results of today's encaustic play.........

giving equal time......

the one in the cap is my son, Jamie.  he is very artistic but in creative and analytical writing. 
the other guy is his friend zuri (they are on the NYC subway here).  zuri just finished getting his masters at the rhode island school of art.  he is a fantastic painter - he now lives in NYC.
my son is having 2 papers published this year.  more on that later.
yes, i am proud of my kids.

worth showing again........

my daughter Brooke, when she was anchor for CNN international news - this was in (hot)lanta, atlanta.  she moved back here to be near me when i was sick in 2003.  "here" being san diego, CA.

i was kidding her today on FB saying it looks like she is tending bar.  makes me want a drink, anyway.

thank you my brookie, for coming home to look after me - and, as it happens, looking after a few old friends too, i know. 
damn she's cute.

workshop calendar updates.....

i saw this pic of my daughter and the kitty, "miss dior" in rosie's photo file on my computer and thought it looked cute and funny all at once.  so i am sharing it with the world - she will probably be mad at me in the morning.  i am talking about miss dior.  not the rose.

anyway, i thought i would mentioned that i have updated my workshop calendar for my scheduled workshops up until the end of this year.  the list is to the right sidebar and down near the bottom.  i am proud that i could actually input all this information without inflicting carpal tunnel syndrome on myself.  again.

i hope to see you in at least 5 of these workshops!  or just one.  would be good.

family paintover workshop saturday 9 a.m to 1 p.m.

this saturday at bravo school of art.

bring photocopies of your family album - the oldies are the most fun.

i will teach you to paint on them, collage and dress them up like paper dolls, but with a wicked twist.

don't miss out taking this fun workshop -take advantage of it as i'm not teaching paintovers as much these days. 

www.bravoschoolofart.com register online.

artist reception this thursday night....

thursday night, july 22 at the Currant Restaurant, downtown San Diego.  good art, great refreshments.
6:00- 8:00 p.m.
The Currant Restaurant
the Sofia Hotel Lobby
140 West broadway
San Diego, CA  92101
(619)  702-6309

artists:

Lisa Bebi

Diana Carey Goth

Julia CR Gray

Michelle Montpetit,

and 

special guest

Osmar Pete

info@currantrestaurant.com

tomorrow's workshop Oversize Journal

http://bravoschoolofart.com/Workshops/registermixedmed.html#OVERSIZEDJOURNAL  you may register online -
enjoy free parking and cool air during our workshop tomorrow at bravo school of art.
this class allows you to learn new techniques for journal spilling.  techniques that ARE NOT  taught anywere else because they are my trade secrets.

you may also purchase a "kit" and take home the class in a nice cloth bag for future play.

still time to register....  see you tomorrow 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

workshop saturday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at bravo school of art

Over Sized Journal Workshop at Bravo School of
Art in Point Loma THIS Saturday.
http://www.bravoschoolofart.com/Workshops/registermixedmed.html#OVERSIZEDJOURNAL

this is one of my favorite classes to teach of all time.  in this class i use quirky materials and implements to make unusual mark making.  

its so much fun to spend time working in a loose manner - letting your subconscious and inner playpal lead you into a peaceful creative calm.  no telling where you will end up.

after i acquaint you with some of my favorite tricks and tools, you too will be off and running in the passionate world of your own creative mind.

my new favorite book

cat bennett is intereviewed here on youtube.


"the confident creative" by cat bennett
www.theconfidentcreative.com

cat bennett explains how drawing can free the hand and mind - she explains the creative process and gives words of encouragement to all of us; especially the ones who have hurt to have more creativity in their lives.

her recent interview below:

a note about my health - crohn's

(photo courtesy of french word -a- day blog).  love this photo.  love the loyally waiting dog.  the worn door (my favorite) color and that color is perfect against that ochre yellow wall.  the pic is so fench with so few props.

ok, so for many years i have had trouble knowing from one day to the next how i will feel.   what my energy level would be, my focus and just in general my well being. 

i just figuered it was old age and being overweight that altered my energy level so much.  but now i know, i have just been diagnosed with crohn's disease.  although the diagnosis is new, the disease within me is not.  it was discovered during my first colonoscopy in 2003, but it was not expressed in the report as such.  so no one told me.  why?  well, because i had a bigger health crisis going on at the time and the treatment for it was the same treatment for crohn's.  the report just said to continue current treatment.  

in 2003, my kidneys failed abruptly.  that was the bigger crisis.

fortunately t i got 1/3  function back thanks to heavy doses of prednisone and 2 years of celcept, the anti organ rejection medicine.  the cause: autoimmune disorder.  my body turned in on itself and decided to reject my perfectly normal kidneys.  since my body rejected its own healthy kidneys it therefore was not an option to get a transplant.  my body would reject foreign kidneys even faster.   i was doomed.  i also had inflammation in my irises, my bladder and my intestines.  i was kinda sick.

but the chemo took and here i am today. 

then a 7 year remission.

for the last month i have been feeling very ill.  my intestines just were not functioning.  i looked 10 plus months pregnant and was horribly uncomfortable.  after 2 ct scans and another colonoscopy it was diagnosed as crohn's.

crohn's is not a great disease to have but its better than cancer or kidney failure.  i am thankful to know WHAT it is i have been suffering with and i am thankful to understand what has been going on with my body for so long.   i want to reclaim my day to day life and now i will be able to manage it. 

did i tell you i am happy to know what it is i have????  i am because now when i look back i can see it with a sort of  "oh no wonder i didn't feel like doing this or that".  

one thing i have always hated about myself was that i have a hard time committing to doing things in the future - you know, simply calendaring.  its hard to get things done or have a social life that way.   but now i know why i hate calendaring its because i have never been able to predict whether or not i would feel well enough to do it at a future date.  whatever "it" may be.

so today i am experiencing an awareness that is bitter-sweet.  i hope with my new diet and health treatment plan i will be able to begin to calendar things properly and in good consciousness.

i wrote about it here because i know my friends want to know where i have been and what is going on.  also maybe it will help someone who has it,  know that they are not the only one.  it can feel pretty isolating when you are sick.

so, is there anyone out there in cyberland have good crohn's diet recipes?

meet isabella, my new grand niece....

look  - she is already thinking.  pontificating.  she will be a philosopher,  poet, writer, linguistic, or  perhaps a designer or mathematician.   since she is from my husband's side of the family i will have to guess mathematician.  rosie loves maths, languages and design.  we shall see.

she will be christened in the very same gown as her grandma (my sister-in-law, rita), her mother (kim), my daughter (rosie) and now her wee little self.   

what a nice tradition.  

i love the italian side of the family.

these things mean so much. 

thinking of winter during the summer

i like this little piece.  i sent it into somerset studio.  i hope they like it too.
its hard to think of winter during the summer but thats what you need to do for publishing. 

i like this piece.  i think what i might also do with it is transfer it to cloth and then make a small fiber collage.  won't it be coooool to also incorporate it into a quilt -  winter theme?  i could see using the turquoises and blues, but also so cooled down yellows and oranges as in the collar of the girl on the right and the yellow in the stain on the paper that reads "sisterhood".
in person the painting has many other underlying colors that could be picked up as well.  there's a  greenish brown and lighter green and also i would match up the sort of black in their hair - almost a dark blue gray.

all my life i have wished i had a sister.  *sigh*