Monday, November 26, 2007



After recovering from all the driving to Tucson, I got right back to work. Then I spent a wonderful Thanksgiving week with my son home from college. We made a total of 4 trips back and forth to Phoenix! He flew back to school in Ohio yesterday, and I'm back to work in my studio again.

As you can see, I've done big boxes, too. Here are two slightly different views of one box. It has six small and one large drawer. It's great fun to paint these boxes, which are 10" tall, and 10" by 14" wide. I made one for myself and I use it as a jewelry box, but I think it would be a good place to keep all kinds of treasures.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007



I spent the weekend driving back and forth between Ajo and Tucson (a 2 1/2 hour drive), to participate in the annual Tucson Open Studio Tour. Roughly 134 artists open their studios to visitors during this weekend event. A group of us from the Curley School were invited to exhibit our work at the Dinnerware ArtSpace. My husband and I drove over on Friday to unload and set up my space (we each got about 10 feet of wall space). So I drove a total of 10 hours in three days. Lots of people came and looked at the work - more on Sunday than Saturday. Many were artists who were checking out ideas and prices.

The thing about doing something like this is that you are on display as well as your art. This is not the most comfortable feeling in the world, at least not for me. It's hard to know whether to just sit there or to be talkative when people come by. I would have preferred to spend the weekend under the table. Clearly, trying to sell my own work isn't going to be my sales method of choice. I did meet lots of nice and friendly people. And I got some appreciative comments about my work. But sales??? Well, let's just say that I went in the hole, what with gas and the entry fee. It was, however, a beautiful space to show in. And a good learning experience.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007


Here is another group of boxes. I wandered around the alleys in Ajo, while walking my dog. I noticed how beautiful the old corrugated tin sheds were, with their multiple layers of paint peeling away. Maybe most people wouldn’t categorize these as beautiful, but I did. Anyway, I took a series of digital photographs. What you see are transfers from the photos onto wooden boxes. I added painted edges and sides on some of the boxes. Are they beautiful? I think so. If you do, too, than I’ve succeeded at convincing you that there are lots of little slivers of beauty out there.

Monday, November 5, 2007


I got a new digital camera last summer. During a month of traveling, I took a few bug pictures. The dragonfly and butterfly on top of these boxes are transfer prints. You can see that I have several styles of boxes and I vary the sides depending on my mood. So these are my first bug boxes. Look for more in the future as I capture more buggy images.

Friday, November 2, 2007


Boxes, boxes and more boxes. I like boxes. Boxes can be useful. They can hold ordinary stuff or they have the potential for keeping magical and special items safe. The outside of a box can be plain or it can be a work of art. An especially beautiful box could be hung on the wall.

I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of transferring images from one thing to another. This summer, I experimented with a way to print images onto a special transfer paper. The resulting print can be permanently transferred onto almost any object. Including boxes.

I went on the hunt for boxes. I bought a bunch. I played around with a lot of ideas. What you see here are a series of boxes with transfer images (vastly shrunk in size) of some of my paintings. The top edges and sides of the boxes are painted to complement the colors in the paintings. This was exciting! I lined the inside bottom of each box with felt. They can hold things. They can be hung on the wall. They make great gifts, they can hold great gifts.