Seestas

Growing up with four brothers (I was smack dab in the middle with two older brothers and two younger borthers), I ALWAYS wanted a sister to hang out with. Someone to help balance out the testosterone level in the household. But, alas! there was already FIVE of us and mom wasn't supposed to have any more babies.

I remember when I was 8 years old and my mom was getting ready for a shopping trip to Honolulu and was asking me if she could bring me back something. I remember asking her to bring me back a SISTER. Well, she didn't bring me back a sister. In fact, she even investigated adopting one, but the powers that be decided for her that five was already enough children. Little did they know.

So, one day, mom announces to the Mondoy tribe that there was going to be another sibling arriving the next May. It would have to be delivered by "C" section and baby would have to come out a few weeks before the due date. Back then, there wasn't the kind of testing that would tell you ahead of time if you were having a boy or a girl. I wanted a sister soooo bad! I was in 4th grade then and 10 years old. One afternoon in May, our school principal annouces over the sound system that my mother had a baby and that it was a baby girl! My brothers and I had already picked out a name. Teresa Maureen.

By the time she was four years old, I had to leave home to go to school on another island. So, I didn't get to log in that much needed sister time that I had dreamed about. It wasn't until our adult lives when we both had little children that we were able to create those sister moments that we lost out on. And, whenever we get together, we make sure we take our "sisters" photo (we call ourselves seestas).

So, here's to you, my little sister!

IMT-Watercolor

IMT is the acronym for Inspire Me Thursday. So, this is my posting for the 'watercolor prompt'. I love working with watercolor; I love the unpredictable nature of the meduim. It's nice to not always have control over what happens!

Texture Hunt

One of my MANY obsessions by way of capturing images via photography is the quest for textures and patterns. It seems that this desire (in search of textures) is insatiable. No matter. I think it causes no one any harm!

So, these images are from Moloka'i this past summer. I was with my brother, my son and his friend as my son was fufilling his quest for extreme fishing along the coast.

Me? I wander around like the eccentric I am with my camera looking for objects that catch my fancy.

Just so you have a reference point, I posted an image of the coastal area that we were at. I found this burnt out race car (what the heck is that doing on Moloka'i, let alone there of all places?). It seems to have been abondoned quite some time ago. Anyway, it had a lot of rust, deterioration and texture happening. The last shot is a close up of some mighty fine rust.

Sigh...what a nut case to find something like this to be so euphoric!

San Ramon Tea

Yesterday was the 11th Annual San Ramon Tea for the UNM Midwifery Class of 2009 hosted by the lovely and talented, Julie Gorwoda. Julie and I have been friends since I moved here to NM about 13 years ago. When she started hosting this tea (she is the Director and faculty for the Midwifery Program at UNM), I was always a bit envious that it wasn't anything that I could get invited to since it was limited to those who are in the program. It's hard to say what is the highlight of the tea; the outfits that people arrive in as it is alwys a themed event. Or, the food which is always outrageously good (Julie's daughter Alexa and friend Jen and Joanna have come to take over this portion of it and execute it like a professional catering company). Or, perhaps it is the auction that follows. Many items are donated for this auction and the money goes to the program for programs extras, such as a Midwifery Colloquim and other miscellaneous things.

It's called San Ramon since he is as close as one can get as a patron saint for mid-wives, pregnant women and the unborn. His feast day is Aug. 31 (or 30 depending on your source of info), so it is fitting to have this event as close as possible to the feast day and to the start of the semester.

Somewhere along the line a few years back, Julie extended the invitation to me and asked me to be 'mother' at the tea. 'Mother' at a tea means that you are the one who pours the tea. It is the highest honor that one can be bestowed with. I enjoy the role as I get to hang out with a group of incredibly strong, beautiful women who have a unique sisterhood. It does feel a little odd being there, as I am not a midwife. This group of women always amazes me.

So, the lovely lady in the sleezy pink outfit is the said Julie Gorwoda (this year's theme was "tart" which is a repeat theme from last year as it was so popular). The bird bath sculpture is one of the auction items; perhaps it was the hottest auction item and is was made by the lovely lady in purple (with the purple boa), Melanie Yanke. I think Julie said that she just completed the program there at UNM.

It's a lot of fun. I love hanging out with this group even if I do feel a little out of place!

Self Doubt and Uncertainty...

Three encaustic pieces here that I did this week. Each of them are 12" X 12" and are titled, "Synthesis I", "Synthesis II" and "Synthesis III".

Now I don't know what the heck I was thinking after I've executed them. They are for a juired exibition that I feel like I don't stand a chance in h___ of getting any of these in! Why the heck did I choose a medium that I have very little experience in? What was I thinking? I should've just taken images from my photography archives. My best work is probably there and I've been at that a lot longer. It certainly would've been less stressful and wouldn't have taken up all the time that it did this week working on these! I could hear myself as I was working on these about why oh why did I decided to go with this medium for this particular event? Stupid me...

OK, I guess I really know the answer. It was an excuse to work in the unfamiliar. I can pull an example from my dance background. It's like visiting another city and walking into an advanced ballet class that contain company members of the city's ballet comapny. You know you're in over your head. You know you're not familiar with how the teacher teaches but the rest of the class is. Plus, they have more miles under their belt than you do. But, you take the class anyway knowing that it will be a struggle. Knowing that you will not do anywhere near what the others are doing. You work harder than you ever do and you try really hard to shut up those voices within you telling you that you're not good enough. You ignore them and work through the self doubt.

The gain? Pushing yourself beyond that limit that you thought you had. Discovering that you can get through more than you thought you could. You learning from watching the others.

So, here I am again with all the same feelings, but in a different context and art form; the visual art.

Maybe I'll get lucky and the art gods will nod their approval.

If not, I move on. I learn from the endeavor. For me, that is the brass ring! The insight that I gain from the process.

August ATC

Here's my August submission for our ATC group. The suggested theme was "music lyrics". I chose "Blackbird" by the Beatles.

Three stamps were handcarved and the wings were just a hand drawn stencil I made. The feather texture on the wings was done by going out into my backyard and looking for bird feathers in the lawn under our giant fruitless mulberry tree that the birds like to roost in. The feather image was imprinted into that blue foam construction material that takes an image after its been heated and that was used as my texture "stamp".

I've always loved this song and when it's running in an endless loop inside my head, I don't mind. I have a deep respect not just for song writiers, but for the artists that write the lyrics for the song; both have to suit the other and carry the message effectively. I love the deceivingly simple melody of this song and the unfettered arrangement of guitar and voice. So simple; a soft sound with a strong message.

Fresh Ink!

(cue Fred Astaire singing to Ginger Rogers..."Heaven, I'm in heaven).

I spent the entire weekend at New Ground Printshop in Nob Hill taking a class from a master printmaker, Enrique Flores from Oaxaca. It was an etching class on selective color wiping. He's developed a unique method of laying multiple colors all on one plate instead of doing multiple plates of different colors to yield a print with many colors. You can also check out more of his work at the Indigo Gallery.

The top two images are mine; I definitely have a ways to go on those, but I am happy that I could get all those colors in one pass through the etching press instead of inking up several plates with respective colors. I need to go back and re-work both plates by adding deeper lines and more aquatint. Maybe even burnish out some small areas for highlights. If you are not very familiar to printmaking techniques, you're probably saying, "Huh?" by now! And, "Who cares?" (which is what my son would say).

No matter. I care and I am thrilled to have the privilege of learning from a very talented printmaker who traveld a long way to teach his method.

Talk about COLOR...the one with all the circles was done by fellow classmate, Krista. Really awesome work; that was her first pass at laying down all the colors on her plate (wow).

The last two images are of Enrique getting all the colors down on his plate (check out that amazing image he has too) and the print that was pulled from that.

Here comes Fred Astair singing that song again..."Heaven, I'm in heaven..." !

Cue the heavy sigh of delight.

In Your Dreams and Life...

...nothing is impossible.

Quote taken from a Chinese Fortune cookie.

A good fortune, don't you think?

These are images from my friend's house, Leighanna. This is where we met once a month all of last year when we were doing our 52 Weeks project (too long a story to go into here if you don't know about it). I love going over to her house; it is a visual eye feast for me. Everywhere you look, her home is covered in artwork; not just hers, but work that she buys from fellow artists (I think the most consistent patrons of art are other artists).

I was over there the other weekend because she was going to show me how she did her photography set up when she shoots images of her work. We decided to make a brunch out of it and share stories and talk about all the things that we talk about. Raine was there too, and some neighbors dropped by for a short spell. A bottle of champagne appeared and we remembered why we don't drink in the middle of the day since it goes right to our head! We always laugh a lot and ooh and ahh over all kinds of things and get inspired.

I always leave her house with such a sense of fullness; not fullness from eating, but a fullness of the spirit of art. Does that make sense?

As I pulled out of her driveway looking at her iconographic green mailbox I remembered that we FORGOT to do go over how she shoots her images!