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...Another picture and memory I just came across on my phone to help celebrate our National Parks Centennial this weekend: A few weeks ago I had stopped into my husband’s office, where I hardly ever visit, and saw that he had this large painting hanging up right across from his desk there. I had forgotten all about it (!) - - Many years ago I made it for him as a Christmas gift inspired by so many of our wonderful holiday trips out West to explore The Great Rocky Mountains. …There is always something new to discover in this world -- or rediscover in this case. Happy 100th Birthday to America’s National Parks! 
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This weekend the National Parks Service is celebrating its 100th Anniversary! In 2005, my family took an extended vacation to the American West to explore so many of the National Parks in that majestic part of the globe. There simply are no words to describe the awe, wonder, and beauty we found in the incredible landscapes, the wild life, the waterfalls, the fresh air… I could go on and on and yet never do it justice. For Christmas cards that year, I did a little painting inspired by one of our stops at Yellowstone National Park’s Lower Falls:  An old Christmas Card with painted memories of our family trip to Yellowstone. { Though it doesn’t show on the digital image, I added an additional layer of texture to each card with fine crystal sparkles on the waterfall and in the river stream ~ I also added touches of textured sparkle in each of the painted boarder flowers and pinecones as well as hand-tied each card with red ribbon. } Happy Birthday To Our National Parks!
I'm looking forward to continue working on a variety of art projects once we manage to get all the boxes in our new home unpacked and I can get my paints out again. This summer has been quite busy with the completion of the construction of our new house and my family’s move. Since the beginning of this year, I have been packing, packing, packing things in boxes and I’m so happy and relieved to finally be UNpacking… Yay!  While loading & unloading stuff in and out of boxes, I was reminded of the artwork I did for a children’s book I created shortly after I had my first baby. In the early 1990’s, I became a ‘stay-at-home’ mom and to keep myself busy during naptimes, I wrote & illustrated a little story relevant to my days back then. Though non of the artwork I have been working on lately is child oriented, I am having fun remembering those younger, more playful times. Here's a little bit of the art that I came across from a few of the pages. Basically, it’s a children’s book created during the interim of when my first born was born and when he learned to walk. Created quite a few years before the movie “Toy Story” and many years post “Nutcracker”, the story illustrates the imagined play of a baby with his toys until he finds the inspiration to balance himself on two feet and *walk*. ~ All the action kicks off with the baby’s epiphany that the “Jack-in-the-Box” actually has very long legs... Someday I will have to piece together all the pictures… I remember that I also synchronized the story to changing spring weather out the kitchen window as all the colors progressively became greener and more colorful and as mom worked on completing the task of cleaning & shining the all the dirty dishes in the background. I called the story, "Dirty Dishes and a Dozen Dances". The whole creation was a very fun and educational exercise for me since I used the project to teach myself perspective. Before playing around with these imagined images, I had never really studied how to draw perspective or the math of scale. Of course, way back then I didn't have any kind of computer to use as a resource either. The book also had text that I wrote as well which was naturally all in rhyme...            |
AuthorI am a 'self-taught' artist who can hardly remember a day when I wasn't in the process of creating something... Thanks for visiting my site where I can share some of my work. Archives
August 2024
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