Blue Moon New Year!

Would you prefer Cobalt, Cerulean, Ultramarine, Pthalo, Prussian?  As long as it's impossibly bluetiful!


I'm back from a wonderful Birthday Vacation at a cabin in the Big Bear snow with children and grandchildren.  I took art supplies but not a line was drawn except on a Sketchadoodle.  One of my presents was a gift card to Blick, so watch this space for a colorful 2010!

Noel (with two dots over the "e") 2009

MERRY CHRISTMAS!  Here's my shamelessly self-important Self Portrait wishing you ALL the best in Life and Art in 2010!  I'm "looking up" toward the New Year...and Family trip to the snowy mountains of CA for a few days.  Keep the warmth within!

Glo-oo-o-ooo-o-oooo-ria!

Angel We Have Heard on High (in 1989)

Baby Nino

Remember the El Nino Year 1997?  This was my Christmas card.  The globe was see-through
with scene imprinted on it - and interchangeably you got to choose either the rain background or the rainbow.

I DID break my arm patting myself on the back for this one!

Frosty's MRI

Frosty, The Snowman, was turned down by an insurance company due to his "non-preexisting" condition.  However, Doctors Without Snowboarders gave him an MRI and this is what they found.

Now he says he's feeling "Berry Good"!

Old Christmas Cards Revisited

At my family's request I have begun photographing all the Christmas cards I've sent over the years.  Fortunately I kept one each. A couple of times I posed my friend, Artie, the mannikin.  Artie and the not so huggy bear must have been for a Bah Bumhug! year.



Artie in the snow with wreath was standing in front of a scenic watercolor I had just finished.  I wonder where that is now.

...and everywhere the Angel went

...the Unicorn was sure to go.

Summer Heart

                                A couple of 4x4's - inches, that is!  Tiny canvases.                        

Good News!

"Winter Mind" painting DID get into the SDAI Show!  Yaay and Hurray!  As you can see it doesn't show up very well on a white wall, but hey...I'm more than pleased!

A friend pointed out a poem by Wallace Stevens, "The Snow Man", which says "winter mind" lyrically.
(Click on it!)

Winter Mind

A new painting, acrylic on canvas 12x12".  I entered it in the One Foot Show at San Diego Art Institute (SDAI).  I'll find out if it got in this week.  You never know,  I might get lucky!

Trashed Day

Sometimes a perfectly good day gets torn up and thrown away.  But that's OK.  You can always make ART out of it!

The Strange Affair

Now you know there must be a good story associated with this, and there is.  But wouldn't it be more fun to just make one up yourself?

Nasturtiums on the Rocks

Product of another La Fazio sketching workshop yesterday at The California Center for Creative Renewal  in Encinitas - a magical garden setting with a mystical view of the mountains which I could have sketched all day, but my point in taking the workshop was to get better at "small things".  That rock definitely has a personality...

Old Christmas Cards

Thirty + years ago I used this delightful drawing by my younger daughter, then age 6, to foster 'the angel of childhood' for Christmas.  She has been with me for Life!
I'm sharing her once more...

Waterfall

Rock Paper Scissors Grass

Grass wins every time!

Rare Oil Painting (by me)

                                                     Peapod and Cherries

Fisching at The Mingei

Went sketching at the Mingei yesterday and attempted the almost impossible (for me) task of representing on paper those enchanting globs of light hanging from the ceiling and their shadows - jellyfish knitted in wire by artist Arlene Fisch.  I'm not at all satisfied and would like to try again, however I like what happened when I switched to the larger sea creatures (on the right) and gave up trying to make them look "right". (Click to enlarge and stand wa-a-ay back to get the atmospheah!)

The Lady, or The Tiger?

You remember the story, right?  Princess Whatshername, the mean King's daughter, fell in love with a commoner so the King made him decide which door to open.  Behind one door was a Lady, behind another was a Tiger.  If he opened the Lady Door he had to marry her, even though he loved another.  If he opened the Tiger Door, well, you know.  Before he chose which one to open the young man looked at his lover for guidance.  She knew which was which and gestured toward one door.  There the story ends.  Since 1882 people have been guessing whether she gave her lover to the tiger or to another woman for life.  I don't know either. But in my version he opened the red door, the Lady came out riding the Tiger, the Princess fainted and the Tiger ate the King.  You want me to paint WHAT?

Let's Thank the Birds Today

      One day I split the melon belly

of the golden sun, and spilled his seed.

When it was done, I breakfasted on life

with greed.  One dove flew off to tell another

and soon the sky had turned to snow 

        above my head.  
Look how a thousand wings

have felt the stirrings of my hunger!             

                                                    

       

  

                        

    

DOODLETS (little doodles)

"Birditude" and "Grasshopper"








                                                                                                              

Fly Fishing

Speaking of Vampires...

            before the fad goes away again.  Everyone seems to be ghoul crazy.  I enjoyed a crush on this idea back when novelist Ann Rice created Lestat (but later ditched him for Jesus); way before Twilight, but after The Night of The Living Dead and killer tomatoes. It was fun while it lasted and so was Harry Potter, another reckless crush.  It was that train.  The invisible one between platforms waiting to take special people who were "in the know" to dangerous places....Irresistible, like vampires!!!

Basket of Cuties

This is Jane LaFazio's knitted wire basket (or hat!) exhibited in the final session of  her Mixed Media Class.  For mugshots of the Usual Suspects go to the column on the right and click in Innerlinks.  If you don't find your picture, you were not there when it was taken or you would not have liked it to be published.  Do you know how hard it is to get candid shots of a bunch of women all lookin' good at the same time?  

I'll miss you all until next time we meet.

The Winner!

This painting is from the old watercolor days.  Does anyone remember this horse?

New "Business" Card

Really, it's a "Busy With Fun" card.
(Those are "blogspots")

Loverweb

Here's a 3-D project I've been working on, inspired by Jane's instruction in sheer collage.  It began as a see-through thing but immediately grew leaves etc. and now I'm trying to decide whether to hang it in a window or mount it on this dark brown grass cloth.  It doesn't quite photograph well. You can barely see the little gold heart caught in the web.  Since this photo two more hearts have been added, just to get the point across!

The twigs supporting the web are from a fig tree that has been growing in my living room 15+ years.  It stays a reasonably manageable size with pruning.  I wish I had sketched it periodically.  I think I'll go do that...

Wherever

I call this "Jamaican Harvest" but i don't know what I'm talking about because I've never been to Jamaica.  So you can call it anywhere anything.  Call it fun!

Street Crows

Not new, I've had this one hanging at home for a long time.  The inspiration was a homeless man in yellow pants walking down Park Blvd one morning.  He had his possessions in a bundle and several crows were following him, seeming to eye his bundle.  It was unforgettable!

Bread & Butterfly

I can't take credit for this.  It  just happened.  Right now it's all I got!

Walpurgisnacht!

No, I did not sneeze.  Walpurgisnacht is a night when witches gather. Strangely it's supposed to be celebrated in April, but nevermind.  See the witches flying over the town?  They're meeting on that mountain.  Wanna come?  (Click!)

Wait a minute!

Are they leaving it or taking it away?  How many fingers do you see?  I think he's "light fingered".  What did that spider just say? Is that MY garage door?  Who drew this anyway?  The Halloween Mouse?

Meanwhile Back at the Loft:

Sign on the door:

For the next few days I will be communing with Hobbits and the like at the Pre-Halloween Convention.  Sketch among yourselves and I'll be back before the Witching Hour.

Sheer Thingy

I made this in Jane's Mixed Media class Monday.  What I like is that you can see through it.  I imagine it in a floating glass sandwich hanging from the ceiling...

More Phun

Phun with Photoshop

Card Tricks

I've been playing with the idea of a personal deck of cards ever since my fascination with the Tarot in the 80's.  Now there's Soul Collage but I don't want to hop on that exactly either.  I'm still not sure how I want to organize suits, size or anything.  But here are some images with related ideas - all about ME, of course!


First there 's The Magic Tunic.  When I wear it I have all sorts of Shamanic Powers.  (It's done with Photoshop magic.  Be sure to click/enlarge this one.  It makes a BIG difference!)

.

This is The Lovers, (a collage made from a larger screen print with printer, scissors and patience.)

And this is the Ultimately Feminine Iris, goddess and flower. (Originally a painting.)

More to be dealt, I'm sure.

They've Been Launched!