Merry Christmas

I'm sorry I have bee slow at posting this week but it is a busy week for all of us. We will be leaving day after tomorrow for Las Hadas in the Pacific Coast of Mexico for a different Christmas this year. Two of ours sons with their families will be going also although it won't feel much like Christmas in very warm weather but it has been sometime since we have been to the beach and we do love it so it will be nice.

I'm posting something that I might have posted at the beginning of my blog since this was done last year around this time, but at the moment I think it is the most appropriate image I have to post.

I also have something very exciting to look forward to at the beginning of the year. That is a mentorship with Michael Newberry. I think this will be one of the best opportunities I will have had, art wise, and I intend to put my heart into it. It will be interesting to see if this will sustain my love for abstracts or open a new horizon for me.

Have a great holiday season!

Profiles V

These last two posts have been a turn for me for something a little lighter. I like the change of colors and hope I can make a series that will keep its continuity. Newsprint, copper leaf, acrylic and oil on stretched canvas. 16X24

Profiles IV

I had one of those aha moments today that very seldom come to you so I decided to get out a canvas and see what happened. To my surprise this turned out fortunately different from the last two. It was one of those fast ones and it actually pleased me when I fisnished it. Newsprint, gold leaf, acrylic and oil on stretched canvas. 16X20

Encaustic Mixed Media

One of the things I find fascinating about Mixed Media and alternative materials is that you can play around with it so much. If the result is not what you wanted you can't put it back the way it was but you can alter it and change it completely. In this case there was something I did not like about my last post image and I still do not know if I am satisfied because it is something a little different from what I usually do, so sometimes I have to see it up on the screen, in a post and in my house to really know if I like it or not. So far I have just added some encaustic to the previous post image, and I am still tempted to pour some black over it but I think I will watch it for several days before I decide. This is not the best picture since it is nightime and the lights in my studio did not help the image but I will replace it for one taken tomorrow.

Mixed Media

I have not decided if this is finished yet. I was playing around with it is so it is a small piece. 10X8 canvas panel. What I am not very happy with, is that the patina I used over the page to tone done the color makes it look dirty instead of old. I'm thinking of going over with dribbles or pour but am not quite sure. I would never tear a page out of an old book but this book was already very torn and had no salvation. Unfortunately it is a 19th century Theology book and I would not want to use it disrespectfully. 10x8 canvas panel and ribbon, acrylic, feather, sumi, ink and oil.

In Memory of Pao 1999-2005

This is Pao, my grandaughter that came into this world in a very tragic way, as her mother's uterus scar, burst open from a previous C Section, leaving Pao without oxygen for five minutes. This left her severly brain damaged and the only thing she could do was smile radiantly and return the enormous amount of love she received from all of us and the peolpe who knew her well from the frequent visits to the Teleton Center (CRIT), for her weekly therapy and evaluation. Pao left us quietly March 13th 2005 at age five, leaving a huge vacuity in our life and heart.

Pao's happiest years were the last two of her life, when my son and daughter in law started to take her to the Teleton Center, (CRIT) in Agauscalientes, a city two hours driving distance from our city. In 1997 Televisa Foundation started annual 24 hour fundraisers on TV and with the help of a great number of companies and people around the world they built the first Center in Mexico City for Handicapped and Brain Damaged children. This has brought hope to thousands of children with special needs. Today two more centers will be inaugurated makingn a total of ten centers in the country. The goal of this foundation is to have a center for every state in the country. The economic capability of the parents of each child that is admitted as a patient of the Center, is evaluated also. Those who can pay the fees do have to, but those that cannot are treated for free. The great majority of these children are from rural remote places and it would take their parents a day or more to get the child to the center and the cost of transportation would be high, so these children are left without assistance. This is why it is so important that each state have a center and at the moment there are 15,000 children waiting to have a center near them. There is still a long road to travel to reach the Foundation's goal but hopefully with events like the 48hour TV fundraiser that will start tonight, another two centers will be built by next year.

Teletòn Page

Video

New Mixed Media

This to me seems quite raw and visceral as I see it on the screen and when I saw what the result was when I finished it. My intention was to use the page of and old torn book that had no salvation to composed something appealing but I let myself go and before I knew it I had the ink spots on it and finished off with the addition of a dramatic stroke of texture. I decided to leave it because this one has taken me to another one that is not quite finished but might make me turn to something very different. I don't consider this a pretty painting but I do consider it expressive, either it be my love for earthy and old things or my frustration for not remembering the image revealed to me the night before.