All Hallow's Eve

'Twas a dark and stormy night, and all through the streets,

Black cats were prowling, looking for sweets!

Pretty stylish with the red belt, eh Kitty?

I've been abit green around the gills for the past two days - can you tell? But I still donned my Malificent costume for the parade at school yesterday, and now tonight for answering the doorbell. But then again, WHO DAREDS TO KNOCK ON MY DOOR?!?!?!!

I hope your evening has been frightfully fun!

Open Studios tour

Oh my gosh! My head is swimming with inspiration once again. More fabulous artists from the Portland Open Studios Tour: William Park (acrylics and monoprints), Andrea Benson (encaustics), and Shawn Demarest (printmaking & painting). *Sigh* Maybe I should just turn my whole living/dining area...my whole house...into a studio.

Getting involved

I have just now decided that I am going to participate in this year's Day of the Dead Shrine auction to benefit Oaxacan street children. Please click on the logo below to learn more about the event. In a nutshell, artists create small shrines that will be auctioned off, and all proceeds will go to help the children. It will be good to be involved with a project that will benefit the street children of this city that I so dearly love.

I'd also like to participate in Stephanie Hilvitz's Día de Bloglandia, an event on Nov. 1 and 2 where bloggers share their festivities online. We'll see if I can get it together. I think it might be a great project for my third graders!


In other breaking news... We are having a thunderstorm!!! We don't often get thunder up here in the Portland metro area, so it's exciting for me! Although, will this dampen plans to visit more Open Artist Studios with Kathleen today???

Something below the surface

I'm home with a cold today - nothing major, just swollen eyes, squishy brain, and congested chest. The body wants to sleep for a million years. But sleeping must be hard work. I went back to bed after walking la Shoobie, slept for five hours, and woke up hungry. There must've been a lot to work out in my dreams.

Eager to begin a new piece, I dug out a favorite image from my files. Then I kept flipping through that file. These are pages and scraps of pages that I tore out during my "serious art student" days in the 80's, mostly from Art in America. Looking at some of the images it's easy to see why I clipped them. Others are a mystery. What was I thinking, what was I drawn to? It's intriguing. I may use some as jumping off points, as we did with images in Katie Kendrick's class.

I thought about scanning a bunch of them to share, but that takes time and disk space. So, here are just two.

(It is not a mystery to me why I chose these two so long ago, but I don't mind if it's a mystery to you.)

I also came across some press materials from an art show I must have gone to. The main draw for me at that time must have been Elizabeth Layton because I had seen a documentary about her. But I just looked up Marjorie MacDonald and was delighted by this piece:

Marjorie MacDonald, Bird Tree or Out on a Limb

And now I think I'll dive off into the deep now to see what treasures I can find.

Art Studio Tour & Folkloric Fashion

Katie Kendrick has posted photos from her class Tales from the Land of Odd! Fun class! Take a look!

Deirdra and I had a great time yesterday cruising the Portland Artist Open Studios tour. Everything was inspirational in its own way, and the artists were expecially wonderful to talk about their work. Two new favorites for me are artists that I would highly recommend for everyone to visit: Christopher Bibby (from Liverpool, England!) and Barabara Paanakker (from Holland!). Christopher's vibrant cityscapes are oils mixed with a waxy medium that allows him to scribe lines into the surface and bring up underlying layers of color. Barbara's work is also very texturized. She builds up the surface with a thick gel paste and then paints with acrylics on top of that, adding found objects and also distressing the surface. Color and form are rich and lively. Go see!

Driving around to see all these studios, Deirdra let me look through a new catalog she'd received, knowing I would love what I saw. Oh yeah, let the chorus of angels chime in - AHHHHHHH! Lookie here at Gudrun Sjoden designs. It's like Hanna Andersson for grown ups! I loved the catalog because it showed women from all stages of life: the maiden, the mother, and the wise woman. As I enter my wise woman stage of life, it's refreshing to see a real live role model in a catalog. Her hair is silver, her eyes are kind, her skin shows the lines of a life well-lived - she is NOT botoxed! Is it not surprising that this is a European catalog, not American?


I have long been an aficionado of folkwear. I used to study the traditional costumes in my undergrad days as a textile student, and I used to dress with a folkloric flair in everyday life. Maybe now as I veer back into my artsy fartsy self, folklore would fun again. But would I have to buy a whole new wardrobe? I'd love to buy from this catalog, but they have to ship all the way from Scandinavia! Deirdra suggested I look for goodies from Goodwill that I could modify - good idea. But what about right NOW? I decided to look through my closet late last night, and here's what I pulled together:

So, it turns out I've already got quite a bit of folkloric funk hanging out in the closet. I decided to put this last one on for today. I think a mixed media self-portrait might be on the way!

Harvest time

A cold wind blows from the east, chilling the morning walk, but by afternoon the sun in a clear sky has made it a perfect 70 degree mix - not hot, yet not cold. The long neglected garden calls to me, "Come outside! Breathe the air, feel the earth!" I have allowed Nature to have its own way with the flowers all summer. I like the wildness and the cycle of life. Browning pedals do not disturb my aesthetic sensibilities. But I live in a condo complex, and there are CCRs, and neighbors who live to enforce them. I must put my garden to bed for the coming winter.


Recalcitrantly I drag my lopers to the back garden and begin cutting away at tall delphinium stalks, foxglove, and columbine. I'll save the columbine seedheads for some decorative purpose, maybe for a doll. I rip out woodruff that the cats have flattened throughout the summer as they sought a cool spot to repose. I finally take notice of the flimsy weeds that have been hiding beneath all the overgrown foliage. And then there are the hearty heathy weeds - the plump and spiky weeds that proudly showed themselves as if they were prize winners. If anyone had asked, I would have said that I enjoyed the variety of texture that they added to the garden.
I do love it all, and it makes me sad to cut off the seed heads of the coneflowers. I will scatter their seeds and hope for more next year.


The courtyard garden has been a wild beast this summer, forcing us to blaze new trails just to get to the front door. Prickly rose stems lean over the walkway, engorged dahlias spill across the pavers, spiders build their webs from the rhody to the roses, blocking our way at every turn. I will cut back only a minimum for now, for all this life in my face makes me happy. It makes me recall a former French beau, who said he liked paths to be uneven because it forces you to be more aware in your day-to-day living.

A bouquet takes shape - something to take to last night's hostess. Yellow roses, pink and orange dahlias, and this blooming bush, whose name I can't remember.

Awareness: color, shape, texture. Look closer. A new composition takes shape in the detail. I could get closer, and yet closer, and there would be something beautiful to see at every level.

Dinner at Joyce's, the night before Sukkoth. A gathering of friends to celebrate the harvest. A harvest of food, a harvest of flowers, a harvest of memories. All will cast their seeds for the bounty of the next growing season. Shalom.

More Art & Soul

Sunday was a glorious day at Art & Soul. The vendor's night was behind me, and I could just relax and play. The class was Poetry in Wax, with Judy Wise. This was my second encaustic class with Judy. This time we worked on wooden panels, and she guided us to compose as if writing a story. This is my piece, Night Flight. It is ambiguous to me. Is she coming or going? Is she an outsider, afraid to go into that house? She would have to cross some beautiful but dangerous waters to get there. (Sheesh, I think I've just psychoanalyzed myself! And of course, I was thinking about none of this as I worked!)

Please check out Judy's post to see all the work done by the students in this class - it was amazing! This time I feel compelled to buy me some wax - I'll be going to the farmers' market tomorrow!

Art and Soul and Etsy Store Opens!

Oh, my poor blog! You've been so lonely as I've neglected you here. I'm sorry - it's just that I've been kind of busy making stuff.


Deirdra decided at kind of the last minute to get a table at the Art & Soul Vendor Night, and invited me to share the table with her. I said yes, knowing that I had to come up with things to sell all within three weeks (and a full-time day job!). Things got kind of hectic, to say the least.

BUT, I also got to have a LOT of fun in a couple of WONDERFUL classes! The first was with the lovely Katie Kendrick. I adore her artwork, and really enjoyed her approach to painting. We looked at some art that inspires us, then analyzed it to learn what it is specifically that we like about it. My inspirations were Klimt, Klee, Chagall, and Jill Mayberg. I'm drawn to their forms, their playfulness, the colors, and the little doodads. I didn't choose any one particular painting from any of them - rather, I felt like I was taking ingredients from each and mixing them all together.

Katie had us start three different paintings so that we wouldn't overthink them. I didn't get terribly far on any of them, but I'm very much looking forward to continuing work on them.

My sweetie pie friend Tina came up from California to attend Art & Soul classes and stayed with me. What a blast to spend time with her! She is one bundle of happy energy - let me tell you! On her last day here I took her to the rose Garden. It was a beautiful day, and don't the roses still look loverly?

Saturday night was the big show: Vendor Night! Poor Deirdra was probably fretting as I worked up to the last minute finishing stock. We only had an hour to set up, but that turned out to be just enough time. Here's a quickie photo of our booth. We both brought dolls. Deirdra also brought her beautiful paintings and I brought my soldered glass pendants. We got some great comments on our work, and it was fun to be out in the public again. Exhausting to get ready for the show, but fun.

Here's a little sample of the work that I put on our table. A princess pendant - a print of one of my original mixed media paintings; and my Omo Valley dolls, inspired by the photos of Han Silvester.

And now for my big announcement: My Etsy store is now open for business!I currently have the Omo Valley dolls and a variety of pendants listed. Come on by and check it out: http://www.lulumoon.etsy.com/. I will be adding more things , probably by this weekend.

I also want to tell you about Judy Wise's class, but right now I need to catch up on some more sleep. Entonces... Hasta mañana!