Ebay earrings

I found these earrings a few months ago on Ebay and snatched them up. Since they're clip-ons I figured I would sell them, but they're so beautifully made that I don't think I want to part with them.

fox apples

This is the drawing I did a few days ago, scanned and cleaned-up for your delectation.

There are a number of Korean idioms that use the word "fox" to express a trickster-like juxtaposition or quality of the unexpected. Rain on a sunny day is called "fox rain" (another term for it, which I like even more, is "tiger's wedding"), for example. I've been playing with the term in my sketchbook and it's been pretty fruitful (no pun intended) (just kidding I totally did that on purpose oh yeah).

Look forward to more!

Little fried things and hummus soup.

The tuberous things on the left are fried sunchokes and on the right are a couple squash blossoms from my garden. My method for frying most root veggies these days has been to chop or slice them into roughly uniform pieces (roughly being the key word here) and put them in a pan of cold oil. For some reason - and I'm sure Harold McGee has said plenty on the topic already - frying them by bringing them up to heat causes a lot less risk of splatter and smoke, and you don't have to worry about monitoring the temperature of the frying oil. The results were fantastic! The sunchokes were perfectly crisp with toothsome, creamy centers. They stuck in our teeth in the most delightful way. The squash blossoms were really tender and juicy, and the vegan breading I made (seasoned flour and garlic and ginger-steeped soy milk) was flavorful without overpowering the flavor of the flower.


I soaked and cooked up a bunch of dried chickpeas, intending to use them for mock tuna sandwiches, but I forgot about them for several days and decided to instead use them up in one go by making this soup. It's essentially the same ingredient list as hummus, plus lots of caramelized onions and vegetable broth (I used Better than Bouillon's No Chicken base, which is vegan but hits a lot of the same flavor notes as a classic chicken stock, with plenty of water and a little white wine). You could add a little cream, but we chose not to in order to keep our menu vegan for the night. I added some halved cherry tomatoes and basil from my garden, a generous drizzle of olive oil, and paprika. I bet it would be even better with sumac; next time!

as yet untitled, process photos

Rough pencil sketch.


More definite layout in pencil with beginning of the inking process.


Inked! Gonna lay in the color tomorrow I think it's bedtime for me now.

sketchbook pages from class

Florence + The Machine - Dog Days Are Over (2010 Version)

I went over to a friend's apartment with my good buddy Kate to plan out a collaborative project, and while we were there we caught some of the MTV Video Music Awards. It's been years since I watched MTV or anything associated and the spectacle of it totally won me over. Pop music: I like it now! After years of adolescent devotion to punk rock and The Mountain Goats who knew I had it in me!

But one performance stood head and shoulders above the rest for me. Florence and the Machine - an artist I had only heard of vaguely before tonight - performed "Dog Days Are Over" and it TOTALLY ROCKED. This is the music video. Enjoy!

larissa, short pose

Acrylic on paper, 24" by 18".