New Show: Caffe Ladro Union, 11/1 - 12/31

I'm hanging a couple pieces at Caffe Ladro on Union between 1st and 2nd in Downtown Seattle for the next two months if you want to check it out! I haven't had a lot of time to do anything new, but I managed to spiff up a couple of old ones that didn't really feel done.

Spring

16 X 20 Mixed Media Acrylic Painting

$375

(You can see what it looked like before HERE)

In the Midnight Garden

13.5 X 23.5 Mixed Media Acrylic Painting on birch panel

$450

(I never took a before picture of this one, but she used to have a huge fur coat and hat. No more)

She Waits Like an Iceberg

18 X 24 Mixed Media Acrylic Painting

$450

(You can see what she used to look like HERE)

Oren Lavie: Her Morning Elegance

Dreamy Places: An Artist Retreat, Whidbey Island

Probably the coolest new construction house I've seen for sale on Whidbey Island so far. LOVE IT.
MLS#29120996, $679K
"Inspired, eclectic Whidbey Island treasure. Meticulously built with unique artistic charm on gorgeous acreage with a peek-a-boo-view-of-the-Sound setting. Open & sunny; gardens galore. 2 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, fireplace, reclaimed hardwood floors. Energy efficient Loewen windows, electric heat pump, metal roofing, on-demand water heater, water purification system, custom walnut & steel stairs/staircase, Japanese soaking tub, steam shower for two. 40x60 Barn/Workshop, full basement."

James Yuill "No Surprise"

Freakin' COOLEST

Chateau Lamp from Anthropologie.com! How cool is this??? Click on the image so you can see the widdle chairs. The floor is made out of book leaves. Oh, if only I had a spare grand lying around, to spend frivolously...

New/Old

I heart Nytimes.com.

Two articles I found interesting this weekend:

Designed, Delivered and Sealed

 - about modular homes created by New World Homes that are both green AND designed to look 150 years old. I thought this was a great idea because most current modular/green homes are very modern in design, and how cool would it be to have an old farmhouse that was NEW? And GREEN?

Carl Jung and the Holy Grail of the Unconscious 

- about a new (old) book by Carl Jung, which is mostly a journal documenting his experience delving into his own unconscious. What I found really interesting, being the visual person I am, was his illustrations. Whaddya want to bet that before long posters of this art will grace many a psychologist's waiting room, not to mention all the college dorm rooms...

More Interesting Artists

Claire Curneen "Blue"

Bruno Lucchesi "After Shopping"

Some other interesting 3-d depictions of figures - I'm really fascinated by the bas-relief. Perhaps I will play with this before I break completely from 2-d to attempt an art doll - so exciting! Can't wait to get to the studio!

Definitely click on the names of the artists and visit their websites - such amazing work.

My Newest Obsession

Christine Alvarado

Red Nose Studio

Amy Earles

Marina Bychkova

Paula Nerhus

KriSoft

Sarah Faber

This is such an odd obsession for me, because I've always found dolls, well, creepy. Because they ARE creepy. Like clowns.

But there's something about assembling a character - not just painting a picture, but making their bodies and clothing and accessorizing them, and then creating their environments - I think I might like doing something like that. I have always been such an "all over the map" kind of artist, always wanting to try new things and styles - making dolls would satisfy my mixed media bent.

As a child, I loved dioramas, the fashion plate game, and those big barbie heads you could do their makeup and hair - there's some common thread in these interests that seems to also be satisfied by creating little people.

I don't know if anything will come of this, but it has been a lot of fun perusing current doll artist's work!

Some things I've been thinking about

I wish I could post some new artwork, but it's summertime, and I'm home with my darling daughter, doing mommy and child things. No room for doodlin' around with paints and such. Instead, here is a picture my Uncle Gudbrand took of Lulu and I while we were visiting my father and family in Norway this past July. I love it; it will be framed soon and on the wall! As for my artwork -I'm ok with the fact I'm not currently in the art studio, because I'll have time soon, and I'm really loving our new home on Whidbey, and being able to go to the beach with Lulu - every day if we want!  

This morning the whole fam walked to a nearby organic farm - one of our neighbors has two large gardens of vegetables, fruits and herbs that you can wander into and pick from, and then pay for it in a handily available glass jar. Surrounding the garden are horses, llamas, goats, sheep and a donkey. It is a lot of fun for all of us, and picking fresh produce that is cheaper than at the supermarket fills me with glee.

However, the short walk to said farm is along one of Whidbey's more commonly used roads, and as anyone who lives somewhere other than a large metropolitan area knows, there isn't any sidewalks. It's not really a freeway, but it's not a quite side street either. When people cruise down it, they are going about 40/50 mph and not expecting peds. It's a bit harrowing. It's rather ironic really, when I think of the fact that while we lived in the city, it cheesed me that we had to drive to get to any quiet and nature-like nice to walk. I looked forward to moving out here, and walking on beaches and in the woods - right outside my door! But - no sidewalks. So I actually walked more back at home. 

So here's my rant: why, when building streets, just add a couple feet on both sides? For bikes and walkers? Sure, it's more money, but ultimately it just seems like something that makes sense, for bikers and walkers. Which is practically everyone. We all walk, those of us with use of our legs.

My other rant: why can't we invent anti-gravity pods already, so we can drive around in hovercrafts? Then there's room for BOTH walkers and drivers. Screw the electric car. Skip to hovercrafts. 

Dastardly Hackers

I just read that Twitter and Facebook have been attacked by hackers, and this is while I've been researching attacks on Wordpress blogs. I've designed a few sites using Wordpress, and I've even meant to switch from Blogger for a while now. I really like Blogger, but I like how you can sculpt WP into a regular site with pages and such. Well, no more. Because it is open source, hackers have targeted WP in order to inject code that links to Viagra and Cialis sites etc etc. My friend Shelly Mazzanoble's site, which I designed, has been hacked over the past year - first she couldn't upload photos, so I upgraded and loaded up a whole new site, but now when you search her name you get info for drugs and stuff. I can't figure out how to fix it, at least not with spending hours researching and digging through every form and page on her site. Sigh. And it seems even if you DO fix the problem, it's an ongoing battle, and honestly who has the time??? 

This really bums me out, for both Shelly and myself, and all other blogs/sites that have been hacked. I think there should be a special hell designed for hackers. Blast you, hackers! (fist shaking in air).

Albert Maysles Home

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/31/realestate/0802-habi-audioss/index.html

Backlog

Can it be true? I haven't written since May 6th? 

It's actually not a surprise at all; I'm being disingenuous. The last 3 months have been a complete whirlwind, since we came back to Seattle from Whidbey Island at the end of February.

We went up there and stayed for a month for a couple reasons: one, I hate February and anything to distract me from the drear that is February is a good thing and two, we had been considering off and on for a year or so whether we wanted to move up to Whidbey Island. 

We (my husband Scott and I) really loved our stay, and thought, why not? We'll rent our house out in Seattle and rent a place up there. And if we really love it after a year, then sell our house and buy one on the island. 

Then just for sh*ts and poops we decided to find out from a real estate agent (the lovely and talented Domenica Lovaglia of West Seattle Windermere) how much our house could possibly sell for. We didn't have high expectations in this economic climate: but Domenica gave us a very sunny and optimistic number. So we thought, well, what the heck? Let's see what happens. 

So April was spent fixing up the house and packing. The house went on the market on May 4th. We got an offer a week and a half later! So then the rest of May was more cleaning, purging and packing and racing back and forth from Seattle and W.I. looking for a place to rent. We found an amazing spot, and I mean AMAZING, just in time and so we moved June 6th, and after a couple weeks we're settling in nicely.

WTF? It's so crazy when you make a big life decision and everything just falls in to place and suddenly everything is different. So here we are. No longer city mice. We have bunnies and deer and eagles and all kinds of wildlife in our "backyard" (we are on 13 acres. I little different then our city backyard that was maybe 600 sq ft). We have raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, salmon berries, mulberries, apples, cherries, pears, and plums. We have an extensive herb garden and a plot to plant our own vegetables. I have my own separate art studio and Scott has a loft for his office.

There are so many details, big and small, that are things that I have fantasized about for so long. I cannot believe I'm here.

Anyway, I'm posting some pics not only of this great new place, but some from the past few months as well. 

In keeping with the whirlwind that has been our life, on Monday we are leaving for Norway for 3 weeks to visit with my father's family - who other than one uncle and one cousin, haven't met my husband or my daughter yet. I haven't been back since 1998 - way overdue. 

So there won't be any posts until we get back - then a whole crapload of new pics and stories I'm sure!

Lulu enjoying a spring rain puddle.

My experiment with dyeing easter eggs with onion skins. I used little leaves and flowers to make the patterns. See how HERE.

This was my favorite, using plum blossoms.

Here's a pic of the picnic table, fire pit and shelter in our new backyard!

Here's my new painting studio, in the inside.

Here's a picture of the house from the backyard.

Here's the mulberry tree outside the bedroom window.

This is where the woodpile lives.

Here's another building on the property.

This is the outside of the art studio.

Some pink poppies in the garden.

The woodstove.

The livingroom.

The kitchen and dining room.

See you all in a few weeks!

Dreamy Places: My House!

For the past two months we have been packing and purging and cleaning like mad, because we decided to put the house on the market and move up to Whidbey Island!!! You can see more info at www.5014fortysecond.com, in case you are looking for a house in the Columbia City neighborhood of Seattle.

Here's pics of the results of our labor (of love):

Illustration Friday: Poise

"Glaukopis/Love in a Cold Climate"

mixed media on birch panel

$275

click to enlarge

This painting is based on a photo of Nancy Mitford. She was an author in the early 20th century - the two books of hers I have read is "The Pursuit of Love" & "Love in a Cold Climate". If you like "Cold Comfort Farm" by Stella Gibbons you will definitely love Nancy Mitford.
There are many photos out there of her and her sisters - and I think she (and her family) are the epitome of "poise".

My mixed media in this painting got even more "mixed" - the trees and owl are linoleum prints I made and sealed to the board, and the white trees behind the figure are scratched into the paint. So this work is a mixture of acrylic painting, collage, linoleum printing, pencil drawing, and scratchboard.