Exploring the Soul of Washington: Molly Hashimoto’s Connection to Mount Rainier and Art

Discover the power of block prints, with their vibrant colors and energetic appeal, and delve into Molly’s love for photography as she captures the beauty of the mountain hemlock. Plus, find out how you can participate in Molly’s upcoming online class and library programs in October.

So grab a cup of coffee, sit back, and join us as we dive into the world of art, nature, and the captivating Mount Rainier on this episode of “Exploring Washington State” with Scott Cowan and Molly Hashimoto.

Molly Hashimoto Episode Transcript

Hello, friends, and welcome to the Exploring Washington State Podcast. My name is Scott Cowan, and I’m the host of the show. Each episode, I have a conversation with an interesting guest who is living in or from Washington State. These are casual conversations with real and interesting people. I think you’re going to like the show. So let’s jump right in with today’s guest. My guest today is Molly Hoshimoto. Molly, thank you for taking the time to sit down with me. And what brought us together was your publisher, Mountaineer Press, and they sent me a copy of your book as I’m holding it up. Not that anyone’s going to see this, but Trees of the west and Artist Guide. Lovely book. So this was not your first book, correct?

Molly Hashimoto [00:00:50]:

No, there were three previous ones also published by Mountaineers Books.

Scott Cowan [00:00:55]:

Well, let’s go backwards then for a second. You’re an artist primarily, right? Would that be your Identifier. As an artist?

Molly Hashimoto [00:01:05]:

Yes, my whole career, pretty much that’s my Identifier. But I have always been a book person, and I can elaborate a little bit about that for you if you like, but I don’t. Okay. Well, when I went to college and graduate school, I was an English major, so I did a lot of writing, and I love writing, but art was in high school. I really wanted to be an artist, but I got some encouragement from my writing, so I went down that path. But I never stopped doing art. And then after graduate school, like many English majors, I went, uh oh, what am I going to do now?

Scott Cowan [00:01:44]:

I shouldn’t laugh, but yes, that’s right.

Molly Hashimoto [00:01:48]:

So I worked at Elliott Bay Books for many years, and I was the children’s book poster calendar card buyer after I’d been there for a while. And that put me in touch with Pomegranate Communications. And they were, at the time out of California. Now they’ve moved up to Portland, but they are a worldwide art publisher, and they began to publish my I had a little bit of success at the beginning, but mostly was just working as an artist and teacher, did a lot of teaching, which I really love. So I travel around the west, have done so for many, many years, and I started keeping notebooks of some of the places I went and I’ve hiked my whole life. So the trees, all of the books were just a natural outgrowth of the hiking and yeah, that’s pretty much sums it up.

Scott Cowan [00:02:53]:

Well, let me ask you this. So I’m going to paint a picture out of my imagination now, is that you were out hiking one day and you probably took some of your art supplies with you and you were out there just I don’t want to say doodling, but sketching things out and all that. When did you get the inspiration to say, I want to do a book?

Molly Hashimoto [00:03:14]:

I was at Yellowstone many years ago, and I went into the Albright Visitor Center at Mammoth Hot Springs and I saw reproductions of Thomas Moran’s watercolor sketches, and I was really inspired. His watercolors are so much fresher and they make you feel that you were right there with him. And I thought, well, he was a great artist, but I want to try this, too. And I’d always been real inspired by all these places and the history of them, and I read a lot of books about them. So that, I think, is where I started to develop the idea for a.

Scott Cowan [00:03:56]:

Did you did you pitch this to Mountain? Was mountaineers your first publisher?

Molly Hashimoto [00:04:00]:

I guess I better well, no. Years ago I’d done a children’s book for Sasquatch Books. And at the time I met Andy Pugh, who worked there in various roles and didn’t work there any longer when I ran into her. And she said, what are you doing now? And I said, Well, I’m working on a bunch of sketchbooks and writing about my visits to these beautiful national parks and monuments. And she said, Let me see it. Well, she is a literary agent now, has been for a long time, and she had good connections to so Anne said, I think you’ve got a book here. I think we should work together and we should pitch it to the Mountaineers Books editor. So that’s how that came about.

Scott Cowan [00:04:56]:

All right. Whenever I talk to authors, I think it’s interesting to hear everybody’s story about how the book found them. In some cases, it was just the book that had to be written or what their events were that led them up to saying, here, I put this together, and then pitching it. And normally I ask this question later on in the episodes of Authors, and I think today I’m going to get it to the beginning because I think it’s a fun question. What do you remember of the first time you saw your book in public and where was that?

Molly Hashimoto [00:05:39]:

I think that I may have first seen it at University Bookstore. And it was just thrilling. Absolutely thrilling. I couldn’t believe it. Yeah, it was very you know, I think even more exciting than that was when the editor in chief of Mountaineers Books, Kate Rogers, said yes to the book and issued me a contract. And that, I think, was the most thrilling thing of all, because I couldn’t believe it.

Scott Cowan [00:06:11]:

Well, that’s mean we’ll come back to that in a second.

Molly Hashimoto [00:06:15]:

Sure.

Scott Cowan [00:06:15]:

What I think is so the first time I asked an author this question, and maybe it’s because it was the first time I asked the question to somebody and their response totally took me off guard. This is a Seattle author. He’s written three books now on Seattle history, kind of the Prohibition era. So I asked him, I said, So where were you when you first saw your book in public? And his answer was, it was on the shelves at Bartel Drugs. And he goes, I’m in bartel. My local bartels drugs. And there’s my had to I just thought how yes, Bartels has I haven’t been into Bartels in a number of years. But they did. I remember them having kind of a local curated section of books. But what an interesting place to see your work in a drugstore. So you saw yours at University Bookstore, which is, boy, it’s been years since I’ve been there. I always remembered that as being a really impressive store to walk through and look at all the things that they were carrying and all of that. So I can imagine that it would have been pretty awe inspiring for you to see your book there. But let’s go back because you said something that no one’s else has said, is when the editor in chief said yes, walk me through that, didn’t you kind of think they were going to say yes?

Molly Hashimoto [00:07:47]:

No, not really. I believed in what I was doing. But you know that these editors have slush piles a mile high, and I was in the book business, too, years ago. So I kind of know what that world is about. And it’s really difficult. It’s like pushing a needle through finding a needle through a haystack. That was a real thrill. And the other thing, Scott, that’s interesting is the Mountaineers do a fabulous job of editing. And the editing process on a book is pretty intensive and pretty long. So in a way, once you’ve gone through that process, you know the book, it exists. It really exists. And you see the proofs. And I had to look at color proofs, and so its existence was assured. You know what I mean?

Scott Cowan [00:08:46]:

Right. Okay, when you say it like that, that makes sense. So your first book from when they said yes to when it was released, how long was that process?

Molly Hashimoto [00:09:02]:

That’s a really good question, Scott, and I can’t remember exactly, but I think that I turned that out really quickly. I mean, I think it was something like, okay, I worked on it for a year. I had a year, but that’s because I had already created these sketches years ago and I had been writing, so that wasn’t such a tight deadline. And then I think the editorial process took about a year.

Scott Cowan [00:09:27]:

Okay, so on Trees of the west. So here’s a question for like like I mentioned earlier, mountaineers has been great because when there’s an author that overlaps with what our audience is about, they oftentimes reach out and say, hey, you should talk to Molly. And then maybe they reach out to you and go, hey, I’m going to make you talk to this guy. I’m sorry, but you’re going to do it. No, I’m just kidding. Mountaineers has been a great source of authors to have conversations with, and typically they send me a copy of the book. Most of the books Mountaineers has sent me has been paperback. Yours is a hardback. What was the decision and how did you guys decide or who decided and what was the reasoning? Why this was a hardback yeah, I.

Molly Hashimoto [00:10:17]:

Think marketing and editorial gets together to make these decisions. But I think that the major thought behind it was that with the exception of Birds of the west, which came out in the spring, all of them came out in the fall, and that is a major time to buy gifts for people. And a beautiful hardcover book, they get great prices on these. They’re not expensive, and it’s a perfect gift for people who like nature, art, the outdoors.

Scott Cowan [00:10:53]:

Yeah, well, and I hadn’t ever thought about those terms, but it’s so glaringly obvious when you say if it comes out in fall holiday gift giving.

Molly Hashimoto [00:11:00]:

Right.

Scott Cowan [00:11:00]:

A hardback book is a beautiful gift to give somebody. Yeah, okay, that makes sense. I was actually kind of hoping for some big story like you guys had to arm wrestle or something. But no, I kid. How long did Trees of the west take you? And I’m going to guess that from what we’ve said, is that some of the artwork that’s in it already had been done, or did you start fresh with a blank slate, if you will?

Molly Hashimoto [00:11:29]:

No, there was no blank slate. I had a lot of paintings and block prints of trees. I’ve been obsessed with them ever since I moved to Washington in my 20s. So, yeah, over many years I’d done a lot, so I believe that process was only a year, which sounds crazy, but the work had been done in many cases.

Scott Cowan [00:11:56]:

Okay, so you moved to Washington in your 20s. Where did you go to college at?

Molly Hashimoto [00:12:00]:

I went to the University of Minnesota and went to graduate school at the University of Chicago and met my husband at the time there at the University of Chicago, and we moved back to Seattle, where he was from.

Scott Cowan [00:12:17]:

Okay. I can’t imagine why anybody would leave Minnesota or Illinois. I mean, winters there are just lovely. I love Chicago. I think the city of Chicago is probably my favorite US. City. And here I am, the host of exploring Washington State. But I love the city of Chicago. I think the architecture is fabulous. I’m going to guess I can’t believe we’re talking about something other than Washington, but have you ever taken the architectural.

Molly Hashimoto [00:12:44]:

Boat know, I didn’t take the architectural boat tour, but I’ll tell you, I went on the Frank Lloyd Wright tour of Oak Park. Wonderful. And then I did a tour. I think the guy’s name is Henry Hobson Richardson. These beautiful turn of the century, 19th to 20th century buildings. But I’ve always wanted to try that.

Scott Cowan [00:13:09]:

Boat tour, so it’s very touristy. And I went back and we took it kind of there was a group of us there, and we decided to take it. I enjoy architecture, but I didn’t really have any expectations. That boat tour was really wonderful. If you go back to Chicago and the weather cooperates. Yeah. I’m not saying you should take it in December, but springtime would be lovely to take it. So you moved out here, and so you’ve lived in Seattle for a number of years now, or in the Seattle area. Did you always live in the Seattle area or have you no.

Molly Hashimoto [00:13:49]:

Where else?

Scott Cowan [00:13:50]:

Nowhere else. So things have changed in Seattle in the years. I used to live in Seattle a long time ago, and we moved over here to avoid traffic. I got burned out on traffic. I was commuting 28 miles each way to work every day. Not to say I was going actually down to Olympia from the Tacoma area and just couldn’t take anymore. So you brought up something I wasn’t prepared for, and that’s Elliot Bay Books. Wonderful, wonderful bookstore. Loved going there. Were you working there when it became part of third place books?

Molly Hashimoto [00:14:30]:

No, I left long before that. But incidentally, I just attended in July their 50th anniversary party because some of the longtime folks, people they’d remembered from the past, got invited, and it was just quite delightful. I had a great time.

Scott Cowan [00:14:49]:

Yeah, I love that bookstore. It’s only been open 50 years because I could have sworn I went there as a kid, and that would have been more than 50 years ago. Fascinating. So you work there and your art is available. You have art for sale, and all these things I’m bouncing around because I’m trying to figure out where I want to go with this. You are a full time artist, correct? That’s correct. So what was that like to go and make that jump?

Molly Hashimoto [00:15:29]:

Well, I did it my whole life, and I took a few years off when I had two children, and I took care of them for a few years. So I squeezed in some art time even then.

Scott Cowan [00:15:45]:

Right.

Molly Hashimoto [00:15:46]:

And then I had some little part time jobs. But then I got into teaching art, and I really loved it, and that helped me make money. So the teaching most artists, writers and musicians, they must teach. And it really helps if you love it, which I do.

Scott Cowan [00:16:09]:

You’re not wrong there.

Molly Hashimoto [00:16:11]:

You’re not wrong that’s right.

Scott Cowan [00:16:13]:

I have a lot of friends who are musicians, and they’re not doing it for the money, that’s for sure. Or if they are, they’re very thin.

Molly Hashimoto [00:16:20]:

They’re very thin.

Scott Cowan [00:16:22]:

But you enjoy teaching, so some of my musician friends don’t enjoy that. So that cuts down on their opportunities. But you enjoy teaching. What is it about the teaching process that inspires you and that you enjoy?

Molly Hashimoto [00:16:38]:

Well, here’s an example. I just got back from the Oregon coast. There’s a wonderful organization called Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, and I did three classes for them. And part of what I love about teaching is the preparation, because I have to think really clearly and organize myself to present information to people. And I like to really go through a lot of material and give people lots of ideas for them to try out and then take away. And when I see, especially a beginner do something that they feel really successful at, it just totally makes my day. I don’t know, I just find it really gratifying. And a lot of really great musicians, they consider teaching part of the work they do, passing along information to younger people, or not necessarily younger people, but yeah, I think it’s really important. I don’t really like being holed up in my studio, which is in my house, by the way. I don’t like being holed up there all the time. I like getting out and meeting people.

Scott Cowan [00:17:49]:

Okay. All right, this last set of classes that you taught, what were you giving instruction on?

Molly Hashimoto [00:17:58]:

Two of them were trees of the west, and then one of them was a special focus on the Sitka spruce, which is our coastal tree, which down on the Oregon coast and the Washington coast, achieves a massive, massive size. And it’s just a real fun kick to try to paint it and draw it. We had a great time.

Scott Cowan [00:18:21]:

And approximately how many people attended these?

Molly Hashimoto [00:18:27]:

Each class had twelve students and they keep it limited. It’s a very high quality art experience and it’s neat to be surrounded by the forest. It was really cool. On the last day of the last class, I heard these blue jays making a big stellar jays making a big commotion, and I knew there had to be a hawk, eagle or owl nearby. So we walked up the steps behind the classroom and I lucked out and spotted a great horned owl. And it was just so fun. We were all just thrilled to see it. Anyway, that’s what’s cool about that place. You’re not in the city in some art studio. You’re out there where you’re going to see things that are really wonderful and not available to people in cities.

Scott Cowan [00:19:20]:

I enjoy art, but I have an uneducated vocabulary. I can say I like something. And then if you ask me to explain to you why I become very I’ll stumble over my words greatly. But I’m looking at some of your note cards, jigsaw puzzles and all that, that have your artwork on them. And actually I love the idea of jigsaw puzzles as a way of bringing art to the dining room table, literally. And I really enjoy the style, but I don’t know how to articulate it. So I’m looking at your right now, I’ll just click on this link. I am looking at your birds. The 2024 wall calendar. Help me out here. Show pity on me, can you? How how should I describe this art from a technical standpoint, if you will. I like it because it seems like it has bold lines isn’t the right way of putting it. But help me out here, because I’m really struggling.

Molly Hashimoto [00:20:43]:

Well, that’s interesting, because the block prints, which is what that is, they really do affect people in a rather different way than, say, looking at a watercolor. I think you get this immediate impact, like, wow, that is a bird, and those are flowers. And it’s an exciting world where everything is vibrant and full of energy, and maybe that’s why you like it. I know they’ve been popular for pomegranate, and people buy them from me a lot. There’s something about the medium that really hits people, and my analysis of it is that the best ones use a lot of primary colors, bright or even secondary colors, and the black, the white, and the color, that’s the kind of thing that a child that’s the first thing that a child gravitates to. As people get older, sometimes they become more subtle in their tastes. But I’ve never got I mean, I can be subtle, but I also like the things that children so and I think that’s true for a lot of people.

Scott Cowan [00:21:54]:

So somehow my brain processed that. You just called me a kidding. I’m kidding. I’m teasing. You do not take me seriously.

Molly Hashimoto [00:22:01]:

Well, wait, Scott. But wait. I mean, I think that it’s great that people still find a child in themselves. That sounds maybe a little corny, but really, I’ve tried to explain why I like the block prints for birds and butterflies and animals, and it’s because when you see a bird, you feel a thrill. It’s thrilling. And a watercolor has a different impact on people. It’s not thrilling, necessarily.

Scott Cowan [00:22:30]:

Thank you for saying that, because as I was thumbing through your book, I enjoy the watercolors. It’s not that I don’t like them, but I found the block prints to be what were catching my eye, like I was being drawn to those. So because I know nothing about this process at all. Can you walk me through? I believe it’s a quail. It’s the COVID of the 20. Okay. I have dozens of them, and they block my driveway whenever I try to leave.

Molly Hashimoto [00:22:57]:

All right. Oprah and Winnatchi.

Scott Cowan [00:23:02]:

So many of them, and they never look like this, by the way. I mean, they’re always standing in the middle of my road, and my dog just is fascinated by that, of course. So can you walk me through? How did you create that? I mean, what’s going on there?

Molly Hashimoto [00:23:18]:

Well, I’ll give you the full process. I happened to see that quail here in Seattle long ago. They were at Magnuson Park, which is pretty close to my house, and I took a picture of it. Beautiful bird standing on a log. Great pose. So I thought, I really want to do a print with that. But I don’t want to put it in Magnuson Park in Seattle. I want to put it where people identify this, you know, poppy. So I started thinking how neat it would look with a bunch of poppies and a hillside, a California hillside covered in poppies. And so I did a little thumbnail sketch, nothing too big. And I thought, yeah, this could work. So then I developed the drawing. Once I have the drawing the way I want it, I put it on a block and then I use carving tools to carve out the raised lines that you see that are black. Everything that is black has not been carved out. Okay? That is called a relief print. So the black lines are in relief. Sounds a little complicated and you kind of almost have to see it. But then you print it and you can do it in a press or you can do it by hand. I do them by hand. I just use a spoon. I put the printmaking paper on top of the print, press down really hard. If you’ve ever done a rubber stamp, it’s pretty much the same process.

Scott Cowan [00:24:54]:

Okay.

Molly Hashimoto [00:24:54]:

And then I use an oil based ink so that then I can use watercolor on the non black areas of it.

Scott Cowan [00:25:03]:

You had said that the blocks are all the same size. So what was that size?

Molly Hashimoto [00:25:08]:

Eight by ten.

Scott Cowan [00:25:09]:

Eight by ten.

Molly Hashimoto [00:25:11]:

And one of the reasons I do that is if I do things in odd sizes or anything other than what I have figured out how to frame, it begins to cost a whole lot of money. Framing, you’ve probably framed some stuff. Custom frames, very expensive. So anyway, I’ve got it figured out so that I don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time. So that’s good. I’ve got kind of a little production going.

Scott Cowan [00:25:43]:

Whenever I ask an artist this question, sometimes I get in the weeds of technical. But how long does it take you to carve out a print like that?

Molly Hashimoto [00:25:57]:

Well, let’s just say I was going to start the thing in a day. I could probably do an entire print in about 7 hours.

Scott Cowan [00:26:05]:

Oh, okay. That’s not as long as I was expecting. Actually.

Molly Hashimoto [00:26:08]:

No, not that long.

Scott Cowan [00:26:11]:

And then so on these, if you were to press them, are you making just one copy or how replicatable is this process?

Molly Hashimoto [00:26:22]:

That’s a very good question. Typically I’ll do about three at a time. I don’t want to do a full edition. Most of my editions are 25. But the problem is you might do a print and not find anybody interested in it. And I don’t want to have a whole closet full of prints that’s wasteful and it’s expensive. So I’ll do three at a time. And because I can do watercolor pretty predictably, I can make them look very similar from print to print. But obviously, since it’s all hand done, there’s going to be some variation. And actually even something done on a professional press you’re going to have between prints.

Scott Cowan [00:27:09]:

Okay, so if I were to purchase this as an original, you would do a run of 25 would be the goal for you.

Molly Hashimoto [00:27:21]:

Yeah. This particular print, the California Quail, I did 50. I anticipated 50 of that because I knew that people liked it. And once I run out of an edition, that’s it. There aren’t any more, and I can’t make another one.

Scott Cowan [00:27:36]:

Why can’t you make another one? You’ve got the block. Do you destroy the blocks?

Molly Hashimoto [00:27:41]:

No, I don’t destroy them. And it’s true that a lot of Japanese prints, they can still be produced now, but it’s not actually fair to the people who bought the print thinking they were buying a limited edition print. That’s how I see it.

Scott Cowan [00:27:57]:

No, and I agree with you. I do. I agree with you. I’ve seen a lot of poster makers will do limited edition, say, one of 100.

Molly Hashimoto [00:28:07]:

Right.

Scott Cowan [00:28:07]:

And then they’ll re release it without numbers on it.

Molly Hashimoto [00:28:12]:

Exactly.

Scott Cowan [00:28:13]:

That’s right behind me is a proof of something.

Molly Hashimoto [00:28:17]:

Oh, yeah. I see a guy with sunglasses and a poster behind you. He looks familiar.

Scott Cowan [00:28:25]:

Yeah, it’s a map of Seattle with a silk screen of Tony Bourdain over.

Molly Hashimoto [00:28:31]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:28:31]:

So everything that’s in that back wall has something to do with Washington in one way or another.

Molly Hashimoto [00:28:36]:

Oh, neat.

Scott Cowan [00:28:37]:

And where Anthony Bourdain comes in is I actually chauffeured him from Portland to Seattle one. It was a memorable experience. And then he gifted my daughter and I tickets to his event at the Paramount Theater. And I won Father of the century. Not just the year, the century. For taking my daughter to that, I did something we still talk about ten years later, actually.

Molly Hashimoto [00:29:03]:

Neat.

Scott Cowan [00:29:04]:

More than ten years now. So I see poster makers that’s kind of had their way around it. They’ll sell a limited edition of X and then they’ll reproduce it in a mass run, if you will, versus that. But I like the fact that if you say you’re going to do a run of X, that’s what it is. Okay, so it takes you a day I’ll say a day to carve out the block. When you do watercolor to it, how long does that process take you? I mean, after all these years of practice, I’m I’m going to guess you’re fairly speedy, but probably about an hour. Really? Both of your answers have surprised me. They both are faster than I anticipated, to be honest. And I don’t know why. This is just my speculation.

Molly Hashimoto [00:29:58]:

Fascinating.

Scott Cowan [00:30:01]:

Now that you say that, it is something about the block print that’s bold versus a watercolor is more of a subtle thing. That’s where I struggle. I don’t articulate well. So you’ve done these as cards, calendars, and puzzles. What prompted you to do puzzles?

Molly Hashimoto [00:30:25]:

That’s not my decision at all. Pomegranate is a very successful publisher, and they have editors and art graphic designers who I send the art to, and if they like it, they decide what they want to do with it. And now, of course, they ask me first, is it okay. But during the pandemic, they did amazingly with puzzles, as you can probably imagine. And it’s a big money maker for them. It’s very successful for them. So this was the first one that they did of mine, and I was really excited. I thought it was great. So they decide what they’re going to do with my art.

Scott Cowan [00:31:08]:

Did they send you one and did you put it together?

Molly Hashimoto [00:31:11]:

Yes, they’ve sent me one, but I’m a little bit too impatient to really get into a puzzle. And thankfully, I believe this one’s only 500 pieces. There’s no way I’m ever going to look at anything more than 500 pieces.

Scott Cowan [00:31:29]:

I’m laughing for a number of reasons.

Molly Hashimoto [00:31:31]:

Really.

Scott Cowan [00:31:34]:

As you, I’m too impatient. But there is a relatively well known librarian in the Seattle area that I’m sure you may know her personally. You know the name nancy Pearl.

Molly Hashimoto [00:31:47]:

Oh, yeah. I don’t know her personally, but very familiar.

Scott Cowan [00:31:51]:

Nancy was a guest on the show, and we were talking, and I follow her on social media, and it’s weekly. It’s least once a week. She’s publishing a photograph of a thousand plus piece jigsaw puzzle that she’s completed. She’s ready to send it off to somebody. So that’s her thing. She does jigsaw.

Molly Hashimoto [00:32:11]:

She probably listens to audiobooks while she’s.

Scott Cowan [00:32:14]:

Doing.

Molly Hashimoto [00:32:17]:

She could not read all those books in 2000 piece puzzle.

Scott Cowan [00:32:21]:

I just crack up because you’re saying you’re impatient. I’m laughing because I am as well. And then there’s this other person that I’ve talked to that you are aware of. That’s their thing.

Molly Hashimoto [00:32:35]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:32:38]:

So this is interesting. So as an artist, now I’m looking at your Mount Rainier and is that subalpine? Sorry, I thought there was a typo. The note card, lovely note card. Have they ever said to you, hey, we want to take this art and do something? And you said, oh, I don’t really like that idea.

Molly Hashimoto [00:33:07]:

No, because they’re wonderful. They do beautiful work. And among publishers, card publishers, their royalty system is so fair and so generous. Okay, I’m excited. The other thing is not everybody can afford to buy a print. And the wonderful thing about them and you mentioned this earlier in our conversation, this brings art to everybody. This is affordable. People can buy this and enjoy art. And they publish contemporary artists, but they also publish many really good artists from the past. There’s no way you’re not going to be able to buy a painting by Monet. And they publish things like that. So it’s great.

Scott Cowan [00:33:52]:

That’s awesome. So walk me through I had no idea we’d go this direction. That’s the beauty of the show. But walk me through this note card, this Mount Rainier note card. You submitted the art. Did they say, hey, we’re looking for ideas. What do you have? How did you go about submitting the art and what’s the process like with them?

Molly Hashimoto [00:34:21]:

Because I have a really long standing relationship with them, probably 40 years. I just do art, I send it to them and I don’t do anything. And this is how they operate. If they like it, they publish it. If they don’t, it goes in my closet with all the things that haven’t sold. I mean, hopefully I’ll offer it for sale at some point, but I just do what I’m inspired to do. It’s a pretty nice thing. I mean, that’s one of the pleasures of being an know, you can sometimes just do what you feel like doing. And I love Mount Rainier, and one of my books is Mount Rainier an Artist Tour, and I’ve spent many days at Mount Rainier, and I just love it, and so that’s inspiring to me. So I do things that inspire me, and it’s real hard for me to do. Like, sometimes people ask me to do a commission. I’m not crazy about that because it doesn’t mean anything personally to me, and I’ve only done a few because I just don’t really enjoy it very much.

Scott Cowan [00:35:36]:

I want to go back to when you moved. So did you grow up in Minnesota? Did you grow up in that area?

Molly Hashimoto [00:35:42]:

Well, my dad was in the military, so we moved around quite a bit. And one place we lived for several different times was Denver, and I just got a real love for the mountains living in Denver, so moving to Seattle was just so easy for.

Scott Cowan [00:35:58]:

So what was it like when you saw Rainier for the first time?

Molly Hashimoto [00:36:02]:

Oh, my can’t I can’t even tell you. I remember driving up above the know, that really steep incline as you’re going up towards paradise, and I just remember my jaw dropped. I could not believe how big it was. And I still feel that way every time I go there. I can’t believe how big it just it floors. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:36:29]:

So I grew up in the Tacoma area my entire life. I grew up as a child in the Tacoma area, and so rainier was always if it wasn’t cloudy, rainier was always present. And then I went to college in Ellensburg, and you don’t see them out in there. Never really paid any attention to that. After college, moved to Seattle, saw the mountain on occasion. Not like you do when you’re down south. I have friends that live in the Bonnie Lake area where it seems like the mountain is just popping up out of their backyard.

Molly Hashimoto [00:37:01]:

That’s amazing. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:37:02]:

So the mountain has been part of my life for a long, long time, and when we moved to Winachi, my mother and father moved with us over here. And my mother misses the mountain terribly because her entire life up until 2017 had been in the Tacoma area where the mountain is present. And I don’t miss it, but I’m aware of it not being here. But when I go down, what I do find to be really odd is when you see the mountain from Yakima, it doesn’t look like it’s like, what mountain is that? It’s weird to me. It’s rainier, but it’s not rainier.

Molly Hashimoto [00:37:44]:

Yeah, I know.

Scott Cowan [00:37:45]:

And it’s so when you go up to it like, I went over Chinook Pass for the first time. Have you traveled? Beautiful pass. And I wasn’t prepared for all the cars stopped along the side of the road for the photo ops. I was like, what’s going on here? And I was like, what happened? But it is such a magnificent splend. It’s just amazing. I think we take it for granted. I know I do. I guess in a long winded way, I’m trying to say I’ve taken the mountain for granted, and as an artist, it probably provides you with never ending content.

Molly Hashimoto [00:38:30]:

You’re right. I need to tell you that my birthday is coming up this weekend and I have this tradition. I don’t always manage it, but I go to Mount Rainier somewhere near my birthday and it just means so much to me. And the fall color can be really spectacular at paradise. But I may go up to sunrise sometimes. There are some really neat plants up there that I love that turn great colors. There’s one called Knotweed. One is blooming in the summer. It doesn’t look like much at all, but when it turns red in the fall, it’s pretty stunning. So I haven’t decided which one I’m going to, which place. But what you said about the mountain and kind of missing your mom missing it. When I used to fly back to Minnesota to see my family that still lives there, when we would fly back and we’d fly by rainier, I would just have this great feeling of relief. I’m home. I’m home, and there’s the mountain and I’m home. That was really cool.

Scott Cowan [00:39:36]:

It’s interesting, isn’t it? How it’s so I don’t know. I’m struggling with word and I’m the host of the show. I better not. But I do think it’s magnificent. It is wonderful, and we’re lucky to have it. We’re also lucky to have artists that capture it in creative ways of sharing.

Molly Hashimoto [00:40:02]:

Know, Scott, I just wanted to say one my in all my peregrinations around the mountain, I realized that it does look different from almost every angle. So, you know, from Tacoma, it looks real different than it does from Seattle. And then as you drive south towards Olympia, it really starts to look strange because you can see the different crests on the so it’s fascinating. It’s so big that it does look different from different perspectives.

Scott Cowan [00:40:35]:

Go around to the Yakima and look at it that way. It doesn’t look like the same mountain at all, really, to me. I have to remind myself that’s rainier, I mean, it’s very interesting. Now as you get closer to it from that way, you’re like, okay, yeah, it’s rainier. But when you’re in the Akima area looking west at the mountain, it does look very different. So we’ve meandered a long way around. I want you to spend some time with me now on the trees of the west. Now, there’s a thing on the show that we don’t talk about certain places like Oregon, but I’ll allow it. I’ve been allowing it more. I’ve been trying to be more inclusive lately and include Oregon and all of that because of the Pacific Northwest. But walk me through, how long was this book in the making? I mean, you said you had the so when what’s maybe the earliest piece in this?

Molly Hashimoto [00:41:43]:

Hmm. That’s a really good question. Wow. Oh boy. I don’t know, Scott. I can’t even remember because I’ve been drawing and sketching these things for so long. But maybe something no, I don’t really know. I don’t know. I cannot remember.

Scott Cowan [00:42:06]:

But you could have made something up, by the way.

Molly Hashimoto [00:42:08]:

Well, I could have, but one thing I wanted to say is when I started hiking in Washington in my twenty s, I started noticing how beautiful and strange the trees up in the mountains are. They form these very strange shapes. They call it crumb holtz. It’s a German word, mean crooked stick or something to that effect. But they almost look like bonsai Japanese garden trees. And I just got fascinated with them and I think that’s when I started looking at trees. So probably there’s something in the book that is from an Alpine view.

Scott Cowan [00:42:52]:

Okay.

Molly Hashimoto [00:42:53]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:42:58]:

This is akin to me asking, do you have a favorite child? But do you have a favorite medium to work in?

Molly Hashimoto [00:43:05]:

Well, excuse me. My first medium was watercolor, and I really like it. Still love it. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:43:17]:

I’m going to show you. No one can see this, but this is the page I’ve currently flipped to.

Molly Hashimoto [00:43:22]:

Yes. You can see it done two different ways.

Scott Cowan [00:43:25]:

Right. And that’s what stopped me here as I’m flipping through. Is that the same basic image, two different styles, mountain hemlock and Mount Baker. For the audience, let’s give them the verbal storytelling here. Walk me through which one came first, the watercolor or the block print?

Molly Hashimoto [00:43:56]:

The watercolor.

Scott Cowan [00:43:57]:

Watercolor came first. And when you did this watercolor, were you actually present here or did you sketch this out and then come back to the studio? Walk me through this.

Molly Hashimoto [00:44:12]:

Great question. Just a minute, Scott, because I’m going to have to clear my throat. I’m getting scratchy. This happens sometimes when I teach if I talk too much. Okay. I would be lost without my camera. And I’m not a professional photographer, but I take a lot of pictures when I’m out in the field. Sometimes I sketch this particular one. No, I took a picture and I was fascinated by the growth habit of this mountain hemlock because they do weird things up in the mountain. Sometimes the snow will cause them to bend down and then they propagate themselves with a form called layering, where it’s kind of like they set down roots where the tree bent down. Anyway, I’ve done various versions of this. I did an etching of it, too, which is in the book. That one’s one of my favorites. But yeah, the watercolor I started with because I really liked the image, and then I thought this one would make a really good block print. So that’s why I did both. And I did that. I have done that with several things, and sometimes when I’m at a loss, like, gee, what should I do now? I know people like the block prints. I’ll just find a watercolor that I’ve done and I’d go, this could make a really good block print.

Scott Cowan [00:45:33]:

What criteria do you use to take something that was a watercolor and then go, this would make a good block print?

Molly Hashimoto [00:45:40]:

That is a very good question, because when I teach the block printing, people ask me, well, what’s a good subject? What should I do? And what I think is something with really strong lines, like very emphatic. And then if it has bright color, that’s a real plus, too. So here the bright color was the meadow. The meadow nearby. So those two things really make a good print.

Scott Cowan [00:46:11]:

And I’m going to skip through the desert stuff because that’s not what we do have desert here.

Molly Hashimoto [00:46:17]:

Well, you guys live really close to it. I spent a lot of time this spring over there because I’m researching my new book, Wildflowers. I’ve discovered some really great places, and I’m coming back next spring because I love it over there.

Scott Cowan [00:46:33]:

Well, spill the tea. Where did you find over here that you liked?

Molly Hashimoto [00:46:38]:

Well, I don’t know if I want to share that. Know, there’s a couple of really good guidebooks published by Mountaineers, and they have many great suggestions of where to go. And there’s a really cool website called Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest. It’s really neat because they’re bullets in all these possible places, and they tell you, this is in bloom, this is over, this is coming up. I use that a lot in my research. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:47:11]:

Where we live, we’re physically close to what’s called the Sage Hills Trail.

Molly Hashimoto [00:47:15]:

Oh, yeah, I was there. It was amazing.

Scott Cowan [00:47:18]:

And when the flowers are in bloom, the parking around here, I feel like I’m living next to a trailhead of proportions.

Molly Hashimoto [00:47:28]:

Sure.

Scott Cowan [00:47:29]:

But it’s a wonderful little there’s a pretty big climate, my end of it, but I didn’t realize how far it goes north from where we are up to Horsehead Lake.

Molly Hashimoto [00:47:42]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:47:43]:

It’s quite lovely. You already said this, so I don’t think I’m saying anything I shouldn’t say publicly. So there will be another book coming out, and it’ll be on Wildflowers.

Molly Hashimoto [00:47:56]:

Yeah. And it’s going to be a companion volume to Trees of the west and Birds of the west, and having a lot of fun with it and discovering, as I just said, some really beautiful things in Washington that I had no idea there was one place. I was over in your neck of the woods where I discovered a cactus, a hedgehog cactus, which shocked me. I mean, it looked like something that should be growing in California. So it’s exciting to me because it doesn’t matter how old you are, how long you’ve been in the state, you are always going to find something new that you didn’t even know existed. And I find that really exciting.

Scott Cowan [00:48:38]:

Well, the geography of the state is incredibly diverse.

Molly Hashimoto [00:48:42]:

You’re right. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:48:43]:

One thing. So have you ever been to well, you’ve been to Leavenworth, right?

Molly Hashimoto [00:48:48]:

Oh, yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:48:49]:

Okay. Have you ever gone on a hike up into the Enchantments?

Molly Hashimoto [00:48:55]:

Yes, I did. Years ago. Years ago. It’s an absolutely marvelous so when I.

Scott Cowan [00:49:02]:

First started this show, I had a guest on from a geology professor from Central Washington University very new to doing this. And I was very nervous. And he had a show on PBS. He’s very comfortable speaking and presenting.

Molly Hashimoto [00:49:22]:

I think I know who you’re talking about because I saw his yeah, yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:49:27]:

So Nick Sitner comes on and I’ve told this story before, but I’ll share it with you right now back then. So I reached out to him about being a guest and he writes back, sure, when? I mean, it was literally like, sure, when? And I said, how about I’m making this up Tuesday at 09:00 a.m.?

Molly Hashimoto [00:49:45]:

Sure.

Scott Cowan [00:49:45]:

Send me the link Tuesday at 09:00 A.m.. He pops on my screen like you did this morning. Hey. And I go, Hi. And he goes, Hi. Let’s go. And that was it. He was ready to roll. And I’m like so that was before I ever had these introductory phone calls with a guest. Okay.

Molly Hashimoto [00:50:04]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:50:05]:

And I had like, 30 seconds and I was like, okay, hang on, Scott. This is going to be interesting. And he took off and he’s entertaining, it was great. And he made a statement and I went, Whoa, whoa, wait, stop. I go, you’re telling me blah, blah, blah. And he goes, oh, you’re paying attention? And I just laughed because I think he was setting me up with this. So this is something that you said no longer, no matter how long you’ve lived here. I never knew this before. The rocks in the Enchantment enchantments. Do you know where they came from?

Molly Hashimoto [00:50:37]:

I do not know. Tell me.

Scott Cowan [00:50:40]:

Those rocks. I guess there’s ways for geologists to tag them using scientific methods that escape me. Those rocks originated basically in Baja California wow. And have migrated through the millennia to where they are now and up into I had I think of a mountain and I think of it as being the ultimate permanent thing. Right. It’s like it’s there. It’s not going anywhere. Well, that’s not true. And these rocks started their existence in what we call Baja California.

Molly Hashimoto [00:51:17]:

Great. Very cool.

Scott Cowan [00:51:18]:

And here they are in Washington state or Oregon in some capacity and British Columbia and all this. It’s just fascinating to me. So, yes, you can find pretty much anything here in the state from a geology standpoint, and there’s always something our tagline is there’s always more to explore, and there is there’s just so much more to do and to uncover and see. And I love the fact that you’re still finding those things, too.

Molly Hashimoto [00:51:46]:

One thing about the enchantments, there’s a beautiful tree there which you’re probably aware of, it’s subalpine larch, and they also grow up at Washington Pass near Liberty Bell. And I’ve taught classes many times for the North Cascades Institute. And one of my favorite things we do is when we’re there in the fall, we go up to Washington Pass and we paint the larches when they turn gold. And people don’t know that this is a very unique species that really does not extend much beyond these two areas we just mentioned, and they’re stunning.

Scott Cowan [00:52:27]:

I did not realize that they were in that specialized of a location.

Molly Hashimoto [00:52:35]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:52:36]:

So you got a new book. Do you have an approximate ETA of when?

Molly Hashimoto [00:52:46]:

I think it’s going to be a couple of years yet.

Scott Cowan [00:52:48]:

Okay. Yeah, a couple years. And you’re teaching classes. So I’m going to shift into a couple of questions that I always ask guests. Number one, so you live in the Seattle area, and you disclosed to me, and we’re still friends, that you’re not a coffee fan, but you drink tea. That’s okay. But if I’m coming over to Seattle, I drink coffee wherever my it’s the thing that I do, where if you and I were going to meet for a cup of coffee or a cup of tea, where would you recommend?

Molly Hashimoto [00:53:26]:

We think I think we’d go to Zoka Z-O-K-A. They’ve got a couple of locations in Seattle, and there’s one near me, and I’ve met friends there for tea and coffee a number of times.

Scott Cowan [00:53:38]:

Okay, and since you’re a tea drinker and it’s a coffee shop, how is the tea experience there? And it’s okay to say it’s not the best?

Molly Hashimoto [00:53:46]:

No, it’s very fine.

Scott Cowan [00:53:49]:

Now, if I were going to play along and say, no, let’s just go for tea because I enjoy tea as well, my preference is coffee. But if we’re going to go for tea, is there a great place to go for tea in your area?

Molly Hashimoto [00:54:03]:

I have to tell you, Scott, that I haven’t gone out for know people who are true connoisseurs drink Japanese teas. And I know a guy who imports tea, but I have never become a real connoisseur of it, so I couldn’t really tell you that.

Scott Cowan [00:54:24]:

Okay. So when I ask a person what their coffee drink of choice is like, mine is just I enjoy black coffee. So what tea do you enjoy?

Molly Hashimoto [00:54:34]:

Well, I like English breakfast, Irish breakfast. Sometimes Earl Gray and I drink it like the brits do. I like tea. I like my tea with a little bit of milk and honey.

Scott Cowan [00:54:46]:

Okay. What is the difference between English and Irish breakfast?

Molly Hashimoto [00:54:52]:

I think the Irish breakfast might have a little more green tea in it. I guess that kind of follows, doesn’t it?

Scott Cowan [00:55:03]:

Makes sense. All right. And since I’m probably going to show up around lunchtime, where’s a great place for lunch in Seattle?

Molly Hashimoto [00:55:11]:

I’ve got a new favorite.

Scott Cowan [00:55:12]:

Okay.

Molly Hashimoto [00:55:13]:

It’s the El Camille food truck on Sandpoint Way. It’s Mexican food. Really good. Really good and super inexpensive.

Scott Cowan [00:55:22]:

I was not seeing that one. Really?

Molly Hashimoto [00:55:26]:

Yeah, it’s really good. I recommend it.

Scott Cowan [00:55:32]:

You’ve thrown me. What would you order? What have you tried and share more?

Molly Hashimoto [00:55:41]:

I like their chicken enchiladas, and their guacamole is amazing. And they have, like, 20 well, it’s not 20. They probably got about six different little salsa, different flavors, chipotle, super hot green sauce.

Scott Cowan [00:55:59]:

Do you like heat? Do you like yeah, I like it.

Molly Hashimoto [00:56:02]:

I like it.

Scott Cowan [00:56:03]:

I’m kind of a wimp.

Molly Hashimoto [00:56:05]:

Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:56:07]:

My son is I think he just buys hot sauce. That sounds disgusting just to say that.

Molly Hashimoto [00:56:14]:

I know I drink grassoline.

Scott Cowan [00:56:16]:

Dad, look at me. I appreciate flavor. So I don’t like heat for the sake of heat. If it’s got flavor to it, I will sure endure it a little bit more.

Molly Hashimoto [00:56:31]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:56:32]:

Okay. All right, so as we’re going to wrap this up, I’ve got two questions, and I prepped you that. There was going to be one question I wouldn’t disclose, so I’m going to give you the other question first and make you wait a little longer. Well, actually, I have three questions for you. Question number one is your teaching schedule. Where do you normally teach? How often are you teaching, and where can people find out more about that?

Molly Hashimoto [00:56:59]:

I will be teaching a class on Zoom for the North Cascades Institute. Perhaps you heard about the fire, the sourdough fire up on highway 20. Unfortunately, it kind of threw a wrench into their class programming. So I had planned to do a fall color watercolor class for them in October, but we decided we couldn’t do in person classes. So I’m going to do an online class for them on I think it’s October 14, but they’ll have information on their website about it. But I put information on my website, too, and one thing I will be doing, too, is I like doing library programs for local libraries where I bring materials for people to try things out. And so I may be at a few local libraries, might be up at Darrington in October. They’re celebrating their remodel. And I don’t know, I just like getting out there and meeting people from different parts of the city and the state.

Scott Cowan [00:58:04]:

All right, part two of that question is, if people want to find out more about you and about your art and your books, where would they be able to find out online?

Molly Hashimoto [00:58:14]:

They could come to my website, Hoshimoto.com, and also Pomegranate probably has a little info, and some mountaineers books does, too.

Scott Cowan [00:58:24]:

And we’ll put links to all that in the show notes for you. Okay, so here’s the question. You ready? It’s a very important question. Cake or pie? And why.

Molly Hashimoto [00:58:39]:

Pie? I make a pretty good crust from The Joy of Cooking.

Scott Cowan [00:58:45]:

Okay.

Molly Hashimoto [00:58:46]:

I love boys and berries, though I haven’t made one yet. I discovered them at the farmers market recently. But apple pie, I go to the U District Farmers Market, and Grouse Mountain, which grows their fruit over in Chelan, they’re over there, and they bring this heirloom apple called Prairie Spy. It makes the best apple pie. You cannot believe how good it really? Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:59:16]:

Elaborate. Let’s continue. See, I love this question because some people would still be debating with themselves. They can’t answer the question. So other people are, like, adamant, boom. And what I’ve noticed about this is people are adamant about one or the other, and the other one is absolutely horrible. Like, never, I will not do. And I think it’s funny because it’s not meant to be a really polarizing question. It’s just meant to be kind of fun.

Molly Hashimoto [00:59:53]:

Well, listen, I like cake a lot, too. My daughter is a great baker for Mother’s Day and my birthday. She makes some pretty fabulous cake. So it was a little hard for me. It was a little jumped.

Scott Cowan [01:00:08]:

You jumped firmly into the pie category.

Molly Hashimoto [01:00:10]:

Really?

Scott Cowan [01:00:11]:

So tell me about these apples, though, because I’ve not heard of them. And why do you feel that they make the best apple pie?

Molly Hashimoto [01:00:20]:

Well, I asked Scott. I’m pretty sure Scott is one of the co owners of the Orchard. I can’t remember his last name, but it’s Grouse Mountain.

Scott Cowan [01:00:30]:

Okay.

Molly Hashimoto [01:00:30]:

Just a wonderful guy. It has the best produce. I asked him. I said, you know, I love baking pies, and I can’t seem to find the perfect apple for pie. And he says, well, my wife says that the Prairie Spy, which he has there, is the best. So I find out that he’s bringing them around third week of September. So I will definitely be buying some for a pie. And I can’t really tell you, but I think what it is is it cooks down enough. Like. Say you use a Granny Smith. They’re too crisp, they’re too hard. You need something that’s going to cook down. Has a little bit of a bite, but it’s also sweet.

Scott Cowan [01:01:10]:

Okay.

Molly Hashimoto [01:01:11]:

Yeah, fair.

Scott Cowan [01:01:13]:

So with the apple pie, are you a fan of this is Where It gets some people like to put cheddar cheese on are you a fan of cheese on them?

Molly Hashimoto [01:01:26]:

No.

Scott Cowan [01:01:27]:

Ice cream?

Molly Hashimoto [01:01:29]:

Sure. Vanilla ice cream? Absolutely. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [01:01:35]:

I mean, there’s no wrong answers here. There’s no wrong answers here. But I am amazed at people’s emphatic nature of their answers sometimes.

Molly Hashimoto [01:01:45]:

Yes.

Scott Cowan [01:01:46]:

Yours is more like, well, I prefer pie, but the cake is good, too. So if it’s a cake, what’s your go to cake, like if it was your birthday and your daughter said, hey, Mom, I’m going to bake a cake for you. What do you want? Any cake? What would you ask your daughter?

Molly Hashimoto [01:02:03]:

Well, it’s funny you should ask that question because I just wrote her yesterday, emailed her and told her, black Forest cake is what I want. If you feel like you want to.

Scott Cowan [01:02:14]:

Make it this year, it’s a Black Forest cake.

Molly Hashimoto [01:02:16]:

Yes.

Scott Cowan [01:02:17]:

Okay. All right. Solid. Really solid. I like that. Okay, last question. I promise you. What didn’t I ask you that I should have? What didn’t we cover that you would like to bring up?

Molly Hashimoto [01:02:31]:

That’s a really good question, Scott. I think you did cover everything. Really. I’m really pleased at all the questions you asked me. I guess the only thing maybe that I’d want to say to people is going outside and looking at things like trees, flowers, birds. I see it as a way to establish some priorities in your life that will make you happier. And I’d really like to say that, and I think when you start making art about these things, you begin to look at them even more closely and you take even more pleasure from it.

Scott Cowan [01:03:14]:

Okay, I think we can end right there.

Molly Hashimoto [01:03:19]:

Okay. Thank you so much.