Inspiration

Creative Heart Pillow inspired by art

Sharon Oakley creates rugs and other beautiful fiber arts for herself. She contacted me when she came across my Creative Heart art piece, asking if she could use it as inspiration for a pillow she wanted to make.

Sharon took the Creative Heart, and "hooked" the design, making it into a 12" pillow with recycled contents. The background is made from raw fleece, recycled wool clothing, silk fabric (torn into strips), and yarn reclaimed from sweaters found at her local used clothing store. This beautiful pillow also includes various hand spun yarns and kid mohair. Nice work, Sharon!

Below (left) is the Creative Heart piece; below (right is the final piece).

 

If you are inspired by a piece of my work and want to create something for personal use, please contact me.

Patriotic Color Palette

Regardless of who you voted for in the 2012 election, the red, white and blue of our country is always great to celebrate. For you patriots out there, here is a color palette for you:

A New Twist to Jack o' Lanterns: Painted Pumpkins

Here in the Sierras, carved jack o' lanterns begin to mold within days of being exposed to freezing temperatures outside and the varying humidity by the wood stove inside. As an alternative, my 4 year-old daughter and I decided to paint our pumpkin this year, hoping this would add to the longevity of our squash friend.

We started by drawing a skull outline on the skin of the pumpkin using a charcoal pencil. Second, we painted two layers of white primer onto the pumpkin within the outline. Once dry, I painted black eyes, teeth and a nose. We each then started painting our own skull on the pumpkin. I went for a more traditional Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) design, where my daughter had a blast adding in gobs of paint among little dots. I added a purple outline afterwards for a bolder effect. Below is the fun result.

 

Halloween Color Palette in Lichen

Halloween colors can be found everywhere this time of year, even on the side of a rock. This small boulder is proudly celebrating our fall colors in different lichens along a dusty trail in Bishop, CA.

Fall meets Winter Color Palette

Fall met winter this week in Truckee. Here is a color palette made from this beautiful encounter.

Design Inspiration - Hand-painted poster

Hand-drawn and hand-painted elements really make designs pop and stand out from the rest.

Here is a painting I created for the primary use of being a main element in this fundraising poster (left, below):

First I painted the painting. Then scanned it in and cleaned up the image. Next I started the design of the poster. I isolated the main image using a layer mask, and continued to build up the rest of the poster design (above, right). The result is this fun, colorful poster that will hopefully stand out and attract support for this great cause.

Inspiration | Picasso Drawing

Pablo Picasso was an incredible artist who shook the 20th century with his vision. During an art class in college, I remember watching a video of Picasso painting. Throughout the video, Picasso worked primarily on one painting. However, instead of simply adding detail into the one painting, he kept changing the painting at hand, adding layers, scraping away paint, and turning it around so that ultimately, the painting was taking a different form as he worked on it.

In this video below, Picasso uses that same final vision, but with only one layer and only black ink. The result is a truly "Picasso" piece.

Inspiration | Female Drum Hero

Music is a great complement to the visual arts. It helps build bridges between the left and right side of the brain.

I've been playing drums for 2 decades now (wow- that feels crazy to say!). I have admired many different drummers throughout my amateur drumming career. One of my drum heroes is the beautiful and talented Sheila E. She is not only an incredible drummer and singer, but commands attention with her flare and pizzazz.

Check her out on the Letterman Show:

Inspiration | Bringing Color Into Your Office

I worked a bit this last season to bring some more color into my office, painting my chairs a bright orange and trimming small pieces out with a light teal. In addition, I painted two pieces using a deep pthalo blue, which is a deeper teal. Now, each day I enter into my office, it feels more and more inviting.

On a different note, my 4 year old daughter has been intrigued with finger nail polish. This has driven us to search out new polish colors. After a bit of time in my office, we both were inspired to paint our nails teal. Now with my sparkly teal nails, I match my office a little better. This makes me feel more at home on groggy Monday mornings.

Crabapple Blossom Spring Color Palette

Here's a fun and fresh color palette inspired from one of my photos of a blossoming crabapple tree at my mom's house.