art prints any longer. But, I thought I would be able to print at a local print and ship shop expediently and that did not work out. My first draft through MagCloud looked good but I hadn’t aligned things correctly so I had to reprint. I was happy to put it out for the post on Monday but they didn’t get picked up! Finally yesterday they went out! Thanks for you patience! Here is the poem:

Songs

Yesterday the mud on the trail around the lake was soft while the dusty, green trees held each passing conversation in confidence. I walked in the shadows under their boughs listening to the song sparrows hop about in the ferns and twigs. For once I did not have any complaints to mull over in the calm solitude of the woods.

I stopped on the bridge to watch the geese shifting about on the water, just blurry shapes in the distance until they all lifted off and flew overhead. The sunlight rippled across their wings like it ripples across waves in the lake. The songs of the geese rang through the first days of Spring like they ring through the last days of Autumn—staggered, harsh and magnetic.

Poetry Postcard Zine: February and March 2024

Posted on by Alexandra Schaefers

Hi! This is Walking By.
I was walking home from the grocery store, through the wooded neighborhood, past the old craftsman’s & bungalows, Past the mossy winter trees & unruly gardens when I saw a poem attached to a fence in a special wooden box with a glass face. I stopped to read it. And it was beautiful & also awkwardly poetic. “Good for you,” I thought, “write from your own heart Fence Poet! Don’t worry about judgy folks like myself, just walking by, no courage to post their own poems out on the street.

At home I sit down on the burgundy leather couch that was long-ago wrecked by cats and search for this poet on-line. I’m going all-in now: supporting my neighborhood poets even if they’re a bit heavy-handed. Perhaps she has a blog to follow or a chapbook to buy. I find this is actually an accomplished poet. Who doesn’t own that particular fence. Whose words only sound over-done now because of all who came after who employed the phrase, the attitude, the trick. But either way our opinions are just shirts that keep us warm and make us feel a certain way.”

New poem next month! Sign-up here!

Postcard Poetry Zine

Posted on by Alexandra Schaefers

My postcard newsletter has inspired me to publish an illustrated postcard zine. I’ve always wanted to publish an illustrated magazine but it’s a big project for one artist who wants to publish a lot of content regularly. My best attempt was Lovejoy News, a micro-news report I blogged when I lived near Lovejoy street in NW Portland. I was always in a rush to meet my deadlines so my illustrations were questionable. When I made the first printed copy I felt a little embarrassed. Also I had no idea how to gather any sort of following so I moved on to other art projects. I’m very excited now to return to this dream via a scaled down version: Just one postcard a month. Above is January’s postcard image made into two parts, I’m not sending it out as issues since my audience has already seen it, this is just the inspirational template. You’ll have to subscribe or tune in to this blog in February to see the first issue! Here’s the poem from the postcards!

Stretch

All the leaves are on the ground now.

The beautiful crow swoops out of the bare branches 

toward my window then past. 

Spiky brown seed pods dot the otherwise bare brush.

Rain begins to hit the window as crows 

fly though the back yards below the roof lines 

to perch in a fir. 

I used to worry that one day 

I wouldn’t be able to walk in the woods

And I have stretched 

ever since 

to hold each of the moments;

To plant them inside like trees.

Little Books Explained

Posted on by Alexandra Schaefers
In The Slough, Greeting Card Book by Alexandra Schaefers

I picked up In the Slough from PaperJam Press yesterday, it is now available in my new WooCommerce shop under the “Books” tab. I’m really excited about making more Little Books. It seemed like a good way for me to be able to do what I love most—illustrate my own nature poems into short books—while also providing something useful to others by making them card size and providing a place to write a note to a loved one in it.

These days we are rightfully tired of clutter, wary of collecting and gifting unnecessary junk and we want to reduce our negative impact on the environment. Since Little Books house heartfelt, intimate poems they can be seen and felt as a special gift while using very little extra resources than a traditional greeting card. They are presents for people we love who really don’t want more stuff. They are for people who love to give gifts but want responsible options.

These are printed on 100% recycled paper. I rode my bike to the shop to look over the proof and took the bus to pick up the finished copies. I even rode my bike to the post-office this morning to send out my first orders. I am going to try my best to keep up the alternative transportation theme so these books can have a hint of environmental stewardship added to their value.

I have a 50% off sale to celebrate the opening of my shop and the completion of my second Little Book, it runs through May 14th. I’d love to know what you think of this idea!