LOVE THIS WORK

So I found a great new place to purchase mosaic supplies www.cyclopstile.com. A friend told me to try it. As usual, I start wandering. I, of course ,checked out their gallery of artists and found the work of Patricia Helsing.

She is a painter, who is new to mosaics. Well......I just had to share. Her paintings are inspired by various other artists and then she builds a frame of found objects around the painting. Her mosaics are incredible!

Her website link is in my sidebar.....with her permission. Enjoy!

Meanwhile....I think I know where the term ...."back to the drawing board" comes from.

TIME ON MY HANDS

OK..so I'm still stuck at home, coughing and sniffling. I thought I'd throw in a shot of the beach in Cabo and think about how warm, dry and sunny it was. I love the starkness of the desert (of course, they've thrown a few golf courses in, that you can see off in the distance) against the fabulous blue water in the Sea of Cortez.

As an added bonus, I thought I'd show you some of the jewelry I've made. A little history.....a few years ago, I broke my shoulder skiing and couldn't paint or do much else with my hand and arm. A friend who also paints hurt her shoulder as well. A few friends would get together and draw or paint once in awhile and she showed up one day with a box of beads because she couldn't hold a paint brush for very long........I'm trying to make the story short here...but......I fell in love with beads. Putting the colors, textures, sizes and whatever else together,was very much like painting. The one thing I have a problem with though, is not actually making the beads themselves. Somehow it was difficult for me to think I was actually "creating" something if I wasn't making every part of it. I tried fusing glass beads....didn't like how they turned out. I love lampworked beads, but don't actually like to do the lampworking myself.

I ended up doing some jewelry shows and also had my work in The Liberty Museum in Philadelphia and a gallery and sold quite a few pieces. I haven't done much with it lately. These are some pieces that I still have. I will be taking a workshop with Keith Lo Bue in a few weeks and perhaps I will be inspired to create some "found object" jewelry.......we'll see.

SCENES (SCENE, SEEN) FROM MEXICO

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So, this pretty much says it all.......no, not really. But this is the extent of my purchases. Two bottles of excellent Tequila and now that I have a better understanding of Dia de los Muertes (thanks demeng!) a commemorative statue.

My husband and I had an awesome time. I came home with some sort of upper resperatory bug...cough, cough...but that gives me some time to catch up on....what else?....my new adiction, blogging.

A few business meetings....4 rounds of golf (yes, I know it seems a bit odd) Bob and I started together about 7 years ago on a trip to Jamaica (an all-inclusive resort). We were bored one afternoon and decided to give the stupid game a shot. Well...we were lucky enough to have the "Bob Marley" of golf instructors....need I say more. Anyway......if you consider it more of a board (not "bored") game, like chess, where you strategically move your piece (ball) from one place to the next, in the least amount of moves....not a sport to get excersise....it becomes more fun. In the tournament we played this trip I won longest womens drive and closest to the pin....woohoo. ENOUGH ABOUT GOLF

It was difficult finding "found objects" on this trip. They keep the area , Los Cabos, pretty clean. I was able to find a few things, though.


Much of it I found on the beach. Driftwood, seaglass (love it Judy!!!), a piece of crab shell, the top of a beer can, a mule bit and a big old rusty key.

I prefer San Jose del Cabo (still a quaint old Mexican town) to Cabo San Lucas (where you can dance drunk with a chicken and buy a tee shirt). San Jose has an "art walk" every Thursday evening. All of the galleries and restaurants in town are open serving all kinds of food and drink. They have a pretty good gallery scene there.

Here are a few teasers til next time.....gotta go take my medicine.

I love faces.

MEXICO, see, sea, si !

I know, the title is corny. However, I am going to Mexico next week. Los Cabos...the tip of Baja California. It's a "business" trip. One of our suppliers rewards us for selling their products. It's beautiful, but there is not nearly as much history and art as other parts of the country. I love the fact that there is desert up against beautiful blue water (the sea of Cortez) and all of the colors of the Mexican rainbow on the surrounding buildings. These are some photos I took last year.

Studio

Just thought I'd provide a little glimpse into my "workspace". Yes, it's a bit of a mess....but it's mine!

At the moment, I am working on quite a few things at once, which makes my messy space even more of a challenge.

About two years ago, I took a great class at University of the Arts in Sandcasting Glass. You basically carve something into a sand/clay type mixture, kind of like you would do when you play at the beach (ex. press your hand into damp sand ). Then you gather hot glass into a "spoon" type tool and pour the hot glass into your shape. It cools, which is incredibly "cool" in itself to watch, and then the shape you made is a piece of glass. One side is rough and sandy, the other is smooth and when you look into it, you see the cool shapes you made on the rough side.

The pieces that I made, have been sitting in a pile of "what the heck and I going to do with this stuff". I decided the other day to combine some of my found objects with a sandcast piece of glass. I'm having a blast with it. I'm feeling and Aztec "totem" thing going on.

Beautiful Handbags.... and a brush

I met Constance Muller last summer at a craft show in Long Beach Island New Jersey, where we were both showing our work (jewelry for me, handbags for her). I instantly knew she was a beautiful person inside and out (looks like Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffanys).

She designs fabulous, unique bags including ones she calls "Floralinas", a great collectors item. There is a story behind them, which I won't go into now. I am linked to her website and her work can be seen in the new edition of Haute Handbags from Somerset Studios.

We exchange thrift store"goodies" every once in awhile.........anyway.......this brings me to another FABULOUS BRUSH that has come to be in my collection....courtesy of Constance.

JOHN WHALLEY

For all of you assemblage artists out there......I was in Maine in January.....yes, January...my friends Walter and Arlene had purchasd two new paintings. They were stunning! Not only were they spectacular to look at, they were paintings of old "things", artfully arranged, subject matter that I am very much interested in at the moment, painted in a "classically realistic" style.

Walter mentioned that Johns studio was nearby, so we arranged a visit. I only wish I had taken photos. Imagine a huge space, overlooking a lake, full of old rusty stuff. Like his paintings though, they were organized and artfully arranged....and yes, beautiful. He was happy that I was so interested, not only in his work, but his "stuff". I was particularly interested in his brush collection. He was kind enough to let me choose one to take.


I found it fascinating that suddenly I was seeing these things in a classical painting rather than glued together.

Many of the things he uses, come from what sounds like an incredible place, the Liberty Tool Company, in Liberty, Maine.
http://www.jonesport-wood.com/jwLibToolPhotos.html

Lost and Found

I took some time yesterday to go through a closet that has not seen the "light of day" for some time. I found an oil painting I did in college (GULP!) of my father. I had unstretched it years ago. I guess you could call it "vintage". I probably did it in 1972. My father has been gone since 1974. I guess the lesson here is to go through your closets once in awhile!!! This is a priceless find for me. He was in his 70's at the time and had late stage Alzheimers.......yes they knew about it way back then. I'm not trying to bum people out here, I'm just thrilled that I found it.

Jacks' Guitar

A dear old friend passed away back in December. He had an awesome guitar collection. Some of the guitars were given to my husband. One , we found out, was warped beyond repair. I decided to "alter" it...."shrinalize" it.....whatever you would like to call it....in order to keep the energy alive.

It is a work in progress (what seems to be my usual means of getting something done....time in my studio seems to be rare at the moment).


I've glued things, painted, sanded, used charcoal and beeswax. I'm trying not to overwork it. My husband thinks it has taken on a "mexican" flair, which is not my intention....but then.....I rarely plan anything.

Architectural salvage

On the road to Telluride, in Ridgeway Colorado, there is a shop that sells old architechtural building parts and just about anything else that used to be a part of something. It's called "Old Home Highlights". I purchased some old rusty ice skates and some parts to an old wood burning stove.......I'm attempting to start some kind of creation with them. I am not sure where it is going yet, but I'll let you know.

Dogsledding in Telluride

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The last day we decided to try something different. Dogsledding! We loved it. It was a chilly start (daylight savings time interupted our sleep) but it warmed up considerably and we had a picnic midway through the trip. The dogs absoulutely love it. After much barking (since they want to get going!!) they quiet down and get down to running . It's so much more pleasant than listening to the sound of a snowmobile and smelling the fumes.

That's Bob and yours truely at the top, the view from the drivers seat, "Minnie" our fearless lead dog and last but not least, Emily (my daughter), Michael, our guide and Emilys boyfriend Ryan.




Taking off from the airport (second highest in the world!!!) you can truely see the beauty of the mountains.
I never get tired of staring out of the window.

Telluride

I'm headed to the the mountains! This is one of the views from our window. It' s almost enough to keep you inside all day just staring out......and keeping warm, of course. The skiing is magnificent. The town is still an old western landmark.


If this isn't inspiration, I don't know what is!

The black and white image was taken by my daughter, Emily, immediately before the war in Iraq...literally days before. This was spray painted on the old jailhouse in downtown Telluride.

i'll be gone for two weeks. Ciao!

Ceramics

A few years ago I decided to "go" 3D. I took some ceramics classes. I started building tall things...which I thought I should be doing. Gradually they started to become more of a relief/painting.

It occured to me that they are "shrine-ish"(thanks for the word, Michael).

Inspiration

I think it will take quite awhile to get every link, including artists, friends, travels, etc., that I love included in my list to "share". In doing some searching today, I thought of a glass artist I saw demonstrating his glass blowing technique at Wheaton Village glass center a few years ago. His name is Richard Jolley. Beautiful!