truly amelia harnas's artwork, sketchbook, news, autobiography, resume, and music. Write me a letter!

News & Updates Archives

| November 1, 2009|

Check out my new kickstarter project! I think it speaks for itself!

Oh, yeah, and I'm now addicted to making videos with iMovie. For example, this next video:

| October 13, 2009|

Wow. This summer was intense. And now, this fall is already intense! Why?

Well, first, today marks the official release of Ah Holly Fam'ly's new album, "Reservoir". I've been listening to it a lot in the car lately, as I've been rounding around on errands, and I have to say: Without a doubt, this is wonderful, exciting, perfect album. I'm very proud to be apart of it. So, please, please buy a copy from Lucky Madison. It's even out on vinyl! I will not cease to be excited about this.

Secondly, Jeff and I have created a kickstarter project for the biography that we are trying to write, about Thomas S. Buechner. I've been so excited and wrapped up with other people's projects on the site (currently, I am backing 5 projects), that I am tickled pink to be on the other side. So, please, become a backer!!

| July 23, 2009|

So, in the past 10 days, I have been working like mad to prepare for the Areyoumadatme?s short cross-country tour and show in Corning, NY. On top of that, Ah Holly Fam'ly has a couple of shows - one tonight at Holocene and then one on Sunday, July 26th at high noon at Rotture for the PDX Pop Now 2009 compilation extravaganza!

I'm getting a little exhausted, but my excitement for the road trip and to officiate my sister's wedding (that's right I'm officially ordained through the Universal Life Church) is rejuvenating me. Please come out and see me at The ARTS of the Southern Finger Lakes on August 6th for a book signing and a mini-performance from The Areyoumadatme?s. And for the love of pete, come say howdy!!

| July 6, 2009 |

Ahoy there! I'm updating from Sandpoint, ID whilst enjoying some well deserved vacation time at Jeff's family's lakeside property on Lake Pend D'Oreille in northern Idaho. I watched 6 different fireworks shows from the cliffy point on said property, and it was awesome. Lots of good times with his family.

The sketchbook release went well. Thank you to all of you who came out! And now, the sketchbooks are for sale at Reading Frenzy, so check them out there, too!

| June 23, 2009|

A week from today, I will be down at Valentine's in Portland (on Ankeny & 3rd) with my newly published volume II of my sketchbook best of collection. I just got them all shiny and new today, and they look awesome. They are more dense with more stuff from my wanderings all over the globe. I'm pretty happy with them.

Plus, The Areyoumadatme?s will have a performance (our debut public appearance!) with a brand new EP. Saw Whet will also play, which is always a treat. Beautiful music!

It all begins at 9pm/showtime. Sketchbooks volume I & II will be available for sale for $15 each, or $25 together. For artist friends that I know are strictly bohemian, I'll give you a deal of $10 each, or $17 together plus one hug.

For those of you who are not in Portland, there will be a book signing at the ARTS of the Southern Finger Lakes in Corning, NY on August 6th with a special performance from The Areyoumadatme?s.

And for those of you who won't be able to make either event, you can buy them online. OR, contact me specially, and we'll make arrangements otherwise.

| June 17, 2009 |

Sketchbook Party

| May 27, 2009 |

Just wanted to draw attention to the fact that I have finally put some of my weird paint can lid clocks up on Etsy.

| May 20, 2009 |

I feel like the period of time that has passed since my last post may be a new record. But! But! But! I have been, as I prefaced in the last post, VERY BUSY. So, here we go again, one thing at a time:

Ah Holly Fam'ly spent 14 straight 7+ hour days recording the new album, Reservoir with the greatest guy ever, Skyler, at Miracle Lake in Camas, WA. It was intense, to say the least. But, words cannot describe the excitement that I have to contain all the way until this fall for the album's official release. We still have a few more things to tweak, but 97% of it is done.Then we went on our first mini-tour with Horse Feathers and played a show with Laura Gibson in the midst of that. PLUS, more excitingly, every year, one of the major papers in Portland lists the top 10 best new bands. We made No. 7!! So, so, so awesome! You can scroll down and read all about us here.

I've also moved again. Yeah, I know. I move around too much. But I'm now the fifth lady in a house of very awesome ladies: the Magikhaus, I've deemed it. I have a pretty big basement room with a little area for painting right outside its door, which is great. The yard is epic with a zen garden, fountain, veggie garden and two chickens! I actually have chicken duty this week, which is fun. Oh, and a sauna. That's right.

Lastly, I have some huge news on the art front. I applied to a couple of highly-rad art ateliers (one in Seattle and one in Sweden), thinking that the portfolio that I had to offer this spring was rather lacking. BUT, AU CONTRAIRE, I am now on a waiting list for a spot at the one in SWEDEN!!! (I proceed to jump for joy, up and down several times, smiling profusely) I probably won't go until Winter 2010, but that will work better for me anyway in terms of Ah Holly Fam'ly album release & tour(?).

Oh, and one more thing: I am publishing my sketchbook again this summer. I simply cannot wait to start working on it, which will probably happen tomorrow or the next day. So stay posted for developments on that front.

| February 10, 2009 |

Happy New Year! And what a year it's been already!! Holy Moly! I'm going to take a deep breath and then go over everything as best as possible as quickly as possible. Here we go...

Ah Holly Fam'ly
Our totally metal band photo.

| Boxing Day, 2008 |

I hope everyone had a very lovely holiday with friends and family. Due to the crazy amounts of snow in Portland, Jeff and I had to stay in town instead of venturing to Northern Idaho as previously planned. But that's cool. We have work over the holidays anyway. Plus, I have more time to actually paint: I started a portrait of Rostopovich for Jeff's Christmas present. And will finally get to my black-on-black series. Hooray!

| December 1, 2008 |

So I have the last of the paint can lid series in Reading Frenzy's 13th Annual Cheap Art & Craft Show. There will be a reception on First Thursday on December 4 from 6 - 9 pm.

Also, I'm singing with Ah Holly Fam'ly as well as Galveston (for the first time) at an upcoming show on Friday, Dec 5, at the Waypost on Williams St., that doubles as a going-away party for a dear friend and brilliant writer, Mr. James Vicotry Yeary. He has decided to go work and write in Alaska until the summer, and everyone is very supportive/sad about this decision.

Portland just won't be the same without James.

| November 22, 2008 |

Whoa. I "finished" my self portait today. And by "finished" I mean I've decided to stop messing with it. So, below is an image of it and it's also on my artwork page.

Also, I want to let folks know that some friends and I will be selling our wares at the Lower Fremont Winterfest (between 12th and 14th st.) on December 12 & 13. So please come buy stuff!

| November 15, 2008 |

Hey hey hey! Really quickly, Jeffrey and I have a duet art show up at Lorenzo's on Mississippi St. through the 1st of December, so you should really check it out. (Between Failing & Beech). We had the same show at Madrona Hill Cafe in October, so I'm happy to say that I've been able to keep my art on the walls-- and even then, it looks like I'll have some things in the Reading Frenzy 13th Annual Cheap Art & Craft show. So that would make it 3 months in a row of shows!

Sorry to have neglected October. Jeff and I were on vacation for a couple weeks in New York (city & state), so I was pretty busy. Yes, very busy in fact. One other piece of news is that I am now officially in oil painting mode. It's been a very long time since I've done this, and it feels really good.

| September 18, 2008 |

What a month so far! For the love of Pete, I vow to upload more pictures and videos one of these days. I mean it. But, singing with Parenthetical Girls and then Au for PICA's T:BA:08 at the Left Bank was AWESOME. Plus, I've been working away at creating the Ah Holly Fam'ly website which I highly encourage you to check out. We had a couple of good shows, one at the Waypost and then last night at the Alien Boy Film Benefit at the Wonder Ballroom with Calvin Johnson and Tender Forever. Pretty crazy stuff.

Next on the Agenda is an artshow for Myself and my handsome, Jeffrey Diteman, at the Madrona Hill Cafe. More info to come on that show, but, it opens on October 1st (coming up quickly) and we hope to have a nice opening for that. So stay tuned!

| September 1, 2008 |

Rabbit rabbit, once again... Ah, but here I am with another post! I'm matching my personal record.

I'd like to say a little bit about some work I will be having at a fundraiser art show for an organization called, >Pocket Change<. The opening takes place during First Thursday in the Pearl on September 4th at the Art Institute of Portland. Here are my favorites out of 25 pieces priced at $25 that I will be contributing to the show:

Valda ErretEmelina GieslerDesmond Wiggins

I also have work at >Tender Loving Empire< on Lovejoy & 17th. It's an >awesome little show with Aidan Koch and Jennifer Lee<. >Click here< to look at their photostream.

| August 31, 2008|

This has been the summeriest-summer I have experienced (since my childhood). Since I last wrote, I've gone camping in 6 different places, took 2 week-long vacations in Idaho, went to the ocean 3 times, visited Vancouver, BC, performed in 9 musical shows, took an old master painting technique class (see below), went swimming in rivers bunches of times, and moved into yet another place. I actually got a tan this year. I think this is the second time I've ever been able to say that in my life.

Well, a host of things are coming up for me. I think I'm actually going to try to make new posts for each one that are a little more detailed. But for now, I want to post a few pictures from my summer. Enjoy.

Me and Becky @ Three Pools, OregonMe and Oregon
Detail from copy of Titian's portrait of Daniela BarbaroIn process copy of Caravaggio's David & Goliath; group painting featuring Jeff, Ben, Nine and myself (I did Goliath's head)

| June 1, 2008 |

Rabbit Rabbit! Right. So, how about that punctual updating of this news page. Not quite what I was going for. My only excuse is that I've been working more in the translation area (I'm an apprentice translator.. did I mention that before?), so that's been taking up a lot of time. Plus, you know how life is--you get blindsided by joyful times and stressful times all at once and forget to write it down and look back and realize two months have gone by. You know.

And, it's too late now, but I've had a small show up at the Laurelthirst on Glisan. I'll post pictures (in memory of it) soon. Sorry about this after-the-fact-post. I'll be better next time.

I always say that... but I will really try. Seriously.

| March 31, 2008 |

This must be some kind of record for me actually updating this news page in a pertinent manner! Congratulations self! This is just a quick thing anyway: you can now find Aviatrix to Cascadia on Last.FM by clicking >here<. I'm new to how that site works, so let me know if I should change or tweak anything.

| March 30, 2008 |

After a couple of months in Portland, I've busted out a bunch of watercolor postcards that are finally scanned and up on my >art< page. I've also started to rally on the paintbrush stroke project. I'm almost done cutting out those little suckers and think I might turn them into cellular structures--like from slide cross-sections of tissues, etc... Yeah.

Also, I've now had a couple of illustrations appear in the Portland Mercury out here. You can find this week's illustration >here< and my first illustration for a feature >here<.

| March 16, 2008 |

Right, so Paris was amazing. Germany was amazing. The whole trip was wonderfully amazing. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. And if any of you know me out there, you know how much I want to go back to Paris. I tear up at the slightest mention of Paris.

Anyway! I'm back in Portland and really happy. When I sit down about think about how happy I am out here again, I think about the fact that I am the happiest I've been in a long while. It's spring here. I've been painting up a storm, which I hope to add to Etsy soon. I'm meeting more fabulous, creative people. I'm collaborating. I'm all aglow. AND, I've finally updated the website. Hooray!

| October 21, 2007 |

For those of you who don't already know, I'll be in Paris for the month of November. Who's excited? I'm excited. I'll be staying at Shakespeare & Co. for the first ten days or so, and then couch surfing for another two weeks or so.

Finally, I get to go visit my sister for Thanksgiving and Christmas Markets in Kassel, Germany, before returning to the states.

Then, for the Christmas season and all of January, I'll be back in Corning, NY to buckle down and get serious about making good art. (I'm hoping all of the museums in Europe will be good motivators.) Lastly, I hop into a car and drive back cross-country to Portland for a start-over/redo of sorts.

I hope to try to do what looks my monthly updates here. But, to be honest, we'll have to see about that!

| September 16, 2007 |

What a day I had yesterday. Almost on a whim, I decided to create a "Roving Human Gallery" costume in order to partake in the Alberta Street Fair (and hopefully sell some of my paint can lid series pieces). Although I didn't sell very much, I did make some excellent contacts, had my photo taken a ton of times, and marched in my very first parade! Below are pictures of what I looked like.

Amelia Harnas's new 'Roving Human Gallery' costume Amelia Harnas's new 'Roving Human Gallery' costume, side view Amelia Harnas's new 'Roving Human Gallery' costume, from the back side

| September 14, 2007 |

Yes, it's been a little while. I have been kept quite busy with just life itself, especially since I am now 25 years old and experiencing the I-am-now-25-years-old heightened sense of urgency to get on top of creative aspirations as well as paying the bills.

Speaking of paying bills, I've created a store through Etsy.com from which I can now more easily sell artwork. It's a neat little site with all sorts of lovely items, especially now that my work is on there. They even gave me this nifty, self-updating link to my store. I might end up making a new page for it--we'll see.

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade
TrulyAmelia.etsy.com

| July 09, 2007 |

I am so very proud to announce that a new body of work is hanging in a mini-show in the Blend Coffee House here in Portland. It was a last minute deal, but thanks to some very special Upstate New York Helpers & Crew, the show is up and, may I be so bold in saying, the show is glorious. The show lasts only through the end of July, so get over there quick as a bunny. You can view it during normal hours (click here for more info about Blend).

Amelia Harnas's new wall of paint can lids prints based on R.M. Rilke's 'Sonnet to Orpheus'

Also, as you can see, this is a new page dedicated to any updates that I may have. This allows a running tab of things and events and is just plain easier to update. So keep yourself posted. I promise to be better at actually posting.

Amelia Harnas's new watercolor portraits.