Five in a Row

"Five in a Row" on Etsy. Click HERE to view

There's something refreshing about these cherries, (or some people think they are apples. )Hmmm, what do they look like to you?

This Boy

Happy Birthday little man! (How long will he be okay with me calling him that?) He truly looked like a little old man when he was born 9 years ago. He had his slicked back hair and his heart was beating at about 250 beats per minute. Twice as fast as most newborns. He was in the ICU for a week or so until the doctors could figure out the right combination of medicine to give him. When none of it was working, the cardiologist came in with the baby paddles. (You know, the kind they use for heart attack victims, except these were for little ones. )Right as the doctor was ready to use the paddles on him, he decided to have his heart beating normally. We quickly learned that is his personality. He truly marches to the beat of his own drum!

A Fun Filled Weekend

Our Memorial Day weekend was full of sports. My oldest played in a soccer tournament all weekend. This little dynamo amazes me. I don't know where she gets the ability to play this sport. Certainly not me!

Then on Memorial Day my husband and I ran the Bolder Boulder, a 10Km(6.2mile) race with 53,700 other people held in the town of our alma mater. I didn't win :) .....I came in 12,888th place! Not too bad considering I didn't train for it, though I think this will be the last time I don't train for this yearly event. It was a hard fought 58 minutes!I'm signing off early this week as I am doing some last minute things to prepare for an up coming art show. For those of you locals who are interested, the show will be held in Roxborough Park on June 5th & 6th from 11:00am to 5:00pm. Hope to see you there!

Summer

"Summer" is on Etsy. Click here to view.

In 4 hours, Summer officially begins for our family. As in my painting above, I am planning on basking in the sun most of my summer.....yeah right, in my dreams! What I'm actually doing is driving around like a madwoman trying to get my kids to swim lessons, sports camps, tennis lessons, and playdates. We do have a fun filled summer planned, though. When I look at our calendar, it is packed full. That is why I'm going to apologize beforehand in case I don't get around to posting much in the next couple of months.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend everyone!

Summer Fairies

This is our kids' last week of school. We can't wait for the fun to begin! The art above was done 2 summers ago. It is printed on a 16x20 canvas and it resides in my younger one's room. I was playing around in Photoshop, trying to learn a few things. The girls dressed up in their princess costumes and I merged, filtered, colored, and generally experimented away at my heart's desire! When I look back at this, I see a lot of things I could have done differently to make this a seamless photo, as if you look carefully, there are a lot of mistakes.

Sometimes I am so embarrassed by some of my earlier works. I look at some paintings I did 15 years ago, and I think, "yuk". Too embarrassed to give them away, and I don't have the heart to throw them away. They are stashed in our basement storage room taking up space! I have to remember, though, that I have grown. I can't learn without experimentation and mistakes. The fun part is seeing how far I've come!

Currently, I am knee deep in experimentation again. My passion for art is continuing to expand to not only from doing my fine art paintings, but to photography, and merging it all together. I'm never content with my work, perhaps it is because I love the learning process! How about you? Are you content with your work, whatever it may be?

Chirping

"Three Birds" on Esty. Click here to view.

I hear birds chirping outside. I love that peaceful happy sound. Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy Friday

"Yellow Poppies" on sale on Etsy. Click here to view.

Have a great weekend everyone. We're going to have some sun! Hopefully the snow we had on Tuesday will be our last!

Birthday Girl

Today is this one's birthday. She was born on Mother's Day 7 years ago. The best gift ever! Happy Birthday little one!

Happy Mother's Day

My mom planted these tulips for me in our front yard when we first moved into our home. She is an awesome gardener.

Happy Mother's Day to my mom, my mother in law Jackie, and all other moms out there!

The Michelangelo Bridge In a New Light

A few months ago, I showed a client who had purchased a painting a few years back some of my newer works which involved photo manipulation. She was really interested in having me do some work for her. She wanted to give a special wedding gift to the daughter of some close friends.

The bride's family loves Italy, and they often travel there with the entire family. On one of those trips, the young woman was proposed to by her boyfriend near the Michelangelo Bridge. Here is a picture of the bridge taken by the bride's mother:


My client wanted to give the bride and groom an artistic rendition of the photo above. The work had to include three landmarks: the bridge, the steeple, and the dome. I decided to separate the the landmarks into three different pieces of art. Since I knew the wedding was a vintage wedding, I wanted to go for a more "dreamy" look. After many layers, filters, and blending, here is what I ended up with:



Each of these photographs were framed seperately so that the young couple could either display them altogether or alone in various places around their little bungalow.

I heard every detail of the wedding from my client. The wedding sounded beautiful, extravagant, and classy. As for the wedding gift? The young couple loved it!