H L Birdsong

@smidgeonpress

Artist, etc. in Portland, OR (she/her/they/them) Represented by Russo Lee Gallery

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H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· 18d

Assembly Art Fair in Seattle is on through Sunday. Russo Lee has these three recent paintings of mine in their booth on the second level.

Three matted and framed paintings hanging on a white wall below vinyl lettering reading “Russo Lee Gallery: Portland, Oregon”

Matted and framed painting of a purple polygon figure in the Mojave, Nevada’s Red Rock mountains behind, with a small spring of water, scrub oak, and rocks

Blue polygon figure looks at a pot of trumpet flowers in a wall niche, below a bunch of flowering wisteria. Two figures in the background at left look on. Pokeberry silhouetted along the bottom foreground.

Painting of a winding stairway and archway (grayed out by being painted on the back of translucent YUPO paper) with vivid silhouettes of common decorative plantings (such as rhododendron, rosemary, ivy, trees)

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· Jul 1

I kinda forgot how physically taxing it can be to spend several hours pulling prints. I woke up sore all over and just wanted to nap all day like a spoiled house cat. (Alas, I could not.) Just waiting for all the prints to finish drying in the blotters. #printmaking #EmeraldPrintExchange

Crowded, small printmaking setup, left to right: various jars and tubes, a card with mixed color draw-downs, glass top with white backing with mixed ink, ink knife, applicator, and bits of phone book paper, black gloves, hot plate covered in newsprint with tiny copper plate, a wad of green-stained tarlatan

Small etching press with its bed rolled out and felts laid over the roller. Next to it is a caddy full of bottles of supplies.

Three proofs on a gridded surface. Each proof has the same image of three trillium flowers in a forest, but in slightly different colors.

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· Jun 28

Got some foul-biting after a long 3rd dunk in mordant. I scraped and burnished some bits, but am leaving most of it. First image is the plate after being rubbed down with Putz. Second is after degreasing. Always amazed at how well soy sauce clears tarnish. #printmaking #EmeraldPrintExchange

Hand in black latex glove holding a small copper plate, etched with a drawing of three trillium flowers in a forest. The lines in the copper appear dark, while the surface of the copper reflects warm light.

Hand in black latex glove holding the same small copper plate, after being cleaned and tarnish removed. The lines in the copper appear lighter and almost pink, while the polished surface of the copper reflects my black apron.

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· Jun 21

Giving this plate another layer of etching to deepen and enrich the dark areas, and bring out the flower centers. Tom Prochaska taught me that every time you put a plate back in the mordant, you give it more character, so it’s actually better if you don’t nail it the 1st (or 2nd) time. #printmaking

Small etched plate, coated in asphaltum ground, set in a mat board carrier on a desktop easel. A test print pulled from the plate is next to it, green ink on tan paper. An etching needle with squishy green finger grip sits on the rim of the easel below.

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· Jun 18

Name a TV show you're positive no one remembers but you.

Moody blue-toned photo of the cast of VR.5, a very short-run sci fi show in which phone wires and modem screeches are integral to the plot. This show doesn’t even get a mention in Anthony Head’s Wikipedia page

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· Jun 14

Etching seems to have gone well, mostly! Step-bitten in vinegar + hydrogen peroxide mordant. I worried that I didn’t see bubbles forming in the middle flower’s center in the mordant bath, and sure enough, it didn’t etch. Will have to fix that. #EmeraldPrintExchange #printmaking

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· Jun 6

Salut! 11 opens tomorrow at Nucleus Portland, 1–4 PM Plan to stand in line if you get there early! You also increase your chances of nabbing the mini painting of your dreams, since they tend to go fast. www.nucleusportland.com/blogs/future... #Salut11 #CoasterArt #PDXart #CoasterArtShow

Image of many painted coasters by various artists displayed against a white wall on little white shelves.
Text across the top reads: SALUT! 11
Down the left: 2916 NE Alberta Street / nucleusportland.com
Down the right: June 7- July 2, 2026 / Opening reception: June 7 / 1 - 4 PM
Across the bottom: Coaster Art Group Show Portland

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· Jun 6

Ongo Goblogian gesturing, about to declare “Now this I love!”

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· May 30

Ready to get my reversed drawing on a grounded plate. I use Saral white transfer paper for this, rather than the much more romantic (& messy) dragon’s blood method I learned from Tom Prochaska. I’m planning this edition for the annual Emerald Print Exchange organized by Whiteaker #Printmakers.

Small top-bound sketchbook open to a page with a small ink drawing of trillium flowers in the woods. A small asphaltum-grounded plate in lower left is wrapped in tracing paper, with a reverse of the drawing on it, ready to be transferred. A pen and pencil lay down the upper right, giving a sense of scale (I hope).

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· May 26

Didn’t notice this dropped leaf hiding under the drain saucer, and now it’s sprouted roots and new leaves! Guess I have to give this one a pot now. I’m not much of a gardener and only have indirect light and a windowsill to work with, but I do enjoy the resilience of jades.

Jade leaf held between index finger and thumb, with the side of the leaf that had been connected to stem sprouting a bud of new leaves and several delicate white roots (out-of-focus background shows window and ledge with the parent jade)

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· May 25

Preliminary study for an etching I’m planning for this year’s Emerald Print Exchange, organized by Whiteaker Printmakers. Finished prints will be on 5x7 inch paper, so working on a tiny copper plate. I have a bunch of small plates cut from abandoned student plates when I was a print TA in 2012.

Drawing in black ink, rendered using fine lines, of three trillium blooming in a mossy forest, some ivy leaves at the bottom. Drawing is small, in the center of a 5x7 inch drawn rectangle, on plain paper.

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· May 25

Finally working on this plate again. I did a bit of scraping & burnishing but left some foul-bite. I also tried out a step-bitten sugar aquatint using BIG. The etching became faintly visible when I was polishing the plate with Putz Pomade to remove oxidation. Still need to proof it, but looks ok!

Close, angled view of an etched copper plate. The image (polygonal figure sitting in woods by a rock with a wee banana slug) is light and the finer bits obscured by reflections of stuff in my studio. (Sorry! Did my best, both in polishing the plate and photographing it!)

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· May 24

For SALUT! 11, I’m contributing 4 paintings of common poisonous plants, which in floriography (an archaic pastime attributing meanings to flowers & arranging bouquets as a form of indirect communication) often convey danger, lies, and/or the need for caution. (Also my pieces glow in the dark.)

Paintings on square coasters depicting poisonous flowers against a simple background with arch. From top to bottom, with approximate floriography meanings:
- Beware (Death Camas)
- You Will Be My Death (Hemlock)
- Riddles and Secrets (Foxglove)
- Truth (Bittersweet)

The same 4 paintings in low light, showing how the arch shapes glow blue in the dark (when “charged” with UV light) and show flower silhouettes

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· May 24

So tidy! Ready to work on some copper plates. (No we will not pan the camera; how rude to even suggest such a thing.)

Photo of my print studio corner, full but tidy. Oak workstation with 2 glass mixing panels, a griddle hotplate, tupperwares, spray bottle, a bamboo holder with various brushes in it. A spider plant peeks out in the lower left. A small press (covered in tan tarp) on a mobile stand is tucked to the right. Wall has various sketches taped to it.

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· May 19

Four painted coasters for the annual Salut! art coaster exhibition at Nucleus Portland. All pretty little poisonous plants: poison hemlock, death camas, foxglove, bittersweet. The arches behind them glow blue in the dark, just for fun. Available on June 7! www.nucleusportland.com/blogs/future...

Four square coasters painted with arches and flowering plants. Clockwise from upper left: poison hemlock, against a green background; death camas, against an orangey-pink background; white and purple foxgloves, against a blue background; bittersweet nightshade against a purple and light blue background

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· Apr 26

Compositions for two of my pieces for this year’s Salut! coaster show at Nucleus Portland. I often make a mess finding the shapes in pencil first, then trace a clean final to work from while painting. All my studies this year are of toxic flowers: here, death camas and bittersweet

Square of tracing paper taped to a warm white wall. On it, a line drawing of an arch shape and detail of a blooming death camas plant

Square of tracing paper taped to a warm white wall. On it, a line drawing of an arch shape and curved sprig of bittersweet with three blooming flowers and three buds

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· Apr 16

Small slice of good news: Portland passed a budget adjustment to release $1.6 million from the Art Tax reserves to arts and culture organizations to be distributed equally amongst the General Operating Support arts and culture orgs ($20K to each of 80 groups). (Smith, Zimmerman, & Ryan opposed OFC.)

On April 15th, the City of Portland passed an adjustment to the budget that releases $1.6 million from the Art Tax reserves to arts and culture organizations to be distributed equally amongst the General Operating Support arts and culture orgs ($20K to each of 80 groups).
This adjustment was made by Council President Jamie Dunphy, in large part thanks to the work of Portland Arts and Culture for Equity and Portland Arts Leaders working together with support from our communities.

We are grateful to the full City Council, to Council President Jamie Dunphy and his team, especially Eben Joondeph Hoffer, who we know are working towards greater equity in funding and more funding for all arts and culture moving forward. In particular, they are working to create criteria of funding tiers that include access to the arts for historically underserved Portlanders, to reduce barriers to nonprofits seeking city funding, and to open funding to organizations who have been sidelined despite years of meeting
GOS qualifications.

"Music and the arts will be the key to the rebirth of our downtown and the health and safety of our streets, our kids, and our culture as a city."
Jamie Dunphy,
City Council President
April 8th 2026

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· Apr 14

Stumbled across this video (from April '14) of my much-missed cat, Emma, rolling around the floor of the balcony at our old place. She's on a leash because she once rolled off the balcony and fell on the 1st floor's potted rose bushes. (I was the only party injured as I plucked thorns from fur.)

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· Apr 9

Ah yes, the day I learned that attempting to moisten powdered charcoal with a spray bottle was a terrible idea—completely obvious, in hindsight. But at least it made me laugh?

Pile of black charcoal powder looking like a small explosion across a significant proportion of a stay-wet palette paper surface. A couple puddles of (ruined) pink paint at the left margin. A bunch of little bottles in a caddy at right.

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· Apr 9

Every spring I have to refresh my botanical memory as all the greenery, buds, and blossoms start to pop out along the trails in Forest Park. I never forget the iconic trillium, at least.

Gorgeously blooming trillium with fresh white petals, in dappled light, tucked in with other PNW forest plants

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· Apr 5

Bonus: a photo I took during a studio visit with Heidi Schwegler in at the Yucca Valley Material Lab while that sculpture was in process, and a photo @wcwilliams.bsky.social took of us in front of the then-newly-installed YVML quonset. I think the ditch was for running power to the kilns?

Heidi Schwegler at the very left edge of the photo, extending her left arm to hold a flesh-colored wax cast of a lamb head with a freakishly long neck next to the original, cherubic lamb tchotchke from which it was cast, near where the final re-cast head was later attached. It's a busy workspace with kiln, shelves, pedestal, sundry boxes and table strewn with bric-a-brac.

Heather Lee Birdsong, in all black and shades, and Heidi Schwegler, in worn brown overalls and a lined work jacket, with arms around each other's shoulders. We're standing on dirt next to a narrow ditch, with a shining aluminum quonset behind us, and a peek of cloudy desert sky overhead.

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· Apr 5

Happy Easter Heidi Schwegler, Soft Miracle, 2019; porcelain, epoxy, paint; 9 x 8 x 8 inches. Photo by Mario Gallucci.

A cherubic, smiling found ceramic lamb tchotchke with an extra head, obviously brighter and newer, grafted onto the lamb’s left shoulder, sitting on a white floating shelf against a white wall. An example of Schwegler’s mastery of mouldmaking, humor, and making kitsch feel creepy.

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· Apr 3

A little late on sharing this news, but: I am now represented by Russo Lee Gallery here in Portland, Oregon www.russoleegallery.com/artists

Screenshot from russoleegallery.com/artists - under “Represented (Available Work)” I’m the third artist listed, with my name below a thumbnail of one of my favorite paintings I’ve made (which is still available to buy, BTW)

Photo of me in my studio (a corner of my living room, carefully framed to not look like it) with an arm resting on my standing easel, which has a painting on panel on it. I’m wearing a “prints for PICA” apron. A bunch of sketches, test proofs, and printed digital studies are taped on the wall. Peek of a small etching press by my elbow. Shelves with plants and an altar honoring my cat on the wall above the press.

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· Mar 27

Today and tomorrow are the last days to see 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨, my solo show at Russo Lee Gallery ⁠ ⁠ Hours: Fri 10:30 - 5:30⁠ & Sat 11:00 - 5:00⁠ 805 NW 21st Ave, Portland, OR Images: Bittersweet; Enigma Cafe, Las Vegas; Memory isn't content to hurt you once; Wisteria (for Polly and Zack)

Yellow polygon figure with hollowed out middle bends or is pulled down by teal bittersweet vines toward a hole in the ground, set on a misty Pacific Northwest forest trail

Charcoal drawing matted and framed, hung on a white wall. Drawing has a polygon festooned with foxglove and bindweed, in a room with two openings and a sharp shaft of light. Opening at left: irregular polygon into a dark room with a vase of flowers on a table; at right: archway onto the sunny outdoor seating area of the long-defunct Enigma Cafe in Las Vegas

A green polygon figure tumbles down in a spare mountainous scene

A little yellow building with a wall nice holding a blue vase with a spring of trumpet vine is festooned with wisteria. A blue polygon stands before it. In the background, two polygon figures stand side by side, a Tuscan landscape behind them. The bottom of the painting is framed with a dark green silhouette of pokeberry.

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· Mar 1

Since this photo was taken, all my art’s been delivered to Russo Lee Gallery, ~15” of hair got cut from my head, and I’m just waiting (while trying to have “down time”) for my exhibition to open on March 5th. Come see it with me on First Thursday, 5–7 PM! www.russoleegallery.com/exhibitions/...

Me in a hat, glasses, mask, with very long hair, looking at one of my paintings on YUPO paper, gorgeously framed and laid out on a big table in a frame shop. Photo courtesy wc williams.

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· Feb 14

Library hold finally came in. I’m so excited to read this book by @sarahebond.bsky.social! The subject hits such a specific confluence of my personal interests.

Photo of the book Strike: Labor, Unions, and Resistance in the Roman Empire by Sarah E. Bond. It has a Multnomah County library barcode and a sticker that says “made possible by the The Library Foundation”

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· Feb 10

Painting in progress: Detail shot after turning off the studio lamp. Blue Lit pigment (glows blue in the dark when “charged” with UV) makes night feel like twilight. The glow in the dark is an homage to the late artist, and my friend, Julie Green.

Low-light photo of part of a painting, with a roughly-painted yellow polygon figure in a forest scene. The cut-out center of the polygon glows blue.

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· Feb 10

Finally properly photographed this painting (Echoes of Nothing) from 2024 and therefore immediately made it the background for my website landing page. A companion piece (Echoes of Something), just recently finished, will debut on March 5th at Russo Lee Gallery in Portland. heatherleebirdsong.com

Painting of a spare, blue architectural interior with polygon figure gesturing toward an unseen skylight, with a pot of overgrown ivy, an arched window with oleander peeking in, and an arched doorway opening onto a forest path

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· Feb 1

There’s often a moment when I’m painting where the figure (abstract portrayal of a person) is like a ghost, barely discernible as separate from the scenery. I always like this moment. If it wasn’t for the masking tape (a non-archival material), I’d be tempted to leave it.

Detail of a painting, showing an archway and desert. A polygonal figure is masked with several bits of carefully cut green tape, mostly (but not completely) painted over, as if fading into the scenery.

H L Birdsong@smidgeonpress· Jan 31

Working out values in Flashe. Matte paints like this look different wet v. dry (especially re: value), so this is generally the most tedious part of my process. Mix, paint swatch, wait for it to dry, compare; repeat as needed. Pray I mixed enough, because re-mixing to match takes 3x longer.