Obsession with chairs

Years ago, Temp and I jumped into an old abandoned warehouse and took some photos. In finding prints for my portfolio, I discovered some of my favorites were from that escapade. I showed my kids my photo portfolio last week, and they enjoyed making up stories for these photos. I told them, the best photos make you think and make your imagination go wild!

Making t-shirts

So I am the advisor of the National Art Honor Society at my school. The kids wanted to have t-shirts recognizing the organization, but I said if we are all artists, we need to make them, not order them. So tomorrow, the kids are all bringing in black t-shirts to print this artwork on them. The artwork was designed by one of the members.

The NAHS goes on the front, bottom right of the t-shirt.

The film strip of names goes on the back with the camera above.

Snow Storm 2010 in Norfolk!!

in front of our house!

Witnessed 2 guys get hit by a car

I feel that I am the chosen one to witness horrific events.

Tonight, Templeton and I were walking towards our car on Colley Ave. and 2 older gentlemen were crossing at the crosswalk, and some old dude hit them. They flew up in the air, hit the hood of the car and fell. I swear it was all in slow-motion. They are laying on the ground, and one dude goes "ohhhhhhhhhh" in desperation of pain. It's still going through my head.
I called 911, and fortunately it looks like one dude might have broken an ankle or leg, he also said his hip hurt. The other guy just seemed more shaken up than hurt.
Why am I the chosen one? Well this made me re-live other moments like this in my life.

Like when we lived in Los Angeles, and Temp and were on our way...to our car--again...outside of our house, and we saw an SUV drive-by shoot 2 teens. We jumped in our car, and hid ourselves as the SUV sped by us. We went down to check on the guys, and 1 had a hole in his head where his brains were pouring out. Both out cold. The brain guy was killed, we think the other one probably survived, but was in critical condition. We put a blanket on the dead guy from my car and had a very long afternoon of having to provide statements as the only witnesses.
When my friend Carrie visited me in CA, we were driving on the freeway in downtown, and some dude jumped from an overpass down to the road was smashed dead, blood every where. Welcome to LA--eek!
When Temp and I went to DC (Georgetown), we saw this police dude directing traffic in a busy intersection. We went shopping, walking back the whole block was closed off, he was killed by an SUV. Blood everywhere, his police gear on the ground. It was really sad.
Sadly, there is more, but I am done sharing for now. I don't know why I keep witnessing these things, they give me nightmares for days.
Thankfully, the guys tonite are ok, and the guy that hit them stayed at the scene and felt really guilty.

fun at seashore state park

!stoked!

there's a book, and it's awesome! just bought it, you should do if you love this style of art

Dance concert photos

I was asked to shoot photos for our school dance concert, here are some of my favorites!

My trip to Haiti

8 1/2 years ago I went to Haiti and the Dominican Republic with a church I attended back then. I grew very attached to the people there, they were really kind and generous. The trip changed my life and really made me appreciate the life we have here in America. I was in the poorest part of the Dominican and Haiti where they had 1 room shacks with tin roofs for families of 5+, no cars, and security at stores was a man sitting with a shotgun out front. Either way, I learned that the people were so grateful for what they had, in comparison to us, they didn't have much of anything.

This earthquake in Haiti really touched my heart because even though they are ok with the bare essentials, they don't even have those anymore. No water, electricity, medicine, etc. Also, a good friend of mine's family lives there, so knew the one thing I could do is donate to the cause. On NPR, Bill Clinton was saying they need money NOW! They don't even have enough aspirin for pain, let alone making arm splints with magazines.

This is your chance, take some time and a little money to donate to help Haiti. You know that $25 isn't going to break the bank, just don't go shopping or out to dinner one night.

Click here to donate

Here are some pictures from my trip

This is where Haitians crossed the border to the Dominican (legally). They believed that while crossing the border, they "must get their feet wet".

Troublesome thieves being taken away from the market

Haitians going to the market to sell their eggs, chickens and produce to make money.

The border on land.

Finally some screen printing results!!

This all started with the idea of teaching my students how to screen print. I think it's important for them to learn forms of art that surrounds them everyday and is a part of their culture. Screen printing is all over their clothes, products, etc.

So I needed to work out all of the kinks before doing it in the classroom.

The assignment: come up with a word that describes or represents you and design it. What word or small phrase would you wear on your clothes and people would know more about you, and you'd wear it with pride?

My example that I made up was "Rethink, Reuse". I am really into turning old stuff into another useful product to avoid it all going to the landfill. Ex. egg cartons--use for paint, old t-shirts--cleaning rags. Etc...

Templeton and I made 3 runs of the same screen and having issues every round til the last. It turns out we were rinsing the screen after exposure with warm/hot water, and that sets the emulsion.

Here are my first prints after much trial and error that I am GLAD I did before teaching the students!!

**Above is the first run of the whole screen. The right half is my stuff, the left half is Templeton's stuff.

The red book is my 2010 planner, the bright paper is paper I found in that dental cabinet we found at the estate sale--over a 100 beautiful sheets of vibrant paper.

I love red and blue together! The black is my new large moleskine with a 35mm camera. One of my New Year's resolutions is to fill the 100 page sketchbook up!

The close up!

Many more prints to come!

Pics from photo walk

Templeton, Brendan and I went to the Hermitage "beach" and took some pictures in the fog, here are some of mine:

A floating feather

Ducks in the fog

Tree roots

Shells within a shell

Birthday trip to zoo

There are red pandas above us in the tree--I swear

Sleepy red panda

Sleepy lions

Elephant cleaning himself with dirt

Dad and child napping

Plastic toy for meerkat to play with, reminded me of Sal

Meerkats are funny!

BOOKS GALORE 2009

So this holiday season..between my birthday and Christmas, we got a lot of books!

Plus 4 magazine subscriptions:

Thrasher

Transworld Skateboarding

Smithsonian

ABC Soaps in Depth

(nice variety!!)

happy bday mom

sal at the emergency vet...poor guy

**Update: He's hanging in there. Looks like a stomach bug, or something he ate from the Christmas tree. Keep your fingers crossed he's ok

A gift from Rwanda

The other day, I was watching the Today show and they were sharing a story about how Macy's has teamed up with the women of Rwanda in selling their hand woven products. So many of the woman lost their husbands in the genocide of 1994, and found themselves abandoned--the country now 70% women. They started meeting underneath trees and were weaving baskets to build a sense of community, sitting next to women whose husband may have killed their neighbors husband. They got past that and banded together.
An American went over their in 2002 representing the United Nations and was struck by the story and the beauty of the baskets. She helped form a relationship with Macy's to sell their baskets, and the women could use the proceeds to survive.
I thought this story was beautiful, especially for Macy's to support these women. So I went online and bought one myself in support. Mine came in the mail today, and the thought of helping the women over there is probably one of the best Christmas gifts for me.
Here is a link for more information, you should get one too. It is very sturdy, a large size, and gorgeous!
http://www.macys.com/campaign/rwanda/index.jsp

I would also recommend watching the movie Hotel Rwanda. I watched that years ago and it really opened up my eyes to our ignorance to what happens across the globe.


Merry Christmas!

Getting creative--or tryin'

Templeton and I traditionally decorate Christmas ornaments, below are this year's. The first 2 are Templeton's, the last 3 are mine. He wrapped tape around the glass ball and painted the space, then took of the tape. The 2nd one, he sprayed spray paint inside the ball for a snowy effect then painted the tree. I painted ol' Santa, did the spray paint inside the ball then painted snowflakes on it. The last one I put green acrylic paint on the inside, the wrapped glitter ribbon all around the ball adhering it with glue.



Also, a little peek at some screenprinting Temp and I working on. Final products coming soon. This is Sal trying to get in the suitcase (one of his favorite spots) while we were exposing our screen.

Christmas kitten

i love my secret santa at school!