Lemon tree is blooming and the ants are busy. Wish I could share the intoxicating smell of these.

Backyard bougainvillea. Love these little blossoms. So modest compared to the rest of the bold color.

Magic at the ball field.

Thought it would be fun to do some photographic shadow studies around the old casa today. I’m always reminding myself… “Don’t forget the negative space.”

While I was working on Eve’s Garden, this piece came about. I’ve always enjoyed creating fantastical shapes of plants, and I suppose this is another example of that.

An amaryllis seed pod.

I’ve decided that in the interest of saving precious time, both yours and mine, I’m going to focus on visual blog entries rather than wordy ones for a while. I’m not as good with words anyway.

Paper weights inspired by the work of Resurrection Fern and Geninne.

Morning light in the studio.

A friend of mine grows these monsters in her garden and was kind enough to share one with us. It was as tasty as it was beautiful. Thanks Joanne.

I’m very happy to announce that I will be included in a group show at Gallery Godo in Glendale. Opening is tentatively scheduled for January 20th, 7 – 11. Come on by for lots of great art.

People are always telling us to just “breath.” Today I was browsing my old sketchbooks and came across this bizarre image that makes me hold my breath every time I look at it. One of my favorite inspiration techniques is to have someone make a doodle mark and then I finish it. This sketch was started by a french kid that I met while traveling Europe many moons ago. I actually call it “Inhale.”

Here in California, the arts have already been slashed from school curriculums as a core subject. Essentially, the primary schools teach just enough art to get by. At my children’s school, that translates into a few visual art lessons in the classroom (where messy paint and such is not involved) and five lessons conducted by PTA volunteer art docents in one entire school year. That’s right. You heard me. F-I-V-E lessons a YEAR. Pathetic really, isn’t it? The school district we are in recommends that teachers use a program called Arts Attack, which is basically a program in a box. I’ve actually heard people say “It’s really good.” Interesting how much our standards have been lowered where the arts are concerned.

If you want your child to be exposed to music, they must do that as an extra curricular activity. If the child misses a class because of instrumental class instruction, the child is required to make up what was missed in the regular class. Don’t get me wrong, our school is fantastic. Our standardized state test scores are always high and “greatschools.org” rates our school very highly. Additionally, we have a wonderful community of parent volunteers and a supportive administration. What we don’t have is the arts as part of our curriculum, and the children will suffer because of it.

Recently, I received a link to an youtube video that really made a lot of sense which I would like to share.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Happy Saturday and thanks for stopping by.