Where to find me and my art...

December is always a busy month. This past 1st Thursday in December I started my artist in residence at the Boise Open Studio Collective Organization (BOSCO) Artist in Residence (AiR) program in BODO. 8th street market place above Cafe Ole and next to the new wine tasting place Bodovino (oh poor me!)

You can find me and my bike related art at the AiR studio in downtown Boise through Jan. 6 

If you are coming down, please message me for hours as they change daily. 

My Christmas ornaments and holiday themed art as well as my alphabet art can be found at 

Green Chutes 4716 W. State Street

My newest retail location is at Red Betty's Hair House. 

Where you can find all my Mexican themed art.  

2722 Sunset Avenue (corner of 28th st.) in Boise

This Friday from 5-8 pm I will have a piece of art in the TVAA Foray Show at Boise State Radio The show will be up through the New Year. 

Happy Holidays! I hope to see you around. 

March Roars in Like a Lion...

..wonderful evening at the opening of Boise Open Studios Collective show
at the Boise  State  SUB.
I have a piece in the show. It will be up until March 25th if you haven't seen it yet. 

Then it was time for the Quartlery Gypsy Gallery Show.
This time it was held in the Historic Hoff Building in the Crystal Ballroom.
A beautiful location with live music all evening. 

9" x 12" Adventure Mixed Media on hardboard $50
Of course I had to leave some time for art making.
Had some nice studio time with my daughter before she  moves back to Texas.

Then it was off to Green Chutes Gallery for the opening of  Art By The Square Foot, of which I have a piece in that show.  I also updated my display taking out Valentines Day items and replacing with more spring themes. This was a tradition I learned about in the Japanese culture. That you would never hang a painting out of season, like a snow picture should not be hanging in the summer time.  

from left to right....Happy St. Patricks Day, And They All Came Out To Celebrate, F is for Frogs

I also applied to be chosen to participate in a Public Art  Project for the City of Ketchum.
My proposal was for a similar work of art as this one featuring one of their most popular mountain biking areas in the painting. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Then it was time to put everything away and clean up for my assemblage workshop last Sunday.
In the foreground is the work table.
The black desk held all the paints, glues, scissors etc.
and the table behind that had all kinds of buttons, wood pieces, papers etc. 

I had three ladies join me for my class. We had a great time but no one finished.
I will have an "open studio" the next two sundays from 2-4 for people to work on their projects.   If you are interested it is $50 if it is your first time and I supply everything. If you are just coming to finish a project it is $25 for my glues and paints and my assistance. 

Art Blog Directory

 Scroll down on my sidebar and you will see a new icon that says "Art Blog Directory" If you Click on it you will be directed to a long list of active art bloggers, including myself. A thank you goes out to Seth at the Altered Page for putting this together. (I failed to mention in my end of the year wrap up, that one of my highlights of my art year was getting to meet him while in New York City at one of his demo's in Greenwich Village.)

The other person I failed to recognize, a fellow artist and blogger, and on also on this list!- Rebeca Trevino, whom I also was fortunate to be able to meet and hang out with for two days, on the opposite side of the country in Sonoma County,  CA!

A blog takes a lot of work to keep up compared to Facebook and Twitter but really puts you behind the scenes into an artists studio and even more so into their way of thinking and what goes into each piece of art. I think a lot of us were starting to wonder does anyone even read these anymore? But thanks to Seth maybe this will breathe some new life into these blogs and give us a reason to post.

So now, onto my newest project:

Green Chutes the artist co-op that I have been showing my art in since they opened two years ago asked for artists to submit a 12" x 12" piece of art for a special showing.

I took a 12" x 12" stretched canvas, turned it upside down and put joint compound all over it to close up any gaps and hide staples. I then added some gold and yellow acrylic which I applied heavily and embedded small white glass pieces into the paint.

What was I going to do with this frame? Make a place for my piece
I made in Michael DeMengs class from Art Fest to rest.

Next step was to paint the interior, I painted it orange, and then blended red into it. 

After I glued down my guitar playing lizard girl
I poured two part resin over the background.
 Looks like a piece of glass! 

Playing with joint compound and other fun stuff.

First I taped off the bottom of a wood tray I had picked up at a thrift store.

 Last week I borrowed Plaster Studio from my friend Marianne. I decided to play around with some of the techniques. In the book they mention using joint compound which comes pre-mixed, this sounded good to me as I didn't want the mess of the plaster in my studio. I used to do plaster projects with the kids every year, mixing batch after batch of plaster and breathing the powder and making a mess, and then you have to know how much your going to need, because wet plaster doesn't wait. So.. even if the joint compound works a little differently I was all up for ease of using it.

After I taped off the sections of the tray I spread joint compound all over it and let it dry. Then peeled the tape off. Then wished I hadn't peeled tape off as I wanted to paint it without getting any paint on the wood. Well this was a happy accident. I re-taped it using wider strips of tape which then gave a nice white border around each square.

painting the white squares with acrylic paints as well as using Adirondack color wash sprays.

 Then I pulled off the tape and had these wonderful miniature paintings. To add more depth I painted melted way over the top and fused it with a heat gun. I then scratched into the surface of the wax and rubbed burnt umber paint into the scratches to add more texture.

I like the way this turned out. But I am considering adding a few 3D objects and then covering it in resin. What do you think? Leave it alone or keep going? I'd love to hear your ideas.

Tomorrow I will be presenting at 10 am, "How to tell a story through Found Object Assemblage" at the SCHOLASTIC ART AND WRITING WORKSHOPS: Timberline High School 701 E. Boise Ave.

from 9 am till 4 pm - 1 hour Art and Writing Workshops.  All are welcome...the workshops are free.   Bring your own brown bag lunch.  Invite your friends and peers...this is going to be fun.

Then from 1-3 tomorrow I will be over a Green Chutes with a free make and take table of a Valentine Pin. Stop in and say hi. :) 

Green Chutes Open House

 Today I set up a table from 1-3 and did a make and take, ATC's and collage but then wound up doing packing tape photo transfers, it was quite the hit with the young and old. The really cool thing is that a woman that saw my Week As Art on Create Mixed Media (when you go to link, scroll down a bit), lives in my town! and came down to see me today. Wow. The world wide web is a small world.  We had a great time visiting.

Also got to visit with my photographer friend Eric Obendorf, check out his work...I really like it.

The Marketplace in Green Chutes

All decorated for the Holidays and many artists were set up demonstrating. If you did not get a chance to go they will be open tomorrow with many more make and takes and demo's. I won't be there as I will be out on my new mountain bike.

Green Chutes: 14 year olds, recycled art projects and holiday art

 Green Chutes the Co-op gallery I am in will be putting up a Christmas tree and asked the artists to create an ornament for the tree and then to make multiples to put under the tree. I am not good at making duplicates of anything, so I wondered what to make...I had just ordered all these postcards with my logo on them...I also bought all these small frames at a backyard craft sale...and had no specific idea in mind for them and the idea was born. I glued a jewel on each crown  over the photo of the jewel and added a ribbon. These are priced at $7 each.

On Tuesday I volunteered to take 2 groups of 15- 14 year olds on a tour around the galleries to see how artists repurpose items into art. I then had the idea that each student should make or at least start their own recycled project. After viewing lego's made into credit card holders and old jewelry made into new jewelry, china plates and candle holders made into cake plates, maps made into purses etc. We then went upstairs and they got to come up with their own ideas with the items that were generously donated. Every one was on task and seemed quite thrilled with the whole idea.

 While I was down there I brought some winter/holiday art to display and hopefully sell.

A Walk in the Woods  collage in a decorated frame

Tin Soldier  Baubles in a painted tin

Christmas Cow

Bless This Home

Happiness Book

Mardi Gras Angel Hand painted wood body, one of the pieces of wood is the top to a hot sauce bottle, vintage button

Dali Angel made with Vintage handkerchief and fork/hand

Royal Angel Silver sugar spoon, gem and tassel

Snowman on a Sled- Wall plaque

Capitol City Public Market

I haven't had a booth at the market for awhile. Then Treasure Valley Artist Alliance partnered with The Brick Oven Bistro to help manage 3 of the Art Tents.  Artists who are members of the alliance can set up in one of the booths for up to 3 times.  I chose this weekend as I thought, well by then it will be nice and warm! Boy was I wrong. At one point today I had on 5 layers of clothes including gloves and not one but two down jackets! On the positive side it didn't rain and the wind wasn't too bad. We had lots of people and lots of sales! I sold 3 of my newest pieces as well as some cards and one of my valentine projects- I almost left that one at home!
 
I had one lady come up and introduce her self to me, who had bought a piece of mine a few years back and says it is her favorite piece of art. I had another woman ask if I could do a custom assemblage with some "junk" she has and I said of course! And then quite a few people asked if I was at Green Chutes or Twigs and Twist as they recognized my style. It's nice getting the recognition. 

The cutest story was a little boy that came up to my booth and slapped down a dollar and a penny, I looked at him and said "What is that for?" and he said "whatever I can get for it" I thought a moment and gave him a bag of ephemera that was marked at $2. He was extremely excited and ran over to show his family.  I hope he makes something with it.

At 6:30 this morning, I was having second thoughts about setting up today but now I can't wait to do it again!