Two paintings meet on a Utility Box-Hooray!

 My two paintings finally get to meet.

A Great Day and Home Sweet Home will say hello on a busy street corner

on Newport Way in Issaquah WA by the Issaquah Creek.

I am told that 64,000 commuters drive this road every day

and this does not even include the thousands of returning salmon every fall.

Wouldn't it be nice if those salmon could poke their heads out of the creek,

and take a much needed break to enjoy some art 

and be encouraged by this happy air-breathing fish?

It could happen. 

Just don't let this happy fisherman see them.

 Here is the intersection and 

the utility boxes they will go on.

A vinyl reproduction will be made and wrapped around these boxes somehow.

Can't wait to see how they turn out!

I will let you know when they are living here!

A Little Girl's Art-Two Legged horse with a Party Hat?

Look what I discovered at my dad's last week.

One of my early drawings.

Glad everyone looks happy and 

I especially love the hands.

Good job with composition and use of lines if I do say so myself ;)

Time for Hot Chocolate Mugs

If you are looking for something to do this summer

while the kids are still home,

then look no further.

Draw a cow for a mug!

You can paint, or draw, or paint on an iPad.

These cuties were made by my students last trimester.

Then I added the writing with PicMonkey,

uploaded their art to Costco's Photo Center,

then patiently waited for my mugs to arrive in the mail.

Seriously they always arrive in a few very quick days.

Aren't they adorable?

Like I always say,

kids are the best artists!

Now go grab your kids

and make some Christmas presents for grandparents.

Because that time of year will be here before you know it!

For the Love of Stamps-I am in UPPERCASE Magazine!

I love this magazine

and I love stamps

so...

 I just had to submit an article for the stamp/lace issue.

And it was accepted!

I talk about my mom and her love of stamps.

"I adore the ethereal quality of stamps.  The fact that they have traveled around the block or around the world gives me pause and sometimes goosebumps.  They are small exquisite gifts of color and composition that are utilitarian unless stumbled upon and studied for their beauty. My mother collected them, filed them away in notebooks, and looked up their worth and history in stamp books.  Her name was Phyl and she was a philatelist which seems appropriate.   I never caught on to her collecting and could not really grasp the necessity of this endeavor.  But as an artist I love the serendipitous use of them in my paintings.  And I love using a few of her stamps as a way to honor and remember her legacy.  I know this new-found use for them would make her smile."

 Some of my stash...

 The stamps find their ways into my work.

"My stamps are glued in the first layers of my paintings and they undergo a transformation with paint glazed on and around them.  Sometimes I apply so much paint that only I know the stamps are there, except for the added weight and texture they give.  Often their muted or vibrant colors set the overall tone of the painting.  I love it when Queen Elizabeth peeks out from around a vase or a sheet of blue stamps become bedding in a nest."

 They often get covered over with paint layers so they only peak through.

They make great nesting material.

 and shine out from tables,

 walls,

and just about everywhere.

To learn more about UPPERCASE Magazine

just click here.

"After all of their global adventures, I hope the retired stamps are settled in to their new home and look down from their painting at the abode where they now reside.  Maybe they can even see the new mail that arrives daily, and just maybe they check out those stamps and casually ask them how their trip was.  Yep it could happen."

Kid's paint the best-iPad and Fairy Tale Recap

Kids really do make the best art.

Their child-like simplicity is so awesome

and so hard for adults to emulate.

We drew The Ugly Duckling,

bears,

pigs,

monkeys,

patterned dresses,

Puss and Boots,

and swimming creatures.

It was a great year and I look forward to new lessons and 

students next year.

I think I may learn more from them

than they get from me!