I have several posters, some original ink drawings, and a 6′ hand-painted black light banner in this show.

Thunderbitch: Women Designers in Northwest Rock 1966-2010
Opening party August 5, 5-8pm
Exhibit runs August 5 – 27
Tether Design Gallery, 323 Occidental Ave S

From DIY Xerox flyers to album covers to silkscreened posters, women designers have shaped the visual identity of music in the Northwest for decades. Artists include: Lynda Barry, Ellen Forney, Lisa Orth, Alice Wheeler, and dozens more!

With live music by Barbara Ireland + Stone Gossard and Visqueen, plus an appearance by The Piston Packin’ Mamas, Seattle’s all-girl car and motorcycle club. Immediately following the opening party, Damien Jurado will perform a free, all ages show in the gallery.

Check out a video preview of the art here:

Last week, local TV station KING-5 filmed me at home and teaching at Cornish.

This summer, I’ll be teaching comics at the (new! improved!) Summer at Cornish program – one class for adults and two classes for teens (age 13 – 18). I’ve taught the teen class for the past 6 years, and I’ve found that kids who actually seek school in the summer really want to be there, so it’s fun and everyone works hard. The adult classes are new this summer, and I really like teaching adults, so I’m looking forward to seeing how that goes.

Graphic Novels (adult class)
Comics and graphic novels are quickly becoming recognized as an important new literary form. But reading and appreciating a graphic novel is different from reading an all-text novel, and creating a comic is different from just writing or illustrating a story. How do we read or create a work where words and art are inextricably linked? In this course, students will read and discuss selected graphic novels, and use them as the basis for exploring studio skills in writing and drawing.

July 6 – August 13
Mondays 5:30pm – 8:30pm
Sign up here!

Comics Studio (teen class)
Create your own comics! Students will learn basic skills including cartoon drawing, storytelling, drafting, lettering, and page design. At the conclusion of the course, students will make a mini-comic book containing all the comics created in class. No previous experience necessary!

Session I
July 6 – 23 (Final Exhibition on Friday, July 23)
M/W 9:00am – 12:00pm
Sign up here!

Session II
July 26 – August 13 (Final Exhibition on Friday, August 13)
M/W 9:00am – 12:00pm
Sign up here!

I will also add that Jake will be teaching Animation Essentials (for teens) in Session I.

I am excited to announce that after serving on the board for one and a half years, I have been elected Vice President of the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce. Many thanks to the Board Directors for this honor and vote of confidence! I will do my very best.

I would like to add that the grossest thing I found on the CHCC’s Capitol Hill Street Sweep this past Saturday was in a smelly, trashy door alcove: one of those plastic dental floss picks. Otherwise, the weather was gorgeous, the company spirited, the coffee delicious, and to my surprise it was honestly really fun! The next one is in the fall, and I will hound you all to come.

Having spent another morning writing and thumbnailing, I figure it’s time to announce: I sold my book to Gotham/Penguin. Hooray! The storyline combines autobiography and studies about artistic creativity, and brilliant cartoonist Megan Kelso agreed to help comb over my roughs.

It’s been a long time in the works: two writing retreats, a reading at Richard Hugo House, lots of late nights at the tea house with my laptop. Now I have until August, 2011 to get it done. Sleeves rolled up, nose to the grindstone!

A deep curtsey to Lucia Watson, my editor at Gotham, and Holly Bemiss, my agent. Thank you!

This is a portrait of Jake and me, based on a photo Jake took one morning a few months ago. I was in a terrible mood, and he put on a bling-y medallion of mine, and unbuttoned his shirt to reveal it. It totally cheered me up. Of course!

This cover is also timed to announce Love Note, the installation Jake and I are putting together for the Seattle Erotic Art Festival next weekend.

Jake and I are collaborating on a huge art installation for the Seattle Erotic Art Festival! It’s called Love Note, and it’s about writing, giving, and receiving love notes, something we are very fond of. Our piece will be one of the first things you’ll see from the entrance, at the end of the red carpet.

We’ve been honored with support from Western Bridge, the Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, and SEAF (this is their first year awarding grants for interactive installations).

Today’s SEAF newsletter has an article about Love Note, by Clea Hersperger:

Love notes are a little-explored area in the context of erotic art. As part of the 2010 Festival, Ellen Forney and her partner Jacob Peter Fennell are creating an interactive installation about love notes, a literary form the long-distance lovers know well. Love Note’s participants write, give, and receive a love note via writing stations, an enormous bed with a variety of pillows, and notes left and found under the pillows.

Love notes can encompass a great variety of emotional expressions – sweet, raunchy, romantic, silly. What note awaits you? What will you write? Indulge!

They also posted a sweet interview which I am copying below because I heart it so much!

The Seattle Erotic Art Festival is April 30 – May 2 at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall. Tix here. Come! It’s really fun. (And we’ve been working our asses off!)

[Read more →]

After much pain and inconvenience*, I have a NEW CAR! She is ADORABLE! Yesterday was a gorgeous day, and Jake and I zipped around the curvy hills of Portland with our sunglasses on and our hair blowing, catching glimpses of Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood. Life is good!

Some things don’t change much. (Sometimes that’s good!)

(*Need to write that document soon, in re: the demise of the BMW. Sigh.)

Here is “Kick at Home” as it appears in I Love Led Zeppelin, and as it appears in the new Czech translation. One snag in the translation: my turkey drawing for the “cold turkey” panel. The Czech translation for “cold turkey” is more like “clean cut,” and Jarka and I went back and forth on how to deal with that (her first solution was a hand with the fingers cut off -!?). We eventually settled on a jack-knife cutting the panel border.

In I Love Led Zeppelin:

In Czech:

From the Czech translator:

I believe that czech readers will be pleased that
czech edition of your comics has something special, something “only for
czech” added by the author, i. e. U!
we would like to place some note about it on the cover.

thank U very much for help – I will send U the cartoon to authorize.

translating of your work really was little bit “hard-core” but also
it was soooo funny! So many good jokes – RESPECT!

greetings,
jarka

First off, everyone’s okay – but the BMW is totaled. Fie on that 19-year-old in the yellow Aveo! (”Can we just exchange information? This is my sister’s car and she’s gonna kill me!”) The 2002 had a starring role in Wheels, a two-page comic I did for the Seattle P.I. (R.I.P. also!) in August, 2007.

Jillian passes me the torch (the keys and a Bic) in “Wheels”

May, 2007: Off to the DMV. Excited!

Goodbye, sweet 2002.