art

February

Hazel G

02 Mar 2026 — 3 min read

I kinda didn't realize it was already March. February was truly busier than I would have liked and just flew by. I cannot believe the rate at which things to be deteriorating in the world of politics, civil rights, healthcare etc(really everything) and I am thankful to have things that keep me busy and not just panicking about it all.

I have been a temporary plant guardian for the Rose City Bluff restoration project for a handful of years now and we had our annual gathering to pot up plants to take home til fall when they get planted. I love this hyper-local project and getting to know a bunch of people in the neighborhood. We ended up nerding out about native plants and what works in our micro climate above the bluff. https://rosecitybluff.org

We wrapped up our 5 week ink sketching course on Thursday and it's been so much fun. I did this same course when I had just started taking art lessons a year ago and it's been really amazing to compare what I was drawing last year compared to this year. So much improvement and I think I'm finally ready to do some plein air drawing and painting this year. I will never stop gushing about how amazing the community is that my teacher has created. It is so supportive and welcoming. And with the ink class it's so cool to see ten or twenty other interpretations of the same image!

I got in some more chainsaw practice in February and I continue to get more comfortable with it. I never thought I'd really like it but it's such a great tool and a useful skill to have. We've been working on the Riverside Trail along the Clackamas River. It got absolutely hammered by the heavy rains and wind in December. The worst is that there were some living trees still standing out there post Riverside fire but there weren't many and they had no protection during the storm and a lot of what was left came down.

This quote from Vicky Osterweil really sums up where we're at "They need the world to be as ugly and absent of possibility as their lives, their souls. They need everything to be a mirror, and the only truly trustworthy mirror for what is inside them is a pile of broken bodies, a mound of dust and sand, a rubble strewn field"
So keep creating and keep trying to make the world a place you want to exist in, if only to spite the assholes in charge.
XO

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January and how to keep existing in this mess

We made it

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