Happy New Year! Be Safe... Don't Drink & Drive.

Hey Everybody! Have a wonderful and Happy New Year... Be Safe.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

I wish I had taken a picture of the final product...but this is the collab piece I did with Anders. When I saw what he had done I knew immediately what I would do. It just spoke of carousel horses to me. Weird, I know.

Not sure how good these will come across on the computer. This is also in Ballookey's book.

This is one of the pieces I did for Ballookey's book. And this is what my dining room table looks like when I am working on a Moley.

Merry Christmas!

Caught up in the whirlwind of this holiday season I realized I did not mail out moley! It will be out in Monday's mail!
Hope everyone has a fabulous holiday season!
This is the first Christmas without my mother-in-law and our dog and cat. It will be tough for sure!

Anders' Moly ships to Ash today.

Not overly happy with these two pages. Things just didn't turn out how I envisioned them. I did the narrative with black in the squares first, then I thought I'd put some color on the top, but once I did that the story kinda got lost. I tried to salvage the idea by adding grey ... but I'm not sure I did. Not my best execution here.

OCD kicking in here. My hand was sore after finishing this up last night.

:)

My 1/2 page left for Ash.

Andrea's book - off to Michelle

My, it's taken me a while, but Andrea's book is finally on it's way to Michelle. I posted a sneak peak back in September of this first drawing of my grandmother, mother and I. I finally finished it off with a photo of my great-grandmother.

When I originally started this book, my husband's aunt went into the hospital for about the fourth time in the last few months. Each time she went in, she came back a bit weaker and weaker, and at 91 years old, I was deeply concerned about her well-being. I originally thought to make this drawing about her, but then I changed my mind, realizing that I've never done a drawing of my own family members.

After doing this drawing, I got utterly swamped by what were supposed to be out-of-town house guests. They ended up canceling on me at the last minute, but I spent most of October doing renovations on our house to get it ready, only to find I needn't have rushed. Even though the houseguests never materialized, near the end of the month of October, my husband and I met one of our musical heroes in a whirlwind weekend full of missed sleep, concerts, old old friends not seen in decades, new friends just met and lots of drinking and dancing all around.

Then, my husband's aunt passed away on October 30th. Even though I expected it, we were still greatly saddened by her going. We live in her house and have seen all the remnants of her great wild life.

In the mean time, my own mother went into the hospital for a relatively mild problem. She had some minor surgery, and after five days, she went home. I was concerned about her anyway, because she has a history of not seeking out medical help. Even though she was a Registered Nurse in her day, she had what I thought was a foolish affinity for all kinds of new-age nonsense and routinely rejected sound medical science. I was afraid that one of these times, she'd put off seeking medical help until it was far too late, and that would be the end of her.

I had already started the drawing for the next piece in Andrea's book, and it felt more appropriate than ever.

On November 20th, I finally got a break from the aunt's funeral preparations and aftermath and I finally finished the skulls shown above.

At 5:30 am the next day, my sister called me in tears because we had lost our mother. When I saw the completed drawings in the book still open on my desk, I couldn't believe the subject matter I'd chosen for Andrea's book.

So I went to Colorado to help my dad & sis' cope with all that funeral stuff again. I had already done a drawing for the next two pages in Andrea's book, but as I was flying back home to California, I had a whole new idea and so this entry was very last minute.

I'm not sure if I actually believe the above sentiments, but it captures the emotional essence of my trip back home to deal with my mother's passing pretty accurately.

And lastly, what I had been planning all along for the collaboration page: My husband's aunt collected an incredible number of stamps over her career as a bookkeeper for Union Pacific railroad, and then later at some engineering company. In both occupations, she sorted the inbound mail from an astonishing number of countries and compulsively saved all the stamps.

I've personally only spared one huge box of stamps. Her sister took the other boxes and books and sold them to a stamp dealer - which is probably good considering the inordinate amount of time I spend looking at them any time I start going through them. I can't keep this hoard around forever, though, so in going through them I'm setting aside only my favorites. The rest are designated for use in art projects.

I included several large blocks of stamps still stuck to corners of envelopes for Michelle or whoever might like to use them in some way.

I think the wallpapered page looks pretty cool, and I suspect I'll do this again. ;)

Ack! I got a book last night, hooray!

Here is my collab page with Willie, kinda. He did the left side, I did the right. My what different styles we have, no? I wish I could do minimal sometimes, but my OCD kicks in and I just keep adding and adding and adding. Ha-ha, ho-ho, he-he. The blue is masking tape Willie had used to tape up the bubble wrap he used to protect Anders' Moly.

Mike 2

Moleskine Eyes, Flowers, Jelly Fish, and even Yucca Stems... Oh My!

Milo's Moleskine departs for California on Monday!

One for Mike

More very soon.

Milo's book is almost done! 1 more to go...

Happy thanks giving!

The book I had was send to Anders today (I didn't even take a photo of the pocket painting, which was an old self portrait).
It's been a busy couple of weeks, I demonstrated paint for a company in a craft fair, and now working on some illustration project for an ad agency.
So... This is my creation for the day, corn muffins to be eaten at a big family dinner at Ned's parent's tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We hope you have a safe, healthy loving thanksgiving full of good food
and good friends and family!  We hope you have lots to be thankful
for!  XOX

Frankie and Sara

I haven't had a book in quite a while, so I thought I'd show you this creative effort--my new grandson, two weeks old.  And my daughter.

(photo by me).  One of my greatest works of art, creating the beautiful child who made this beautiful child!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Mary

Selected an Owl, tho I'm a Turkey!

I've already confessed directly to Aya that I am shamefully behind on Ellen's book, which I swear, swear, swear to finish over the holiday weekend. As if to punctuate that plan, Aya's Mole arrived from Ash! It seemed only fitting to open the mailing pouch in my local cafe, since much of her work is created in a cafe near her.

Her book gave me entertainment while I gulped a hot cup of coffee, between a 5 mi. walk w/friends & my yoga class. I may be creatively sluggish this month, but at least I'm fit & healthy, HA!

Puzzling me, however: wasn't I supposed to get Anders' book first? I thought Aya's book would be my last one before my own Mole returns, but I don't think I've seen Anders yet. Something else to look forward to, then :-) Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

November? Really?!

Wow! Dates on the calendar really are closer than they appear!! I still can't believe it is November already!
Just wanted to stop in to let you know I am mailing Ballookey's book out next week to Steve.
Hope everyone is doing well. We have a new grandbaby due in February and we are very excited!!! This makes the third grandchild, two girls and one boy.
Ok...off to finish up with a few details before mailing the book.
Chow!

pages 5 & 6 on Mary's book

I started working on this over a week ago on the train, but then the book and everything got delayed because I got really sick. I'm starting to get a bit better now after a visit to the Dr. a couple of days ago, and some antibiotic (sadly, the legendary chicken soup didn't do the trick this time).
But I'm glad it's finally done! I'm going to make something for the pocket today or tomorrow and send it out after the weekend.

Mary's book - pages 3 & 4

Going on with the self portrait theme, I have so much work to do, and yet, basically nothing is getting done aside of playing with Ginger. I really need to learn how to balance between life and puppy.

HAPPY HALLOWEEEN from us!

Nyah-hah ha hah!

Hope you have a good one!!!!  :-D

May you have all good treats and only good tricks!

1st spread in Mary's book

The combination of the apple Heidi drew and the request for self portrait just made this drawing come out of it's own accord...

Look what I got in the mail today!

Yay! it's a book! I hope I'll have some time to start working on it tomorrow.

Update from Reno

I haven't gotten the next book from Willie yet, so I have nothing to mail this month.

Feel free to use the comments here to communicate to the group if you are behind, or let people know where their books are lurking.

Mary's Pocket Treat: Passion Tea

Tazo "Passion" tea, but I made my own hangtag for it. That's supposed to be a heart (the back has flames). I tied a kitchen match to the string. The idea is that you make the tea & as you drink it, you can actually light your heart(tag) on fire. Interactive. I love playing with matches.

Portraits of Friends: Online & Off

Mary requested a "self-portrait" as a suggested deposit in her book. If she wants that, fine... but it's only fair that I get to draw her too, HA!

So here we are, 2 friends. We have been friends for 20 years. I was thinking of our upcoming visit when I painted this, "Remember when you blah, blah, ha ha! Remember when I blah, blah, ha ha ha..." I intended to record some of our funny stories on the painted lines between our portraits, but I sure as heck wasn't going to do it before the photo, for all to see... too embarrassing! Sorry folks, nothing to see here ;-)

Mary's Book Leaves NH for NYC

Finally got these pics taken so Mary's book can be mailed to Aya in NYC on my way to the airport Wednesday. Fall apples & garlic on top with an apple for Aya as the collab below. Ebony pencil & acrylic paint with a touch of white Prismacolor highlighting.

I'm off to Detroit to visit Mary. Ellen's book is going with me. Her book's already been to Mary's once. It'll be there again, but this time I'll be filling it :-)