We are making progress

The plans for our house is almost final. Soon copies will be going to George Eastom Engineering and others. It's been over a year since we lost our home. My family and I decided to see this as an opportunity for a new adventure.

I have designed our new house as a loft in the country with simple and clean lines. It's divided into two sections, private are for bedrooms and public space to host gatherings for family and friends. And maybe an occasional art show.

We still have plenty of details to work out. It's exciting for us to explore the world of building materials and supplies. More on that later.  

Deadlines Inspire

I just had a very productive week. I had so many unfinished work just hanging around waiting for more material and inspiration. Deadlines somehow induces either total frustration or glorious inspiration. Thankfully this week it was the latter.

Since the fire, I've been working only on small pieces because I didn't have the space to work. I like the looseness of a large work surface. Small pieces are sometimes far more difficult for me. But sometimes you have to just make lemonade out of lemons.

When working small, I start one piece and would quickly be stymied. I would put it aside and start another and same thing would happen. I ended up with about 100 pieces of work in process. Thankfully they were small but it was still a real problem. I just could not justify buying more paper or canvas unless I completed some of them.

Then came the invitation to two shows, The 2009 Florence Biennual and a small group show in New York, which meant deadlines. I needed this. I went into my manic mode and painted and created like a crazy woman.

I decided to try to postpone the Florence, Italy exhibition for the 2011. They said they would keep my contact information but we'll see. I just couldn't justify spending the money for the entry fee. It didn't make sense to pay an entry fee to an invitational show. I'm still hoping for an international show maybe by next year. I wished the economy would pick up.

I am doing the group show, I only needed five pieces for that. Check out the photos on Facebook or Flickr and help me decide which pieces I should send.

John Updike - Remembered

The character, Harry, gave me insights on what I didn't want out of life.  I can't remember the whole story but I read it in my early twenties and it made a definite impact.  

I think I'll re-read it again.

The whole series were great.  

It's been a long time

The grounds at Justin Winery.

I've been so busy and it's looks like it's going to be that way for a little while longer. I've spent the last few months trying to design our new house. It's been going through a lot of changes but we're getting there. Our family went to the central coast for the Christmas Holidays. It was a great time. Wine tasting through Paso Robles, touring Hearst Castle and a couple of missions, and great deal of eating and drinking. I think gained 20 lbs.  But it was worth it.  

San Francisco treats

While both he kids are at camp...

My summer will begin with a trip to San Francisco with my husband. Wow! I’ve forgotten how much fun it is to spend time together. The city is as magical and fun as I remembered.

We landed and easily caught the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) directly into the city and our stop, the Powell/Market station were steps from our hotel. We stayed at The Palomar, it was wonderful. They have this fantastic wine hour every night. The wine they served were not bad, a Beaujolais from France and others all of them were delicious. I must confess that were had several. The location was supreme. We were centrally located near Union Square, Financial District and most of the best shopping you can imagine. We were also within walking distance to the Embarcadero, Chinatown, and North Beach. I highly recommend the hotel.

We went to SFMOMA, which had a special Frida Kahlo exhibition, it was nice but most the work was shown at the Contemporary Museum in La Jolla a few years ago and was in fact more impressive than this abbreviated show.


My all-time favorite time was our visit to de Young. They had an absolute divine exhibition of Chihuily works. I was awestruck by the sheer quantity and mass of the work.
and I was inspired by the Jane Hammond exhibition in one of the smaller museum galleries. I loved her use of paper and construction.

I can't forget to mention the food, I think my favorite meal was when we gathered ingredients for a lunch at the Ferry Building. We got fresh baked bread, the most delicious, creamiest gouda and handmade sausage sandwich. We ate sitting on a bench on the dock watching the ferry go by.