Celebrity look-a-like

These are my celebrity look-a-likes, give it a try and see who you look like.

Finding Memories

In this holiday season, we tend to look back to those times of being a kid and all the excitement of the holidays. I have been on this strange mission of finding images that bring back those good times. Not obvious images, but subtle ones. I been searching ebay for old vintage patterns and found two very familiar patterns that brought back such joy when I found them. Halloween costumes that Mom made for us. I was the little angle, and my sister the fairy princess in blue. I thought that one day I would grow and get to be the Fairy princess...but I don't remember letting to be her. I remember being pooh a couple of years as well as a teddy bear..the old costume in the box with plastic mask version. I was of course the pilgrim one year. It converted into an old fashion gal for a bit part in a Christmas play at school.

“I never counted the feathers in the wings. . . . I just count the wings.”

Charles Harper is an illustrator that I have fallen in love with. I feel like I have known his work all of my life and yet I just discovered him. Thanks to a resurgent of his work, DWELL magazine did a great interview with him on their site.
l plus Todd Oldhams’s set of resin trays with ladybugs (a featured item that most home magazine’s are featuring this month, designed for la-z-boy) that were inspired by Charles Harper. His work takes me back to the illustrations of the 60’s and 70’s. He makes a great statement about how his work progressed into his graphic

Style Yes. I started realizing that in order to get a whole bunch of stuff on a piece of paper, you had to simplify it. So a Rocky Mountain or something like that, you couldn’t fit everything in, but you could get the impression by flattening it out. That appealed to me. “

Here are a few of my favorites. Also check out the illustrations from the original Betty Crocker's Dinner for Two (1958) recipe book as well as The Golden Book of Biology (1962)

The Kiddies!

I wanted to show off my darlings of an AP class. I must admit I really like Parkville Kids. They have tons of personality and adventure. Quite insightful and quirkily dedicated. I rag on their not working all of the time. Hence the new name “McTerror”. Only trying to be the art teacher I wish I had. I want them to be successful. I want them to be proud of the growth they will make in this year; All but one is a senior. Remember being a senior in high school? So much on the line. Lots of pressure and everyone telling you that this is the year that counts for your future. AGH! Glad I’m not there now. But hope I can help in all that I can.

with my apologies...

Sorry all. I feel like I have become a walking salesman. All these posts for my wares to buy. Yes, it would be nice if I could actually figure out how to sell what I produce. I’m feeling like van Gogh…not a single sale from the show at Salt. I guess people don’t want paintings of apathetic teenagers on their walls. If only I could be happy painting landscapes and paintings of people’s pets! Anyway, the Mill Center Craft Show was a bust. Too much football competition? Plus a horrible detour..blocked road in front of the Mill didn't help.Thank God for my buddy Tricia, or we would have been bored out of our skulls. Didn’t do too well. Not a big crowd. So here is my last post for a while about my stuff. Email me if you are interested in purchasing any tote bags, aprons, cards, etc. I made a card set of my past series of paintings. $10 for 8 cards.
Anyway here I am and my set up.

Mill Center Sale

Print out the flyer for $5 off any purchase. November 18 and 19. 3000 Chestnut Ave. Second floor. Noon to 5 PM each day. Hope to see you there!

Sam and the Perfect World

I took my students down to DC today to look at ART. We went to the Hirshhorn and National Gallery, and then we went up to the newly renovated National Portait Gallery. You have to go! Its part of the Smithsonian; its free to get in! We went up to see the Portrait Competition. Artists from each state were ask to submit a portait and the results are breath taking. The winner " Sam and the Perfect World" by David Lenz from Shorewood Wisconin is the pic I posted. Here is his artist statment:
Artist Statement:

"My wife Rosemarie had just given birth to our son Sam, and although he appeared perfectly healthy, something, nevertheless, didn't seem right. There was an awkward silence in the room, no words of congratulation or comments about how cute he was – even though he was cute. Five minutes later the diagnosis was given: Sam has Down Syndrome. "Are you going to keep him?" a nurse asked. Later that evening someone else came by to "console" us. "It's every mother's worst nightmare," she said.

Welcome to the world, Sam.

In America today, perfection is highly valued. We dump loads of chemicals on our lawns to try and get rid of every weed, every dandelion. Models and supermodels are tall, impossibly fit, their clothes stylish and wrinkle-free. Images like this tend to change our perceptions, our ideals, until finally they leave us looking around at the peeling paint on our own houses, and our less than fit bodies, and it leaves us wanting.

Perfection, I would submit, is overrated. And besides, I like dandelions.

In the painting Sam assumes the role of presenter, host, even tutor, of this most revealing examination of the civilization man has made for himself. Sam is not society's accepted definition of perfection. In spite of that, or perhaps because of that, he really does have an important message for everyone to hear."

You have to go and see it for yourself. Absolutely amazing!