Helen Robertson

A photo of a wooden dish rack holding 5 small art prints. From front to back: a hummingbird, a black cat face, a kestrel, a folk art moon, and a chimera with a crow head, cat body, and opossum hands

Slinging art at the market in the wind today!

A hand holds a digital illustration print of a vulture. In the background there are canopies set up with displays of art. The vulture is in front of a blue oval framed by a darker blue border with bone shapes.

Perfect day for a street fair at Wonderwood Springs in PDX!

A digital illustration of a turkey vulture head, neck, and part of a wing. The bird is in front of a light blue background and a darker blue oval frame with bone shapes.

New illustration: a turkey vulture!
#birds 🪶

A hand holds up an art print of a great blue heron. In the background you can see canopies set up under a bridge.

At the Portland Saturday Market today!

Columbia Canceled My Course on Race and Media. I'm Going to Teach It Anyway. This is not a time for media literacy or historical knowledge to be held hostage by institutions bending the knee to authoritarianism.

Latest podcast is out: Get in everyone, we are going to Resistance Summer School!

Thank you to everyone who indicated they would like to take my course on Race, Media and International Affairs 101.

Please fill out this quick interest form to begin to sign up!
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Yeah, I’m wondering if they will be targeted specifically. And if other orgs that house donor collective funds like Tides will be next. What about DAFs? Ugh it’s bleak

Same. I usually do foundation prospecting for clients around this time of year but it’s feeling like a pretty useless exercise.

I’ve seen a few pledges going around that some big foundations have signed, but as usual they are non-binding and not created in collaboration with grantees. I’ve heard from one grant writer colleague they got a letter from a foundation saying their grant is less this year because of the market.

Four pencil drawings arranged with one on top, two in the middle side by side, and one on the bottom. The top is a person in profile shouting the word “uncontrollable” in all caps. The middle left depicts two flowers and several long, narrow, pointed leaves. The middle right depicts a cowboy (Nat Love) standing with his right hand on his hip and left hand resting on a rifle. The bottom is a sketch of a switchblade knife.

I’ve once again fallen behind and then caught up on #The100DayProject 🫠
Day 54: Uncontrollable Urge by Devo
Day 55: The Enemy Guns by Devotchka
Day 56: Steel Pony Blues by Dom Flemons
Dat 57: Trash by New York Dolls

The Good, Bad, and Ugly of Consignment-Work Exchange Agreements If you sell handmade or personally designed goods, you’ve almost certainly seen the call to action posts saying that you can sell your work on consignment at a store for zero fee in exchange for worki...

I conducted a survey about the often-predatory practice of asking consigning artists to provide unpaid labor to stores in exchange for waived consignment fees. Check it out here: bus20ceramics.com/blogs/franki...

Oh no! I hope they can sort everything out soon!

A piece of paper with two pencil sketches. The top sketch is a wolf howling. The bottom sketch is a papaya sliced in half. The papaya has teeth and many small black seeds.

#The100DayProject
Day 52: Hungry Like The Wolf by Duran Duran
Day 53: Cannibal Papaya by Shonen Knife

A photo of four pencil sketches on top of iris leaves. The top drawing is a head-on drawing of a vintage UK car with the license plate 4218RO. The next is the front of a movie theater with a marquee. The marquee reads “Perfect Day Lou Reed.” The next is three seagulls mid-squawk. The bottom sketch is a face in profile. Most of the side of the face is obscured by hair.

Some highlights of my (late) sketches for #The100DayProject

Thank you! This one was super fun to do!

A pencil sketch on white paper of a refrigerator. Lowercase alphabet magnets spell out “late for work” on the freezer door and a Harris Walz sign is on the refrigerator door held by a star magnet and a round magnet. The tip of a pencil is visible on the right of the picture.

#The100DayProject
Day 39: Hostile Government Takeover (EDM Remix) by AGiftFromTodd and Vinny Marchi

A rough pencil sketch on white paper of two eyes peeking out from between fingers. The eyebrows are raised. The word PEEK is written in all caps above the eyes, the letter A is written between the eyes, and the word BOO is written below the eyes

Day 38 of #The100DayProject :
Peek-A-Boo by Siouxsie and the Banshees

Two pencil sketches on white paper. The one on the left depicts a loose sketch of a river, with evergreen trees and rocks on its banks and hills in the distance. The one on the right depicts a paintbrush. The brush is rendered in pencil, and there is a curved blue section representing blue paint. Only the tips of the paintbrush are blue. The paintbrush and paint are arranged diagonally across the paper. On the left side of the paintbrush and paint is colored in red.

#The100DayProject
Day 36: River by Leon Bridges
Day 37: Blue Side by Rooney

A close up of part of an art print sitting on a teal background with a dried sprig of eucalyptus across one corner. The print is a stylized hummingbird in front of a blue circular background. The hummingbird has an orange and white underbelly and green head and back. The wings are blue-gray.

I’ve seen so many hummingbirds lately! Here’s a print of a painting I made about a year ago. It was originally acrylic on wood. #birds 🪶 #hummingbird

Two pencil sketches on paper laying on a clipboard that has blue tissue paper and strips of multicolored paper glued on it. One sketch is on a square piece of paper. It depicts an Oxford style shoe and part of a pinstriped pant leg. The shoe is stepping down toward the viewer and you can see the bottom of the shoe. The other sketch is on a narrow piece of paper. It depicts a torch with a flame. The torch is decorated with hearts and flourishes.

#The100DayProject
Day 34: Politicians In My Eyes by Death
Day 35: Candy by Iggy Pop

They’re so good!

Two pencil sketches on two pieces of white paper. The one on the left is a balaclava with an abstract knitted pattern. The eyes and mouth are shaded in. The sketch on the right is an open, empty coffin in a grave. The headstone reads “WHOA”

#The100DayProject
Day 32: H.O.O.D by Kneecap
Day 33: Children of the Night by Calabrese

A hand holding a pencil sketch depicting 14 glass soda bottles on a cinderblock/concrete wall. Each bottle has a different level of dark liquid in it, creating a wave pattern from left to right

#The100DayProject day 31: Makeba by Jain

A long narrow piece of paper clipped to a small clipboard that has multi-colored paper decoupaged on it. On the paper is a pencil sketch of a sad clown’s head. The clown had a hat and ruffles around his neck. He has one tear coming from each eye. The words “I DON’T MIND” are written on all caps vertically below his head. There are two spiderwebs, one on each side of the words, running from his ruffles to some of the letters below.

Day 30 of #The100DayProject
I Don’t Mind by the Buzzcocks

Three pencil sketches. The one on the left is a tall narrow piece of paper depicting a stylized sun above tall buildings. The middle is a closed eye crying one tear. The right depicts a vintage style crescent moon with a face looking at a valentine heart that has a thermometer in its mouth and a bandage tied around one side. Underneath the moon and heart are the words “Poor Old Heartsick Me” in an old west vintage style font.

Catching up on #The100DayProject !
Day 27: Fall Asleep by Big Joanie
Day 28: Mr. Blue Sky by ELO
Day 29: Poor Old Heartsick Me cover by The Knitters

A hand holding a small clipboard with a sketch in the clip. The pencil sketch depicts a mug with the words “Hot Chocolate Boy” in all caps on the mug. The letters are dripping and the glaze on the mug looks drippy as well.

Day 25 of #The100DayProject : Hot Chocolate Boy by Beat Happening

You cannot negotiate with terrorists. If the Ivies give in to any regime demands, the goal posts will move. If the massive ivy endowments aren’t deployed to preserve institutional integrity and academic freedom, what on earth are they for?

Two small drawings. The top drawing is a pencil sketch of three flying doves with the words “I like that.” The bottom sketch is a series of intersecting curving lines. The spaces between intersections are filled in with orange, red, yellow, purple, green, or blue using a colored pencil.

#The100DayProiect
Day 24: I Like That by Janelle Monae
Day 25: Roam by The B52s

Three sketches lined up. Top sketch depicts a dodo head, a candle, a hand raised, stylized waves, a bottle of potion, and a window. Middle sketch depicts a stylized rattlesnake. Bottom sketch depicts a 1970s radio with a handle and small legs. The radio has three knobs on the bottom right, below the dial.

#The100DayProject
Day 21: Australia by The Shins
Day 22: Snake Song by Townes Van Zandt
Day 23: Radio, Radio by Elvis Costello & The Attractions