Life – it’s bigger – Dawn Blanchfield

Posted on September 10, 2025September 10, 2025 by Dawn Blanchfield — Leave a comment

School daze

Huh. I really thought I had posted more of my adventures in litho printmaking, but apparently not since my last post was July 24. I really am trying to keep some momentum going here in Elfiniland…

Anyways, I was on a mad litho printing run for the rest of July and into the first week of August. I was listening to a lot of Ghost (prepping for the concert on Aug 10!) and had a bit of a theme developing:

RIP Ozzy. If I recall correctly (and that is a big IF!) the plates for these prints were all done with india ink and heat set.

I tried printing a couple plates that I ran through my laser printer instead of drawing directly on the plate. The plates looked good, but I had some trouble getting nice prints from them. I’ll have to try this method again to see if I can get better results.

On Aug 7th my oldest and dearest friend Erik came out from Detroit for his annual visit, and we planned a trip within a trip and did a speed run to San Diego for Erin’s first concert!

Ghost in San Diego. Photo by Ryan Chang.

Bakersfield. You can see the crazy building behind their eyes!

An absolutely crazy 7 days full of way too much laughing and freeways!

And then the fall semester at Sierra started and I’ve spent the last 3 weeks screenprinting.

Posted on June 15, 2020 by Dawn Blanchfield — Leave a comment

2020 Bang Bang

or Life in the time of Quarantine and Riots.

My last post was a little over a year ago. The end of May with lots of fun things to look forward to in June 2019. I have fuzzy memories of a big down time after my solo show, but then what? I’m sure there were lots of things that happened during the 2nd half of 2019, but damn if I can remember any of them. I can’t recall much of anything from before the complete clusterfuck that has been the last 3 months. Maybe clusterfuck is the wrong word. Maybe not.

The beginning of 2020 started out fine – joined a gym and was doing yoga again. We went to San Diego for a long weekend in February. We had plans for a few more trips this year already booked. Then March hit and things started to go sideways. Coronavirus hit the news. March 16th the schools were closed. Then everything was closed. Months of sheltering in place. Then George Floyd was murdered. holy fuck. Throw some rioting and looting into the protests and a lot of bad decision making from the top and here we are. The world is on fire and rightly so. I’m reading, listening, learning how I can do better. Trying to stay in the moment, but also not.

I’ve watched myself pushing things away, distracting myself, trying not to be overwhelmed by it all. Because there have been days…

So I’ve been moving from one brain-distracting project to the next. The first couple weeks after the schools closed, we were on top of things. Erin and I were painting, going for walks and doing her PE assignments together. Trying to keep things “normal”, but normal was gone. In April I found my birth father (he died just last year) and then spent weeks learning everything I could and building a huge new family tree! A most excellent distraction. Then we started working in the yard again and my plant obsession kicked up a gear. A potting bench was ordered and I started thinking about gardens. But first a week focused on putting together a gallery wall in the foyer (ha! sounds so snooty). Then after much planning, Chris built me an elevated garden bed and voilà! I have a garden growing outside my studio window. And a morning dove is sitting on her nest in the tree next to it. I now spend my mornings outside watering and walking around the yard – a much nicer way to start the day than hopping on the computer first thing to read about the latest horror. Although today the Supreme Court ruled that federal anti-discrimination laws protect gay and transgender employees – “Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination “because of sex,” includes LGBTQ employees.” and that is some much needed good news in all this madness.

So, now what? I’ve started making art again and am going to start listing prints for sale. That outta keep me busy for a few days. Not sure when I’ll pick up an actual paintbrush, but at some point all my little defenses are gonna break and I’ll have to crank up the volume and throw some paint around. I can’t wait to see what comes of that! #haveshinkonspeeddial

Posted on August 29, 2015 by Dawn Blanchfield — Leave a comment

I DID IT!

We moved Kyle into the dorm at Sac State (California State Univ-Sacramento) yesterday (happy dances for everyone!) and yes, I am taking all the credit for this monumental occasion. And I don’t even care how that sounds.

I have gotten a lot of things accomplished these last 8 months, but nothing took more of my psychic energy than Kyle. The stress that kid put me through caused full-on panic attacks, more sleep-less nights than I can count, and it has taken quite a toll on me mentally and physically.

There were several times earlier this year that I tried to write a post about all the shit going on, but I was unable to get past the second sentence. There was just too much and I wasn’t ready to share it on this or any other social media platform. I still don’t feel like suffering the carpel-tunnel that I would inevitably get trying to write about “all the things”. But let me tell you the story of Kyle. Kyle, whose graduation ceremony was on a Thursday night and we didn’t know if he would even graduate until Monday afternoon of that week!

Let’s let that sink in. The child almost did not graduate.

Because of his math class. Where he never turned in any of his homework. Classic (and stupid) story of a smart boy who gets A’s on all his tests, F’s on the all the homework assignments, and then gets a C in all his classes. Go ahead, bang you head on your desk. Why do you think I have so many damn headaches?!

So the second half of May, after somehow surviving my semester from hell, was the stressed out nag-a-thon to get Kyle to finish up and turn in all the missing homework packs. “Kyle, you should start working on that math” “I will” “Kyle, you only have two weeks, get on it!” “I know. I got it.” “KYLE!” “I will” and on and on until my head exploded.

But he graduated! And he was accepted to Sac State. I took a brief 5 minutes to bask in his graduation glory and then shifted focus to the college admissions to-do list. Anyone who has a kid in college knows that there are no less that five thousand and two hoops that must be jumped through before admission is finalized. Miss a dead-line and your hosed. Not sure that Kyle even knows how to use a calendar, I made sure shit got done. Took my laptop to class with me that morning the housing application window opened. FAFSA, FERPA, I did it all.

So sure, throw some credit to Kyle. He is smart, got good SAT and ACT test scores, and is where he should be. And Chris certainly deserves mad props too. But today I’m gonna stand here and yell “ME!” because I worked my ass off this year. And dropping this kid at the dorm was a big fucking deal!

My work here is done. Kick ass at college Kyle!

Posted on August 20, 2015August 20, 2015 by Dawn Blanchfield — 2 Comments

The Artist’s Way

One tube of white paint at a time.

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Today’s easel view. I will be forever entertained that the gun print in the background always seems to be pointing at someone’s head!

We have been in our new house for over a year now and I can’t even express how much I love my studio space without resorting to lots of little hearts and glitter. And I don’t roll that way.

much.

I love sitting at my desk and being able to turn and mad dog whatever is on my easel. Today we have two acrylic paintings that I have been working on in fits and starts for a couple months. Actually the bottom panel was an old unfinished painting from last year. So many layers. And I’ve spent the past two days just adding white paint over white paint. I have no idea where it will go from here, but it’s at an interesting place right now.

And then there is all the stuff churning around in my brain. I was hit with a wave of ideas for art pieces last week while flying down the freeway blasting some permutation of Jack White on the stereo. And it wasn’t just a couple random ideas, I saw the complete installation in a gallery. It was kind of amazing. Now my challenge is to see if I can create those pieces. It started with sculptural wall pieces – something I’ve never done before. I have no idea how I’m gonna pull those off, but my plan is to start with a small maquette and experiment with materials. There were also photographs – cyanotypes to be specific. Hey lucky me, I was already planning on doing an Independent Study in Alternative Process this upcoming semester. I had no idea what I was going to work on when I brought this up to Randy (professor) last spring, but now I know exactly what I need to do. And I am slowing getting things together to put myself in front of the camera. Big leaps here people.

2 weeks ago, I had a sudden urge to go to the library and check out a book that I hadn’t finished the first time around. It’s a big book. While I was looking for what I went in for, I ran across “The Artist’s Way” and decided to grab that too. Oh life, it’s bigger.

Posted on December 25, 2014December 25, 2014 by Dawn Blanchfield — Leave a comment

Merry Ho Ho Ho

Santa came!

and replaced my daughter’s regular legs with mile-long spider limbs! freaky

oh man. Kyle, Erin, and I played a game of Life – it was almost as painful as the real thing!

And with this gift, Chris gets his phone back. Priceless.

But then he had to build the Monster High Catacombs. No Barbie Dreamhouse for our little ghoul.

I don’t think Chuck Norris appreciated his inflatable unicorn horn, but I sure appreciated this box of art supplies from Santa!

And with the arrival of the grandparents, came an outfit change. Girl cleans up nice.

We are in trouble with this one.

Merry Christmas ya filthy animals!

Posted on May 19, 2014May 19, 2014 by Dawn Blanchfield — 5 Comments

Mayday Mayday Mayday

crap. We still have 2 more weeks of May. Each month I hope our stress levels are gonna drop back down to “normal”. It hasn’t happened yet. My fear is that this is the new normal; a crisis a day. And that would suck. My adrenal glands need a freaking break here!

Kyle sprained his ankle at volleyball practice on April 30th – the day we closed on the new house. Instead of celebrating, I spent the evening with him in Urgent Care. So April went out with the combo good news/bad news emotional slaps upside the head that life is now dealing us on a regular basis. May has been much of the same. All good things must be offset with an equally bad thing. There is a Buddhist lesson in all this about walking the middle path, but my balance is totally shot. So it goes.

2 days later I got 31 injections of botox in my head, neck, and shoulders to help with my migraines. It hurt. I can’t move my forehead. I was in constant pain for over a week. I had migraines. Last week I finally started to feel “better”, but I don’t think I can do that again. Let alone every 3 months! We’ll have to see how the migraines play out over the next 2 months. I am not optimistic. So it goes.

Last week the buyers closed on our house and we are now renting back until the end of the month. (I should insert a ::happy dance:: here but ugh… I’d probably break a hip) Packing is happening. Logistics for the move have been coordinated. So everything is moving along. ha! Of course last week we got a call from the tenants at the new house about a leaking balance tank on the hot water heater. Quick call to a plumber to get that fixed. ka-ching. So it goes.

Kyle’s ankle is on the mend and after a couple days of scrambling for doctor appts, fights about splints and crutches, and tears (mine of course), he was released to play last Friday. Just in time to finish up the Section championships this week and then hopefully on to NorCal’s next week. I hope they can take it all the way! I haven’t even seen one game this season. So it goes.

This weekend there was nothing on our calendars. Nothing. That was surreal. Our heart rates dropped. Coffee was drank in leisure and not chugged as we ran out the door to put out another fire. So we took a run to Ikea to buy new desks and spent the rest of the time packing and catching up on all the things. We were in the home stretch yesterday evening and trying to figure out what to have for dinner when the neighbor’s dog jumped on Erin and scratched her back pretty bad. Back to Urgent Care with another huge adrenaline spike. Erin is fine. No stitches thank goodness, but still… we all could have done without that scare. So now I’m thinking forget the dishes, I’m gonna wrap my family in all that bubble-wrap and wait for June. I am the only one who hasn’t been to that Urgent Care this year. So it goes.

But like I said, May ain’t over yet and this week we are back to busy. A couple volleyball play-off games and this Thursday is Big Names Small Art at the Crocker!! Something awesome indeed. And this is the last week of my Printmaking class. It is kinda of amazing that through all that has been going on these last 3 1/2 months, I have ended up with a really nice portfolio of work to turn in. So it goes.

And I’m almost afraid to mention that my woodcut “Split” was accepted into this year’s California State Fair Fine Art Exhibit!

::taps out::