Art

be there or be square!

This coming weekend is the bi-annual open house at hot shops art center in downtown omaha. There's so much going on, you'll be sorry to miss it!! Music, demonstrations, food, and of course art, Saturday noon to eight and Sunday noon to five. Be there with your bells on!!

nature's fur

here she is...

i've been working on this shawl for months and am finally done. it's for the creighton university show in january. yeah, i'm pretty excited. eddith is loaning me a mannequin for the exhibition, so it will be displayed well. the inside has pockets - gotta love that!

wishes

i started this painting last week and haven't had much time to add to it...yet. been busy grading papers, writing tests, and preparing for some shows. life never stops to wait for you! anyway- this is a bunch of 'wishes' being taken off into the wind, i hope they all come true. 

the smallest prints ever!!!

sorry these are out of focus slightly...they're so small it's hard to take a good 'macro' photo! the above is celtic knot  and below: the orange one is reef and the yellow/purple is tentacles. these are for an upcoming show and have one more step before they are completely finished. you know you like 'em...

halloween

i hardly ever 'dress up' for halloween, but this year i figured i might as well be scary!!! steve helped with the face paint... i looked pretty weird...

object quilt

i started this drawing a while ago...

first i sectioned these little squares and rectangles off, so each little object could have its own area. then i looked around myself  and did these 'doodles' of everyday objects. i liked leaving some of the boxes empty to help break up the space and create resting places. 

i like how every object is created equal. none of them are special or necessarily bigger or better, just objects. above you can see a bottle of soda, a coffee mug, two door knobs, a pencil sharpener...

a leaf, light switch, hub cap, pumpkin stem, key rings, the arm of a chair....

surrounded by amazing shapes and items, it was easy to find a basic beauty in the objects of my life. 

make a stencil!!

Did a little side project this weekend for my peeps at school (UNO). i'm a big fan of stencils, i use them in my paintings, drawings, and prints. you can't go wrong with a good stencil! so, i needed some examples for my class. above is color pencil and below is construction paper cut-outs. very basic and so andy warhol...

ohhhh david byrne!!

went to see the amazing david byrne last night with my good friend, kim at the holland performing arts center. it was oh soooo awesome, to say the least. i never thought i would have the chance to see him live, and there i was with a silly grin on my face for most of the night, nodding my head and tapping my feet. he played I Zimbra and that was kicker for me, with the crazy beats and dancers on the stage... 

thanks for the tickets dad, and thanks for the great show, mr. byrne!!

arbor lodge

me an' the mister went to nebraska city (arbor lodge) over the weekend. we walked some trails, learned about apples, and bought a lil tree to plant in the yard eventually. some of the trees are starting to change and the smells in the air no longer hint at long summer days. this was after i scarffed a big apple before we got back on the road home.

 

we saw this sculpture and it flooded my memory. i used to go to arbor lodge with my mom when i was younger and there is a photo somewhere of me with this lady when i was around 13 years old? now that it's fall and school is in full force, i don't get to see my mom as much as i do over the summer. miss ya, mom!!

the first ring

this is my first in a series of printmakers rings. the face is an actual woodblock and the orange print is from the carved wood. the silver band is size 7 and is secured with epoxy to the wood. more rings to come with different designs. 

say what???

for those of you that know me, you know that i don't really cook. but last week i did!! and it was yummy...

baked polenta with fortina, gorgonzola, and homemade tomato sauce! i know you're shocked, i was too. 

tied up

i've been working on this tie piece for a few weeks now. i became very interested with the inside of them and pulled a few of these prints last week. aren't you excited to see what i do next???

for jane...

i did this drawing over the weekend for my great aunt jane. it was her 86th birthday on saturday and i hoped that a drawing of flowers would last longer than actual flowers. my mom and i went to visit her at a hospice house and found her sitting in the common area alone. she has alzheimer's, but i know that when she sees us she knows we are family. i have always admired her since i was really little. she is so beautiful, she was so bright, i think of her all the time.  

bend

i've got a couple of these wormy, bendy forms in my sketchbook and thought i should abstract them larger. perhaps a larger reduction print of this??

fire face

i started this painting forever ago, i'm ashamed to admit. it's been at the studio for a long time, sitting on my easel. i let loose the other day and went to town on it, and i kept calling it 'fire face'. it's supposed to be me when i had my long hair. i think it looks more like me now, than it did before when it was all pinks and yellows. definatley not done, but it looks way better than it did. 

faces

in one of my classrooms there's a pile of national geographic magazines. i have always enjoyed flipping through their magazines to find something to draw from. last week i found these cute little girls and sketched 'em up. the first is better than the second, i think. drawing little kids are hard - they have wacky proportions!

antlers

well...

this painting has been sitting in my dining room for probably a month now. it's (i'm) stuck in that 'i don't know' phase. i need to make a decision fast, usually if i stay in the 'don't know' land for too long, then i cover it and start all over again. we'll see...

drawing in drawing class...?

i was working on this in one of my drawing classes last week. i couldn't resist the still life set up in front of me. these vent/ duct work pipes are so cool looking i had to try drawing it! this is so not finished, the inside of the pipe should be a lot darker...

rounds

here's another 'secret' piece for you...

it's just little pieces of round wood that my good friend david cut out for me. also for the print guild show this winter - and that's all i'm saying! but they are beautiful, don't cha think? 

in the works...

i don't want to tell you too much... 

someone might steal my idea! i think i've figured out how i want this piece to look, i just hope that my idea will work. this will be submitted to the printmakers guild show at creighton this winter. (more to come).