Anahata Katkin

Outside In:

There's nothing more healing than home.  Not just being in your own sanctuary for restoration, but crafting it just so, has it's deep benefits.  I'm using this spring as a time to regenerate from inside my home.   Trying to do the slow, inner work, in busy times.  A big part of the TLC around here has been planning how to enjoy the beauty outside.  Literally.  I've begun transforming the yard and making changes to get closer to whats living and breathing on the property.
First stop: doors!  These pictures are of newly added double doors that used to be a lovely window bench. (as well as art by Sugarboo, treasured original by Lynn Whipple, artwork I made in Teesha Moore'sclass 2003, and PAPAYA!)  A window bench strangely placed in a walkway and next to the kitchen.  Now I can have coffee on the stoop, in the sun and hang w my kitties! The air flows into the house, and it's easy (as I discovered last night) to entertain and drink wine outside at sunset w more just a short bit away!  It's literally opened up the inside- out.  Designing and tinkering in my own home makes me feel fulfilled and satisfied the very same way artwork does. 
  In fact maybe even more.  I don't wrestle with interiors the same as I do when I draw and paint.  It's more, relaxing and nurturing for me.  Now the yard though is brand new territory that I don't feel as calm about.  So much to learn. And now that I have made room for the outside to flow in from three points in the house it's about time to start.  And look what just arrived as the first project! 10 pots of beautiful bamboo.  The sanctuary grows...

First Goldie

Finally had a chance to finish up this painting I started in Mexico.  She's rumpled and glued, and messy and scarred in real life but satisfying none-the-less.  She's also the first light haired portrait I've done.  The beachy vibes in Mexico helped inspire that. This is where she started.  I always wrestle with what to do with them once I sketch their faces.  I love them so simple like this.  But of course my nature makes me want to add texture, plants and a tad of color.  But they always change from subtle to cartoonish when you add too much.  The effort continues...

And in other creations-news, there's so much prettiness happening over at Leelah, PAPAYA's clothing label.  Maestro screen printer, Joe Moxley has been whipping up samples for our summer launch at our local studio.  All very exciting stuff for us!  Hope you have a wonderful weekend.  I'm headed to the much needed, Ashland trails for some sun on my face and a view of fresh leaves...

Work in progress...

Been tinkering away with this (mostly) watercolor painting since being in Mexico.  I have the hardest time drawing faces small enough to fit on pages.  No matter how hard I try.  So I had to tape together four jorunals pages in order to get enough room.  I haven't quite finished her yet.  Cuz things are busy.  Really busy!  Driving and running in circles a bit getting our beautiful and big boutique all spiffed and shiney for our busy season, working on our design team @ PAPAYA! 'headquarters" and yes, trying to make art someplace in between.  (Oh yes and motherhood, dinner, workouts, remodels-going on now, and the rest) Life is good good, but busy busy.

Altars: Natural Inspiration & Gratitude

With such a pretty spring in the air and a sense of renewal I'm feeling inspired by natural elements.  Sticks, stones, feathers, flowers, shells, fragrances and wood.  And as I start to drag these things into the house again it just inspires pop up altars all over the place.  
I used to keep a more formal altar and work with it everyday for many years.  Just a loosey goosey- pagan inspired, table full of work-in-progress issues in my life and areas to be grateful for.  Over the years I've sort of tried to take this idea and turn the whole house into this kind of celebration.  Mini tableaus around the house all have meaning but translate more as natural decor to my visitors.
 But this spring I'm feeling the tug to go back to more woo-woo roots and take the extra time to be grateful, thankful, intentional and still.  Using a actual objects, pictures and spaces makes the act that much more real.  Altars provide double duty to the creative mind as well.
 Providing easy inspiration and beauty and amping up the good home vibes.  Also looking forward to making an outdoor altar this summer to celebrate my new yard.  How do you do favorite objects, found natural elements, and celebrate your life-in-progress in your home environment? ( I started a Home Altars board on Pinterest.  You can find all the images shown here and more.)

PAPAYA! Artisanal Chocolates!

One of the biggest and most exciting projects we've ever introduced has finally come to fruit.  Our new artisenal chocolate tins are a collaboration with master chocolatier, Tom Micklin of Samadhi Chocolates in Seattle, and PAPAYA!  Each chocolate piece is hand crafted in small batches and made with the very best of ingredients and skill. They are beautifully nestled inside colorful PAPAYA! tins embellished with lots of shimmering gold. (more styles here)TADA!!! Aren't they just beautiful!  And soo delicious.  You can imagine the nutritional trouble the staff is having packing these lovely tins up.  Having thousands of gourmet truffles on hand is really quite a dillemmma.  (Good thing we also offer a personal trainer and a gym onsite.)  We will have them available in our Flagship boutique, PAPAYA! Living very soon and they are now available on our website.  Just in time for Mother's Day!

Spring Spiff

Always feel good to digg into our PAPAYA! Living displays.  It's the calm before the storm.  We're doing a lot of behind the scenes prep work for our super-busy summer season.  The store is starting to swell with summer goodies and new treasure! And of course plenty of favorite staples like specialty quilts, bedding and textiles from around the globe.
Pretty Spring whites that match transitional shaggy sweaters...
Skip through the rain (we have temple-top umbrellas!), get a coffee at Mix (Noble walk-up is open again too!) and pop in for spring inspirations.  Xoxox...

Home Body

(Image Via ThatKindofWoman)  I'm in a sincere nesting mode.  A time of regeneration and domestic intrigue.  Self care, slow motion and tinkering around the house feels just right to me.  The love affair with my new house deepens and I find so much satisfaction in having truly my first home. (yes still!)(Image via Marion Housebook)And part of what I love above all else is decorating, redecorating and just moving things around.  But between having a lifestyle boutique full of home treasures and a bit of a schizophrenic aesthetic I can get overwhelmed with possibilities.  There's so much available when it comes to beauty.  So many ways to express it in your environment.  And I fight with various loves.  Modernist, decidedly bohemian, hoarder, minimalist, paint or no paint.  Who am I, where am I- is an ongoing inquiry.  I swear I could do life readings on people just by visiting their homes. (Image via Quite Continental) How they place objects, colors, texture, heights or no heights, organization, stacks, which artwork, no artwork.  All of it is like a giant map of who you are.  I like Pinterest so much because it is such a wonderful way to live vicariously inside other people's geography.  Personal universes designed by character.  So much fun.

Kiddo Style Adventure

As I was saying on my previous trip to Mexico recap, I needed to reframe our trip to make it more fun for my little man.  I decided to venture back "on the beaten path" and sign us up for family friendly tours.  Big busses and all! Something I've never done outside the states.  We had some great experiences and some some not so great adventures that still translated into funny stories as we got home. By far the highlight of Rowan's trip was a trip Xplor park in Playa Del Carmen.  An impossible, natural cave system that they transformed into the most magical of day parks.  A maze weaves in and out of natural caves, jungle paths and zip lines.
 Ive never seen a natural treasure so well planned for groups.  It was hard to imagine how a place like this was even planned out.  It was spectacular.  My son was incredibly brave and pushed
himself right off the towers and onto 14 major zip lines in one day!  I however only lasted seven of them because I was twisted up like a harnessed sausage and freaked out by the whole thing.  Rowan did half of them alone! And this is just us on our amphibious motor craft.  No big deal.  Haha.  Gotta love the helmets! 
I was really glad I changed speeds for Rowan and we got into the group experiences.  He was thrilled and it was a good lesson for me that sometimes the tours aren't all bad.  We had a great time at Xplor.
However this funny picture is from Captain Hooks Pirate Ship (Yelled...PEE-RAT-AAAES!!!)  dinner cruise.  Oi vey.  4 hours of spanish, Three Stooges-meets Jack sparrow, meets WWF show.  We're still confused... And on this day we had the pleasure of Wet N Wild in Cancun. Yup.  That's "grass" in the background.  It was a fun day and mostly Mexican families so as tourists, it was a great day of people watching.  All in all our one-on-one trip was just what we needed.  I needed to catch up with my little tween and embrace his version of paradise and because of it we have returned home feeling closer and more connected.  Perfect!

Good Morning Sunday...

I've been laid up with a mystery flu all week and have been spending some quality time in my bed.  Which has me staring at the room for hours on end.  So I decided to tinker around in there yesterday and fix a few nagging problems while I tend to flu-boredom and too much TV.  Like changing this lovely vanity into my bedside table!I'm a bit of a jewelry hoarder.  A problem which has accelerated since opening PAPAYA! Living boutique.  We had several trees cut down this week so I scouted out some branches to be saved.  Like this one to solve some of my jewelry problems.  This branch helps deal with about half of it.
Need to get a bigger one, paint it with stripes and designs and have it hung properly.  For now this one is doing the trick!  A stapled screen in an old frame was in my closet and I filled it in as much as possible with my earrings.  Love this kind of day.  The bed was right there to lay on in between stages, but a nice break from airplane-flu.  xoxox...

New Site Launch!

2013 for me is a personal mantra of "organize & re-energize".  Trying to digg a little deeper and restructure my goals, perspective and work life.  One of the things I've checked off the list this early spring is a lovely new portfolio website!  The site is a way for me to share my artwork in an unedited way.  Of course you can check out most of my offerings at www.papayaart.com, but I like having a personal site still to share the un polished, out-of-print, and personal side of what I do.If you get a chance have a poke around and check it out!  Ther's more galleries and studio tours than the old site.  And I'm loving the cleaner format.  Let me know what you think!