Day 157 - Happy Birthday to Me & My Brother

Happy Birthday to me and my twin brother. This picture is one of my favorites from when we were little. Oh, it's also my pug Chloe's birthday too.
I should have posted this on our actual birthday (the 6th), but oh well.
Photo, scrapbook paper, embellishments.
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Go make art!

Day 129 - One Figure by Henry Moore

After visiting the Pacific Asia Museum, we went over to the Norton Simon Museum. This museum surprised me in the depth and quality of artwork in their collection. Before you go in, there are a bunch of Rodin sculptures in the garden area. They had 6 van Gogh paintings on display, 3 Rembrandts, a host of paintings from the Impressionist era, and over 100 works by Degas, many of them small bronzes. This picture is one of the 3 figures in a sculpture by Henry Moore; "Three Standing Figures" from 1953. Although my feet wore out by the end of the afternoon, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit there and hope to go again.
Photo, painted paper and embellishments.
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Go make art!

Day 128 - Eagle in Snowstorm

This is a detail of a painting by Katsushika Hokusai from 1848, from the Pacific Asia Museum. One of the many reasons why this museum is worth visiting is that their collection is better than many in much larger museums.
Photo, scrapbook paper, embellishments.
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Go make art!

Day 127 - Yin Yee

I'm getting behind in posting again, sorry about that. Last weekend I went on a bus trip to Pasadena. Our first stop was at the lovely Pacific Asia Museum. It is a very small museum, but has a phenomenal collection of art of Asia and the south Pacific. This is Yin Yee, one of the koi in the pond in the courtyard. She is over 50 years old and one of the most beautiful koi I have ever seen. I have never seen a koi with such long flowing fins.
Photo, scrapbook paper, embellishments.
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Go make art!

Day 123 - Happy Birthday to my Niece!

Today is my niece's birthday! Happy Birthday Melissa! This picture is actually several years old, but I really like it - she looks quite mysterious and arty.
Also, today marks 4 months of my 365 project!
Photo, specialty paper, embellishments.
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Go make art!

Day 111 - Another Sketchcrawl Day

The San Diego Sketchcrawlers' Weekday group met this morning in Balboa Park near Marston Point. It's a very nice area with picnic tables and lots of pine trees so it almost feels like you're in the mountains. Stephen Sloan brought his Chalkboard Ukulele (pictured above). It's a ukulele that he painted with chalkboard paint. So of course we had to document our meeting. I decorated the neck, though it's hard to see. I didn't sketch much because I was late due to confusing directions (you know who you are, but I forgive you) and Rachel brought a copy of Artist's Journal Workshop: Creating Your Life in Words and Pictures by Cathy Johnson, which I spent a fair amount of time looking at and will probably buy soon.
Photo, ribbon.
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Go make art!

Day 106 - Lotus Flower

When I lived in Orange County, we used to go to the Lotus Festival in Echo Park, near Dodger Stadium. It was usually the weekend after the 4th of July. The little lake there had lots of lotus, all blooming this time of year. I miss the lotus. Balboa Park has some but it's not the same as having a lake full of them. Hmm, I think a trip to the Asian market is in order; it's got me thinking of the foods I miss.
Photo, specialty paper, embellishments.
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Go make art!

Day 95 - Giant Protea

A while back we had a sketchcrawl at the Old Cactus Garden in Balboa Park. It is behind the Puppet Theater and the Balboa Park Club. There is a huge Protea bush (tree?) there that had a number of flowers on it. I took this picture of one of the flowers. It was at least 7 or 8 inches tall - just amazing in size! All the little spiny parts are so perfectly arranged. They aren't sharp "spines" but I'm not sure what to call them!
Photo, specialty papers, embellishments.
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Go make art!

Day 81 - Cute Bunny

Spent the day at the San Diego County Fair and I'm beat! Today's ATC is of one of the bunnies on display; isn't he just darling? I love to see all the animals. We had perfect weather for the fair (IMO), overcast with low clouds all day so it didn't get hot. I'm so tired I keep falling asleep in the middle of making this card. Time for bed!
Photo, collage.
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Go make art!

Day 78 - Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my Dad; I miss you! He was a stamp collector, primarily of France and French colonies. He also collected British colonies and thought that it was interesting that Great Britain didn't have to identify the country on their postage stamps because "everyone knew the Queen of England". He loved railroads and also Ham Radio. I'm sure at one time I knew why he had 2 call signs, something special I think, but I can't remember anymore. He was very interested in the space missions and also worked on the software that was used for the Apollo missions and tracking the capsule's splashdown. I think the photo was taken in 1947, when he finished his Master's Degree.
Photo and postage stamps.
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Go make art!

Day 70 - Remembering My Grandparents

This picture is of my grandparents, but I don't know when it was taken. I'm guessing it was pretty early, maybe 1915 to 1920 or thereabouts. The actual picture is much larger as they are in a huge field of daisies. My grandfather had nice thick, curly hair all his life.
Photo, specialty paper, ribbon, embellishments.
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Go make art!

Day 65 - Prize Petunias

Grow more flowers! Then you too can have the pleasure of fighting off nasty snails and slugs for weeks on end so you can have flowers like this crazy petunia in your garden. Seriously, this petunia has flowers that look like Martha Washington geraniums. Most of my yard has more snail-resistant plants like real geraniums, agapanthus, bamboo, juniper and stuff like that. I don't like putting out snail bait because the birds often eat it by accident. But the little trays of beer don't stand up to the massive assault of snails in my garden (I would seriously need a moat), and getting up at dawn to go pick snails out of the garden gets old really fast. I have a small patch near my front door I like to brighten up with annuals, but in the past I always lost the battle with the snails. Not this year! I found a snailicide (is that a word?) called Deadline. It is a thick liquid you put on the ground around your delicate plants. I like it because even though it is still a poison, I only need to put it around the plants the snails like to eat, like petunias and lobelias and other annuals. So far it's been very effective.
Painted paper, photo, specialty papers.
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Go make art!

Day 62 - Matilija Poppy

Two months! Woohoo! This morning I met with the San Diego Sketchcrawlers at the old cactus garden in Balboa Park behind the Puppet Theater. This garden was designed for the California Pacific Exposition in 1935, so the plants there are large. There were lots and lots of Matilija Poppies blooming. They are native to this area and have huge flowers that look like fried eggs. The flowers are the largest of any plant native to California.
Photo, specialty paper, embellishments.
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Go make art!

Day 57 - At the Beach with Friends

Today I spent a few hours with 2 friends from high school. We took our dogs to the dog park on Fiesta Island and walked around. It was very windy and cold - well, cold for San Diego, especially with the strong winds. But we had a good time catching up on news and gossip.
Watercolor, photo and embellishments. My Pogo photo printer is sure handy!
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Go make art!

Day 49 - An Exciting Day!

We interrupt our regular programming to bring you some exciting news! A painting I entered into a juried show was accepted today! I'm very excited! So my ATC for today is a little collage containing a photo of my painting (collage, really). And I made a little acceptance ribbon for it. The red with stars at the bottom is some washi paper tape I just bought today. I can tell I'm going to have fun with this tape! Scrapbook paper, Pogo photo, ribbon, washi paper tape.
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Go make art!

Day 48 - Sweet tired baby

Color on this photo is a little wonky - I'm not at home so can't get a good angle and the lighting isn't too great either. This is my nephew's daughter Estella. They were visiting last week. We went to the Zoo and then out to dinner, when she finally went to sleep. She just cracks me up because she naturally puts her hands behind her head. What a little sweetie! Scrapbook paper, Pogo photo, ribbon, German scrap.

I took the picture with my phone (Droid X) then sent it to my Pogo printer via Bluetooth. Take that, iPhone!
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Go make art!

Day 41 - Giggle

This is a picture of me and my twin brother when we were about a year (?) - I actually have no idea, that's just a wild guess. Painted paper, photo, stamping, specialty papers.
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Go make art!

Day 36 - Happy Mother's Day

This is my mom in 1941 when she graduated from college. Miss you mom!
Photo, postage stamps, specialty paper, German scrap.

Go make art!

Day 8 - Mom's cousin Ruth

This is my Mom's cousin Ruth in the mid to late 40s I think. My collage supplies are so disorganized that I got rather frustrated while looking for stuff to use. Sigh...
Go make art!

Day 7 - My Mom as a little girl

This picture is of my Mom and grandfather when she was about 4 years old, in 1922 or possibly 1923. I'm pretty sure I never saw this picture until after she died and I was looking for pictures of her as a child. It's one of my favorite pictures of her.
Go make art!