Ok friends, I’ve got an art making story for you. So if you’re not into creating, this might not be your cuppa but there’s pictures so I’ve at least got you covered there. 

Last Saturday I participated in Brush on the Bluff, a live art making event taking place on the Bluff next to Polly Judd Park. It’s my third year participating with my first year being the very first time I ever made art in front of other people. It has been such an uplifting event for me that I make a point to prepare for it for weeks beforehand by taking long walks along the bluff. 

About a week before the event we will do a group walkthrough of the area to select the locations on the bluff where we want to setup and make art. Last year I already knew what I wanted to make, so I just picked the spot that had the best looking and easiest to frame up Ponderosa Pine tree and I was done picking pretty quick (I think I might have been the first spot chosen).

We were walking through the space and people are selecting spots and talking about what they were allowed to bring and I’m pretty much zoning out, having a personal viewing party of the bluff. The train started to go by and I looked down this little valley in the cliff that splits and ends with the tracks at the bottom and I got this flash of a composition… just as another artist stakes a claim to the spot and we move on. 

So I made my tree and sold it to the best most awesome people possible. But, I had this idea for that train drawing just wedged in my mind. I said to my husband, “If I get invited next year I already know exactly what I want to do.” And then I doodled it in my little journal and moved on with my year. 

I had a dream or a thought about that drawing every week for that entire year. Every time I flicked by that doodle in my journal it just pinged in my head like lightning. So when I got the email from The Botanical Alchemists, I was ready. I knew the spot, I watched the weather for peak flowers and I went to Polly Judd “a few” times. I HAD to get this doodle out of my head or it was going to drive me nutbars. 

As we got closer and closer to the date of Brush on the Bluff I decided that, due to the time constraints and mistakes I made with the timing in the previous Brush on the Bluff events (also weather), I started the drawing the weekend before. I drew the entire bottom half of the piece while the flowers were all open on a warm day because they are the most finicky flowers when it comes to sunlight. And I drew the idea of trains because the only things that came by that day were stacks of plywood and the big black oil tank looking cars. 

The day of Brush on the Bluff came and it was cloudy and cold so I was thrilled I already had all those flowers sorted. I plopped myself down ravine-adjacent (no room for my tent in the spot I originally started in) and looked up to the hillside to start drawing tiny houses and trees and I see a huge cut into the land were a housing development had begun. NO ONE wants that in the drawing so I started to panic improvise. 

Being on the edge of the bluff gave me the perfect view of the high line train bridge and the freeway so I decided to make a composite view and put my imagination to work. The horizontal lines dashing across the drawing really just brought the whole thing together amazingly so I went with it, adding the Latah creek in-between even though I totally could not see any of it from where I was on the day of Brush on the Bluff. I knew it was there because I could see hints of it in my original post up and SOMETHING has to be at the bottom of the basalt cliffs… so I went with it (thank goodness for Google maps!). 

This being Expo year, I’ve been doing a lot of my Spokane work with inks and markers to give it that semi-vintage feel and I felt like Brush on the Bluff should get the same honorary Expo treatment. Markers and ink, I feel, was an excellent choice for that retro goodness. The hardest part about that was figuring out what colors the bluff and all its components are and picking the correct colors from the internet. 

I also got WAY better train car options on Saturday which was absolutely the best. 

So one day and one week after I had my epiphany on the bluff, I finally got it out of my head and onto a piece of hot press watercolor paper. The relief that brought me… such relief. Like fixing a rotten tooth or elevating a migraine. I can’t wait to hit the art store this weekend for a new slice of headache I MEAN paper. 

Now that Brush on the Bluff is over, it’s time for the auction and the show!* You can bid on and own my piece here.  But also take a minute to check out the other work that was made! Friends of the Bluff and The Botanical Alchemists really outdid themselves this year with the artists, there is so much WONDERFUL art in the auction and you really should take the time to look at it. It all perfectly encapsulates not only the day but the place and all the magic. 

Proceeds go two places, half the money goes to me and my newly formed marker addiction (I blame Maricica) and the other half goes to help preserve and protect our beautiful Bluff. In my opinion, one of the most fun ways to donate to a good cause. 

If you’re in Spokane you can view the art in person at the gallery showing this evening, Friday May 24th, from 5pm-8pm at the Washington Cracker Building. Please come and hang out with us, we’re a pretty fun bunch of artists I have to admit. 

And if you’re a Spokane artist or are maybe going to find yourself in Spokane next May, consider applying to Brush on the Bluff! I cannot express to you how much this event has shaped me as an art maker in the community, I highly recommend it. 

Thank you so much to The Botanical Alchemists and Friends of the Bluff, you do so much good for this city. 

Have a wonderful Memorial day weekend everyone! 

*Prints of Boxcars on the Bluff will be made available after the Brush on the Bluff auction. Auction closes Saturday, May 26tth 2024 at 7pm PST.