photography, writing, handweaving
My immediate family celebrates Christmas (in a secular sort of way) while our extended family celebrates Hanukkah, but there doesn’t need to be any official observance for celebrating friends, family, good food, and colorful lights in the long winter dark while waiting for the days to lengthen into spring.
I know it’s been quiet in this space, but it hasn’t been because I’m not working. That’s the problem actually – I’ve been doing enough freelance writing that I’m either not taking many photographs, I’m just taking them to go with articles, or the ones I have taken are sitting in my catalog waiting for me to actually look at them. I like writing, but I miss photography. Hopefully I’ll have more stuff to look at here in the near future.
A little news! I’ve been thinking for a while about downsizing my art studio, which is frankly a bit large for my needs, and now the plan is to trade spaces with the artist next door to me. We’ll be swapping probably in early November, hopefully before artwalk, and I’ll be sharing my space with my father, painter and printmaker Dan Tuttle, who has recently moved to the area. In the meantime, studio 214 will be open as usual for October artwalk this Friday the 3rd! As always, if you can’t make it to artwalk, I’m always happy to open the studio by appointment.
Also, I’ve signed up for Square credit card services, so I can now take cash, check or credit, which should make life considerably easier.
The autumn issue of Edible Seattle is out, and it includes a spread of photos that I took of cideries in the Port Townsend area. I didn’t write the article this time, so I just got to poke around the orchards and tasting rooms with my camera while my husband tried the various ciders. We also finally got to visit Finnriver, which is owned by a college friend of my husband’s.
You’ll have to check out the magazine to see the photos they chose for the article, but here are some of my favorite outtakes from the trip.
A few more photos from our recent road trip. Water, fog, sunshine and redwoods on the way down, desert hills and high mountains on the way back. Lots of pictures of Mount Shasta, because it’s such a lovely mountain, and a few photos where I was amusing myself with multiple exposures – you should be able to guess which ones.
This month’s issue of Grow Northwest includes an article I wrote about the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, a cooperative of flower farmers from around the northwest. I visited four different flower farms: Jello Mold, Everyday Flowers, Choice Bulb, and Triple Wren. Everyone was wonderful to talk with, and the coolers full of sweet peas and peonies were just amazing. I only wish I’d been able to write a longer piece! Here are some of the photos I took at the various farms.
So we just got back from our annual road trip down the west coast and back, and I decided to amuse myself on the drive by taking photos of the various bridges we went over (or under, or past), from the Astoria-Megler Bridge over the Columbia to the Golden Gate, with all the little stream crossings down the Oregon Coast in between. Bridges are cool.
I spent last month working on three different projects for Grow Northwest magazine, all of which are now out in the June issue. I interviewed Jo Wolfe at the Skagit County Historical Museum and drove around following the heritage barn map that she helped put together. I visited a raw milk dairy and got licked by baby cows. Finally, I spoke with both the director of the Puget Sound Food Hub and the owners of Bow Hill Blueberry Farm, which acts as one of the distribution hubs for the network. Man, I live in a great area! Here are some favorite photos from the month.
Even after all these years of living in Skagit Valley, tulip season is strange and surreal. Actually I think it gets weirder all the time.
The Cymbidium orchid in my kitchen window has been blooming its head off this winter. The flowers look particularly wonderful with sunlight behind them, illuminating the petals.
Jessamyn Tuttle