invisible school

my nicho on legs... i think that makes it a spirit house instead of a nicho (that's what someone said), but it needed legs! i left the class with a lavender turquoise-y nicho, and came home to repaint it and add legs... now i need to add something inside - and keep it out of the wind. it'll surely blow over at the first gust. ; )

i highly recommend cathy dorris as a teacher... she's patient, generous, and very good at what she does. she has *a lot* of knowledge to share... as i listened to her, little lightbulbs went off about things completely unrelated to nichos. for me this is the most valuable thing about taking a class...


before any more times goes by, i want two thank two fellow bloggers/creators for sending me gifts of their art...

the first is deb lewis from vintage moon studios. deb won a give-away that i did a few weeks ago and she sent me this incredible painting as a thank you. these eyes, these lips!! thank you so much, deb! it's on muslin, in case you can't tell...


the second is jan brattain, from laughing dog arts, who sent me 'dooleybobber # 6' even though i didn't win it in a give-away that she had. someone else won, and chose another piece... i did a teeny tiny bit of whining about not winning, and she sent it to me! along with a dvd of tommy emmanuel (amazing guitar player) and a vintage cloth napkin (i love those). thank you, jan!


this is what the second batch of rust stained buttons looked like after a week in a rusty can with water, salt, vinegar, and a little miracle gro (i added that towards the end). i like them more than the first batch; they're quite a bit darker...

watercolors on watercolor paper

since i've been back - working with watercolors and experimenting with different ways to paint eyes.

watercolors on watercolor paper

these weren't easy to photograph... everything is subtle, and when i try to brighten the image up (because it's a little too dark), the eyes get way too vivid and dark.

watercolors and oil pastel on old book page

here i am back on an old book page using the same technique as i did for the 'creek people', but still experimenting with the eyes. not drawing them in first, but sort of blocking them in with a pencil and going from there with paint.

eyes and lips endlessly fascinate me... the slightest change in either can change the expression completely.


a silk and muslin 'fragment'... oh, how i love muslin and silk together!


my copy of capacity was waiting for me at the p.o. on my way out of town last week. i can't begin to tell you how much i love this book; how much i appreciate the intelligence and talent of theo ellsworth...


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"After I flunked out of High School in 1994, I secretly began attending the Invisible School of Art, Wonder and Imaginary Technology (ISAWIT). I was 18 years old. Attending an invisible school is challenging. It is up to the student to discover the curriculum, intuit assignments, and chart one's own progress. Most of the professors are imaginary, yet stricter than you'd expect. There is no escape. One of the biggest challenges for me was to keep remembering that I was an ISAWIT student. Finding my classrooms was also hard... "

Theo Ellsworth, at the end of 'Capacity'

XO