(some Demian DineYazhi' stuff)

1st drawing of the new year is of @smidgeonpress.bsky.social for the 16th year running. still the only new year tradition i care about

For new year’s eve, I always make prosciutto-wrapped dates stuffed with chèvre and marcona almonds with a balsamic vinegar and honey reduction. Seems fancy (ok, a couple of the ingredients are), tastes fantastic, requires almost zero culinary skill, tastes amazing. I love having our own traditions.

Max Beckmann, Happy New Year, 1917

i miss furtively drawing rando strangers in cafés. was looking for something on an account i don't follow and this random person's icon was in the "suggested" bar on their feed. sketched the profile pic quickly without actually clicking on their account so it almost felt like drawing in a café

Painting in progress. Looks a mess, but I know where it’s going. The blue archways glow in the dark (when “charged” with UV light). The blue and pink are painted on the back side of this translucent YUPO. The glow-in-the-dark, which is mostly transparent, is on the front, as are the drawn lines.

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The Seti art prints are now available along with a big restock of prints and stickers for everyone looking for a little new year’s art refresh. Funds help support this linearly 16 year old guy keep going strong🐈‍⬛🧡 samanthamash.etsy.com

What moved the needle on New Seasons’ agreeing to a contract is knowing the union had sufficient funds to weather a long strike during peak shopping time. Stupid money spent on anti-union lawyers, obstruction, PR. And still their biggest bet was on workers’ financial desperation. Solidarity FTW.

Will they get to you by Christmas? Absolutely not, but I have calendars that have a postcard on the back of every perforated page that I can send to you by the new year. www.pamwishbow.com/shop/p/2026-...

Loving the wave of unionizing at museums. Getting a contract is the hard part, of course—often stupidly convoluted by institutions helmed by the worst capitalists among us (multi-generational rich people who have never had to live paycheck to paycheck). May these workers meet with great success!

So glad to hear that New Seasons Labor Union finally got their contract and are no longer asking supporters to boycott. Every time I read about the super-basic asks that corporations fight against, I am gobsmacked. www.nslu.org/strike-threa...

Last week to check out the holiday show at Russo Lee~~ They hung mine next to a gorgeous piece by Samantha Yun Wall, which I love so, so much—I’m a huge fan of her work.

Working on some bigger pieces, and had to upgrade to an adequately-sized brush for filling in backgrounds. And buy more paint.

One week left! Submit your work to 2026 Pacific Northwest Drawers by next Friday, Dec 19 at 10:59 PM (PT). Photographers from Alaska, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington are welcome. There is no cost to apply. Hit the link to learn more www.blueskygallery.org/2026-pnwd-ca...

A little bit of glow-in-the-dark in this one. I’m testing out a super matte base for mixing with charcoal powder (the black branches) and Blue Lit glow-in-the-dark pigment. It’s the first acrylic medium I’ve tried that is as matte as acryla-gouache and Flashe paints.

Always interesting to see what the remaining paint on my palette comes to when smushed together and scraped into a jar (I always try to save it—paint’s expensive). Somehow I seem to wind up with more left over when working in Acryla-gouache than Flashe or traditional gouache.

I mean… This is the strongest argument yet for why the City of Portland so badly needed to end the commission governance structure. I’m so sad and angry about the renters who should have been helped and were told there were no funds. katu.com/news/investi...

I wish I had a proper studio right now. It’s challenging to work simultaneously on multiple large (for me) pieces when all I’ve got is a chunk of the living room in a one-bedroom condo. I tend to make small work in water-based media because my workspace is small. It’s a practical thing.

Nothing like draining the social battery at an event (major introvert here), falling asleep, getting woken up 3 hours later by a chirping smoke detector in want of a new battery (at least we had some!), and then laying awake for hours anxiously imagining worst-case scenarios. I am so tired.

For those not in those circles, I just need to remind you that losing a job to AI is not a vibes based idea. We are being told explicitly by art directors that we are being weighed against AI for jobs, people on teams fighting against the AD and you. It sucks. It’s demoralizing.

Sent out my periodic (read: highly irregular) studio newsletter this morning. Give it a read: mailchi.mp/e6d89997808f... Sign up via my website if you want to get them (since social media mostly sucks for this sort of info): heatherleebirdsong.com/contact

Our friends at @birdallianceoregon.bsky.social put together this fast & easy invitation so Portlanders can thank their district councilors for protecting parks this year. As PGE tries to repackage their attack on Forest Park, councilors need to hear from you. Click thru: t.e2ma.net/message/3eh9...

What Kind of Times Are These—a new painting in Flashe on panel—debuts in the holiday group show at Russo Lee Gallery here in Portland. Opening: First Thursday Dec. 4, 5–7 PM russoleegallery.com/exhibitions/...

“The curators had a whole birth canal of wall space with which to explain the historical and political machinations that would explain why she came to be executed (i.e. the background to that little thing called the Revolution). Do we get it? Nope.” Pure gold, that bit.

Literal book weights! I left these Yupo sheets rolled for too long and need them to relax before I can work with them. A random sampling of dense tomes from my myth and folklore bookcase to the rescue!

On this day, Indigenous people and allies confront the settler-colonial narratives of “Thanksgiving,” observing it instead as a National Day of Mourning.

Slop Evader is a tool from artist and researcher Tega Brain that lets you search the web for results exclusively before November 30, 2022—the day that ChatGPT was released to the public.

I can't offer a sale this year at my Etsy, but Inprnt is having a sale! My art is ready for you to take home as stocking stuffers and gifts. Shop small this year and support the creatives you love whether that is me, or someone else! 🎁 www.samanthamash.etsy.com 🎁 www.inprnt.com/gallery/samanthamash

Frankly, everyone at the administrative level is guilty of wage theft from the workers who actually keep the museum running—art handlers, registrars, janitors, visitor services, etc. Suda gave herself raises and did a $250k rebrand while fighting against living wages for her colleagues.

Books with Pictures is an irreplaceable part of the comics community! www.gofundme.com/f/keep-books...

Yes! I would love to see The Met staffed by a unionized workforce!

Just called a company’s customer service number and an actual human answered—no phone tree, no uncanny “service voice” robot, no pre-recorded message. It was so nice and easy. I feel like I fell into an alternative (better) universe for a minute.

Went to spend some time with the Ursula K. Le Guin exhibition at @oregoncontemporary.bsky.social today. Some random things, idiosyncratically chosen (I only took pictures relevant to a conversation I was having with a friend):

One-third of museums in the United States have lost federal funding under Donald Trump’s presidency, according to a survey released by the American Alliance of Museums.

Today’s message from the random universe. Do you know where your towel is?

Absolutely fuck LACMA leadership for refusing to voluntarily recognize their workers’ union.

I am gleefully cackling. I have a mean streak a mile wide for anyone who fucks over workers and fails to value FOH labor. It’s gross that the museum spent $250k on an unnecessary rebrand after reneging on longevity pay for their workers. Not that that’s why they canned her—but it should be.

This is a favorite archival letter from recent history.

Sometimes I use little paper maquettes to work out the polygon figures for my paintings. Mostly I use an old desktop copy of Sketchup Make on an ancient laptop, but sometimes I need to play with something physical to figure it out. (I also need more gray card stock, which shows lighting better.)

“This art writing doesn’t pass my Turing test. It plummets with a wet, creepy thud into the uncanny valley.” Shudderingly excellent description—something LLMs can’t make. They’re just auto-complete on steroids, producing averaged words from huge data sets (which were made through mass theft).

I remain somewhat aghast that Halloween is not a national holiday, despite its cultural importance.

cultureedit.com/collections/... 48 hours left to bid - I have 5 works in this auction, check it out. 😘

The tragedy of a theft like this is that the objects will most likely be destroyed. Petty opportunists don’t fence collectibles—they melt them down, break whatever they can into salable parts, and toss the rest. Even though what they wind up with is a fraction of the market value of what they stole.

New Sticker! ryanbubnis.bigcartel.com/products Doom scrolling getting you down? You picked up your phone to check the weather, but now you’ve been zombie scrolling for 20 mins Screenprinted, 2-color red & black ink on white vinyl, uv resitant.

"Rainey-Smith is a xylographer – she makes woodcuts. She doesn’t make images that look like woodcuts, she doesn’t use computers, she doesn’t use AI, she actually carves wood the old-fashioned way, which is a tradition that goes back at least two thousand years." www.orartswatch.org/liv-rainey-s...

Returning to an in-progress acryla-gouache painting after a few weeks, and I’ve spent most of my day setting the stay-wet palette back in order. Some colors separated and puddled. I have no idea what any of them are anymore, in relation to the painting itself. But: no mold! So that’s good.

Portland’s major reason for trying to yoink arts funding (which our artists and small arts orgs desperately need) is to move that money to Parks & Rec, so ensuring funding for this also helps us hold the line for the arts. It’s all related!

Congratulations to Vajra Chandrasekera (@vajra.me), recipient of the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction for Rakesfall! Chandrasekera's book was chosen by authors Matt Bell, Indra Das, Kelly Link, Sequoia Nagamatsu, and Rebecca Roanhorse.

Saw this marvelous rose on a walk yesterday in our quiet Portland neighborhood. The rest of the rose bush was in awful shape—as if it mustered up everything it had to produce this one perfect rose. Maybe the contrast made it stand out all the more.