Call me Scheherazade (or 13 Not So Arabian but Rermarkably Brief Topics)

I have so much to tell you, so with neither prelude nor fanfare, and in no particular order:

1) That day I hung out with my friend Pat in Santa Fe a few months ago? She took me over to visit one of her neighbors who is not only a prolific artist herself, she also runs a remarkable local "artists' resource" --- that is to say, do you need a rare & wondrous odd element? Laura almost surely has it, and at an incredibly low price. I bought a grandfather clock door from her for only $7.50! She knows where EVERYTHING she has is and if you knew how much she has you would be mouth-open-in-disbelief-stunned. Laura, thank you!


2) The portrait below is my handsome and swell son Silver, taken by his sweetie Heather at The Cloisters in NYC. He is currently living in Brooklyn and doing temporary work as he seeks a permanent position. His degree is in Political Science/French, he is an accomplished artist, cuts a mean stencil, is a good dancer, can write and he's great with kids and animals, too! If you happen to live in his neighborhood (or nearby) and have any connections, or would like to hire a willing worker, you can contact him on his blog.


3) On the first day of our road trip last month, we stopped for cold drinks at a street fair, just being set up, in some little town in Utah, east of Green River. The old library, with its evocative old books smell, is now an Antique Shop. Geraldine, the darling little girl (probably roundabout 100 years old now) in the photograph below, insisted on coming with us on our summer of 2007 western road trip adventures, as she found the A. S. atmosphere kinda stifling!


4) Yes! We made it to the Grand Canyon, finally! More on that to come. And we stopped in at the Mad Greek in Baker again this year; it was surely well over 100 degrees there, oh, but the spanokopita - I mean food - is totally worth the trip (and the decor is beautifully clear blue and white, it's truly my image of Authentic Greece, ala The Moon-Spinners)!


5) When we met up with Angela at Balboa Island, we had such a blast, and I will try to post more on that later as well. I gave her some of the little buildings I've been constructing for the In This House yahoo group Unruly Artists Skylines & Skyscrapers swap. Here's a peek at a few of them - once I got started, it was hard to stop; yes, if only I had nothing else to do:


6) Here's a canvas I recently worked on; it looked rather small and a little forlorn, so I attached it to a miniature picket fence gate (more 3-d than my scanner could accept) and it perked right up.


7a) I was SO lucky that my lovely friend Marie Otero sent me some of her exquisite "Clearly" Lost Aussie Designs, along with a handful of house shaped images. Do you adore them? I will post some art done with them soon. 7b) From Renée Plains, I received the utterly darling Utility Apron pattern (#155) from her Liberty Star line. Fetching AND utilitarian, what more can a working (artist!) girl ask? 7c) Did you all get your latest edition, HOTP, of CRAFT? Why, tell me why, dear God, was I born without the knitting gene? Is there technology to transplant it cheaply and painlessly yet?


8) I noticed a few of you all have been mentioning the ultra cool "design your own ring" concept marketed by Staxx.com. Since I actually have some of their elements, I thought even though I may not be the most graceful hand model, you might like to check out some of my sf/staxx collaborations:

9) Here you see another piece of my "garden gate as background" art. This was too big for the scanner, but I think you can get the picture. I have never been a huge consumer of Golden paint products, though now and then I've run my brush through a pigment or two. After spending an evening on the phone with Liz Albrecht, the US rep for Stewart Gill, I was quite convinced I needed to try out THEIR products and am really psyched about them. The Byzantia line is crazy beautiful, showcasing a lusciously rich sparkling jewel tone palette. The MetaMica paints have enough tiny bits of mica to really pack an iridescent punch. I also ordered some of the Asian stencils (so pretty) and the next time I'm feeling rather flush, intend to spring for some of their funky and wildly different-from-anything-out-there cityscape and foresty themed rubberstamps!



10) I'm waiting impatiently on a delivery of a couple of issues of Stiletto Heights zines. In case you haven't yet seen any of author/artist/pub Jennifer Gordon's art, here's a fave piece of mine:


11) Okay, all my local comrades. . .we def. want what Santa Cruz has. . .don't we? So let's get on it. I think Ray Kinsella heard it said best in Field of Dreams, "If you build it, they will come."


12) After sending out several sets of my "LOVE is a place" atcs, I find I have one set left.
It could be yours for the asking. . .


13) This summer has carelessly flown by as I daily call out, "Wait, wait!" Along with the every day laundry list of my sparsely to non-existently journaled life, my Auntie Jean and Uncle Larry were over to visit from Cedar Rapids, Iowa while they were staying in Estes Park, Angela and I finished working on our most recent collaboration, Pasticcio, the zine and yes, I did finish reading the last Harry Potter book.