Cascadian Fae

07/05/2025

Now that this beauty has found her way to her intended recipient, I can finally share her with you. I present, A Year in a Day.

Spring dawns over the Wenatchee river valley across the orchards and into the Cascades.

Summer sun glimmers on the cool waters of Coffin Lake north of Colville.

An autumn sunset blazes across the majestic Multnomah Falls.

A winter moon dances in snow at Bowl and Pitcher in Riverside State Park.

Four years since I started this project as a gift to my dear friend Pól Ó Corcoráin. I had to take some time away for health reasons, but I couldn't be happier that this piece finally found it's way to Ireland.

10/05/2024

Grief is a chasm. An unyielding press of hurt and loss. It sucks the color from the world and crushes creativity. And the more you love, the harder you grieve.

In May, my heart dog Grendel was diagnosed with lung cancer. At 12½ years old, it didn't seem fair or right to try aggressive treatment. We gave him the best few weeks we could, treated the symptoms, and when we couldn't keep him comfortable anymore, we held him in our arms as he left this world. To say I have been devastated since we first heard his diagnosis is an understatement. Losing Gren has been one of the most profoundly painful experiences of my life.

Two months after Grendel passed, we lost his bonded brother Beowulf. My sweet tripod doodle was 14, and the illness an arthritis that plague old souls progressed beyond modern medicine's ability to fight them. He went to be with Gren on the 20th of September, knowing he was loved through his last beautiful moment. And the grief that began in May when I knew the time was growing small for Grendel flourished and tangled within my soul as Bagel slipped peacefully away.

The past 14 years, these two wonderful boys were by my side, the witnesses and loving companions of the hardest and most beautiful moments in my life.

The world is quieter, duller without them now.

As an artist, I find myself most creative when drawing on joy or curiosity. Grief has dampened that for me this year, and finding a way to navigate the pain and find the excitement to create has been profoundly difficult. But I am trying. I am allowing myself to feel the loss of my boys, and heal beyond their absence. To see color and beauty in a world a little less bright than the one where they were by my side.

Thank you to all of you who have reached out and reminded me that art can be an expression of all emotions, not just the light ones. I hope to feel the spark of inspiration and artistic expression again soon.

In the meantime, hug your babies close. Say hi to Beowulf and Grendel for me if you think of them. And know that I will be back to work soon.

Forever grateful,
Bren

09/04/2024

Art comes in so many wonderful different forms. While it's been many years since I catered professionally, the craft of cooking brings me so much joy. This past weekend, I had an amazing opportunity to cater for Callen Schaub's Lakeside Pouring Retreat. Where some amazing fluid artists came together to learn new fluid art techniques from the amazing Callen Schaub Art.

It's easy to forget the creative rush that comes from planning a menu and bringing flavors together. To be able to do this for artists was something truly special. Our fantastic host Billie Guara presented a challenge to provide meals that not only nourished bodies and fueled hours-long painting sessions, but fed creativity across the senses to build an atmosphere where art and inspiration thrive.

It was truly a privilege to go back to my culinary roots and engage with a group of people who build each other up, encourage self-expression, and uninhibited gratitude, friendship, and joy.

09/04/2024

I just love finding art supplies on my morning walk!

06/05/2024

Laissez le Bon Temps Rouler, Miss Alice
Mixed Media and Paper 2024

A little about this one:

In April, a dear friend reached out to ask me to make something magical to commemorate a huge milestone for an important family in her life. They'd just reopened their dream restaurant after a few years' hiatus and I couldn't be more excited to build a living book to honor their vision.

This project was amazing. New Orleans will always have a special place in my heart after I spent a few months living there to study Cajun and Creole food. I was 19 and just beginning to explore who I was as a person and who I wanted to be. I felt a little like Miss Alice myself on my own journey through a Wonderland of jazz, beignets, gumbo and ghost stories. The people, the music, the flavors and the folklore shaped me during that magical time as I stepped off the precipice into adulthood and gave me courage to explore, to create, and to embrace new experiences.

My friend had no idea the extent of my connection with the city, when she commissioned this piece. It was such a privilege to share her joy and help celebrate the huge milestone for the owners of Ten/6!

See her in person at Ten/6 in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho and enjoy an amazing cajun/creole meal set in the whimsical world of Alice in Wonderland while you're at it!

06/04/2024

The furkids are in charge at Cascadian Fae, and they're running the show!

Cascadian Fae

05/08/2024

The person for whom this living book was commissioned loves roses, butterflies, and the color pink. The final product feels like a feminine fairy tale!

05/05/2024

Like many visual arts, pyrography draws from the wood an artist works with. For this commission, I was given a beautiful walnut cutting board and asked to help make it special for a dear friend's anniversary. Walnut is a dark hardwood that requires higher temperatures and slow, even movements to produce the same detail and depth of value that lighter, softer woods give me easily. Naturally, crows lent themselves to the darker wood beautifully! I also got to play with resin and food-safe pigments for the berries.

05/03/2024

Ready for a collab? Check out this table created by my parents Mark and Marcy and myself!

Many of you know my Dad as a retired English teacher, but his amazing artistic endeavors are often a mystery. In addition to stained and fused glass, Mark is a woodworking enthusiast whose bowls, pens, kitchen tools, furniture, and instruments are truly works of art.

Throughout nearly 40 years as a labor and delivery nurse, my Mom was always an artist. Passionate about impressionism, Marcy uses color, texture, and shape to create evocative, emotional works through glass mosaics, quilting, and painting.

It is a privilege to be able to share art and creativity with my parents. This table which lives in my dining room is one of my favorite pieces I've ever worked on and was completed in late 2019.

05/01/2024

05/01/2024

Love what you see? I'm currently taking commission requests for pyrography and living books!