On a Dark Desert Highway [wenatchee art + design]

I grew up listening to the Eagles with my parents and “Hotel California” was a frequent background track to our lives. I was born in California, so the state name often made an appearance in our road trip music playlists, and my Dad loved the spooky chorus of “you can check out, but you can never leave.” It was no surprise when I started working on this piece, the hot reds and pinks fading into both golden, and dark twilight colors, that the opening lyric popped into my head. There is a subtle metallic gleam worked into the paint that reminds me of that magic, fading, golden light.

“On a Dark Desert Highway” print from Fine Art America

and from Zazzle.com

In Your Face

Sometimes all you need is one bright, bold focal point to make your statement. Let this make it for you.

In Your Face
at Zazzle
at Fine Art America

Peace Offering to Myself

Last year I took on the challenge of creating something every single day. 365 somethings! I surprised myself and completed it. Mostly loving it, sometimes not. And then something curious happened. When I was done with that year long project, I didn't want to make anything. A lot of stuff happened in my life (my amazing Dad died) and art was the thing I probably needed most, but cared the least about. So I just let myself be OK with doing nothing. I hiked (a LOT) and just let time pass. And now I feel it starting to come back, but in a different way. More about the process and less about the outcome. Just the feeling of moving color across a page (using my fingers a lot) and making marks on a page (there is just something about making a bold, black, inky mess). I've started keeping art journals, so called because that's the current term-du-jour, but they're more scrapbook like. I do anything I want in them, paste in things, write lists of stuff to do, smear paint, scribble. I love the idea of layers of life in those pages and recently pulled out some old sketchbooks of really horrible stuff and started washing over them with paint. Loving the results of knowing the bad is always part of what makes the good that much better. And who knows, this moment's "good" may well be the next moment's "bad". And so it goes.

Peace Offering to Myself 24 x 36, from Fine Art America

at Zazzle

Desperation Canyon

I found myself with a weekend to myself recently and almost didn't know what to do! Our air quality is the worst in the nation right now, because of numerous wildfires and our little valley's penchant for keeping the weather (either IN or OUT) so I decided to head UP the first day. Hiked to the top of Red Top Fire Lookout and, while still smoky, it was better than in town. Next I headed north to Omak to check out the 12 Tribes casino. My intention had been to paint, hike and gamble but their smoke was nearly as bad (and actually worse that next morning) so I skipped finding a hike. I then realized I'd forgotten my travel art supplies, so I desperately googled Walmart, knowing it was the only chance I had at finding some paper and color to play with. Sure enough I found ONE sad, lonely, broken kid's watercolor set and a sketchbook and snatched it up. The pigment was pale and chalky but I made do and ended up with a southwest canyon scene that reminded me of the area. I named it "Desperation Canyon" as that was surely the theme of the night (both in painting AND gambling!)

Summer's End [Wenatchee photography + design]

Sad but true, summer is on its way out for this year. I hope everyone enjoyed the season. I love, and look forward to autumn, but summer will always be my greatest love.

Prints available here.