Turn kinetic- collage painting

This piece is part of a new watercolor and collage series on paper. I've been working with acrylics and gouache on wood panels for awhile and needed to mix it up a bit. These are going to be larger pieces, around 20 x 30 and focus on imagery related to spiraling movement and creative energy. Hopefully I can produce a good collection to show this fall, there are a few galleries I'm submitting to and it would get me in gear to follow through if I have a goal in mind! Turn Kinetic is available as a print in my etsy shop.

The big 40 party!

So I realized I haven't posted any pics from my fabulous 40th birthday party that my husband and friends threw for me on July 25! I truly believe this party will go down in history as one of the best we've thrown ever. I mean, all my true blues swooped in and decorated, cooked, organized and arranged the most kick-a&*$ gathering anyone could ask for.















Miles, the mixologist was the highlight of the party. There was a drink list (pictured) and lo and behold he actually created a version of a gin mule for me! Seriously, it was the yummiest drink ever!






























The night was very laid back, casual and we were able to sit outside on the deck and screen porch with all the doors thrown open. A delicious summer night, cold drinks with sexy ice cubes (Miles had to bring his own cubes!) and all of my buds from the hood. An amazing and memorable night!!

Jai ho

I've started some more watercolor pieces on different kinds of printmaking and drawing papers. This one is just straight watercolor and pencil on Rives BFK, one of my favorite papers. It has this nice off-white buffed feel and is so nice to draw on! I'm going to integrate some collage and embroidery eventually, I had done one other piece called Routine and it has been a pretty popular piece. This next batch will be much larger, like 20 x 30, in order to get some spontaneous brushwork going.






















Working small has it's advantages, quicker, easy to move around-but I want to do some shows this fall and would like to have a collection of works on paper to choose from. We'll just see where this goes. For now, here's a peek into a study of a bhangra dancer, Jai ho. Sort of inspired by my fave show, So you think you can dance" I know, cheesy, but I love watching all those talented people dance their tails off! And they started featuring some Bollywood numbers and the costumes are absolutely amazing. Ok, off to paint before I pick up my daughter, time just flew this morning!

More art blocks

I've been experimenting with more art blocks and trying to figure out the best way to present the images. I came up with a little signature authenticity card to put on the back of each piece, which seems a bit more clean than signing and dating in pen.





















It just seemed too amateur looking that way. I think I'll try doing some unpainted blocks next with a natural protective finish and rounded edge imagery instead of the hard corners I've done so far. Some new paintings are in the works and looking forward to see how they translate on a small scale. I have some 2 x 6 lengths of wood that were accidentally purchased by my husband, so I think I'll try creating some 6 x 6 blocks too that can hang on the wall. More to come!

The most unique mushrooms

I was walking home from the pool with my daughters and we decided to take the scenic route. Along the way, I spotted these really cool mushrooms growing off of an enormous oak tree root near the sidewalk. There was this amazing moss surrounding it and the purples, blues and rust colors against the bright green were just stunning.















I had to pluck them from their little home and take them with me! I photographed them at sunset in my front yard, fortunately had some moss to shoot against to get a similar effect. Hopefully, I can keep these little gems for awhile. I wonder if they can be preserved? A little research to do here. These photos are definitely going in my reference files for some future paintings.

Silver Beach

oy, so sorry it's been so long since my last post! Out of town and slow summer movin'! We just got back from a visit to St. Joseph, MI, where I grew up. As always, a great time at the beach, picking berries and just plain relaxing! The girls love hanging out at pop pop and mu mu's, so it's totally worth an annual week-long trip. There were some amazing sunsets and the beaches have the most wonderful sink-your-feet-in sand.















Since it's summertime, St. Joe has become quite the resort town and it's actually difficult to eat somewhere without having a wait. We went to Silver Beach pizza and waited an hour to sit down! With a hungry 3 and 6-year-old, very challenging indeed. It was great to catch up with my brother and sister-in-law, we visited a cool brewery in Benton Harbor called the Livery, walked out on the pier and checked out a flea market on the bluff. It's always great to visit my home town, but definitely by the end of the week was ready to come back home. Leaving you with a wonderful pic of the girls running on the beach.

Crap shoot

Another one of my 3x3 canvases for the Canvas Project. My word was crap shoot, and I had these really cool red dice to work with. I need to photograph it better, but for now you get the idea.






















I had the dice and loopity-loop going on and asked my daughter what to do for the background and she suggested a game board, well I was sort of thinking gambling, casino themes, etc. But then I started thinking about the graphic elements of a game board and added the blue tissue squares to make a sort of Mondrian-like piece. Also, I must be in a patriotic mood with the red, white and blue theme. It ended up being a nice little study. fun, fun!!

I heart griffins

Not really, but "griffin" was one of my 5 words that was given to me for the Art House Co-op Canvas Project 2. I racked my brain for creative imagery that would not be so obvious or cliche. But all I could think of was a tattoo or clip art.






















Well, I actually decided to go obvious and a bit mainstream anyhow. The rainbow colors are a reference to the groovy 60's and the griffin itself is royalty-free clip art that would most obviously be used as a tattoo! The mystical Chinese characters give a sort of "underground" feel, like if your were getting your griffin tattoo done in Chinatown or something. Fun, eh?

Madame Lapin on a block

I'm slowly building a collection of little blocks based on a lot of work from my show. Madame Lapin proved to be a favorite, so I'm doing a few of these and start some giveaways. I sold the original to one of my good friends and thrilled that I get to visit the madame if I want!






















I'm thinking of creating some other characters in this series, but trying to decide if I should do a woodland theme (which is hot right now) or maybe a rain forest theme? Just throwing around ideas. I should ask my girls "what kind of animals do you want to see in a dress?" LOL! Maybe I'll go through their stuffed animals, dress them up and see what inspires some sketches. Seriously people, is this some crazy talk? I'm laughing at this post now.

Lillibands for fall

It's that time again! I'm working on the fall catalog for lillibands and it is always so much fun to design. I'm trying to come up with some fall-like imagery to incorporate in the background and borders. I think I'm going to use some watercolor and pencil drawings of acorns, tree branches and red, orange, yellow impressionistic-like leaves.















This season, Jen is introducing LilliWear, and collection of tshirt dresses, pocket skirts with matching tees and, my favorites, the little linen safari dresses pictured here. They are adorable and I especially love the ribbon tie on the back. I hope they are received well and can't wait to hear how Jen does at the next Mart show in July!

The models, Marly (my daughter) and Lilly (Jen's daughter) were so excited to wear these little numbers and show off with some dance steps in the lawn.

Been Caught Stealing

Have you ever been caught stealing? I have, and I can't remember how old I was, maybe 9 or 10, but it was when we used to walk to the hardware store from my friend Julie's house to buy penny candy. We usually did pay, but one time I got talked into a "group theft ring" where each of us would take a piece of candy and walk out the door separately. Well, that was a bit too obvious, because the clerk noticed each of us acting peculiar and called us out.






















Fortunately, these were the days that if you got caught shoplifting they didn't call the police or anything-just a reprimand enough to scare the pants off! This mischievous girl got caught, but she doesn't care and would do it again! Inspired by Jane's Addiction's song Been Caught Stealing. The original was sold at my show, but the print is available on my Etsy site.

Madame Lapin

C'est vrai, je suis belle. I will be very sad to see this little one go, I sold it on my opening night. The show closes this weekend and I take it all down on Tuesday, so if you haven't seen the collection yet, get on down to Steinbeck's and take a look! I will be finally posting all the work to my Etsy site and will also start listing some of my little blocks too.

Utter bliss

Oh yes, it is so wonderful at the beach. We are spending the week in Destin in a beautiful home in a community called Destiny by the Sea. Our friends the Kamean's we're generous enough to offer their beach house to us for our vacation this year! Yes, believe me, we feel extremely lucky and are so overwhelmed by their generosity.

We usually go to St. George Island twice a year. It is our most favorite place to visit. It's quiet and very un-touristy-quite the opposite of Destin! But with the kids, it's been nice here, Karina met a friend on the beach and we ventured out to Fuddpucker's and fed the alligators yesterday. Lots of putt putt golf, water parks, etc. SGI is still #1 in my book, though.






















After my show and all the stress of work, life, and obligations, it's been a welcome opportunity to do absolutely NOTHING. I mean, I haven't even read my book that much, just staring at the ocean, playing with the kids, having cocktails at random hours (oh yeah) taking walks. But it took about 3 days to let go of it all and really feel rested. The kids had to settle in to the new digs (us too) and the routine is becoming a bit more happy-go-lucky. With 3 days to go, I'm going to make the most of it, so bye-bye until I get back!

Steinbeck's art opening rocked!

My art opening was a success-I sold 6 paintings and 5 prints! So exciting for my first show, it was great fun and I think everyone had a really great time. Most of my friends made it out and I got to see some old faces as well. It was so cool to see people I haven't seen in awhile come out to see my work. And, there was definitely a lot of adrenaline and nervousness exuding from me that night! I really didn't know how my work would be received and if I would sell anything at all. But it was such a relief to hear everyone's compliments and especially interesting to see what people liked the most. Little Starling was a hit,(and sold!) many people loved Float, which was interesting because I didn't think that piece was very strong. Been Caught Stealing and Alice and the White Rabbit were favorites as well.















All my work will be on my Etsy site soon, I've just been underwater with graphic design projects and now getting out of town! We're off to the beach tomorrow, I'm so thrilled-a vacay is definitely required right now!

Can you feel it?

Can you feel the surge of relief from there? I am finished!! 15 finished paintings PLUS I decided to knock out 10 transfers of some of my favorites to 3 1/2" x 4" painted wood blocks. These are so cool, and give a yummy rustic quality to the prints when transferred. The work will be hung tomorrow morning and then I can officially enjoy the rest of my day and then get to relax with friends. I can hardly wait! It's actually NOT supposed to rain tomorrow night. It's been raining since Sunday, so it would be a huge drag to make my friends come out if the weather is bad. I'm going to stop into my friend Talia's shop, Squash Blossom and pick out a rockin' outfit to wear (i hope!) And, I'm going to bed at a reasonable time tonight-so tired of turning out the light at midnight and waking up at the crack of dawn with my kids.
















And to top it off, we're going to the beach on May 15 for a week and THAT my friends will be the icing on the cake. I'll post a recap of the show this weekend and hopefully I will reporting it a success! I'll also be posting all my work from the show to my Etsy shop so those who missed out will have an opportunity to purchase prints.

A little bird told me sketch

I've been a drawing, painting, concepting fiend these last few weeks. I'm starting to burn on fumes here, though. Very tired and as my show gets closer, I feel like I just want to squeeze out just a couple more paintings. I've got 14 and just finished sketching my last piece.






















Which is great, because 15 pieces was my goal and they will all be finished by next Thursday. I guess now I'm looking at all the pieces together and a few seem like they might not fit in my theme anymore. They may just have to do, but now I've got it in my head to maybe create a few more and then I can make some choices at the end in case I want to not include something. Boy, my brain is just going non-stop. I look forward to next weekend where I will be doing NOTHING! But what will that really be like? Restful, sure, but not having a deadline anymore for creating MY art? not sure how that will feel. This sketch is one of my last pieces I did featuring characters from fairy tales called, "A little bird told me"

oh little alice

They are getting cranked out now! I've finished the sketch for Alice and the white rabbit and will start this one tomorrow. I'm at 9 finished paintings

It's finally over-now on to better things!

Phew!!!! I am breathing easier right now because I finally finished a huge design project and it's at the printer. I've really been cranking it out the last couple weeks and had almost forgot what it's like to be sitting at the computer endlessly doing revisions and design and more revisions. UGH!! I can see my burnout looming in the future! But that being said, I'm pretty happy with the end product and it will be a pretty nice piece to add to my design portfolio.























But on to more exciting things. Now I get to focus and power through another 8 paintings for my upcoming show at Steinbeck's on Thursday, May 7. I've been doing a lot of sketches and have some random ideas, but getting them on canvas is another thing all together. I have 6 pieces ready and one more just about finished. My goal is to have 15 NEW pieces. Pretty lofty, eh? The one I'm showing is called "Anita: Silent and wary, they wonder where she's gone". I've really had to focus and make sure that each piece I do is show-worthy, so to speak. I mean, they all have to be GREAT!! I really hope I can be satisfied with the end results. The countdown is on, 15 days....oooh, when I think about it that way, I need to finish one every other day! I may have to include some prints....hmmmm.

Getting ready for Imaginary Worlds show

Lots of busy-ness going on these days between a big brochure project I've been working on for the Task Force for Global Health and getting ready for my solo show on May 7 (yes, you heard it first!). Actually, the anniversary book is almost to the printer and then I can really focus on cranking out some pieces for my show.






















The theme is "Imaginary Worlds" where I speak from the memories of a child. Capturing imagery illustrating a fleeting memory or glimpse of the past and where characters are caught in an expression of carefree whimsy and the viewer is given an opportunity to experience an intimate, nostalgic moment. This collection has been so much fun to work on and the ideas emanating are endless! I want to create just the right imagery, simple and powerful. It's been an incredible journey to wake up every morning wondering what ideas will emerge today and whether they will make the cut in the end. Stay tuned, I'm reluctant to post much of my new work because I want it to be sort of "unveiled" at the show. But I'm not that mean, here's a sneak peak, which is also available on my Etsy shop as a print.

Black bird's party

This black bird piece is 3x4 feet on canvas and was hanging in my bedroom for a few years before I took it down and reworked it. It was a monotone piece that I got sort of sick at looking at and felt like some color and fun was needed. Circuses and parties have been on the brain, so this little bird needed a party hat! I've only reworked existing paintings 2 times before, and both were large on canvas. I think it's because I have an "out with the old in with the new" kind of thought process.






















I remember when I was in college, my 3-d instructor had a show in the school gallery. He decided to burn all his previous work and create all new pieces for that show. At the time, I thought that was insane, cuckoo clock stuff, but now I can sort of relate. I went through a bunch of old paintings and threw out a bunch of stuff that was totally embarrassing-so bad! I know, I know, you might say that it's a document of progress. But right now, I feel like I only want to look at work I'm proud of and not be reminded of my mistakes.