All Wrapped up

Christmas is almost here! If you're doing some last minute shopping and wrapping, here's an easy eco-friendly idea. Use new or vintage tea towels to bundle up your presents. I found these 2nd hand beauties at a flea market but your local Goodwill probably has a few up for grabs too. They double as a second gift and there is no waste. Vintage scarves work great too. For a fancier look you can tie them together with a pretty hair tie or add a pin, hair clip etc. I've gone low cost here and just used some yarn to tie them together. For the tags I photocopied some old images onto regular colored construction paper.

Holly-day cards

My dog Holly has been the constant character in my Christmas cards for most of her 11 years. This year she got dressed up and added her mug to our white (trash) Christmas card. We forgot the cigarette to hang out of her mouth the day of the actual shoot but it's there in spirit. I also forgot to hang the wreath so that got added to the photo as did the Merry Christmas above the neon Austin. I'm a big fan of personalized cards any time of year and this concept could easily be adapted to birthday cards too. You can create your own by taking a photo anywhere that has the town name in it's sign. Just cover up anything that doesn't work with clipart/ the happy birthday sign etc. City Limit signs are always good. Oh- and I added the lyrics to Robert Earl Keen's Merry Christmas from the family on the inside of our card. If you don't know the fabulous REK- check him out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P37xPiRz1sg

Cheers & happy, happy holly-daze to y'all!

Claire Danes & me

I haven't met Claire Danes nor have I even seen her in person but I now have a connection to her. She's my first celebrity customer!

She's in Austin filming Temple Grandin Thinking in Pictures http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1278469/ and the movie prop folks stopped by my husbands gallery. They loved my painting of Dolly Parton and took some photos of it to 'show the boss'. They thought she'd love it too. A couple of days later they came back to the gallery with Claire's credit card and drivers license. Yipppeeeee!

Here's the painting she bought.

Willie P Bennett- Dia de los Muertos / Day of the Dead

Willie P Bennett was a very dear family friend that passed away this year. He is one of my most favorite people in the world. He was a fabulous man that wrote, sang, played and smiled through life. He will be missed by many and cherished forever by me.

The altar traditionally includes four main elements of nature. Willie's includes traditional breads (earth), tissue paper snow flakes & music (wind), wine (water) and candles (fire). We've sent up the display in the front window at my husband's gallery so check it out if you're in Austin. http://www.roadhouserelics.com/

I’ve seen altars for rock stars, politicians, husbands, wives, kids, mothers and dads. Have fun making one for someone you love or admire. Incorporate stuff they loved and would want to have if they were to come by and hang out with you on All Saints Day.

Enjoy. Enjoy life.

Willie did.

Take a listen to him here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDLAG2H27jQ

Pop goes the Dolly

I've been thinking about turning my paintings into jewelry bits and other things. Pretty hard when the painting has a lot of detail. Function was for the first time an element I had to think about in my art. Tattoos for instance can have a lot of detail but they just don't translate very well if they are too small...so I went for a pop art, cartoony look as a test. Camera phone quality photo but you get the idea.

Debut, Debate & Delima

My first attempt at writing some live content.

I've got the Presidential debate on in the other room. Even turned off the Hayes Carl cd to semi listen. I'm Canadian so can't vote down here...but y'all can. Please do.

This weekend has some tough competition for stuff to do. There's MakerFaire, The Day of the Drags (old school car racing- pre '64s), The City-Wide garage sale and the plant sale at Lady Bird Johnson wildlife center. What's a crafty girl to do??