Isn’t this gorgeous? It is a one of a kind copper silk pine cone made for me by my daughter,  Stephanie. She fuses silk to wool and cuts strips and then cuts the little pine cone pieces and stitches them to a wool core. Click on the photo to see it larger. We had a great family dinner tonight.

I got some good mail today. I purchased the following pair from the Art Now for Autism auction. I gave them to M & M.

The artist is Georgina Lopez from El Paso. I was touched by her artist statement:

I enjoy making funny and at times, macabre pieces of art, but it’s still considered whimsical. The reason for donating this work is that I’m a parent of an autistic adult child. He was the 3rd and last of my children and our lives changed dramatically after his birth, as those who have gone through it know. Since then, he’s taught us about being more compassionate, especially to young mothers who look as if they’re ready to eat their child in public…who knows what their story is, love in a way that can sometimes be impossible physically and mentally, learn to say no to the small stuff and yes to new adventures, think outside the box…way outside the box, and has brought out the best in all of us.

As for my little pieces of art, I’ll introduce you the “the boys.” Chuy and Gustavo are brothers lying side by side. As you can see from Chuy’s little grin, he’s the prankster. He likes to play jokes on his brother and older cousin and the other dolls that surround him on the wall.

I also ordered an Art Now for Autism t-shirt which arrived today. The art work is by Karen Friday. It makes a great logo for the shirts.

I did some more stitching on the black hole piece. I did some bobbin stitching with some gold yarn and couched some copper Perle cotton. I quilted the background with a black/silver metallic which gave me fits. I still want to do some embellishing on this.

This is another black hole that I painted which I didn’t like at first, but it has grown on me. It has cooler colors. I painted the background with some mica chips.

I finished chapter two of the Expressive Drawing book which has the first workshop in it. I had to go out and buy some more black acrylic paint and a large pad of paper and some proper brushes. I am gonna love drawing with paint and a brush.

So far I have learned the difference between descriptive drawing and expressive drawing. As you can imagine, descriptive is the kind that most of us think of when we say we can’t draw and is the default approach in Western culture. Those of you who know me probably understand, now, why I am so excited about this book’s process. I hope to have my first drawings to share, tomorrow.