Yesterday an ancient oak split off a third of itself downtown and fell on two telephone polls (and several cars) severing power for all of Martinez for a very long while.   This meant no internet, no lights and playing scrabble by the fire which Jon won by a cool 16 points. Power was restored by bedtime, which works out because I had become obsessed by trying to find information about this artist.

Not only is this piece gorgeous – it is accurate! Look at the inset text in the corner.

Apparently it’s by Fiona Bearclaw, an artist who attended the state of the beaver conference and lives in Oregon.  This is a linocut that she recently made and hasn’t even made many prints yet. Isn’t it amazing?  The beavers are beautiful and the intricate work amazing I was not surprised to learn she was at the beaver festival. Apparently Fiona has an Etsy shop offering a few other amazing pieces and is also a talented embroiderer and artist.

Her partner is also an artist (Lance E. Pants) because he’s the one who posted the image on facebook and when I asked specifically about the text told me they had been to the beaver conference and were both inspired by what they heard..  I was significantly fan-girled and asked him a million questions about the her. Knowing that the conference was hosted by the Cow Creek tribe and having attended several opening ceremonies and morning blessings given by tribal members I asked about her name. Fiona Bearclaw. Was she herself a member of the tribe?

His answer  makes me laugh even now if i think about it, and I dare say will probably never stop being funny. I can’t help hearing it delivered in a very matter-of-fact way in my head by the character Ed Chigliak from Northern Exposure.

“No,” he said. “She’s just very fond of the pastry.”

Now as if this story wasn’t good enough, here’s the very best part. Lance said that she would be selling at an art show this weekend in Weeds, and I when i said how very much her work would be appreciated in Martinez he said they had actually thought about coming to the beaver festival!

Thinking about that I realized I wasn’t at this conference plugging the festival like I usually do, but Ben Goldfarb and his book were and Sarah Koenisberg’s film on climate change included an interview about Martinez and the festival in it, so I guess that might have peaked their curiosity.

Fingers crossed this can come to pass. Now just in case you don’t know what a huge ordeal it is to do a linocut, watch this short video and gain some respect for the 19th century technique based on the 13th century woodcutting developed in china.