A friend of mine needed some business cards, so I decided to make some out of watercolor. 

I think they turned out nicely! (minus the fact that they are all slightly crooked! I can’t cut in a straight line, but it gives them character.)

Pardon the grainy photos, I took these on my phone a few minutes before meeting her to hand them over.

Good luck at the conference friend!

xoxo

I can’t believe NY Cares Day 2011 is in two weeks! I absolutely love this project, so much that I’ve participated it in every year since I moved here. You can see my previous experiences here, here, and here.

I think it’s very inspiring to think about all of the volunteers around the city participating in brightening schools and doing what they can to make a difference. I even take a break from my regular NY Cares Art Explorer’s project so I can work with other schools.

Someone recently asked me if I thought of my volunteering as “work”. I didn’t have to think twice about that question. I don’t. To me, it’s something that brings me back to earth. There’s something about having a very hectic week and then taking a couple of hours on a Saturday morning to make art with kids or paint murals that reminds me that there is soooo much more to this life than the things I’m surrounded most of the time. I enjoy meeting people and I love trying new art activities with the kids. Plus, there’s this amazing bakery right by the train that has this amazing Colombian cheese bread which I get every week with my co-team leader. YUM!

Anyway, this year’s mural focuses on puppets the school uses to teach kids about “being a good sport” in different situations. Here are some sketches in progress. They aren’t finished yet and the crayons don’t really show the exact blues I want to use for the sky, but it’s a start!

p.s. perhaps not my best sketches, but it will be a fun mural and much prettier than these!

These old bottles were part of our finds from Dead Horse Bay this spring. It was nice coming home to a new light display!

I love living with my ridiculously funny, creative, and awesome BFF!

My friend, Sean, is participating in this fun flickr group photo project and I decided to join. Basically, each week the group picks a theme and people can enter their photos taken within the week that fit the theme. It’s a great way to keep your eye looking for new things.

This week’s: The view from here…

Here are some of my different viewpoints from the long weekend.

cat sitting…

btw, it was definitely NOT warm this weekend as I’d originally hoped. Friday was so deceiving, bringing 60 degree temps but dropping to 30s Saturday and Presidents Day brought a blanket of fresh snow.

…which the kitties enjoyed…

waiting for our friend to arrive…

and many angles from a sparkly view!

**

Hope you all had a splendid weekend!

xoxo

To keep myself motivated and painting, I decided to create some mini paintings and turn them into postcards.  It’s a good place for me to “sample” some painting ideas I have before jumping into the canvas.

My goal is to create one a week and to send them to people.

Here are the first couple…

If you want a postcard, email me your address and perhaps you’ll receive some greetings from New York!

xo

There are a couple of things that make me really happy: being in love and being creative.

Since love (and life) can be confusing (hard, frustrating, irritating) at times, I find that being creative is my only constant and it usually brings me back to clarity (happiness, serenity).

This weekend I worked on collages with the photos from Key West. I started off with many layers of paper, photos, modge podge and painted on some watercolor paper. It sort of looks like a tornado went through here, but I am pretty happy with how they are turning out!

What do you think?

Either way, I’m having fun! And looking at the photos definitely made me miss Key West and the sunshine! I think it’s time to taking the vitamin d!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

xo

Kristen and Anthony asked if I’d be an artist in the first Halloween Carnival. They live in the perfect place (i.e. creepy as heck basement!) for this event to happen.

Halloween Carnival is….

an Interactive Performance Installation and the collaborative work of 15 artists that travels through 7 rooms of a basement:

Come explore…

*Aqu A*

Creepy rooms in *America!*

And America! in photos! This is my installation. It’s a mix of humorous, sad, and beautiful photos meant to create a mix of emotions. This will be an ongoing piece for future events, encouraging others to submit their photos of how they see America. I look forward to seeing other submissions through the years!

Prep~

Hanging~

lastly, the event will end with a dance party in *Feti-feti*

Interested?

come check it out.

This will be my third year being a mural artist for NY Cares Day. It’s one of my favorite projects because anyone can participate. Last year, I worked with over 100 volunteers and it was an absolute blast. The year before that, I was primarily with my friends (that was fun, and thanks to all who participated!). I’m not sure how many volunteers will participate this year, but I am very excited about my sketches.

Admittedly, at first I was very nervous about this year’s project because we have a very talented art teacher on board. He and his students have already painted incredible murals throughout their school and I didn’t want mine to pale in comparison! But then I remembered that this day is more about the volunteers and giving them an opportunity to feel creative and helping others – so I’ve sketched some ideas that can be easily painted (with a paint-by-color system) and that incorporate major artists.

These are still a little rough, but I think this will be a fun project!

Cafeteria~

The current cafeteria has these wonderful paintings of historical figures in a cafe. I wanted to continue this theme, but opened it up to being an outdoor cafe, leading into musicians playing in central park. From there it turns into a more music/Harlem themed mural. I looked up some different Harlem Renaissance artists. I wanted something colorful and lively – I looked up William H. Johnson and got the idea of the dance. This will lead back into a cafe in front of some live music by Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington on piano. I left the cafe part open, so the volunteers can draw in more characters on their own.

Stairwell-

To continue with the theme of artists, I thought it might be nice to go with George Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon”. I’d like to keep a few of his elements, but again, allow the volunteers to add in more modern types of people. It might be a neat idea to ask the kids who they’d see in the park, and we could draw their ideas as well. This tree will go up the stairwell and lead into tree. I’d like to create our own version of Gustav Klimt’s “Tree of Life”. The tree will continue with his circular pattern, but I’d like to incorporate different types of typography and inspirational words. This isn’t sketched out as clearly, but hopefully this explanation helps. In the background of the tree, would be iconic landmarks around the world including the Eiffel tower and the NYC skyline. This is yet, another opportunity for volunteers/kids to add more of their own thoughts.

**

I hope the school likes it! Next steps will be sketching it out as a paint by color for the volunteers!

If you’re in New York – consider joining this project!!

What: 19th Annual NY Cares Day
Date: October 23, 2010
Time: 9:30-3:30 pm

Who: You and anyone you’d like to invite! (please note all volunteers must register, details below)

What we’ll be doing- painting a mural in Hamilton Heights (actually close to where I live now!). The mural will be a paint by color system, so for those without artistic experience, no worries! It will be easy. That being said, there will be room for creative expression, as long as it’s done for the kids. If we’re not exhausted, we’ll have an after party post painting.

If you’re interested, register online.

Once you are there, follow these easy steps.

1. Agree to the terms
2. Select, “Join a team”
3. Scroll down and look for the team called, Color Me Happy!

Those in New York – Join my team!

please note there is a $20 fee.

As a child, I was the “smelly cat girl”. Yup, you know who I’m talking about and yes, that was me. I’ve always joked that I’m going to write a book called, memoirs of a smelly cat girl, but who really wants to read of a crazed childhood of an only child with several cats? Not to mention, there are sooo many stories worthy of being heard and these days I’m actually working on “saving” my stories a bit.

While I won’t write a book about my life, I can’t help but remember them all. While everyone has a story, I don’t think everyone has albums of cats. My mother was obsessed with animals (see where I get it?) and took photos of them.

ALL OF THEM.

At some point, I decided I should paint the “cats of my life”. I’ve been talking about this series for some time now, but I finally have started to work on it. Considering the number of cats that have been in my life, I figured I’d better get to painting them before I forget who they all are.

Luckily, I have the photos..

In order to paint the cats of my life, I first needed to sort through the cats.

so many cats!!

The painting itself will be large, with several ‘mini-paintings’ on it, painted on a wallpaper, painted wall. Some will be portraits with the cats name, and some will be scenes.

Luckily, some of the photos are still labeled with the names..
photo above: lower three cats are: Baby Fluffy, Wuzzy, and Ruby (all kittens of Benji)

I’m sure I could name all these cats, but at the risk of looking too crazy, I’ll just let you enjoy the madness.

I’ve started sketching the cats. This is FuFu (also in the pile above somewhere) and some ideas for wall paper.

I think this is going to be a very interesting painting! It will be a good project that will make me laugh and help me get through the fall.

Enjoy!

I love love!
I love my friends..
And I love gifts.

I had the most fun making these.
And of thinking of my friends as birdies.

These were belated gifts from her sister’s wedding!

love birds~ may love always fly with you!