I am currently working on a massively large (for me) art quilt. It has gone through 10,000 iterations. At the moment, this is my favorite arrangement: But it all could change tomorrow. To get a sense of the scale, you can watch this 12-second video: And here are a few close-up photos. It's almost all hand painted, hand stamped, hand dyed, and/or hand screen printed fabric. I'm currently taking a "class" with Irene Roderick that's all about personal style. I put "class" in quotes because it's more of a critique group. Each week Irene gives a short lecture about some... Read more →

Massive Four-Month Art Supply Subscription Box Unboxing! My year-long Scrawlr Box subscription has come to an end. I saved the last four boxes, unboxed them all at once, and had an art supply party! You can learn about all the supplies -- and which ones I liked and didn't -- in this massive Four-Month Art Supply Subscription Box Unboxing Video: As promised, here's a list of all of the supplies in the boxes: Derwent Chromaflow Pencils: http://shrsl.com/3io06 Uni PIN Extra Fine Brush Pen (Black): https://amzn.to/39dPGBO Staedtler Metal Double Sharpener: https://amzn.to/39iwsLd Factis P36 Eraser: https://amzn.to/3wp3CAP Marabu Markers Alpha Robot Set: http://shrsl.com/3io0m... Read more →

As part of my ongoing series about artists I admire, I wanted to share a bit about California artist, Anna Valdez. photo source From the Hashimoto Contemporary website: Anna Valdez (b. 1985) is a multi-disciplinary artist who examines the relationship between objects, cultural formation, and collective consciousness. Creating epic tableaux in her studio, Valdez moves seamlessly between still life and landscape painting, collecting objects and making new ones, and cultivation, observation, and fictionalization. Valdez received her MFA in painting from Boston University in 2013 and her BA in Anthropology and Art from University of California, Davis in 2009. Her work... Read more →

I stumbled across a pair of excellent videos from artist, Alice Mumford... ...and I had to share them with you. In the videos she asks the question: Are you a dabber or a slabber? I won't be as eloquent as she is in the videos, but the quick and dirty version is: A dabber builds up a painting over time in small bits and pieces with consistent attention. A slabber creates artwork with large shapes, often in a short and intense period of time. And, of course, many of us are both dabbers and slabbers. Alice shares a host of... Read more →

This past weekend my local quilt guild held its biennial quilt show. (Special shout out to blog reader, Martha, for coming by to say hello when I was working the mini quilt table!) I thought I'd share a peek at some of my favorite quilts (and quilted pieces) from the show: There was a great mix of traditional and art quilts. I, personally, tend to gravitate towards the art quilts -- which you can see in these photos. Here are links to some of the quilters websites/social media where I could find them. I also included links to the quilt... Read more →

Hello friends! I have an enormous amount of artwork that I've made in the past six months. I've been a busy bee and I'm excited to share. You can expect to see lots more over the coming weeks. I've shared all of the paintings on this wall, except for the one in the center. There's something so wonderful about seeing lots of pieces of your work hanging on a wall, even if it is an imaginary wall! This piece has lovely deep edges (it's a 12x12 wood panel), but was spectacularly difficult to photograph because I finished it with a... Read more →

This is a video I recorded back in November 2021, but never edited and shared. However I had a pocket of free time this weekend and so I finally crossed it off of my to-do list! I wanted to take the time to not only show you what I bought, but also to share WHY I bought it. A big part of my teaching philosophy is that understanding "why" empowers you to create the art that you've always wanted to. Instead of copying or relying on others, you gain the knowledge that allows you to pursue your artwork without the... Read more →

Yesterday, I was discussing the process of mounting a paper collage on a wood canvas with a private coaching client of mine. And I realized that I wrote a post about the process back in 2013. I thought that you might find the process useful to revisit. It's possible that some of the links no longer work, so do let me know if you come across one and I'll update it. Thanks! ------- Gosh, I got so many questions about exactly how I mounted my collages in this post, so I decided to do a quick tutorial. You will need:... Read more →

Hey friends! I'm changing up the format of these monthly "around here" posts. I hope you enjoy it! What's happening at home? You know what they say, self care every day keeps the doctor away! Funnily enough, the blackhead masks were my little guy's idea. He picked up the tube and asked what it was and then wanted to try it. After he and I had applied our masks, he naturally wanted to share with Daddy too. So now we all have great looking noses! What's on your desk right now? I don't keep a neat desk, that's for sure.... Read more →

I've been taking some time to focus on making new and interesting artwork. I have at least a dozen new pieces of big artwork that I haven't shared yet. And a lot of that new artwork has stemmed from working into old artwork that no longer serves me. In 2016, I taught several classes in Australia. One of them was called, "Go Big or Go Home." I sold one of my demo paintings and the other one I ripped off the frame and rolled up in my suitcase. It remained rolled up for the last six years. But earlier this... Read more →