Had a real nice holiday with both families this year. Spent the eve with Jen's folks in Bend and headed out to Camp Sherman to see my folks on Christmas day. Still quite a bit of snow out at their house, so we were able to utilize our nordic gear for a pre-consumption ski out in the woods. Thanks to all our friends and family for the generosity and fine company. GT's had by all.

Back in the September post, I mentioned a cabinet being built by my good friend Louis. Well, he surprised me with it the night of the show, and I've since mounted it to the wall in my studio. These pics don't do it justice, it is a thing of beauty. Many thanks Louis, it was well worth the wait.

I've got a few quick projects to finish up this week, and then a few more days to snowboard, hopefully. The weather has been rather uncooperative lately, so hopefully it will get cold for the new year and start acting like winter again.

Well, the show is up, and the opening went quite well. Thanks to everyone who came out, it was wonderful to see you all. It was nice to finally have the work done and hung, but seeing so many old friends at once was the best of all. Here's the first round of photos.

Woke to a gorgeous morning. So glad I got up early, because it was raining by 10am. When I took evad out tonight it was pure mashed potatoes.

Here's a larger version so you can read it... Hope you all can make it down to Local 35 to see some new work!

Hola. I haven't been out of the house too much these days, resulting in a startling lack of interesting pictures. So here's a view from the studio of my co-pilot. Been hunkered down powering out some work, and getting lots done.

Tomorrow Bachelor opens and I'm heading up there to make some turns. It's been bluebird for the past week, not exactly sure what they've been waiting for. Turning 28 on Sunday, and I must say, I'm quite excited to ride some lifts on my birthday. It's been a long time since that happened.

Found this nice memory of the Portland skyline going through an old sketchbook today.

Found this little beauty stuck to the back of one large rusted hulk of "inspiration".

Today dawned clear, blue sky and white mountains. Resorts are opening up, it's downright freezing at night, and it's getting to be my favorite time of the year. Jen and I picked up our pass pictures yesterday, and thoughts of pow turns and slashers are beginning to cause some concentration problems.

Paintings are coming along, projects are underway, and I should be snowboarding on my birthday for the first time in quite a few years.

Things are good.

I collaborated with Akadia a few months back and this tee is now available at Local 35 in Portland and other fine shops. Akadia has their whole fall/winter line out now so check it out!

Lots to report this October so far. Another beer label came out that I worked on, this time Hop Trip Pale Ale, a seasonal brew from Deschutes Brewery. It's only available at the brewpub in Bend, but definitely worth the trip if you're not too far away. It's available on tap, although I'd recommend getting a couple bottles to go if you'd like to try it. For some reason the batch that got bottled is much tastier than the keg beer. Just ask this happy taster.

The drawing above is a sketch from my river trip with Louis and Molly. I arrived early to the meeting point and what can I say, the trashcans just looked so good in the morning light. Whatever. There's a bigger version here.

In other news, Jen triumphed at the Bend Half Marathon last weekend. She came in 1st in her age group with a PR that bested her previous time by a good 10 minutes. Kind of puny medals they were giving out to finishers, but she got a nice engraved mug for her efforts as well. I was pace guy, riding around the course on my bike, enjoying the view of this fresh dusting in the mountains.

Finally got some slides back the other day. You know it's been a while when the first couple of pics on the roll have fresh snow in them. Been waiting to see this fish for a while. I caught this beautiful native steelhead back in August on the North Umpqua.