While She Naps

patchwork crab

I'm from Maryland originally and I love Maryland crabs.  My birthday is in the beginning of August, high crab season, and I always chose to go to a crab shack to celebrate.  I miss sitting outside on a hot summer evening, mouth on fire from the seasoning, salt and cayenne under my nails, eating that sweet, delicious crab.  It is one of those moments I'm so glad I don't keep Kosher.

Of course, when you're in Boston and you're closer to a Maine lobster than a Maryland crab, you can always craft one out of cotton and wool.  This patchwork crab is in my shop now.  Her body incorporates all sorts of wonderful fabrics including a vintage necktie and a lovely piece of mustard colored vintage fabric - both picked up at Sister Thrift in Watertown last week.

My show at Young Blood is officially down now.  There will be a few pieces coming back to me and they will be up in the shop once they arrive here.  Check out this incredible review of the show.  What a great experience this was.

two more mini owls

 

The second mini owl is now up in the shop.

And the third one is a baby owlet for my May show at Lark & Key.  Here he is hanging out with his mother.

Hooray for tiny little owls!

Polish mini owl

First, some lovely old wooden alphabet stamps I bought in Atlanta a few weeks ago. I love these all jumbled together in a bowl.

Next, my sister Rachel has started a blog.  Rachel is a wonderfully creative writer, artist, cook, lawyer and all around awesome person.  Check out this great poem she wrote about leading the Passover seder ("ezra" is her alter-ego).

And, I finished the first of three mini owls that I am working on.  This one is for a special order and was to have a Polish influence.

And finally, there was a nice little piece about me in the Teach For America alumni magazine this month.  As you may remember, I did Teach For America in 1997.  I taught 5th-8th grade French and 8th grade Social Studies in the Mississippi Delta for two years. Those were two of the most challenging years of my life, and I will never forget them.

goldfish

I revisited an old pattern of mine and made a goldfish today.  He came together so nicely.  And I still had a scrap left of the vintage necktie that I had used on the original one.

I like the lips on the new one better and I added a solid orange back fin, too. 

I just put him up in my shop.

spring bird

The birthday was fantastic.  This was the first birthday that Roxanne has had in which she was truly happy and that was amazing to witness.  She welcomed her friends and sat with them at the table to do the craft project.  She loved the yoga class, gobbled two lamb chops and lots of noodles and broccoli.  She even let us sing Happy Birthday - and not just quiet singing, real jubilant singing - and blew out her candles. And the orange sherbet ice cream cake I made was really good.  Hooray!

I made a little pink bird today.

There is a woodpecker loudly tapping the tree outside my window as I write this reminding me that, yes, spring is on its way! 

The pink bird is up in my shop now, along with this birdhouse I made a little while ago.

And, as promised, here is a picture of me and David Hale at the opening of our show, "Birds of a Feather," at Young Blood in Atlanta.

There is still some work left from both of us.  You can check out prices and what is available at the gallery's Flickr site and then call Kelly (404) 254 - 4127.

shadow box

"Gathering"
mixed media shadow box with soft sculpture bird
8" x 8"

This shadow box will be for my show at Lark & Key opening in May.  I haven't worked on a shadow box for a long while and it was really pretty fun to do.  And the orange and blue and gray - I'm still enjoying the interplay of these colors.  Three pieces done, I think three or four more to come.  A little lark and then some flying birds. 

Roxanne is turning 5 on Sunday and I am in the midst of lots of birthday party prep.  She has requested an ice cream cake because she doesn't like regular cake or icing.  I've never made an ice cream cake before, but I watched an online tutorial and gave it a try.  Orange sherbet with an Oreo cookie crust and crumb layer, whipped cream icing (I'm doing that part today), and nonpareils to decorate.  She is really really in to nonpareils. 

There will be 8 kids here.  For the first time this year Roxanne really has friends.  Kid friends.  And she picked six to invite to her party.  In past years she only wanted to invite grown-up friends - our friends, her teachers - but now she has the capacity to develop peer friends and we are so pleased.

We will be doing a little craft activity (I drew an empty fish bowl and I'm putting out markers and lots of cool fish stickers) and a yoga teacher will come and do yoga with the kids for 35 minutes.  Then lunch.  She wanted all the kids to have lamb chops (her favorite food), flower-shaped noodles and broccoli.  With orange juice to drink.  So there you go.

And for the grown ups I'm preparing oven-baked "fried" chicken drumsticks (from a Country Living recipe), homemade black olive tapenade (Joy of Cooking) with crusty baguette and some good cheeses, this awesome butternut squash tahini salad, marinated feta and green olive skewers (from Ellie Krieger), spiced almonds and these amazing pumpkin cookies. 

I got blank puzzles for the goodie bags, along with skull pencils and some chewy fruit snacks.  And I made these tissue paper lollipop flowers to tie the tops with.  Fun stuff. I love planning children's birthday parties.

Oh, and I got her a brand new CourtneyCourtney dress with a big #5 on the front. Awesome.

hen in orange and blue

This is the second piece in my orange and blue series for a two-person show at Lark & Key in May. 

I'm also working on a mixed media shadow box with the same color scheme. 

I'm back!

I'm back and it was an amazing experience.  David and I spent the day on Friday setting everything up and he was so incredibly generous with his time. He built half a dozen shelves from reclaimed wood to display my birds and his smaller paintings.

And he brought with him an amazing collection of natural findings - feathers and gourds, turtle shells and a deer skull - to put out with our work. 

When it  was all up it really was a neat show to see.

This pedestal was orange and we had a very sweet intern paint it white.

The opening was really fun, too.  I think Kelly has a picture of me and David together.  I'll post it when I get it from her. I learned a lot by watching people interact with the birds.  The flying birds got a lot interest.  All five of them were sold before the opening party. I had a lot of requests to make a mobile.  More pictures from the show, prices and availability can be found on the Young Blood Flickr page.

I spent Saturday walking around Virginia Highlands and Little Five Points, eating and shopping.  I stopped at a spa and got my nails done.  I started and finished Homemade Life - what a joy of a book. 

And then I flew home to these little faces.  We made hamantashen this afternoon because we are celebrating Purim at nursery school tomorrow.

 

Stella will be dressing as...you guessed it, a princess/fairy/ballerina (same costume as Halloween).  And Roxanne?  Haman, of course.  The villain.  Always the villain. She is showing me her Haman grogger in this picture, and her new pirate skully rubber duck. 

It was great to get away - especially to a warm place where the daffodils were already blooming - but it is great to be home again. 

see you there!

I'm off this afternoon for Atlanta!  I'm so excited, but suddenly I'm afraid I'm going to miss my two little girls an awful lot. 

Here is a another small sampling of what I will be exhibiting.

Prices will run generally similar to what they've been in my shop.  Please call (404-254-4127) or email Kelly (ybgallery@mindspring.com) at Young Blood  if you'd like to purchase a bird - the owl pictured here has already sold!

And I now have photo greeting cards of my birds available in my shop!  This is something I've wanted to do for so long.  Between the photography of my amazing sister-in-law, Jacquie, and my awesome friend, Lisa, the cards look really nice.  I put together two different four-packs and you can check them out here.

Thank you, everyone, for your words of encouragement and for your constant inspiration these past few months.  This community and our ongoing conversation has a huge impact on my artistic life, and my life in general. Thank you.

in the studio today

Working on two pieces at once.