Oh Baby It's Cold Outside!

It is 31 degrees under my desk here in the studio - that is what the electric heater (under my desk) said before I turned it on. I think it is now up to 44degrees after the heater being on a little while. Whoopee!It is 8 degrees outside. The birds have gone through quite alot of seed these past few days - I am thinking we need to make some peanut butter balls for them too.
The fat puffed up Robins are glorious - doesn't this one look like she has eyelashes? I think she is quite the glamorous Robin. This weather calls for some fresh baked cookies , hot tea and a fire in the fireplace. That means I need to walk to the woodpile and refresh the supply....

Mercury is Retrograde -or - MY DOG ATE MY HOMEWORK!

We gave Daisy a Cake Decorating Class for Christmas which means Daisy and I get to go to AC Moore every Tuesday Evening for 2 hours and learn how to decorate cakes! This week we were instructed to arrive with two cakes. Daisy a 9" round, already iced in white, me a plain "Shaped" cake not iced because it would be completely #16 Star Tip decorated.

I made the cakes in the morning. I made the buttercream frosting.... I carefully wrapped up the cakes in two separate cardboard boxes.

Kids home from school - met Dad at Petco to look at Fish and Hamsters.... Arrive home at 5:30 ...Have 1/2 an hour to get kids fed and homework finished before leaving for class...

Open Door...

Cardboard cake round on the floor....Box under table.... Dogs look happy.... Rufus especially!

Quickly whip together another cake, another batch of buttercream, pull hot cake out of oven at 6:35 arrive at class 15 minutes late with hot cake stil in pan... realize that I have left shaped "Fish Mold" cake at home in the rush of re-baking.... So Daisy makes her lovely 3 flowers cake and I mix colors and hang with George who came along becaus Dan is out with clients. Daisy finishes cake. It is lovely. She has written "Mom" on it.

Get in car...Start driving home.

Here THUD

Where is the cake?

Cake has flown backwards and landed upside down in back of minivan. Bad Mommy gets mad.

Get home. Need to decompress -at least the fish cake is still safe. Spend next hour decorating fish cake. Give to neighbor as thank you for snow-blowing driveway. Hopefully next week's class will be different - except we are doing clown cakes. I do NOT like clowns....

The Matisse Project

The assignment was to paint a room, and a scene based on a Matisse study - I chose his family portrait (you know, the one where the boys are playing checkers?) Well - it grew and grew and I spent most of the summer Monday morning painting classes working on it - It turned out ok! I love how personal it is - Dan with his striped socks beneath his father's portrait and the Myopia Cigar ashtray - Daisy with Sohpie - when she was still small! George working on Legos and me, writing, drawing, watching. The Goldfinches are eating the sunflower seeds outside the window. Only Tally is aware of the viewer outside of the frame.

Breakfast with the Birds

My art class is going well - our homework for week two was to paint from a black and white copy of a Gabriel Munter painting using only primary and secondary colors - no browns or muted colors (so if the hair or tree is brown, well -wht other color could it be?) This was a really fun excercise - like a coloring book for grown ups! I decided the woman at the table should have long hair instead of short. It makes me want to paint my own version of "Breakfast with the Birds". Oddly enough - I got the curtain color dead on from Munter's without seeing it. I saw more birds than she included. What can I say?

Sophia Tasha Flopsy Daffodil

We call her Sophie for short. She is divine. She came home with us a week ago Sunday from a New England Regional Rabbit Show held in Taunton Massachusetts. We went early Sunday, expecting to just LOOK at Rabbits and, well, we (I?) couldn't resist and she came home. rode home the 2 1/2 hour car ride snuggled on my lap. She is the most snuggly floppy lovely bunny I have ever met. She loves to snuggle. Will stay in your arms for hours. Her tummy is soft and warm like a puppy's and has that wonderful puppt fullness and roundness. Her fur is like , well, baby bunny fur! She is only 3 months old. Weighs 5 1/2 pounds. Will grow to 14 pounds (that's even bigge rthan Charlotte!). She is truly a gentle giant. Henrey doesn't seem to mind he rbut Josephine thinks it was a bad idea. Hopefully this will change in time. I have them taking turns being out and about. She is very clean in her litter box habits! Check out those hoppers and fur. She is amazing. I love her so much. She makes my heart ache in a good way. Like the grinch, my heart grows exponentially when I am holding her. Yum.

The Retablo Shadowbox

I finally finished the shadowbox for Charlotte. It was tremendously fun to make - I tried to incorporate so much into the box - Charlotte as an angel with pink feather and glazed tin wings. Charlotte, regal and royal on a purple screen (retablo) with gold lattice. Charlotte (or is it the big brown bunny) with the silver footprints in the snow - you can't see the g;littering footprints in the photo but they are there. There are even some of Charlotte's ashes in that little tiny glass bottle next to her picture -with a silk forget-me-not plugging up the opening.

Henry and Josephine on the bottom - with food, hay, water, apples, strawberries and carrots - I still need to add a bell for Charlotte to play with and some shredded newspaper. I ended up not including the candles and flowers, as well as the sugared skulls. It would have been too much. I like it this way. I like the textures and three dimensionality of it. Fun to step out of the box. Soothing to celebrate Charlotte.

India Inks

Searching for Bandhini skirts on the internet. I came across the photo from a factory in India. The dyes are incredible. I could almost eat them. I want to ingest them - play with them, run my fingers through them. It is like sand art for grown ups.

I found these incredible ghanra choli - it makes me want to have a party to go to! I think Saris and tradtitional Indian clothing are so feminine. The colors are breathtaking. Wouldn't it be fun to dress like that every day.

Shrines & Retablos

I have been obsessing all day about shrines and retablos. Not in the sense of an altar to the Bunny Goddess Charlotte- but more of a memorial to her - a Dios dos Meurtos kind of things with elements that celebrate her. I have found some incredible peruvian ones on line. The Jiminez family does incredible ones. I would love to save up for one - a reward for a job well done? Which job? I was rewarded already for the Dotson project with my Ebay Oilily sweater. Maybe after I finish helping out Diane in Cambridge with her guestroom and dressing room.

I found this website/blog from a woman that does the most amazing altered books (altAred books?) - again - like Retablos, but with different found objects. maybe I'll do something like that.

Then, someday, I would like to make one for the real focus of prayer. Maybe a garden grotto too. Not Mary on the half shell or Francis with the bird seed. I wil have to think about how to do that one. I learned so much about diferent shrines when researching on the internet - the difference between Zen, Budhist, Tibetan shrines and altars. It is comforting to think of some sort of Altar where you can focus and meditate.

For now I will make a Charlotte retablo and work on an altar later!

BURSTING!

I am bursting with ideas today! Actually, have been for a couple weeks- but it has reached a crescendo of sleepless nights dreaming in primary colors a la Gabriele Munter and Matisse. I started taking a painting class with Valerie McCaffery http://www.valeriemccaffrey.com/ at her "Garage SChool of Art" in Beverly Farms. The serendipity connection to Valerie is subject to an entirely different post which I will write about another day when there isn't so much to say. Anyway - I can hardly contain myself. Truly feel like hyperventilating with so many ideas bursting in my brain. I want to do them ALL at once and am writing them down, sketching them, googling them and dreaming of them as fast as I can! where to begin?

I finished the Dotson main painting prject which has taken up the first 6 weeks of this year. A fabulous job- I will sorely miss them - I wish I ha dgotten to know them more before they were moving ACROSS the country. The freedom I was given to create was incredible. I finished the table Suday night. Shellaced Monday and Tuesday and they took it away today. Here is a picture of it - I will put multiple detailed pictures of it on my www.dancingrabbit.blogspot.com page. Anyway - My studio is relatively empty now - a far cry from two siz foot cabinets and an 8 foot table. I spent the day yesterday re-organizing my studio - putting everything in a semblance of order .I feel that I am taking ownership of it now. It is legitimate so I can truly make it work swimmingly. It is amazing how creative you feel when all your materials are tucked neatly away where you KNOW where tey all are and therefore they are not goingto be hard to find. It unleashes the juices!

Peacable Kingdom

The bunnies seem to be doing pretty well since Charlotte went to heaven. Gentle Rufus with Henry - he loves the rabbits so much. We are giving them more treats and attention than ever before and it is keeping their spiris up! Josephine will come hopping over if I shake a bag with treats and they love their special daily salads of basil, dill, lettuce, carrots and kale or brocoli.