pomegranates for the journey

Here's the finished quilt. You saw it in progress on one of my earlier posts. It's made of wool felt and is about 10x13" and it will be posted on my website within the week.

Fall in San Diego

Thanksgiving weekend was like 85 degrees, and today it was about 60 degrees. Summer one day and winter the next day. These are some remnants from my walks in November.
watercolor moleskine

flowers from pamela

Love these sweet smelling paperwhites and gorgeous Chinese vase. Thank you P.
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farmers market goodies

"Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind."
Robert Louis Stevenson

Santas Three

Don't peek, those of you on my Christmas list. I picked out a few of our Xmas ornaments to draw for our annual home made christmas cards. The large santa is one my dad made for me, ages ago, out of crepe paper, cotton balls and pipe cleaner. I made the skinny one from a kit in the 1970s--wooden clothes pin, felt and string. The other one is store bought, a gift from my husb years ago. I'm printing the cards myself and husb will write the newsletter part--just a couple of paragraphs, not volumes.
watercolor moleskine

fabric postcards

I made some fabric postcards today, for thank you notes for my recent quilting travels. I used some of my own hand-dyed cotton and organza fused to Timtex. I cut a stencil of a bird, and used my new Shiva Paintstiks to fill it in. Zigzagged the edges and put postage stamps on the back and sent them on their way.

I discovered a wonderful artist online today. Janey's Journey I LOVE her glorious rambunctious style, and have tried to emulate it here. I thought I could catch my kitty, Buddy, while he was napping, but too many birds out the window kept him wiggling. I read about Janey's departed 'Leo' an organge kitty with a pink nose, and dedicate my imitation Janey painting to Leo.

Dedicated to Leo

Golden Rolling Hills

The only photos I took in San Francisco were taken through the car window at 70 miles an hour. I love those Los Gatos hills. Also got a new tv/dvd set for my studio.
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Gee's Bend & Kris Kristofferson

A quick trip to San Francisco to visit the deYoung Museum. Saw the Gee's Bend quilts in person. I could almost feel the spirit and energy of the makers. Last night Kris Kristofferson in concert. One of those concerts that you come out feeling like a bettter person, and want to try to be even better. Kris has such honesty and purity, as he sang alone on the stage, with just a guitar and harmonica. He had the audience of some 1200 mesmerized. Talk about spirit and heart.
moleskine sketchbook

Marianne Burr inspires me

The page on the left is a postcard of Marianne Burr's award-winning quilt entitled "Frank's Melons." It's currently hanging in the Quilt Visions exhibition at Oceanside Museum of Art. On the right are my doodles inspired by her quilt.
ink and color pencil in my sketchbook moleskine. Marianne's quilt is hand-painted on one piece of silk, then hand-embroidered to merino wool, as the batting.

I'm a Humanist. Who knew?

Recently I was asked to do a blessing at a wedding of friends. A first for me in many ways. Here's the story about my experience written by Molleen Matsumura in her Sweet Reason column.

Persimmons and marigolds.

Drinking a vanilla latte, sketching the flower arrangement at the cafe. I drew this in pencil, at the cafe, then inked it in the car, and painted it when I got home. Next time I'll just bring my paints into the cafe.

Jack Kerouac

"The only people for me are the mad ones,
the ones who are mad to live,
mad to talk, mad to be saved,
desirous of everything at the same time,
the ones who never yawn
or say a commonplace thing,
but burn, burn, burn,
like fabulous yellow roman candles
exploding like spiders across the stars..."

- Jack Kerouac

Creative Inspiration

You can tell I'm still under the Gustav Klimt influence. Yesterday, I taught at Los Penasquitos Elementary, and one of the 4th grade girls wanted to show me her sketchbook. She told me how she carried it in her backpack, along with her art pencils. Inside, she'd sketched her neighbors placemat, her bookcase, and her front door. Ah! The Danny Gregory influence! I looked her in the eye and told her how proud I was of her. Moments like that make teaching art so rewarding.

Art Lesson for 4th & 5th graders

Here's the original Klimt that inspired us. As usual, I show the kids lots of images of Klimt's work, and then I chose this one for the lesson. (If you know my own work, you know I LOVE Tree of Life imagery.)

5th grade artists interpret Klimt

Here's one in progress. The kids just did a fantastic job emulating Klimt's "Tree of Life."

Here's one in progress. I love that each tree has it's own personality.

Tree of Life by a 5th grader

Look at this one! Fabulous!

I love how intricate and involved the pattern is. The kids really 'got' Gustav Klimt.

Houston, Texas

Just back from the International Quilt Festival in Houston. For this sketch, I took a break from all the color and commotion, sat on the outdoor patio of the convention center and drew the downtown Houston skyline. That evening I added some realistic color, then on the plane home, the influence of so much pattern and color took hold.
Had a great time, and I've come home with many new ideas and some new tools, including Shiva Paintstiks. Stayed tuned to see how they play into my work.
color pencil and ink, sketchbook moleskine