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Archive for the ‘My Brilliant Daughters’ Category

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An Eclectic Day

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

I went back to Pilates today after a week off. I am feeling it tonight. This morning, I decided I needed some black raw silk for the orange piece. I painted some with Setacolor. Now, I am afraid I have a total Halloween thing going on.

This afternoon, I started working on one of the other projects that I want to finish before our trip. I hope my sister will keep this under wraps. My niece had this really cool photo taken when she was in her kayak. I want to make her a little wall hanging of it.

I am afraid my lily pads are a little too dark  so I have to redo those tomorrow.

My new monitor came late today. It was pretty easy to set up. I think I need to do a color check on it. It is so much bigger. I am loving it!!

I received my sketchbook for the 2012 Sketchbook project. I think I want to do hand and machine stitching this year. So I plan to cut some pieces of fabric the size of the pages and start working.

They did not send Moleskines this year and there was not a choice of colors.

We are blessed with some wonderful garden goodies from the CSA farm and the Farmer’s market. I made a wonderful shaved fennel salad with apples and fresh pecorino from a local sheep cheese maker. Tomatoes are just starting to show up. I love vine ripened tomatoes in the summer!

Remember way back at the beginning of this year when I said Steph had an exciting photography job. I can now tell you that she has made two trips to Savannah and Austin to do photo shoots for Starbuck’s. So if you are seeing bus, billboard, magazine or newspaper ads for Starbucks, chances are, it is a photo taken by Steph. I will try to post some for you to see.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, My Brilliant Daughters, My creations, Stuff I Buy | 1 Comment »

Good Times

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

Lisa arrived yesterday, and she always brings many rays of sunshine into our lives. We went food shopping and made a hearty soup – vegan version for her-, and enjoyed supper with the whole Portland clan. I have a special cabinet that is down low where I keep special dishes for  M & M. I asked Miles to get cups out for sparkling apple juice for the two of them. When we went into the dining room, he had set Lisa’s place with the Hello Kitty dishes that I have had for Mia since she was a baby. He is a little comedian!

The plate up there is a collaged plate that Lisa did a while ago and featured on her blog. I think she had a how to make it article in a magazine. Anyway,  that is a photo of me when I was a little girl. I was very happy when she gifted me with it yesterday.

She also brought me a copy of her book, “A Collection a Day”. It comes in this collectible tin – isn’t that smart marketing?

The book is not that big, but every page is a wonderful photo. Well, there are some text pages — an essay by Lisa about her creative life was fun to read. Apparently, I was a pretty good Mom and provided a creative place for my children. Tomorrow night, she has a book signing at Land in N. Portland.

Today, she gave a lecture at Portland State in the art department. She had a really cool powerpoint presentation. I was thrilled when she introduced me and said that I am also an artist. She has had an amazing journey, going from a part time artist working in the field of education to becoming a full time artist/illustrator with an agent. I think she really inspired the students today.

I spent a little time in the studio testing some of the deColourant colors that I have. What a difference the heat gun makes. These samples have been heat set and washed.

I am thinking of doing another piece using some of these colors.

Posted in My Brilliant Daughters, Out and About in Portland | 9 Comments »

Look! Our Book!

Monday, February 14th, 2011

I was about to give up that the UPS guy would bring my author copies today. About 5:10 pm, Scooter started barking. He hears much better than Mr C and I. Mr C went out the front door and came back in with my box of 5 author copies. Sorry for the weird photo. It was taken with my Macbook Photobooth cam.

The book is really gorgeous — just chock full of beautiful photos of our quilts and our own personal stories. If you want an autographed copy from me, I will be setting up a buy now button as soon as I have some time and know how.

The Lark blog is doing Twelve Days of Twelves. I was the featured artist today. Be sure to follow along. They may have a give away of our book at the end.

At breakfast, I found this lovely plant in a pot that Mr C knew I would love. He was right!!

I have my sage/blue/brown piece done except for sewing down the facings. Here is a sneak peek of the work in progress.

Today, I started a mini-Photoshop Elements class. I am totally self taught in Photoshop and Illustrator, meaning, I don’t know much, at all!!

Here is my first project — a cropped photo with text — color matched to the stem of the daisy!

I have to tell you that listening to Stephanie talk about her photography job in Savannah was such a thrill for me. She had fun, learned a lot and was very successful. Now, they wait for the client to make some decisions. Soon, I can tell you the name of the client.

Lisa says she can die now because she was mentioned in the NY Times magazine yesterday. Click here to read about her. My kids continue to amaze me.

I haven’t shown you a photo of the lovable, Scooter, lately. Here he is, sacked out in the tv room. He lies right at my feet. Sometimes, I forget he is there and trip over him. Such a sweetie.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, Holidays, My Brilliant Daughters, Scooter, workshop | 10 Comments »

Art Crush February

Friday, February 11th, 2011

I think it was June Underwood who introduced me to the art of Helen Frankenthaler. She is a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work in six decades she has spanned several generations of abstract painters while continuing to produce vital and ever-changing new work. I love the bold colors that she incorporates in her paintings. I was reminded of her work when I saw a listing for an exhibition of her work in the New York Times, today. The exhibit is titled, East and Beyond and is at Knoedler & Company.

She is described as the doyenne of color field painting.  Color Field is about the tension created by overlapping and interacting areas of flat color. These areas of color can be amorphous or clearly geometric. This tension is the “action” or the content. It’s more subtle and cerebral than Action Painting. (think Jackson Pollack)

Here is a photo from the exhibit:

These photos are Brother Angel on the left and Tattoo. The Times article said the following about these paintings:

Two of the most striking paintings achieve a supreme balance between East and West, and less and more. These are the exquisitely Minimalist “Brother Angel” and “Tattoo,” both from 1983, in which wavering monochrome fields of cream and pale red are inflected with little dabs and scraps of color that seem to be on the verge of sinking from view, like flower petals on a watery surface. Daringly Whistlerian and indisputably modernist, they whet the appetite for a fuller account of Ms. Frankenthaler’s long, resolutely focused career.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of her work and hearing a bit about Helen Frankenthaler. She was born in 1928 and still is alive and painting.

I had a good time working on my landscape for the sage/blue/brown challenge. I made a lot of progress today. I think I can finish it tomorrow and move on to my next exciting work which is top secret. I will not be able to reveal much.

If you like hearing about my daughter, Lisa, there is a great article about her scheduled for the San Francisco Chronicle Style Maker section,  this week-end.

We are all excited to have Steph come home from her photography adventure in Savannah, GA, tomorrow.  So proud of my brilliant daughters.  Hope you will have a great week-end.


Posted in 12X12 challenge, Art Cloth, My Brilliant Daughters | 4 Comments »

Here I Am!

Monday, October 11th, 2010

I stitched all week-end and finally realized that I was totally crazy to think I could finish this by today! I have so enjoyed the sitting and stitching. I will take this to California with me this week and continue stitching and hope to enter it in another show later this year.

I ran out of the perfect Valdani embroidery thread and couldn’t find a local store that carries it so I ended up with another brand that has a slightly different colorway, but I think it is blending nicely.

Lisa drove back here last night and since her flight wasn’t until tonight, I got to spend the day with her. She is in a show at Flora, here in Portland, so we went down to check it out since she missed the opening on Friday night.

Here are some pretty photos I took at the store which has lots of natural elements.

Lisa’s friend, Trish, met us there and then took us to a nice little Vegan restaurant in the Pearl. I had a delicious bowl of chili and a Marionberry lemonade.

After some shopping and roaming around town, we picked up Stephanie and went to M & M’s school to surprise them. They love their Aunt Lisa.

The kids showed us their crazy bands (colorful rubberband shapes) while we had an after school snack of edamame.

Here are Lisa and Mia checking out photos on her camera.

All of a sudden we realized that Lisa needed to get her bags and get to the airport. Fortunately, the airport was pretty quiet and she made her flight because we were a bit behind schedule.

I need to get moving and finish packing up. We are leaving for California in the morning. I am going to be at PIQF on Thursday so let me know if you are going to be there. Our High Fiber Diet show, Bird’s Eye View, will be there.

Posted in Bird's Eye View, handstitching, High Fiber Diet, Inspiration, M & M, Mark making, My Brilliant Daughters | 6 Comments »

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