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After driving a mini van for almost ten years, I was longing for something a little more unique and fun. Everything we looked at that would still be large enough for shuttling to and from art shows, was not big enough to allow for the kids to have a friend. We came up with an alternative idea all together. I decided to keep the van for the kids, the dog, the groceries and for the delivery of my artwork to and from shows, rather than replace it. Yesterday we added a smart car to our "fleet" for me to attend art openings (you know, the second trip to the venue in the same week!), go to lunch with other artists, go to the post office to mail out self promotional art packets, go to the bank to cash art sales checks, pickup Starbucks to stay awake enough at night to create new art, go to the gym to have strength to hang a show.... all these things that I do in the car when it's just me!

Blue Bather Completed

"Blue Bather" took on a softer look in the completed collage than the sketch in the face. I toned back some of the shadows to give her a more inviting and less detailed look. I decided to do this in progress, I was going to come back and further establish the shadows around the nose and the mouth. After working on it until midnight, I decided to rest and come back in the morning with a fresh perspective. I find this works wonders, I have a whole new take on it the next day.  In the morning, when I came out to the studio to get a look at her with all the glue dried and clear (sometimes when I overwork an area, the glue gets a cloudy haze and obscures the true look of what is underneath, all you can do is leave it for a while and let it dry, to get a clear view) and I decided that I loved her just the way she was! I remembered that good advice for all artists is to "know when the work is completed, know when to quit!" Overworking can take a great collage and turn it into something that is not what I set out to do... too much detail can be a bad thing.

"Blue Bather" in progress

Anyone who knows me knows that I have an affinity for images of bathers donning old fashioned bathing caps! "Blue Bather" is the latest in my series of capped ladies. I have been working on her this week, she is 24x24 and created totally out of hand-made papers (no painted background on this one, as I do at times) by my local paper maker and artist Judith Segal, as well as hand-made papers that I have purchased, hand painted papers, maps and if you look close in the water you will find line drawing illustrations of proper swimming technique which I took from a book that I purchased just for the purpose of TEARING IT UP! 

The End of Innocence

2008 marks the 20-year anniversary of the terrorist bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland which killed 271 people in the plane and 11 on the ground in the village. Of those 271 on the plane, 35 were Syracuse University students studying abroad in London, UK headed home for Christmas.  I was an SU student in London that semester, I lived with four of those students, three of whom were on the plane. 

    My portrait of my friend and roommate Suzanne Miazga was inspired by a photo that her Mom gave me after she died. The photo of Suzanne holding the baby chick speaks volumes about her kind heart. Her major of study in London was social work, she had an internship at the hospital working with AIDS patients.

     20 years ago marked not only the end of innocence for those 35 SU students, but it also marked the end of innocence for those of us lucky enough to survive.

My Love of Collage, How it All Began

My love of collage started with a scrap box of papers from my childhood (going all the way back) that my father passed down to me a couple of years ago. It seemed a shame to put all of these memories in a box under my bed,but what does one do with the original hospital bill for their birth and Mom’s graduation cards from nursing school? I decided to find a way to incorporate these papers, notes and cards that my family took great care in saving for me, into a work of art, a "visual quilt."

Fifth Avenue Art Gallery Melbourne Florida

The opening of my solo show at the Fifth Avenue Gallery in Melbourne Florida. The lady with the purple hat "Guiding Star" is the signature image of the show which runs through June 29th at 1470 Highland Avenue, Melbourne, 32939