tiny berries

from my walk........

christmas

Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays to all my blog friends!

An internet radio interview about Mundo Lindo

Please go to http://signonradio.com/programs/utc/and then scroll down to December 4, segment 2 to listen the part of the radio program that features an interview with yours truly about the art program I created, Mundo Lindo. Katie Ragazzi, Econdido Children's Museum Executive Director and I were interviewed by the San Diego Union Tribune internet radio station, Sign On Radio on December 4.
Note: (I fixed the link! thanks Judy!)
Also, go on over to Mundo Lindo and check out the video I shot of the kids.

rosehips and a pear

poinsettia by a 6th grader

This is by one of my students at Mundo Lindo, and I just love it! They all drew from real poinsettias, and I showed them out to outline the drawing with sharpie, and draw a border on it, then paint it with watercolor.

Persimmons

$2.49 each. geez...

orange mushrooms

I've never seen orange mushrooms before. So bright and delicate. And some lovely fall leaves to match.

Dad: May 11, 1918- December 3, 2007

My father, Eugene LaFazio, passed away this week, at nearly 90 years old. He and my mom were divorced when I was just a baby, so we were never close. Growing up, I did visit him every month until I was 17. He and his wife lived in San Francisco and they took me to museums, art show, plays and musicals. They gave me 'culture' that my working single mom didn't have time or money for. In my dad's kitchen there was a card table set up to 'make stuff.' There were drawers of sequins, and pipecleaners, and crepe paper and tape and glue and all kinds of stuff! It was there I learned to be creative and much much later, to recognize that I was an artist. Thanks Dad.

Art Show, this Saturday Dec 8, in San Diego

I’ll have a booth at the Carmel Valley Artists Show & Sale on Saturday, December 8, 9:30-3:30pm (rain or shine, cuz it’s indoors)

Location is the lovely Karl Strauss Brewery Gardens, 9675 Scranton Road, SD (Sorrento Mesa area, the one with the Japanese Garden) Call 760-945-6922 for more info.

[The restaurant isn’t open for dining, because that’s where the artists are, but the bar is open!]

I’ll have my art quilts and collages and my brand new DVD for sale!

sunset

Husb took this shot of the sunset on the beach outside where we stayed. (By the way, Husb played golf 4 times in Acapulco and thoroughly enjoyed himself!)

view from our house in Acapulco

Here's a photo of this drawing, pictured yesterday in my blog.

acapulco papaya

there is just nothing as wonderful as ripe Mexican papaya. I ate a big bowl of it every morning!

acapulco swimming

Every single day, I swam laps in the 150 foot pool. It was absolutely dreamy, and one of the highlights of the trip. I spent lots of time, with this vantage point, reading by the pool in the shade.

acapulco

the house we stayed in was stunning. Beautifully decorated with great details.

coconut

A baby coconut, a flower and mayan symbols, of course!

acapulco

Hmm, the ingredients for George's margarita, how did this get in here? :-) As mentioned, I did a lot of reading poolside, and highly recommend "A Three Dog Life" by Abigail Thomas. A memoir written in a beautiful, haunting style.

jacaranda pod

This is a jacaranda pod. We have jacaranda trees in San Diego, but not with 18 inch pods like this! I gathered about a dozen of them, and brought them home in my husb's golf club bag. I'm planning on doing something fabulous artwise with them. Stayed tuned.

acapulco

This greeted us on the table in the hallway of the house we shared. It's written with flower buds!
Here's the first half, more tomorrow.

acapulco

Yes, this is the tiny shack we stayed in...all 3,000 sf. As I mentioned, our dear friends own this timeshare-like residence.

acapulco

Waiting in the airport for departure.

acapulco

a stop in Los Angeles, for our connecting flight

acapulco

George made the best margaritas!

acapulco

Can you tell what this is? It's the view from the window of our house, drawing only the negative space. And yes, that's the ocean out there!

acapulco

Note my schedule for this day.....

We're back!

Back from a week in Acapulco with husb and good friends George & Wilma. This pool is where I spent about 4 hours a day, swimming and reading...I'll post more photos and lots of watercolor sketches as soon!

Acapulco!

Husb and I are off to Acapulco for a week! The kitties are safe at Club Pet. I'll be back in a week with lots of new drawings of tropical scenes and margaritas...

persimmon

Persimmons, a new obesession?

chiapas kitty

Jill & Jerry brought me this from their trip to Chiapas

at the SDMA art festival

My flowers and the sleeve of my Chico's jacket

Abundance

Instead of wishing for more money, I often ask for 'abundance.' When I read this quote, I realized my wish had been granted.
"Not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance."
J. Petit-Senn

and yes, I read it in the Mutts comix!

My DVD is now available!

It's ready! go to my website here to and order a bunch for gifts and one for yourself!

Kitty from Chiapas

Jill and Jerry came by to say at the Art Festival I was in and brought me this adorable kitty from their recent trip to Chiapas, Mexico. Of course I had to paint it right away!

persimmon

This is how how occupied myself in between customers at the SDMA Art Festival over the weekend.

San Diego Watercolor Society

Monday the SDWS workshop turned into Santa's workshop as ~35 people painted small ornament paintings for a Christmas tree that will be raffled off (as a fundraiser for SDWS) at Christmas on the Promenade Dec 7 & 8 in San Diego. The created over 90 orginal paintings! Thanks to everyone who helped and showed up!

SDMA Artist Guild Fine Art Festival

The booth, populated by the artist. Wish it was more populated with customers! The San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild had a 2.5 day event and I was juried in to participate.

Mundo Lindo_ Tuesday class

My Mundo Lindo classes are painting a mural at the Escondido Children's Museum. Here's the Tuesday class, and the progress we made today.

Planet Earth

Husb bought this DVD set, and we are watching an episode each evening. Fabulous! I highly recommend this!

Leo Carrillo Hacienda

Our sketchcrawl group spent Sunday here at Leo Carrillo Ranch in Carlsbad. What a wonderful place!

Carrillo Ranch, Carlsbad

(The little photos of me are personalized postage stamps I ordered from here.)

Sketchcrawl

The group this time. Rachel's off reading about Danny Thomas. My husb joined us.

Carrillo Ranch

A view of Leo's wife's art studio.

Carrillo Ranch, Carlsbad CA

There were maybe a dozen peacocks roaming the property and here, on the fence is a momma and a baby peacock.

Carrillo Ranch, Carlsbad CA

The pool, with a sandy beach on the right. The cabana has a stone fireplace and wooden sink. The ranch was built in 1937.

Fire Survivor Support Group for Women in San Diego

FREE
Fire Survivor Support Group for Women
Restoring Our Balance and Sense of Safety after Loss

Open to women who have lost their homes in the recent wildfires.
Within a safe and supportive group of women, recover a sense of self and gather practical and emotional resources designed to nurture you through this important work of rebuilding your life.

Wednesday Evenings
7:00-9:00pm
beginning November 7, 2007

Location:
Pamela Underwood Studio in Poway
Pamela lost her homes/studio to two fires; the Cedar Fire of 2003 being the most recent.

Join a distinct community of women who have survived the San Diego County Firestorms and now must navigate the aftermath. During this 2 hour group we will devote time to discussion, resource sharing and networking.
We will focus on taking our thoughts, feelings and concerns into the realm of art making, poetry, movement and drumming. These arts promise to ground us in the here and now even while walking through sorrow and grief, anger and fear. In this group we will begin to trust the arts to bring insight and change.

No art experience is necessary!

Please Call Pamela to Register: 619-857-8820
You may join the group on any Wednesday….just call first!
Located off of Hwy 67and Mina de Oro
Poway, Ca 92064

About the Facilitators:

Pamela Underwood BFA, MA: Pamela Underwood has vast knowledge of how it is to navigate through rebuilding with the help of the arts. With her masters in Expressive Arts Therapy and BFA in art, she is devoted to other’s facing this Firestorm crisis. http://www.pamelaunderwood.com/

Kat Kirby, MEd: Kat is an Art Therapist with a private practice in San Diego. She leads creative workshops and groups nationally and is confident in the healing power of the arts.
http://www.2katstudios.com

Jane LaFazio, BA: Jane, a Rancho Bernardo resident, is a full-time artist, sometime art teacher and compassionate volunteer. http://www.plainjanestudio.com/

Coming Soon!

Remember my DVD? Well, it's almost ready! I hope it will be out before the holidays.....You know I'll keep you posted!

My DVD

The WonderChannel will be distributing it.

Poppy Landscape

I'm in a flurry of finishing projects. This is from the online Art Quilt class I've been teaching.

Black Bird

Also from my online joggles.com class. I'll be teaching it again next year.

Buddy

Buddy, 'helping' out in the studio. That's not a halo or a cone behind his head, it's my lamp.

No Day but Today

I created this quilt earlier this year, and just finished the binding.

Pumpkin

A watercolor sketch! Ah, it's been too long.

A new week begins.

My husband, kitties and home are safe. Tomorrow begins a new week in Rancho Bernardo, and I will go back to posting the creative side of my life. Do know that Husb and I will seek out opportunites to volunteer in our community, to help a few of the 900 families who lost homes in the Witch Creek Fire, just one of 6-8 fires burning in San Diego County this past week.

Witch Creek Fire.

This is the definitive image in my mind of the fire in San Diego. The red sign 'condemns' the property. The wooden frame with pink note below is a sifting screen, for the occupants to use to sift through the ashes of what remains of their home. The screens, we read on the attached tag, were made by nearby high school students...the swim teams, the basketball teams, and the soccer teams built these and distributed them to the burned out homes. The hand written pink note, tells the 'home owners' not to give up hope and to persevere.

Witch Creek Fire.

One of the lucky ones, in the Trails of Rancho Bernardo... Homes all around them were burned to the group by the capriciousness of wild fire. We spoke with a few residents on our walk, and the fire fighters were there, saving many homes and neighbors as the fire raged in the early morning of Monday, 10/22.
One women told us how she and her family members had evaucated their 8 horses, by walking the horses 4 miles to the nearest safe place. Her home, and all her animals were spared.

Witch Creek Fire. Rancho Bernardo. San Diego

The remains of a home and an orange tree. Over looking San Pasqual Valley.
This route is another of my regular walks, near my home. In January, I took these photos of what I called "The Hilly Walk."