Quick peek at some of my new work...

 

I have been very very busy. More pictures coming soon.

2012 Taos Art Glass Invitational - Walking on Glass - I made it in!!!

Just click on the link below and you can see the glass design, called, "Blue Blossom" that made it in. This is a juried event and feel so excited to be a part.  

 

http://tiganm.org/ExhibitingArtists.html#anchor92812

 I finally finished painting this four foot tall by three foot canvas. It has been sitting in my back room for months. I found some images that inspired me and within a weekend, this is what came out. I added a few more stems and greenery. I love it.

 This image was taken with a bright light shining on it. The colors look brighter less deep.

 I hung it up on a wall in my living room. As you can see, it doesn't need to have anything else with it in order to shine. It is so big, so deliberate.

 Well, once I finished painting the big one, I couldn't stop myself from painting more. I had several small pieces of small canvas and am now creating tiny paintings with tiny frames, selling at tiny prices.

All my friends...I mean...ahhh tubes of paints.

Sun Catcher - samples of colors

Before I began to work on the commission, I cut samples of all the glass I had purchased for the project. I decided to make a little Sun Catcher for my customer - so she could see how all the possible colors would reflect in the light. I ended up using all of the colors except two.   

"Oklahoma Native Sun" - outside in the sunshine...

Although this might look small, "Oklahoma Native Sun" is almost two feet tall and two feet wide. (22 by 21 inches). This photo was taken outside in the morning sunshine. Background color was a light golden cloth. Colors deepen as the sun reflects its brightest light. My hope is that this design brings sunlight, warmth, and healing to this family's home everyday forever.    

"Oklahoma Native Sun"

 This private commission came about because of the love of so many people for one person named Diana. "Oklahoma Native Sun" is my fifth creation for this special lady and she lets me create whatever I want. She recently retired from the Public School System. Her special friends and colleagues presented her with a gift certificate to commission me as her Artist once again.  She was so surprised. I was able to be there to give her a big hug and smile.   We were both excited to create together again.  

 Diana wanted me to create something that would remind her of Oklahoma.  I asked her to list as many things that came to her mind and prioritize them by putting the ideas she liked the at the top.  She thought of the fertile lands, and rivers in the state and also liked the Oklahoma State Flag. This photo was taken in the evening light at dusk.

 This is a close up of the colors used for the landscape shapes which made up the bottom layer of the sun circle design.  Textured green glass, auburn, gold and blue metallic glass, combined with river glass of cobalt blue and gold. Embellished with green, auburn and gold glass gems. Solder lines were stained with a Black Patina.  

 This was the bottom layer of the landscape design. An abstract of the colors of the Oklahoma landscape, prairies and rivers.

 This image shows all the cut glass pieces. Each piece hand foiled, fluxed, and soldered, then individually stained with a black patina.

 Laying out all of the colors and working through the whole design.  

 All of the pieces have been foiled and cleaned. Laying out the design once more time before the fluxing and soldering are done.

Side view. I still needed to add more glass copper beads.



Things I obtained while in California

 I spent over three weeks in California, helping my family care for my Dad who was ill. He is in a rehab center progressing well. I rarely had free time, but when I did, I managed to pick up a few things for future art projects. This photo above shows some antique nails and a gold cross my big brother wants me to incorporate into some glass crosses.

 I found this little plastic horse in a trashcan at the car wash. I don't normally dig in trash, but the plastic horse was sitting on the top. It looked like it came from a child who didn't care about it anymore. So I took it home and repainted the horses hooves, mane and tail.     

 I found this porcelain glass horse at a thrift shop in California. I bought it so I could set it with the other horse at home. 

 I found these two pink patterned plates at the thrift shops in Redding, California. Don't know what I will use them for but they would be fun to work with.

 My sister, Kaye passed these big glass gems to me before I left. Don't know where she got them. I have never seen this size before.

I found this pretty cup with the flower pattern. I like incorporating china in with my glass art designs.

"Mermaid in the Sea"

For years now, my Daughter who loves mermaids has been asking me to create one for her. She will be 23 years old on Tuesday, July 17. 2012 and I finally got this task done. I saw an image of a mermaid I liked and thought I could cut in glass. I looked at the image and sketched it on a piece of art paper, then cut up the image in sections.  

This image shows the mermaid cut in glass and at the point I was adding in the background which is turquoise river glass.

As you can see the background is filling up with more turquoise river glass and cobalt blue river glass.

This is the mermaid in the window. I still had more fill in work to accomplish.  

This is what the mermaid looked like after I had cut and soldered all the pieces together. I like her like this but my Daughter had specified she wanted her mermaid in a frame.

Some of the very last details I added in were glass turquoise beads to resemble seaweed in the water, adding some orange glass beads in her hair and turquoise cloth flowers on her tail. 

"Mermaid in the Sea"

This is what she will look like in the window with natural light. The frame is dark and the glass has light reflected through it.

This is the mermaid with no light reflected through the glass from behind but a light focused on the front. The silver frame comes alive along with the turquoise beads and flowers.  

This is what the mermaid looked like when I took her outside. I love the shape of her.

 

Sometimes I like to transition from working with Glass Art to Mosiac Art. Some of their processes overlap. Instead of foiling and soldering broken glass pieces and found objects together I can work with the same materials but lay out the design in grout.  

 I had the circular table on the right already. The octogon shaped table top was something I had picked up at my favorite nick-nack antique thrift store called Green's Corner. I had considered taking out the plastic center and creating a stained glass design in the center but one day I realized that the octogon table fit perfectly on the round table. I decided I would mosiac the octogon table and use it for the final table top.  

 The piece in the center was a leftover glass lid. I had lots of scraps of orange glass to use and then incorporated blue glass circular gems and star shaped gems around the edge and center.

This is only my fourth mosiac art project, so I am still learning. It provides a nice alternative to my glass art sometimes.

Chunky Red Cross in the natural sunlight....

Crosses heading to Taos, New Mexico

 The owner of The Walden Fine Art Gallery requested more red crosses to sell in her gallery.  All three crosses were made with red and amber glass. Ceramic plates were broken and added along with 3 black speckled pebbles purchased from a rock store, glass gems of gold, sienna, and red were also soldered into the design. Black patina applied. Materials came from Oklahoma, Colorado, Missouri, Tennessee, and California.  

 Chunky Red  - 15 inches tall and 12 inches across.

 Red Plate Cross - 15 1/2 inches tall and 10 inches wide.

 Golden Brown and Red Cross - 18 inches tall and 16 inches wide.  This one has a large geode in the center.

 Close up shot of more detail. These crosses have an eclectic collection of broken ceramic plates, gold, red, and sienna glass gems with blacked speckled pebbles and marble glass from Missouri.

Crosses were stained with a black patina which gives the dark lines throughout each design.

My first formal painting class with Artist, Thomas Stotts

 This is what Thomas Stotts demonstrated for us first before we did anything.  This is an image of an adobe hut in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

He showed us how to loosely sketch the image on the canvas first. This is mine.

 

 This is the first layer of acrylic. There will be more as we create more depth by adding layers of acrylic colors. The class last four weeks and I am having so much fun, learning so much. This is right for me now.

Been doing some traveling....

Dallas, Texas

Glad to be home...but for three months, I traveled eleven weeks and visited eleven different states.  I am an independent contractor and my works takes me to many different places. I am thankful to be home for awhile. There is no place like home.

Been doing some traveling....(continued)

Santa Fe, New Mexico. A dream opportunity getting to "work" while in an art rich environment.  

Crow Agency, Montana. I remember I brought my boots that I have had for eleven years. The zipper broke. I had already had both zippers replaced, the sued sewn up twice and the soles were wearing thin. I decided to leave them in Montana as their final resting place. I slung them up over a sign in the middle of no where.   

Visited the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings, Montana. Art! YAY!

Binghampton, New York. This was an old town with narrow two lane streets thru town and  neighborhoods where people lived in big old houses. The small city had just overcome a major flood. There was a Dunkin Donuts nearby though..;-)

  
Portland, Oregon.  Lots of things to love about this place.

Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, The Twin Cities. Remember getting the rental car about 9:30pm and feeling anxious in finding my way to my hotel (30 minutes away). My angels were looking out for me. When I walked to the desk, there was a colleague in the same situation. Driving together on five lane highway thru the large metropolitan area was a blessing.

Manchester, New Hampshire. Had lunch with my friend Jerry and his wife, Sandy. This was my last job and I was ready to go home.