It's a wonderful life

Wednesday my husband and I went to see the performance "Respect" at the Herberger.  He was one of about 10 men in the audience. 

It was hugely fun and entertaining.  I highly recommend it to all my women friends. 

It has been a wonderful year for me.  Lots of highlights and things learned and enjoyed. 

I want to thank all of you who read this.  Your comments have helped me tremendously. 

Have a great holiday and I'll be back in 2011.

Kathleen

A blast from the past

Last Christmas a bunch of us from Ceramics did an exchange involving all of us making shot glasses.  We had to have 20 or so for the exchange.  I made extra and took them to the fall festival at the Rosson House in Phoenix. 

Here it is over a year later and someone e-mails me out of the blue asking if I have any left. 

I did have four of my favorites left, and they were of the house I grew up in, a church in Chimayo I had painted, my house in Tucson, and the Chrysler building.  (I just love that building!)

So, now I'm thinking I need to make some more, just so I can have them on hand for surprises out of the blue! 

Tile table 2nd attempt

Remember back a month or so, when I was making my own tiles for a table top for myself?  I wasn't happy with how the glaze firing turned out.  The only colors I liked were the red and the bright orange.
So I decided to try again, modify the design, and use three layers of color, instead of two.  I also didn't like the white at the corners. 

OK, so here we are again.  This is the whole design, modified, before firing.  I've simplified the design a bit, gotten rid of any of the white and introduced a new color, the bright blue.  It will actually fire a much, much darker blue, giving the design more of a Moroccan feel.

And due to a little mistake, some of my tiles were bisque fired before I put on the underglaze.  I usually put the underglaze on greenware.  But I was assured by the local ceramic god that it would make no difference and they would come out the same color.  Hmmm.  I'll keep my fingers crossed just the same.  I'll take a picture when they're done.  We're on hiatus until mid-January, so it will be awhile, but I'll be sure to let you know. 

And here's another idea.

I have had a passion for white flowers for forever.

Where did it come from?  I have absolutely no idea.  But I've painted white iris and a bazillion different kinds of white cactus flowers.

This last Friday I took a few photos of my friend's white roses in the sunlight.  Isn't this one beautiful?

I wonder if it's beauty would translate into a painting? 

Of course all of these ideas are still percolating.  What I need to do is get off my duff and get to work!!!!

Tomato, tomahto

I took this picture last week when I was putting stuff away after grocery shopping. 

I did a watercolor years ago, with cherries in a colander, and it came out great.  I'm thinking I would like to do this one, but I'm wondering if I can carry it off in acrylic. 

Nah, I liked the concept in watercolor too much. 

Can you tell I'm casting about for my next project?  I think this might be it, though.  I just love painting with red. 

We're thinking about churches

I have this series of churches I've done, the four of them are pictured here.

But I don't think I'm done yet with churches.  I like that type of massive architecture, and the feel that the older ones have.

But I'm thinking that I want to take this in a different direction. 

I just don't know what that different direction wants to be.

Do I want different views of the same churches, different angles, wilder colors, more exaggeration, or should I just stay on the same path and find some other churches that need to have their pictures painted.

What do you think?

An amazing sight

We were out looking for Christmas lights Friday night with our two oldest grandsons and saw this place down a side street.  It was truly amazing.  This picture doesn't even show the dancing reindeer on the roof!

If you live in the East Valley, it's off Warner Rd., between Rural and McClintock, north side, and totally worth swinging by if you're in the neighborhood.  Can you say cherry picker?  Those trees had to be at least 30-40 feet high.  Wow!!!



Home Stretch

This last week we glazed the NEXT to the last batch of tile - for the sculpture pedestals.

Here is my unfinished bench.  The end cap on the left is bare.  Pulled those tiles out of the kiln this week, and they will be installed with the sculpture pedestals next week when they are put in.

We've got a few things in the works for our next project.  I'll let you know if we get it.  Cross your eyes, fingers and toes.  It's an international call to artists and we'd be tickled to death if we were even one of the five finalists selected.