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!

How to Start an Art Practice Without a lot of Supplies

Posted on by Alexandra Schaefers

I meet a lot of people who believe making art requires a lot of time, material, space and/or talent. Actually making art only requires one medium and a little passion. People make art just with their cell phone cameras these days and you don’t even have to be a photographer to do that. What interesting compositions could be made by framing one’s surrounds, what painterly moods could be expressed just capturing the light of a particular moment?

For more tactile people all one needs is paper and a pencil or pen. One could draw on the back of paper out of the recycle, buy a ream of copy paper, find a notebook laying around the house, pick up a sketchbook or notebook at the store, use the inside of paper bags.

My sketchbook is a ream of cotton bond paper, it’s more expensive than copy paper but its takes watercolor paint a little better and is still a lot cheaper than buying sketchbooks. I keep these in a three ring binder but no one needs to be that fancy even. A folder, manila envelope, box. One could scan their drawings onto a computer, post them (or not) on social media, a blog maybe and then recycle the paper copies.

Obviously there is nothing wrong with buying a nice sketchbook or having a lot of art supplies. I’m just trying to make things as simple and flexible as possible so anyone who is stuck inventing entry barriers for themselves may be inspired to let that go. Drawing is the best foundation for all art in my opinion. Even if what you want is to make giant oil paintings beginning to draw will take you about halfway to that goal.

Honestly, if you don’t start to draw you may never make a single painting. If you keep a drawing practice the stage is set. You will, sooner than you thought possible, start painting. Or get carried off in some other art direction more fulfilling than you ever could have imagined.

So what are you going to draw on your little stack of paper or the notebook you just pulled out of the bottom of the desk drawer? Even if it’s a little uninspired notebook, half-empty, with lines and old to-do lists it’s going to become a magical art-book the moment you make one attempt to express yourself in it.

Drawings can be made in a few minutes, we don’t need to wait for a lot of time to sit down and draw. Commercials, waiting for someone to arrive or text back, coffee breaks. Every time we see a social media post that irritates us it should be like a drinking game but instead it’s our cue to put down the phone and grab a piece of paper.

Starting a new thing and finding time can be hard, I won’t deny that. We don’t have get mad at ourselves or our circumstances. Nor to we have to get mad at ourselves for getting mad at ourselves. The moment we notice we haven’t drawn for a few weeks is the moment to congratulate ourselves for giving passion enough of a presence to remember. The moment we feel frustrated at how many other things we have to do is the moment to have gratitude that we have a strong passion that is going to take us on an amazing adventure even if it seems a little slow compared to the movies we love to watch.

Some people know what they want to draw already. Faces, cats, dishware, shoes, gardens, boats, birds, abstracts…some people know what they love that they want to talk about with art. Go to it. Do not obligate yourself to be good, it is more important to try, to learn. Whatever your drawings look like, trust that they are beautiful because you took the time to make them. Because they are a product of and catalyst for your passion. Because deciding to make art without anyone else’s permission or approval is a subversive act of faith in the worth of your life.

You can worry about making your drawings “good” later. Even better, you can continue to cultivate your voice and discover more of your own beauty.

Some people don’t know what they want to draw, they just know they like art and want to make their own. No problem. Draw something near you. Draw something in your imagination. Draw something that seems like something you would like to draw. Doodle, scribble, put the pencil down on the paper and make some marks. Get to know the marks your hand likes to make. You can decide later what to draw, the important thing is to start. Let yourself start the thing you want to do. Let it be incredibly imperfect. Let it be a tiny seed that looks nothing like the grand oak you would like it to be.