63: michele graham

michele graham
photographer + mixologist

Michele Graham grew up on the border of upstate New York and Vermont but has spent most of her adult life on the West Coast. She has been a paint maker’s apprentice, cheesemonger, graphic designer, and a tiny roadside cafe owner in Baja California. Michele works at an arts non-profit in Portland, Oregon, where she lives with her husband and young daughter. She also creates and mixes drinks at small events and gatherings. She loves food anthropology, cocktails, gardening, photography, knitting, and taking walks.

Find Michele at cider & rye. She also posts way too many photos on Instagram.

56: heidi swanson

heidi swanson
photographer

Writing a bio is always hard for me. I cook. I take pictures. I like to travel and write and share with people. I tend to work on long-term projects like cookbooks and my website. Somehow it all comes together into my day to day life. I live in San Francisco, but like to get out and see more of the world I live in as often as possible.

53: tara o’brady

tara o’brady
writer and photographer

tara spends most of her days cooking, reading dr. seuss, baking, playing with trains, taking photographs, and exploring the possibilities of finger paints. she writes about most of it here, or in UPPERCASE magazine. sometimes you’ll find her work in other places, too. she lives with her husband and their two young sons in a brick and wood house on a quiet street in southern ontario, canada. they’re happy there.

48: poet’s loft

sheri + shari

we spent a lovely november vacation together in marshall, california at poet’s loft. highlights included: seals swimming by our window, bbq oysters, tule elk spotting in point reyes, breakfast at the pine cone diner, pastries from bovine bakery, cowgirl creamery cheese tasting, limantour beach walk, temple coffee, a birthday dinner at olema inn, a jaunt into oakland for bake sale betty sandwiches with one of our favorite artists (lisa solomon), green peony tea, a root vegetable hash dinner a la stephanie and 3191Q, birdwatching, fires in the woodstove, and a raucous game of monopoly.

41: seamus o’conner

seamus o’conner

pizza artist

Seamus O’Conner is an Italian wannabe. He is of Irish and German blood, but his soul is pure Italian. After he decided to take a trip to Italy in April 2003,  he began to study Italian. Seamus went to a local community college where he was one of the oldest students. He started a cooking school with his wife and some new Italian friends called Italian Country Cooking. When they return to their village, they love to hear all the locals call out their names welcoming them back home. You can visit Seamus at his blog and over at Flickr.

12: molly wizenberg

molly wizenberg
photographer & writer

Molly Wizenberg is a freelance writer and photographer based in Seattle. She writes the blog Orangette, and her first book, A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table, was published this month by Simon & Schuster. Her ideal day includes cake.

10: MAV

MAV
artist

Maria Alexandra Vettese is an artist who uses her letterpress, her camera and a frequent indulgence in daydreaming to sort out her creative ideas. Along with running her little business, port2port press, she co-curates Lines & Shapes, a small book collective and is one half of the 3191 Miles Apart projects, which includes the book A Year of Mornings published by Princeton Architectural Press in the Fall of 2008. She works out of an inspiration-lined, light-filled studio and resides with her two cats in Portland, Maine.

8: ed whitman

ed whitman
coffee roaster

At an early age, Ed Whitman had a suspicion that good coffee and good beer didn’t come in a can. Today, whether roasting coffee at home or painting, Ed loves hiding out in his garage studio and working with his hands. He enjoys learning and exploring every day. He has worked in specialty coffee as a Manager and Trainer for over 15 years. You may read more about his thoughts on coffee at his blog Coffee is Food.