Back in the Land of Bulk Everything 🛒🇺🇸

Happy Daylight Savings ☀️🌸

Longer evenings are officially here and I could not be happier. The sun is my favorite collaborator. When the days stretch out a little further, everything feels easier. I paint longer, walk more, and my colors somehow get brighter. There is something about spring light in California that makes the whole world feel like it is waking up again.

Costco Culture Shock 🛒

I have officially re-integrated into American society. On Tuesday I will take my Costco membership photo, which felt like the final step in sealing the deal.

My brain, shaped by the four years I spent living in Shanghai, had clearly forgotten how to comprehend one of America’s great institutions. I am talking about the massive grocery store.

While I had already relearned things like gas stations and strip malls after moving back, grocery stores were a different kind of shock. I am sure China has stores as large as Costco, but it was not something I ever experienced in Shanghai. Most grocery stores there felt smaller and more neighborhood oriented. You could pop in, grab what you needed, and be out quickly.

Here, the scale is something else entirely. Of course there are small grocery stores in the U.S., but if you see one it usually means it is some sort of specialty market. Organic this, cruelty free that, chickens that probably had their own toys and personal trainers.

But I am back in America and back on an American budget, which means it is time to retrain my China shaped brain into the Costco version.

Everything in bulk, baby.

Progress in the World of Commissions 🎨

My painting “The Things I Keep” is almost finished. I only have a few brush strokes left before moving on to the next piece. Right now I am touching up the shadows on the glass of chocolate milk and the tiny cow sitting on the little cow table. Then I will paint the edges of the canvas.

I always try to buy canvases that are at least 1.5 inches deep so I can paint the sides and frame the piece with a bold color without needing to buy a traditional frame.

This week I will also be working on a cat portrait and a dog portrait while continuing my newest commission series of hand drawn T shirts. I had

not used my fabric markers in quite some time before someone asked for personalized shirts, so it has been really fun switching mediums throughout the day.

The shirts are heading back to my home state of North Carolina, so I am making sure to include the state flower on each one. The dogwood is soft, pink, and beautiful, which makes it the perfect little detail to send home. 🌸

With love and color,

Rosalie