"Speedy"Contemporary Art Sculpture, Winner!

My contemporary art sculpture, Speedy, won the People's Choice award, at the SPACe Gallery, Mixed Media Show. I am so excited! What a fun evening, meeting everyone.
3 of my paintings and my Speedy sculpture can be at the SPACe Gallery, in La Veta, Colorado, till June.

Here is the link to the show: SPACe Gallery - Mixed Media Show.

Details of Speedy, can be seen on my website: In Art Studio - Speedy Sculpture

Fashion and Proper Winter Footwear

Being a city girl, I love pretty shoes. I have many pairs, and shoe shopping is a favorite sport of mine. Winters in Colorado are cold, and I needed to find proper winter boots. So of course, I am more than happy to go shoe shopping. I buy a pair of cute red lace up granny boots, with black fur trim and 3 inch heels. Stunning, but not very warm. OK, how about a pair of pretty pink suede muck-luks? They look cute with jeans, but have a sole about as thick as a pair of flip flops. Not comfortable for walking on gravel. Turns out my bedroom slippers are the warmest winter footwear I own. I tend to wear them everywhere. Not much of a fashion statement. But they don't look all that bad with my de rigueur "Nanook of the North" winter attire.

SPACe Gallery - Mixed Media Art Show

I'm in my first show in La Veta, Colorado. Very exciting! The gallery has posted pictures on their website. Those of you familiar with my work, will find it easy to pick out. (The turquoise tetragonal is one of my 4 pieces) I also took my skull sculpture, Speedy. He made quite a hit.
Here is the link: http://www.spanishpeaksarts.org/2007_shows_events/mixed_media_07.htm

My little 8x8" paintings are selling very quickly. I have run out of 8" canvases and am waiting for an order. In the meantime, I am painting some in the 12x12" size. Should have a few ready to list by Wednesday.

Abstract Turquoise Painting #126

> Abstract Turquoise Painting #126 SOLD

Here is another small 8x8 Abstract Turquoise Painting, from the Geology Series. I have 7 more of these just finished . Just search for "INART"on ebay.

Abstract Turquoise Painting #118 SOLD

Abstract Turquoise Painting #119 SOLD

Contemporary Art Abstract Turquoise Painting #115

Here is another small 8x8 Abstract Turquoise Painting, Turquoise #115, from the Geology Series. SOLD I have 11 more of these listed on ebay. Just search for "INART"on ebay.

Abstract Turquoise Painting #116, SOLD

The Burn Barrel - Life in Colorado

Like the city girl that I am, I inquired about garbage days. The Grimwoods provided me with an old blackened oil drum, calling it the “burn barrel.” Coming from South Florida, were burning anything, gets you immediate attention from the local authorities, I was a bit perplexed. “Just throw your garbage in there and light it”, I was told. “But, what about plastics and spray cans?” I inquired. “Just toss ‘em in, they’ll burn just fine.” So I try, like the good tenant, to do as instructed. I light a kitchen match, toss it into the barrel, and run. Problem is it does not want to light. So I try adding newspaper. That does the trick. Soon there are clouds of black, toxic smoke billowing out of the can and wafting towards my kitchen door. I wonder if I should buy gas masks for everyone. There is something just so wrong about this whole concept. I really miss my garbage men.

Contemporary Art Abstract Turquoise Painting #114

Abstract Turquoise Painting #114 SOLD

I am currently selling my smaller Contemporary Art Abstract Turquoise Paintings on Ebay. They are all the same size 8 x 8 inches. Each painting is unique and beautiful. Highly textured and detailed with veins and copper highlights. Start your collection today!

Learning to Drive in the Colorado Snow

I have, what I thought, to be the perfect vehicle for Colorado. It is a 4-wheel drive, Chevy Silverado Pickup. Never mind that it has lived in Florida all of it’s life, and I have not crossed anything higher than a channel bridge in 15 years. This snow thing should be a piece of cake. Foolish me. The first time I had to drive on a snowy road, cured me of my over-confidence. I slid left, I slid right, and I scared myself silly. Then I remembered the 4-wheel drive. I did a little better, but I am still an inexperienced Low Lander. I need a lot more practice.

Contemporary Art "Spring Creek" Painting Done

24" high x 30" long. Acrylic, April 2007. Painting # 071706
Contemporary Art painting, "Spring Creek 101", is finally done. Whew! Now I can take my glasses off. What fun all that color was to paint. Each rock is unique. Looks like you could pluck them right out of the painting, they look so real.
To see details and pictures see the link below: Spring Creek101 Details

"Spring Creek" Painting Almost Complete

Here is the current painting in progress. The rocks are all done. Colorful, huh? Now I have to paint the ice. The 3 big, light blue rocks have ice on top of them, and the water flowing at the top has some ice on it. I have never painted ice before, and I am eager too try. So, I'm just going to sit, with my canvas, in front of the computer screen, and paint what I see.

New Original Artwork Painting Started

I went on a hike to Zapata Falls last weekend. The falls were still mostly frozen, but the creek was thawed with a little ice left on the rocks. Took some pictures and ran them through the computer. Wow! The colors were amazing. With just a bit of tweaking, I got a photo I just had to paint.

Why do I get so excited about rocks? I just love them. I see each rock is a unique work of art, created by God, free of charge. I pick them up, bring them home, and squirrel these treasures away. My boyfriend is no longer surprised when he finds rocks in his truck. Good thing he loves me and understands my obsession.

I picked a 24 x 30 inch canvas, so I have room for all that detail. I am using acrylic paint, thinned down like watercolor paint. I love the effects achievable with watercolor paint, but I need the permanence of acrylic. Let's face it, I am a klutz. And, my kitties are still too rambunctious to be trusted around jars of water and brushes. With watercolor, one little splash could make me an unhappy camper.

This painting has got me so excited, that I don't want to put the paint brush down. I want to do more, and am planning the next painting in my head, as I paint. I'm thinking of calling this one "Spring Creek".

Of Owls and Pussycats or The Great Owl Paranoia

The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea in a beautiful pea green boat. But not in Colorado!“Watch out for the owls, they will eat your cats.” What? My cats are big, fat, spoiled house cats. I doubt an owl could even pick one up, let alone fly away with it. But these owls, I am told, are huge. I can hear them hooting in the trees at night. So the Great Owl Paranoia begins. My cats get their Nine Lives dinner at 4PM and they are not allowed out afterwards, no matter how much they beg at the door. I still have not seen one of these monstrous, feline eating owls. But, I am sure they are lurking in wait, for a tasty kitty snack.

I'm now listed in The American Artists Bluebook

Sounds cool, huh?
Check it out at AskArt.com. I have an artists Biography, (which is not finished yet) and a studio with a few of my pieces. But I still have to come up with a professional looking picture to add to my bio.

BTW, I just received my new Colorado drivers licence. Of course the photo is horrendous. I was wearing my red ski jacket. But, it looks orange in the photo, like I am a member of the state prisoner road crew! Yikes! Wish they would have kept my Florida picture. It was taken 10 years ago, back before the wrinkles.

Mountain Moods #103 Contemporary Art Landscape Painting

"Mountain Moods #103" 12 x 48" Acrylic & Mixed Media, March 2007. This is the third painting in "The Mountain Moods Series" For larger pictures and details see the link: Mountian Moods #103

Mountian Moods #101 Original Painting

"Mountain Moods #101 12 x 48" Acrylic & Mixed Media, March 2007
"The Mountain Moods Series" is a new series I have just started. This is another example of my innovative Recycled Plastics Technique. The recycled plastic gives the canvas a wonderful surface texture. This texture is not only interesting to look at but creates a desire to touch the piece. This extreme texture is unattainable with any kind of paint gels.

The texture is very 3-D. When view from across the room. this painting looks like just paint on canvas. However, when viewed up-close, the painting comes alive with texture. No matter the angle of viewing, the texture is apparent. The combination of recycled plastic, canvas, glue, and finally, colorful acrylic paint is my own original technique and design. This texture is even more amazing when viewed under dimmed lights. The play of shadows makes it take on a whole new life.
For Larger pictures and details see the link: Mountian Moods #101


Mountain Moods #102 SOLD

Giving Myspace a Try

Got the scoop about My Space from my buddies at Wet Canvas. Looks interesting enough to try.
And, it's free. That's always good. Myspace is supposed to be a great place for networking. Will keep you posted.

Playing Webmaster is Hard Work

My butt hurts from sitting in this chair for 3 whole days in a row. I have been slaving over the computer, re-designing my website, In Art Studio. I have consumed gallons of coffee, and might have brain damage from all the caffeine. I look terrible, but new my website looks great. The old design was too artsy, with too many graphics and not enough content. ( that means lengthy description) At least for Google. "Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content."

They want words and lots of them. They want the links to be in the content, not in the pictures. I needed keywords in my meta tags and the same keywords used over and over again in my content. And they want a site map. What fun! I want to be painting. But here I sit, on my sore butt.

New Sculpture - "Harley" The Biker

Another new sculpture just finished. "Harley" is a biker. He is bad to the bone, with his custom flame paint job. He wears a black leather Do-rag and sports a gold earring. He is so fun, I love the way he turned out. I wanted him to be free standing and viewable from all sides, so I mounted him firmly to a base. He is finished on all sides, so he looks great from every angle.
To see details and pictures of "Harley" see the link below


"Harley" Free standing Sculpture Size: 15" tall x 12" wide x 21" long

New Sculpture - "Speedy"

Some friends were over and we started talking about my sculptures. I'm not sure if it was Jim or Cindy that started the idea rolling, but the idea just took off. Each of us making more funny suggestions. So the credit for the idea of "Speedy" was a group effort. I got so excited over the design that I put my present sculpture on hold to start him.
"Speedy" is an adrenaline junkie. That tongue is outrageous! And his lips and eyes are flapping in the wind. He wears special custom made goggles and a funny hat with ear flaps. Of course he goes nowhere without his race flag scarf. He is so fun, I love the way he turned out.

"Speedy" Free standing SculptureSize: 16" tall x 15" wide x 29" long

The Making of "Battle Cry"

First comes a trip to the "Bone Yard" as I call it. I live on a ranch, and any animal carcasses are dumped in a corner of one of the fields. My problem is matching up and identifying the bones. There are so many of them, and all sizes and kinds. Pretty gruesome. My first visit, gave me the creeps. But I'm getting used to it, and now I find it interesting. I pretend I'm in a CSI episode.

I try to select a skull that is relatively clean and intact. The word "clean" means little, to no nasty bits or bugs. I cart all this home for a through scrubbing and closer inspection. Once scrubbed with disinfectant soap and hot water, the skull is ready to be glued and sealed. I glue any loose joints and always the teeth. Then the whole thing is sealed. I found from experimentation, that this keeps the joints from spreading when exposed to the heat of baking.

The skull, clean and glued and ready for sealing. This is a huge skull. I'm pretty sure it was a yak (Tibetan bison)

Did I mention baking? You have to have a nice large oven for this project. I use polymer clay for the sculpting. It requires baking at 265 degrees F for 30 minutes to cure. Since my only oven is in the kitchen, this is truly a test of one's love of their art. There is a horrid smell produced when baking an animal skull. I was in the middle of my first sculpture, "Father Time", when I had a date over to pick me up for dinner. Might as well let the guy in on my little secret early on in the relationship. Well, to make a long story short, he never called again. Just proves he wasn't the perfect man for me. But I digress.

Once everything is nicely sealed, creating the armature begins. I use all kinds of wire sizes, depending on what the situation calls for. Mostly aluminum and galvanized steel wire, for their non-rusting properties. The skull provides many natural holes for inserting wire, but I always have to drill a few extra holes. With the first sculpture, I made the mistake of wiring the jaw assembly
to the head too soon. With the mouth wide open, I had a hard time fitting the whole thing into the oven. I've learned that the jaw should be attached, only after all the baking and painting is completed. This is the completed armature, ready for clay. The head is not attached, just propped up for visual effect. He's starting to look interesting, huh?

This skull is heavy and huge! Barely fits in the oven. His tongue looks like a giant jalapeno pepper. The color of clay I used was whatever was plentiful, looks silly in orange and green, but it all gets painted.

Applying the clay is the tricky part. The clay needs to be seamless. I roll out large pieces with the pasta machine, and then join them by rolling together between 2 pieces of wax paper. Then I drape and smooth the clay over the armature, trimming any excess as I go. The first bake is never perfect. That's OK because I know I can go back and sand off any lumps and add more clay where needed. This process repeats until I am satisfied.

Once I'm happy with the clay, the whole thing is given multiple coats of gesso, and then I make the stand. And he's ready to stand on his own. The lower jaw is still not attached. Makes it easier to paint the underside.

The painting is now well under way. Notice how he's now residing on the kitchen table? He has become too tall to work on comfortably on my workbench. Lovely kitchen decor I think. And the teasing comments from my friends, "Are we having teradactyl for dinner tonight?"

I decide that the feathers need to be detachable, and build a separate armature to hold them. This armature is painted to match and attaches to the back of the scull with 4 tiny screws. I also decided the base was too tall, and cut 5 inches off the bottom of the 2x2.

Well "Battle Cry" is finished, and I'm excited to start the next sculpture, "Speedy." He will be fun and comical. Why am I creating these sculptures? Good question. They really challenge my design abilities, and I love a good challenge. Each sculpture is unique, with new design problems to solve. I have conquered the "gross out" factor, and no longer have that queasy feeling in my stomach. I've learned a lot about bones, and now view them as fascinating material to work with. And maybe in the end, I am somehow honoring the animal by giving it a second life.