"Spinning Petals" is the name of the art installation piece I created for the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Backcountry Casitas program - a dispersed collection of interactive environments to engage child visitors the Garden and encourage imaginative play. Here's a video about it.  My piece is a collection of six petal or leaf shaped hemp fabric sculptures over welded steel frames that spin when pushed or in the wind. The surface treatments are a virtual sampler of textile art mark making from painting, stamping, stencils, dye, applique, and embroidery.  My goal was to create a vividly colorful space that would attract the viewers interest from a distance while highlighting the textures and images of nature reflecting the local flora. The patterns are either from oversized flower petals or life sized bay leaves, while one petal showcases natural dyes including avocado, and transfer images from flowers including nasturtium and milkweed.  I chose hemp as a natural plan...

 I'm really thrilled with the results of this scenic design for the First Year AOS student production, especially the creativity and leadership of my student design collaborator, Jonathan Millan. He stepped up to lead the construction team and all those kids works super hard to build and realize a set design  that worked very well. I'm grateful and really proud of the whole class. The design was stylized realism, making good use of the inherent characteristics of the theater space itself and building a nice sense of space. I also got to do some nice original art for the set.  Here are the three acrylic and mixed media on canvas works in a sketchy style. I have now had the pleasure of teaching theater production to two cohorts of fine young actors. I hope I get to come back next April and continue helping them understand the thought process and design thinking behind costumes, sets, lighting, sound, props, and all that goes into getting a show on the stage. It has been 20 ...

 I'm trying out Etsy again. I've put three of my most beautiful pieces on to Etsy.  If you sign up for my email list, not only will you receive regular FREE downloadable art from me, but also a coupon for free shipping on these wonderful dolls. Already on the list but still want the code? Check the most recent email. Here's where to sign up.   Have a good day!

 Have joined a new challenge - because I have not been at all able to keep up with my "month of" tasks. Getting guided for a week - that will be fun. Also I am determined to bring more art into my life.  Thanks to the artists at Pixabay.com for making images available for download and use. Worth browsing there. 

Decorated paper roll containers with wire handles and wrapped candies. After a month of creating embellished paper clips as my project of the month, I now have a large selection of clips to use. I'm happy to send one to anyone who asks. This month the planned topic is Party Favor Ideas. Now this topic was originally set for earlier in the year. I pushed it forward when the coronavirus made parties seem unlikely. Evidently I was being too optimistic even then. However, in the spirit of looking forward to a time when gathering will not be a life threatening proposition, I have decided to collect, collate, and possibly construct some party favor ideas and place them on a Pinterest board made for the purpose. Here's the truth. There are a LOT of very creative party favor ideas out there already. They kinda fall into categories: 1. Edible favors : Re-packaged candy or snacks in soft bags of some kind, often with a themed tag, or in a decorated tin, b...