Happy Birthday to my blog! I've blogged for a full year.

I've been trying to pull out another screen printing idea. My brain is so cluttered with other stuff at the moment, that it is hard to think creatively. I kept thinking of cliche designs, like swimming koi. While I am fond of koi, I also like the style in which koi are composed and presented. Think full back Japanese tattoos. Fish, gracefully posed, complemented by stylized splashes of water, undulating lines indicating water movement, a sprinkle of flower blossoms... But, so uncreative to feature koi! It's been done a million times.

One of my unofficial screen printing goals is to include local animals in a design. I've not personally experienced that many local animals in the wild, but of the few that I have include leopard sharks, guitar fish and round rays, whose mating territory I invaded when I snorkeled amongst them a few summers ago. OK so I didn't really see a sea urchin, but I do know some sea urchins are sand dwellers, as I have drawn them for Birch classes that have to do with sandy lifestyles.

The stylized waves are far too curly, harkening back to an old European decorative aesthetic as opposed to an Asian one, so I will change that. But you get the idea.