Ammon's Book paged 3 and 4

Ammon's Book pages 1 and 2

Collaboration with Ellen in Ammon's book. So far it has a very natural history \ cabinet of curiosity feel to it, so I decided to go with it...

I really like how Ellen's line worked with mine on this page, it's even hard for me to find where her drawing starts and mine ends.

Three in Claudia's Moleskine

Flowers... Add your own color!

American Black Crow! I started with the eye, adding the star - the American flag just appeared before my eyes!

Andrea and my collaboration piece!

Lotus Meditation for Lost Souls, 3rd in Roma's

This is done in Faber-Castell PITT Artist brush pens, pens, pencils, colored pencils. The second is the two-page spread. It wouldn't fit on my scanner so I took a snap. Sorry about the reflections. Image size increases slightly when clicked upon.

Blood from a Stone, pocket items

The first one is a sort of continued collaboration with Steve Loya. I loved his splotch monster so much, that is, my version of it, posted here, that I made a second one with the Virginia character on the top, turned the other way. I gave her a whip and a flower. The painting is water color and unfortunately, I made it way too big to fit in a pocket, so I made two small prints, one for Mike, and one for Roma.

The second one is for mike, for his pocket, in his round 2 mole.

I have two moles at my house now, Roma's round 3 and Mike's from round 2. I am currently working on a piece in Roma's which I had hoped to finish last night but was thwarted by my own slowness. Click images to view larger.

Good news and bad news

Ammon's book arrived a couple of days back, i had no time to look at it, because Ned and I were getting ready for a big birthday party for Ned.
Then, when I did, I was really impressed by the art, but sad to see that the book broke, It's really odd because usually those Moleskines are super tough.

So, I decided to try and fix it, it took some glue and paper and I think I did a pretty nice job, I hope it won't break again in it's future travel...

3 collaborations and a troubled sketch

1)My collaboration in Mike's round 2 mole for him to finish. It is called, "Alas Poor Yorick," or "Self portrait of the artist as a young Woman looking into the future II"

2)I did not find any half collaborations from Steve for me to do in Mike's round 2 mole, so I went to Steve Splotch monster site and downloaded two splotches and made my own monsters from them. Since I couldn't decide between them and Mike has LOTS of pages left in his book, I decided to make two collaborations. The first one is called "Georgia on my mind." Here is Steve's splotch.

3)My second splotch monster is called "The Orange Bow." Here is Steve's splotch.

4)I am feeling bad because I haven't made any new progress on Roma's mole. Sometimes things come easy and sometimes, they are difficult. I have struggled and struggled with a sketch to make the next piece for Roma's mole and have decided to show you the very lame sketch for the sketch--it just isn't working out--I may give it up for now and do something different just to get it going!!! This would be a companion piece, were I to get it done, to the other from my children's storybook, Jacob and the Sea Witch, or Jacob and the Great Fish. You can see lots of erasures and false starts here. :-(

each image will enlarge if clicked upon.

Mike's Mole has arrived

I am sorry this little collage doesn't hit all the fabulous work inside it. Not even all the artists. I may do another later, no more time right now. Just wanted you to know it was here and safe. I have two more to do in Roma's and haven't had time yet. If you click on the image, it will enlarge somewhat.

3 in Ballookey's Round 2

In Mary's Book

Okay everybody. I am still a little clogged in the nose but that didn't stop me from makin' art in Mary's book.



This was my collab piece with Ammon. Ammon has a very different artistic style than me and I was somewhat at a loss on how to expand on these pieces. Looking at them for a while, these three faces reminded me of the older women I'd see roaming the mall I used to work at in the late 80's- so I turned Ammon's sketches into cartoons of these women. But even then, it wasn't enough. I realized that I needed to tell some short anecdotes on what I could remember about these women.



Playing with my new brayer!Acrylic paint, black gesso & a white gel pen. And the green grass grew all around all around, and the green grass grew all around.

I'm behind

Just got Mary's book last week, but had been prepping for the Art Wars competition. (I made it to the 2nd round!) Been sick w/ a sinus infection all this week but am determined to get some art in her book. Hit the Blick sale today - See my new brayer? I want to try that out...

In Ellen's book- collab w/Aya & soggy-sad-face

Collab. Page with Aya:

Self Portrait of the Artist looking at the Future

Of course, this is me YOUNGER than I am now (not really me at all). Done in Roma's with markers and pens and a little colored pencil. The top one is the newer version--I'm never sure when I am done with a piece and I decided the lighting wasn't right on it. The bottom one, for inquiring minds, is the original.

The third picture is me last night with a hastily rendered copy of Cezanne's 3 Skulls done at the DIA in ordinary pencil. They have drawing sessions and provide seats, paper, pencils and easels every Friday night. And I think Sunday afternoons, too. It;'s the first time I've done it. If I do it again, I may bring my own pencils, stubs etc. It was a huge paper to fill in a short time with a pencil, and I didn't get it quite right--but I had a good time and looked CAREFULLY at the painting--more carefully than ever before.

Click images to view larger.

below is a pocket item for Roma's pocket, it is a super-quick mini sketch of BB, my husband Keith. I did it last night on a very small "art pad." (Sm Assignment notebook-size.)

On my screen, the image is larger than the actual sketch. It is done in pencil, markers and colored pencil.

Stephanie's book, on it's way...

This is just to let everyone know (and mostly Molly) that I dropped Stephanie's book at her workplace this afternoon, and she's going to have it by tomorrow when she goes to work...

and since I have no images from the happy occasion, here are a few puppies I cleaned after earlier that day.

Steve's Mole Gets Around

Steve's Round 2 mole arrived 3 days ago, just in time to visit the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston for the Chihuly exhibit. Wow, what a show! Chihuly's themes & colors provide inspiration for what I will draw in it over the next couple weeks.

Steve's book will now fly to Florida in less than a week. It will attend the Space Shuttle Launch in Cape Canaveral (if scheduled takeoff date holds) & be cavorting with pirates & beach bocce teams at the Amelia Island Shrimp Festival, too. Some books have all the fun!

in Roma's Mole (two from Texas)

Here is what I accomplished in Texas. We had a kind of busy schedule, so i didn't get as much done as I hoped, but I did get some done.

The first one, the old peddler woman, is an illo for one of my children's book, Jacob and the great fish. The second one is the first half of a collaboration for Ammon to complete. it actually is meant to go 180 degrees around. Sorry about the bookmark.

The Bearded Lady Escapes or Lincoln's Last Thought

Our shared piece:

Claudia's Moly is on the way to Mike.

My collaboration with Ballookey, I loved these matches B!

I did the color & flames portion of this and Ballookey started the main matchbook design.

Abstract Wings

Dudes from Magazine ads.

The half a page I left for Mike.

Note to all, in Claudia's Moly there is a loose page. It is one of the pages Ballookey worked on. Be careful not to misplace it. Claudia had torn out a page in the front of her Mole, which made the structure of the book a bit weak. I took all of the stuff out of her pocket and put it in an envelope that is shipped with the Moly. Be careful!

Made in Vietnam (Andrea's Mole - Round 3)

I've been in Vietnam for almost two weeks, and guess whose Mole went with me? Andrea's Mole enjoyed Vietnam very much, especially the weekend at the beach. I'm not finished with all my pieces, but by the end of this weekend I should be able to ship this to Gretchen. (Sorry, Gretchen, I hope you're not without a Mole.)

The particular spread here still needs some black added to the left-hand-side page, but both pages were inspired by Vietnam. On the right I attempted to write some Vietnamese characters. Mostly I wrote a bunch of jibberish, but it was fun studying the alphabet. Many, many of my characters are completely made up.

The color page does actually say something in Vietnamese. Problem is, I don't know what. But I'll try to find out before I send it. And I will post the final version, since I expect that side to change a lot.

Cheers from a jet-lagged Roma in the San Francisco airport (after a 12-hour flight from Hong Kong)

Dee and Dum (Last (?) of the set for Mike)

Tweedle. I just completed the last of the set of three skull paintings (artrage) for Mike's pocket (prints, since they are on the iPad). Roma, let me know if you'd also like a set.