books,art and images

Lovely Hearts Exhibition badge

2006-12-30T12:58:00.000-08:00

Cut and Paste the code below for a "Lovely Hearts" badge - support the exhibition by spreading the love!
lovely hearts code

Laugh lines

2006-10-15T08:43:00.000-07:00

But who is laughing? I earned these babies and well, imperfection? yes, and that's ok. I love getting older. Anxious to view more imperfections ?.... go see Self Portrait Challenge here.

We two

2006-09-14T04:16:00.000-07:00

here we are enjoying the huge pink cushions in the museum quarter of wein.
beautiful buildings/fountains/statues everywhere, but we are most happy just being there together on our little pink island.

go see more photos of people with their favorite people at Self Portrait Challenge!

Four by Three

2006-09-07T07:19:00.000-07:00

Here we are in the variable photobooth.
two of the three people who mean the most to me with me in a tiny cube.
we love to be silly.
selfportrait challenge is a wonderful way to express/re-evaluate yourself - go take a look!

Smooches from PTown

2006-08-28T07:54:00.000-07:00

Enclosed in a mermaid's body and loving it. Provincetown, MA is one of my favorite places to visit... and I have been doing so since I was a teen. It is full of art, fun, history, tolerance and wild pleasures. Like becoming a mermaid at the drop of a hat.

More self portraits at
Self portrait challenge!

earrings from perth

2006-08-17T21:35:00.000-07:00

i love them...

Skirting the issue

2006-08-17T08:28:00.000-07:00

From a favorite linen skirt which drove me nuts due to it's lack of legroom ... to a more free kicking handpainted version...
Here I am in the south of france three years ago, 105F , the skirt is cool, but hard to take deep strides in due to the slit being held together with two toggles and very cool buttons. No you can't see them here because my bag is in the way. sorry!

I decided to get rid of the buttons and paint up from the bottom
a couple of my signature flowers which have appeared in my paintings lately.

here they are finished and detailed before taking off the tabs and buttons...

Rainer was able to capture me on the mini trampoline showing how easy it is to now move about in this skirt. I like it a lot more now, and even though it is over three years old, it is linen, it is a comfortable skirt and now a little refashioned.
I am entering this in the Whip Up embellish/decorate catagory because the painting took longer than the deconstruction. Go see more whip up here.

Trapped in a chair from the past

2006-08-16T06:33:00.000-07:00

These chairs have got to go. For many reasons I won't go into here. This photo captures my desperate feelings about these chairs. Crazy I know, but sometimes you just have to let it out.
The photo helped me a lot get in touch with my inner chair loathing.
For much more interesting photos, stories about photos and beautiful selfportraits go see
Self Portrait Challenge!

August 1, 2006

2006-08-01T04:48:00.000-07:00

This is my first tight space photo for August at Self Portrait Challenge. It is in our bathroom which is long and narrow and most definitely on our list of home repairs. It is tight with the two daughters and I all messing about simultaneously - me doing the essentials, you know teeth, hair and wash face. They do the extras that young women do - eyes, lips, cheeks, sprays, powders, more eyes, hair do and redo, and redo again, ok, maybe one more redo.... so it was the first tight spot I could think of. I left them out of the photo simply because they get the rest of the room. We have a second bathroom downstairs, but somehow it is just not appealing to them or to me to use it. Guess where my husband ends up?

I came home to find two special packages at my door ... one from my crafting trading buddy in Australia - Feli and one from a new friend Belinda in Luxembourg. HOW LOVELY! especially cause today's my birthday!
First look at those stunning earrings Feli made! (modeled in the self portrait) Look at those crows feet laughlines too! I think they go great with my blouse and well, my daughters said I look hip! (bonus points) Then the box of goodies ... a cuff, (girls are still fighting with me over that one, can i wear it?) mugpads, (how did you know I needed those?) pincushion to keep me pins at hand, fabu brooch made of buttons, and the famed feli tissue holder and bonus postcards from Australia. oh my oh my. The stitching is just perfect on everything and well, I am green with envy at your skills Feli.
Belinda's felted poppy is adorable and useful too to brighten up my work desk area. I found out that she is teaching felting classes in Portland. Too bad it is Oregon and not Maine. I have done felting, but want to take another class. Thank you blogging friends. Too too kind.
off to enjoy my birthday and contemplate the year ahead... i make birthday resolutions instead of new years. after all, august 1 is MY new year! tee hee.

Clean

2006-07-28T06:43:00.000-07:00

acrylic/graphite/conte on wood
12"x12"
"the 3 graces take a dip"

For illustration friday's topic this week "CLEAN". I made this in honor of my friend Kim at the 3 Graces Gallery last year and thought it was pretty representational of "clean" as they are fresh from their dip!
It is going to go up for sale in our new shop, (so there is a shameless promotion ...)

If you are in the area tonight, go stop in and see Kim - her gallery in Portsmouth, NH is chocker block filled with art goodness. And then stop over across the street for some wine and cheese at Market 100. I have seven new paintings going up there. The opening is from 5-7 p.m.
Go see more CLEAN fun at Illustration Friday!

Shiny Moment - Textured papers

2006-07-23T07:44:00.000-07:00

Here is a collage I made with a variety of handmade papers I created with different texturing methods.
The wings of the bird are from this method below shown by one of my summer art camps held early in July.

Take out these supplies:
Cardstock paper
Prang or other highly concentrated watercolor paints
Roll of plastic wrap
Two containers of water
Soft watercolor brushes
Newspaper to cover the surface of the workspace

1.First paint the entire surface of the cardstock paper with clear water to make it wet. Save this water for just wetting the papers.

2.Then paint the surface of the paper with color. Make sure you have a lot of paint on your brushes - go all the way to the edges of the paper with color. Play music while you are doing this to enjoy the brush strokes more! (we listened to the sound track of Amalie whilst painting these)

3.Cut off a piece of plastic wrap the same size as the painting paper and put down into the wet paint.

4.All hands on deck! Tickle the plastic wrap into wrinkly shapes.
(Make another one and flip it on top of the plastic wrap so you have a sandwich of painted paper, plastic wrap and painted paper.)

5.Make a bunch of them in all your favorite colors and then make two in your least favorite colors. Make sure you have some in black and brown too!

6.Let them dry overnight .... don't peek at them until they are dry the next day.
Then, if you can stand it ... cut them into the shapes which you see in the beautiful papers you have made. Make a collage, a card or what have you?

There are so many different things which you can do with textured papers, I am sure you will think up something... let me know!

Art by the number

2006-07-21T05:43:00.000-07:00

collage, ink, acrylic on cardboard
INSPIRE ME THURSDAY!
PI has always intrigued me. So I decided to include it in this Inspire me Thursday work... am I too late? No idea. I enjoyed making this mysterious piece with a mysterious number.
Sort of political ... marriage, adoption, adoption of American culture in other societies, you get the drift.

the Pi is rather calligraphic as well, it IS an elegant number. And so useful in Math, *so I hear*
more of my art and a lot of others art at Art Esprit .

As an art lover

2006-07-17T15:56:00.000-07:00

I love art. I make it, I teach it, I promote it, I live it. That is my job. That is my hobby. It makes me happy. Here I am in a low light no flash scenerio at the MoMa in NYC on Saturday enjoying it.
My favorite sculptor of them all ... Giacometti
Is that man in the sculpture exploring my nose? More about me at Art Esprit.
Lots more interesting portraits at Self Portrait Challenge!

Self Portrait Challenge ... If I were an Urbanite

2006-07-05T14:21:00.000-07:00

me and the metro in montreal on monday

... I would ride the trains each and every day. I would feel a lot less guilty for driving my car. We live a short two miles from our gallery and we drive a lot. We used to live one mile away and would walk. I hope to make a change. Our one small car living is good. Walking or riding our bikes more often would be better. I think about the world our children will inhabit twenty years from now and it frightens me. The change has to come from inside. From each of us. Each day.
Go to see more self portraits at Self Portrait Challenge
Go see more of me at Art Esprit.

art esprit: Shiny Moments - Art Shoes

2006-06-25T18:15:00.001-07:00

art esprit: Shiny Moments - Art Shoes

Poster pop

2006-06-22T15:37:00.000-07:00

click for a larger image

Here I am at the beach yesterday. First day off in ages, with family just soaking in the bliss of it all. The water was lovely chilly, the air warm and breezy and it just washed over me like I was part of the scenery. How lovely is that? This photo manipulation shows my mood I think. It is a bitty of pop too. Go see more fabu pop portraits at Self Portrait Challenge.
Find out more about me at the other sites here and here. And go to the beach ...

Pop art week #2

2006-06-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

Week #2 at Self Portrait Challenge...
OK, we got a new camera for work, so it is a lot more fun trying to capture oneself...
here I am in the mirror. Sort of sums up life this week .... Things are closer than they appear!
Infact, in the spoon image, mirror mirror take #2 they are just too damn close! But there is the nod to the Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen team. Just love their poolballs at the Aasse in my husband's home city of Muenster, Germany.

This is getting to be a lot of fun. I usually do not like photos of myself, but I am now finally learning to enjoy the process here... go see a lot more fabulous self portraits at the challenge!

getting to know you

2006-05-30T09:58:00.000-07:00

or me as the case were. here is some more about me, (in no particular order) for the last week of Self Portrait Challenge ...

mother
artist
wife
sister
daughter
friend
teacher
traveler
cook
gardener
beach goer
dawdler
human...

picker, grinner? nawh,
silly, you bet!

Self Portrait week 4

2006-05-24T18:54:00.000-07:00

Here is my self portrait I painted in oil.
It is 16 by 20 inches. it is full of hand motions just like me, when I talk or type or paint.
Here is another self portrait of me ... drinking my favorite beverage ... coffee..
you can't see the coffee, but it's there. So that is a few more things about me.

Self Portrait Challenge week three more me

2006-05-17T02:14:00.000-07:00

Here I am with my husband Rainer being silly as usual. We take photos of ourselves everywhere... mostly we make sure we document ourselves kissing or just our noses and some landmark. But that will be for next week. somehow getting all of ourselves into the shot is just not important. the essence of the four of us is what we ususally go for...

Introductions 2

2006-05-10T05:02:00.000-07:00

More for Self Portrait Challenge
I like to garden. Here I am with some of our massively tall sunflowers from last fall. They drew in hummingbirds and lots of bees. The birds enjoyed them in November.

I am not one of these fussy garden types who has to have every weed out each day. I will leave that to Martha and my husband's German parents and their neighbors. Looks great, but there are too many things which I would rather do daily in our short summers here in New England.
But the garden survives with intensive planting and the weekly weeding and gives us a lot of joy.
This year we have expanded the perrenial beds and ripped out the rotting wood deck to create a lower space with bricks and granite my friend Adam is making with us. But for today I can enjoy the flowers and dream of the ones which we will grow this year.

Let me introduce myself ...

2006-05-02T05:09:00.000-07:00

Self Portrait Challenge
I am a mother, wife, artist, curator and curious about life. I have a blog called Art Esprit. I have a gallery called artstream.
Everyday I:
try and find beauty in life, I do something creative and work hard at being a good person.
I don't take a lot of crap from people and have that repuation according to my children's acquaintances.
Their friends know better.
I am afraid of not being able to finish all that I would like to do in my lifetime as well as in my day.
I get over that pretty quickly as soon as I sit down in the evening.
I love:
my husband and children deeply
creating things
spending time out of doors
walking
being with close friends
cooking with my husband
writing
alizarin crimson
mixing paint
warmish spring days
warmish fall evenings
living

International Day of Peace

2006-04-20T04:48:00.000-07:00

We are all connected