wishing you a happy new year!

please come visit either on opening night, january 5th,
or through the month of january
to see my latest creations at gallery fraga
in the group show entitled, "birds of a feather".
my installation will be a shrine,
combinating oil paintings, fiber art and sylvan votary,
in reverence to endemic bainbridge bird friends.

ho ho ho!

happy holidays!

making photoshop paintbrushes has been too fun

left-over paint
oh the buttery goodness of oil paint! i hate to leave any remnants on my palette just to dry up into uselessness. so some of it ended up on these little squares of masonite, for what i don't have a clue. experimentation i guess. painting on textureless surfaces is dreamy. no fighting the weave of fibers. luscious paint, i just want to use it all the time. could it be like making mud pies when you're little? the slimey squishyness of adulthood.

detail from my latest birdie creation
in progress
using ribbons, velvet, silk, chiffon, corduroy, linen, cording, flannel...
it's a soup of fibers.

i'm sorry!i would guess about eight years ago i bought a fraser fir seedling at a christmas tree farm, which is now city parkland, and planted it in the backyard. abies fraseri are the ideal christmas tree. beautiful symetrical structure, strong green color, lovely needle form and an openness that allows for decorations to shine. well, as our garden has become more mature all my little seedlings, and i have planted many trees of all sorts, have started to obscure my beloved sunshine so i made the decision that i would wait until christmas time and harvest the faser fir. i think the tree grew four to five feet just in the last year, so if it were to come down this would have to be the year to do it. this is the worst part of christmas time to me. i hate that a tree that has grown for years and years is chopped down to enjoy for just a few weeks and then turned into compost. so i said to the tree just before we cut it down, "i'm sorry!".

i must admit that this is the most beautiful tree we have ever had in our house. we cut it so it is just a couple of millimeters from hitting the ceiling. it looks so odd out there were it used to be in the garden, so open, unconfined. the tree was cut right to the ground so it appears as if it were never there. a ghost tree. it has to be the freshest christmas tree ever, just hauled in from the backyard. thank you tree for your years of growth to become our holiday decoration.

happy holidays.

World AIDS Day is Today!

"Visual AIDS Postcards From the Edge Benefit

Hosted by Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
530 West 22nd Street (between 10th & 11th Avenues)
New York City

Preview Party on World AIDS Day
Friday, December 1 from 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Sneak peek only -- NO POSTCARD SALES.
$75 admission includes one raffle ticket.

Benefit Sale

Saturday, December 2 from 12:00 - 6:00 PM &
Sunday, December 3 from 12:00 - 4:00 PM
$5 Suggested Admission

Over 1,500 original postcard-sized works of art."
including one from this artist
"ONLY $75 EACH. Buy four cards and get one free.

Postcards From the Edge is a show and sale of original, postcard-sized works on paper by established and emerging artists. Famous in the art world as the most exciting and affordable way to build a collection of work by internationally renowned artists, as well as young and emerging artists, all works are sold on a first-come, first-served basis. The works are signed on the back and exhibited so the artists' signatures cannot be seen. While buyers have a list of participating artists, they don't know who created which piece until purchased. A collector might end up with a work by a famous artist or someone they don't know yet. Either way, they walk away with a great piece of art while supporting the important work of Visual AIDS."

ho ho ho happy december!

i unearthed all the christmas decorations today from the farthest reaches of the closet under the stairs, where everything gets stashed. it is like excavating a tomb with all the archeological layers accumulating in there.

i made this stocking about six years ago after making personalized stockings for everyone else around here. my daughter's features a kitty ballerina with jewelled tiara, pearl necklace and tule tutu. my son's took the longest to make...all cross-stitch. and my husband's is a felt applique snow scene with sequins + beads. i think he would rather have a plainer one. i will have to make him a new one that he will like better someday.