tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-231346602009-07-13T06:18:29.466-07:00Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.comBlogger503125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-83356583638680002512009-07-13T05:11:00.000-07:002009-07-13T05:18:59.894-07:00

Hey, the contest closes at 8 p.m. EST tonight. I know, I know - the pressure is really on, isn't it? If you don't know what I'm talking about, start here, but then read more here. I added a little gift certificate to the winner's pot, along with Your Story Illustrated By Moi. The judges will confer tonight, and a winner will be announced tomorrow. And thanks to everyone who has participated so

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-48976955216378391782009-07-09T18:59:00.000-07:002009-07-10T08:30:09.571-07:00

Well.I was having so much fun with you-all's One-Sentence Love Stories that I said to myself, "Hey, Karen - what's it worth to you?" And I replied, "Gosh. It's at least as valuable to me as what I spent on the last movie I saw." (Which was "Hangover," by the way.)So I decided to reciprocate. To honey up the pot. Now included in the prize for Best One-Minute Love Story is a $25 gift certificate to

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-48259485173468436492009-07-08T16:49:00.000-07:002009-07-09T04:10:21.247-07:00

By way of this here post, I challenge you, Dear Reader, to write me the best One-Sentence Love Story you can muster. (Read mine more easily by clicking on the image.) Oh, hell, SURE you can. Really. Try it. It's fun. I swear. You, too, can be a writer. Since it's only one sentence -- it can even be a reeeeally LONG sentence -- you should be able to fit it just fine on the comment section here or

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-70327407660294694772009-07-08T05:27:00.000-07:002009-07-08T05:51:24.380-07:00

So I'm sitting at a local shopping area the other day, drawing these flowers, and I can't help but overhear the conversations of others as they drink coffee with their friends and enjoy the landscaping. The first conversation was between two smart young women in the medical profession. At first they were venting to each other about how their married-with-children friends want only to talk about

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-74283340812905791702009-07-07T06:14:00.000-07:002009-07-07T06:21:44.113-07:00

My six-year-old could do that!Well, yes. But did he?Actually, this little exercise in flat, decorative, unsophisticated color was my attempt to evoke, if not replicate, the cheer of the paper on the walls of my childhood bedroom. This motivation sent me to my sketchbook with my pens and excellent markers, and over the course of watching a movie ("Revenge," 1993, Kevin Coster/Anthony Quinn/

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-26109115210165193382009-07-06T06:29:00.000-07:002009-07-06T06:35:41.558-07:00

I'll admit it. What I loved most about Michelle was that she asked to look at my sketchbook, and then virtually abandoned her work while she lingered over page after page. I'm just insecure enough to find that endearing. :-)On another note, I'm wild about a new-to-America graphic novel series by Kim Dong Hwa, as you can see if you read my review in yesterday's Plain Dealer. I do wish there was a

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-18070738940594973432009-07-04T13:22:00.000-07:002009-07-04T13:25:00.382-07:00

A little something for the raptor center's fund-raising auction next week. Hope I don't have to bid on it myself to save face.

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-45000293449870402382009-07-03T07:15:00.001-07:002009-07-03T07:29:30.794-07:00

"At 7:30 p.m., the trajectory of the distant, heavy weather over the lake took a hard and fast turn to the south. The giant cloud stacks, 60,000 feet high, suddenly began racing toward land. Wind speeds were building to more than 100 miles per hour."That was the scene in Cleveland, Ohio on July 4, 1969.I still remember it -- sort of. Fortunately, my former Plain Dealer colleague and friend

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-82606751349300623282009-07-01T08:12:00.000-07:002009-07-01T08:15:32.082-07:00

Before the trees leafed out in spring, I would occasionally find myself looking longingly at a nest perched in bare branches and fantasize about nicking it so I could draw it. Of course, I would never do this because it would be stealing someone's home. Or perhaps someone's future home. But I found this on the ground during a dog-walk recently and figured it was fair game. No one was going to

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-51556771248196385102009-06-29T04:49:00.000-07:002009-06-29T04:57:17.828-07:00

My 14-year-old's new favorite song is a John Mayer cover of Tom Petty's great song, "Free Falling. So there she was yesterday, helping me out with some paperwork and singing along when --- well, it was the best Mondegreen I'd heard in a long, long time. This post is dedicated to Lylah -- thanks for the belly laugh, honey -- and to Jackie, ever on the Mondegreens prowl.

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-36169394212761028242009-06-28T06:39:00.000-07:002009-07-03T07:14:59.824-07:00

Whether you live in Cleveland or Charlotte or New York City or San Francisco (I know you Europeans don't need this nudge), please support your local newspaper today. Buy it, read it, shop the advertisers and tell them why you're there. Today, if you're lucky enough to live in C-town, you can read from John Caniglia's fantastic story that pushes back against Hollywood's lionizing of gangster John

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-5737360067582541502009-06-27T19:53:00.001-07:002009-06-27T19:57:55.431-07:00

Stopped by the Larchmere Flea Market today on Larchmere Ave., the Shaker Heights/Cleveland street full of funky shops. This presented me with the opportunity to make my second visit in a week to Loganberry Books, home of great new, used and rare volumes. I waited far too long to wander into Loganberry, but I was glad when I finally got there. I don't know a bookstore with a better collection of

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-59810835093542646642009-06-22T18:17:00.000-07:002009-06-22T18:20:04.899-07:00

I mean, really. I have Swedish genes. And Irish genes. Eighty degrees is the beginning of heat-stroke as far as my cells are concerned. Would it kill them to turn it down to 75?

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-82405059224303841732009-06-21T17:29:00.000-07:002009-06-21T17:42:14.191-07:00

The little women did the baking today for father's day. The pie was so successful that the big black dog helped herself. Happy father's day, if you are one. Happy father's day even if you aren't.

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-30857853188277524312009-06-18T20:44:00.001-07:002009-06-18T20:45:26.021-07:00

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-5835966174152912812009-06-15T14:07:00.000-07:002009-06-15T14:13:24.085-07:00

"Forsaking monastic traditions, twelve jovial friars gave up their vocation for a questionable existence on the flying trapeze."You know what that is, right? It's a pangram, better known as a word, sentence or paragraph containing every letter of the alphabet. Our digital design class assignment was to choose from a list of pangrams and illustrate one in a poster using Adobe Illustrator. (The

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-42349646603474761392009-06-14T08:01:00.001-07:002009-06-14T08:24:29.546-07:00

I don't get much happier than this. I'm the one on the left. The one on the right, a rather freshly hatched screech owl, was blissed out at the moment, too. S/he was eating morseled-up rat meat. Some people hear that raptor rehabilitation includes chopping up dead rodents and say things like, "Oh, uh, that must be very ... interesting." (Eye roll.)But in fact, the up-close connection to these

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-24982523562449347742009-06-13T17:42:00.000-07:002009-06-13T17:48:04.387-07:00

I wanted to make a beautiful drawing, but I made this instead.Trouble with the plate and all. The sandwich plate is one of the last from a nice set I had many years ago. The dog, too, is from the past, sort of. He's part someone-I-used-to-know and a kind of fictional creature who keeps me company on the page at times. The cherries are newer than all that. This is the last week of my Photoshop/

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-83731250990283474692009-06-10T19:57:00.001-07:002009-06-10T19:57:40.434-07:00

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-6815784398993727012009-06-04T13:27:00.000-07:002009-06-04T13:30:35.608-07:00

Creeping ever-so-slowly into the digital age, I post here my first Photoshop-created self-portrait. It took me a ridiculously long time.

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-31446653039710780142009-05-30T19:12:00.000-07:002009-05-30T19:19:10.936-07:00

Shopping with Lylah for the 8th-grade graduation dress reminded me of such occasions when I was that age. It can all seem so fraught with peril as one slinks into the dressing room with an armload of hangers, waiting to see what, if anything, works. And it's so easy at that age to blame yourself when things look dumb or don't fit. Fortunately, we had a team of helper shoppers, and L's friend

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-65430757312235369652009-05-28T05:16:00.000-07:002009-05-28T05:19:56.439-07:00

My friend Kim (right) and her friend Kelly (not pictured) got private jewelry lessons from Deborah (left) last night, and they all let me watch and sketch. Deborah has a fantastic way with beads, especially old stuff with lots of character. It was very intimidating, because not only is Deborah an artist, but so is Kim's husband. I felt like a little kid with a box of crayons playing in a room

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-91599215139417803722009-05-27T04:48:00.000-07:002009-05-27T04:55:30.676-07:00

Well, so Spike came over last night. We ate a gluten-free dinner (yay for polenta and goat cheese! yay for vegetables! yay for tilapia!) and then we ... watched ... the ... Cleveland Cavaliers lose to the Orlando Magic in overtime. I say this like watching sports is something I do all the time. Not true. Actually, I drew this pic (likeness quotient: 99.6 percent) of Spike during the first quarter

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-87145343125343145422009-05-25T15:19:00.000-07:002009-05-25T15:28:22.864-07:00

This isn't my usual thing, I know, but last week when I was volunteering at the Medina Raptor Center, we got to talking about what it feels like when you're holding a bird or helping one out. There's a certain kind of serene bliss that can happen. Anyway, Laura (who runs the joint) said, "Wouldn't it be nice to do a piece of art that conveyed that feeling?"So this was my shot at it. A purist

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23134660.post-25181428252502538482009-05-24T11:08:00.001-07:002009-05-24T11:12:54.135-07:00

I drew a logo for the Carlo Wolff blog, and now have turned it over to people who understand the building of websites. I think I did it right, but it looks small. We'll see. Carlo writes about books and music, to name a couple of topics. Get it? Disc-shaped objects in the background; book-shaped objects below. I say this because he wasn't so sure about that level of abstraction. Would people know

Karen Sandstrom at Pen in Handhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10928332822941512971noreply@blogger.com2