OLD Whidbey Life Magazine

Tag: Pandas

Pigment, Perspectives, and Pandas || Through the Looking Glass

I recently returned from what I would have to call a very improbable journey. When I first dipped my toes into the fast-moving stream of social media, it was reluctantly and with great trepidation.

(c) 2017 Anne Belov

What if everyone out there is a complete weirdo?
What if no one reads my blog?
What if they think I’m a complete weirdo???

I started my blog (The Panda Chronicles) to share my panda cartoons with a wider audience than whoever I could catch unawares in the produce aisles of Payless, waving a stack of cartoons in the air. I joined Facebook to see if people who didn’t know me would think they were funny.

I went to my first Panda Convention in 2013. Some of the people coming were familiar with my cartoons.
Would they like me?
Would I like them?

(c) 2017 Anne Belov

You can pretend to be anyone you want when you are hiding behind your computer. It’s another story when you step through the looking glass into the real world.

But here’s the thing: when you share a common interest, social media is like this amazing coffee shop, where everyone is table hopping and you can meet some fabulous people there. Okay, yeah, there are some dark corner tables way in the back, where there are some people you would rather not meet alone in a dark alley, but for the most part, the people I have met as a result of jumping into the social media pool are pretty wonderful, in person as well as online.

It’s not just the panda people either. (Attack of the Panda People sounds like a sci-fi movie, doesn’t it?) I belong to an organization for writers and illustrators of books for children: SCBWI. While I initially met many people IRL (in real life) at one of their conferences, I’ve gotten to know far more writers from this group online. Some of the folks in one of my groups have made an effort to meet in person, and the other writers in the mentorship program I took part in last year keep in touch through email, Twitter, and Facebook.

There seems to be a fluidity to these on- and offline friendships. They are no less real than the ones that happen because you sat next to someone in sixth grade, or because you had a random stranger as a roommate at college. It’s the accidental nature of the universe that brings forth surprising gifts.

Earlier this year, I did a fundraising campaign for several of my favorite causes. Those who donated got a signed cartoon, with a hand-drawn sketch in thanks. Some who donated were familiar names, but more than half of the people who contributed were people I had never interacted with. Some of them had been reading my cartoons for years and had all my books! It was gratifying, to say the least.

While my herding dog instincts make me want to gather all these folks together so I can have them with me always, I know this is not even remotely possible. But it is a remarkable thing, that almost everywhere I go, I can send out a message through cyberspace, and say, “Hey! I’m coming to your town. Want to meet for coffee?”

(c) 2017 Anne Belov

An online friend from Australia is going to visit me IRL this summer. And a group of friends I have made as a result of going to that first Panda Convention? We’re going to China later this year to visit the panda bases (aka panda ranches), where we will see herds of baby pandas!

If that doesn’t qualify as being amazing, I don’t know what does!

Anne Belov lives and works on Whidbey Island, in an undisclosed location. Her paintings can be seen at The Rob Schouten Gallery in Langley (starting in May) and at The Fountainhead Gallery on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle. You can find her peculiarly political panda satire at Your Brain on Pandas, and her books at Moonraker Books in Langley or on Amazon. Feel free to follow on Twitter where she is @pandachronicle and visit The Institute for Contemporary Panda Satire on Facebook. Her latest collection of panda satire is The Panda Chronicles Book 7: Don’t Call Mee Boo Boo has just been released!

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April 5, 2017
Rob Schouten Gallery presents Anne Belov’s original “Pandamorphosis” drawings for two weeks in October

Sept. 29, 2014

Pandas! Who can resist their black-and-white fuzzy beauty and their adorable charm?

Fall in love with pandas all over again at Rob Schouten Gallery when local artist Anne Belov shows the original color drawings from her charming new children’s book, “Pandamorphosis” from Oct. 1 through Oct. 15.

Visitors to Rob Schouten Gallery will know Belov for her exquisite oil paintings, which are regularly featured at the gallery. We’ll swap out Belov’s paintings for two weeks only, so patrons can get a glimpse of these lovingly rendered panda drawings.

Belov’s colored-pencil drawings feature playful pandas and an envious cat, who wants to be loved as much as the pandas are by their little girl owner. The cat makes a wish on the moon, but gets more than she bargained for. “Pandamorphosis” is a love story to pandas and to the belief that magic can happen when you least expect it.

“I’ve always loved beautifully illustrated children’s books,” Belov said. “I’m a big fan of author/illustrators like Chris Van Allsburg and David Wiesner; the way they combine their stories with such masterfully done illustrations is an inspiration to me.”

An original colored-pencil on bristol board from Anne Belov’s new children’s book, “Pandamorphosis.” (photos courtesy of the artist)

The drawings are colored pencil on bristol board, a very smooth and heavy paper used for drawing and graphic work. The story, told in pictures only, developed over a period of three years through a painstaking process of sketches, discarded drawings and the final gorgeous pieces that comprise the book.

Meet Belov at a special “Pandamorphosis” book-signing event from 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 11 at the gallery. Bring the kids!

Belov will also be present at an artists’ reception from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 12, along with October’s featured artist, Keiichi Nishimura, who shows his unique paintings on silk from Oct. 1 – 30. We will serve some light refreshments as part of Greenbank Farm’s “Second Sunday at the Farm,” when the Farm’s galleries, shops, cafe and market welcome visitors to enjoy a relaxed afternoon of fine art, good food, natural beauty and lively conversation.

“Pandamorphosis” costs $17.95 and is available at Moonraker Bookstore in Langley and at Amazon.com.

Rob Schouten Gallery, a premier showcase for Whidbey Island and Northwest artists, is located at 765 Wonn Road, #C-103 at the historic Greenbank Farm. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends; closed Tuesday or by appointment. For further information, call 360-222-3070 or email info@robschoutengallery.com.

September 29, 2014
Pigment, Pandas and Perspective | It IS a Wonderful Life

ANNE BELOV
Dec. 11, 2013

Yes, It’s that time of year when I like to haul out some of my favorite holiday movies (none of which seem to have pandas in them, but never mind…) and my all time favorite is “It’s a Wonderful Life,” directed by Frank Capra and starring Jimmy Stewart.

This movie jumped to the front of my mind the other day, when I started thinking about what life would be like here on Whidbey Island without Whidbey Life Magazine. Well, for one thing, there would be one less place for me to pontificate, and tell you what I think.

But it’s more than that.

If you remember the movie, you will recall that Stewart’s character, in a grand funk about how he thinks his life has turned out, gets the chance to see how things would have been if he had never been born. (For those of you who haven’t seen the movie, long story short: IT WAS NOT A GOOD IDEA.)

Now, I’m not saying that island life without WLM would be a complete disaster, but I am saying, as an artist in this community of so many artists, musicians, chefs, dancers, actors and writers, WLM has done more to raise the profile of all of us creative types than any one organization has done since I moved here 24 years ago.

I was astounded earlier this year by an infographic put out by WhidbeyCamanoIslands.com about the amount of money that is generated by art sales annually, both in individual studios and art galleries. Go ahead and guess how much.

Did you guess $13,000,000? If you did, you are right.

So, in a nutshell, what artists (and I’m using the term inclusively here, rather than give you the laundry list again) are doing for Island County by selling their work is to put money back into the local economy. We buy food, we buy gas, we buy stuff, we pay taxes and, mostly, we buy it right here. We ARE part of the local economy.

And what Whidbey Life Magazine is doing is letting people, both here and far beyond our shores, know about the wealth of cultural experiences that await anyone who lives here or visits. We have only existed in our current form for just over a year, and the magazine and the organization are still evolving, trying to find more and better ways to bring you stories and news of the creative goings on here.

To that end, there is currently an Indiegogo crowd-funding project that is live and in play even as I type. Our plan is to create a twice-yearly print edition of the magazine, to supplement the online magazine. I won’t tell you all the details in this post, but you can read all about it here. We have just over a week to make our goal, and with crowd-funding, it’s not the size of each donation. It’s the size of the crowd. There are also some great rewards offered by the arts community, as well as an unlimited amounts of good karma that you will receive for donating to the project.

Do we really want to see what Whidbey Island is like without such a vibrant, sustainable arts community?

Nope, me neither.

Um…this is not one of the rewards.

December 11, 2013