As I lay near the waterfall in Jamison Park reading
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, a tiny red spider ran to and fro over the pages of my book. Now, multicolored leaves are rattling like skeletons all over the sidewalks. I think about how I plan to use the common writers' instructional phrase: Write what you know. I know a lot about my beautiful city, and I am a woman who embraces diversity. Writing, drawing, and painting in Portland, Oregon is an experience that provides favorable conditions for the muse. Writers recycle all that drama!
Writing in Portland is also about exposure. So much has happened for my career as a writer and artist here in the city. I've become respected by many people whom I admire internationally.
Exposure. I love modeling for professional artists! Among them, Buzz Siler is a famous painter of abstract women who was able to invent a method of twirling acrylic house paint, later mixed with oil paint, from a stick that makes black magic outlines. I am his $12,000 gargoyle in creams and black called "Huntress." Check out his website at
or ask to see the canvas on the corner of Marshall and 11th Streets in the Pearl District, the heart of the Rose City hugged in the curve of the Willamette River. I have also acted for corporate training videos, and can't get over seeing my hair on the television screen.
