My Body Is Not A Machine

Intuitive Drawing is a weekly newsletter about creative work and being human. As always, take what you need and leave the rest.

Dear friends,

I’m high on Hawai’i.

This is my second year attending the Kona Art Residency with my business partners, Cole Lyons and Jolyn Fry, and our friend, fellow teacher, and Cole’s partner, Allie Yacina. We’re on the big island, staying in a house on a hill just outside of Kona. We’ve had a car, unstructured time, and space. We’ve made art, read books, got in the ocean, and explored.

Cole, Jolyn, and I have been running Ulna together for several years now, and we just found out that each of us was born in the water element in the eastern zodiac. I feel fortunate to have such a strong supportive partnership with them and this just feels like another way to articulate that. We are aligned in our teaching values: prioritizing mental health and self expression. We’ve found that navigating challenges in our business is easier when we continue to value and respect each other as people and artists. In the last year we started alternating business meetings with more informal get togethers, where we can catch up on our lives as well as work. None of us are perfect, but the beauty of running a business with people who value human expression in art is that we value it in each other too. I love Cole, Jolyn, and Allie, and am grateful to share this space with them.

I’m writing you from the last day of our trip. Coming here for a second time allowed me space to get really clear with what I wanted to work on, and how easy that might be to achieve. This year, I completed the artwork for my 2027 calendar, although I still have the bottom pages and the formatting to do. I love taking the time and space to sink into a body of work. I like to work in cyclical bursts like this, expelling work from my hands on one subject or idea before moving on to the next thing.

This puts me in mind of past artist residencies where I was able to create a small body of work in a concentrated period. I want to spend a little time reflecting on those experiences before I share more of my week with you.

In 2019 I created this body of work in a week long residency at the Sou’wester with my kiddo. I was trying to capture the feeling of the ocean in ink. I still love these pieces.

In 2021, I went to Paris, Tennessee with my friend, Abby Houston. We stayed in a big farmhouse. While Abby made magnificent abstract paintings in the art studio, I huddled over this tiny desk and illustrated a story by my high school friend that is still yet to be published.

In 2023 I attended two residencies. The first was in Port Townsend, Washington, at Centrum with my friend Gretchen Thayer.

How lucky we were to have this huge studio space to ourselves! I spread out as much as I wanted and still didn’t get in Gretchen’s way.

I created a body of work that pushed my figure drawing skills, but also reflected back to me my desire for rest, autonomy, and agency as a mother and caregiver.

The second residency I attended that year was the only 2 week residency I’ve done, at the Suttle Lodge outside of Sisters, Oregon.

Two weeks is a long time for me, and I generated enough work for a show later that year and then some. These pieces were about my body feeling boxed in, and contorted. I can see the struggle around having a female body, being sexualized versus feeling sensual (something done to me, versus something owned by me). It was an extension of the work I started at Centrum, but this work became more playful. I made over 30 paintings, beginning with 4” x 5” warm ups, and ending with 22” x 36” pieces. I grew easy in the work and my last paintings felt less cramped and more celebratory, with children and rabbits, indicating how much I missed home near the end of that time.

In 2024 I did another mini residency at the Sou’wester with my kiddo.

Some of this work didn’t survive, meaning I’ve painted over it, but it set me up for my show Tending later that year. I felt stuck at this time and leaned back into the practice of painting still life when stuck. I can see the larger painting breaking out into something weird, what later became the combination of abstraction and plant life that characterized Tending.

Last year, here in Hawai’i, at this artist residency, I started my calendar.

My concept for 2026’s calendar was Interwoven, meaning that we are connected to one another, a combination of interdependence, support, and recognizing that my ideas and outlook are connected to the people and media I surround myself with. It felt particularly resonant because I was on that trip with my friends and business partners.

I hesitate to articulate the theme of the work I just created. My intention was show plants and humans interconnected, to think of my body as something I have to nurture, like a garden or a plant. I haven’t found the words, the title yet: Plants & People, no, My Body Is Not A Machine, no, I Love Rabbits, well, obviously, but also no. I will try to make some sense of these images as I travel back to Portland, and let you know what I come up with.

In the meantime, enjoy this little photo gallery of Hawai’i.

Until next week, much love, Lettie Jane

Classes

• Intuitive Drawing (Saturday AM) Sept/Oct Saturdays, September 5th - October 3rd (5 weeks) 10:00am – 1:00pm

• Deeper Drawing (Saturday afternoons) Sept-Oct Saturdays, August 29th - October 3rd (6 classes) 1:30pm – 4:30pm

Tidbits

• I listened to The Road To Tenderhearts by Annie Hartnett. I laughed out loud on the airplane, unable to contain my delight at the protagonist’s concerns, and the cat named Pancakes, whose most desperate wish was to hang out with anyone who would die soon.

• The end of Cancer Season means a new playlist:

Happy Birthday To… (Artist of the Week)

Betye Saar was born on July 30, 1926. She turns 100 tomorrow!

As one of the artists who ushered in the development of Assemblage art, Betye Saar’s practice reflects on African American identity, spirituality and the connectedness between different cultures. Her symbolically rich body of work has evolved over time to demonstrate the environmental, cultural, political, racial, technological, economic, and historical context in which it exists.

For over six decades, Saar has created assemblage works that explore the social, political, and economic underpinnings of America’s collective memory. She began her career at the age of 35 producing work that dealt with mysticism, nature and family. —Roberts Projects

“I am intrigued with combining the remnant of memories, fragments of relics and ordinary objects, with the components of technology. It’s a way of delving into the past and reaching into the future simultaneously.” — Betye Saar

Art Shows

• If you missed the opening for NOSTALGIA POTLUCK, never fear, the show is up at The Purple Door all month, 3557 SE Division Street. Closing Party: Friday, August 8th, 5-8pm

• If you missed seeing my coaster in person at Nucleus’s Coaster show, you can still buy them online here.

• Find my Enya piece at the next LP Show at Albina Press, Saturday, September 26th.

Etc.

• August book club: Walk Through Walls: A Memoir by Marina Abramović

• September book club: Art Is Life by Jerry Saltz

• LINE TIME is a tiny recorded class whenever you need it.

Ways to Bring My Work Into Your Home

• Original Artwork

• Prints & Decks from Buy Olympia

The Bun Update is behind a paywall, so I can reward you kind folks who send money my way. If you need the bun content, but can’t afford another subscription, don’t hesitate to reach out and ask.