home is where your story begins...

I thought I would take you on a little tour of the exhibit. Starting with the neighborhood of houses that appear in the book I wrote with Sarah Fishburn.

In the book "In This House" it shows great details of each room that the artists created...so I thought I would post here, in the order they are in the book...each of the houses that the artists created in their standing position, so you could see them how they were actually constructed and were meant to look when they were standing.

This is my house...#9 Pasticcio Court...The Mosaic House

Celine Navarro...#17 Wonderland Street...The Wonderland House

CW Slade...888 Lapis Canyon Road...The Garden Home

Sarah Fishburn...13 Rue Du Tournesol...The French Studio

Lesley Riley...#2 Wisdom Way...The Poetic House

Kelly T.M. Kilmer...1974 Sraid na Beatha...House of Me

Jen Osborn...#7 Scizzor Circle...House For Naughty Children

Susie LaFond...1313 Shadow Lake Road...The Lake House

Jill Haddaway...No. 4 1/2 North Parade Passage...The Olde English House

Erika Tysse...#16 Mockingbird Lane...A Family Home

Tiffini Elektra X...1031 Mircalla Road...The Gothic Mansion

Nina Bagley...9A Firefly Lane...Winter Conservatory

Alice Scott Morris...
Alice's beautiful handwriting brings a cohesiveness to the book and she created the illustrated locks and keys that appear in each artists chapter. She also created the map of the neighborhood that appears at the beginning of the book.

houses and art and parties...oh my

the set up...
Vince hangs the art...

Mardjie helps A Studio Gallery get ready...Sarah and I put up the In This House homes...
and we say a prayer for a successful exhibit...

The next day...smiling and ready...


My photo art is up on the walls...
the houses are set on the shelves...
the artists arrive...

(Left to right) Me, Alice Scott Morris, Sarah Fishburn, Kelly TM Kilmer, CW Slade

Arriving soon after are family, friends, art enthusiasts, In This House book readers and photography lovers...It was a great evening...

After the exhibit ended family and friends headed to my house to celebrate...after all...it was my birthday...and with good friends and the people I love around me...what better way is there to celebrate...

More pics of the "In This House" homes and my "Soul Dwellings" exhibit in the next post...

today is the day

Yesterday Sarah Fishburn, who came into town for the booksigning tonight, went to the gallery with me and we set up the exhibi which opens tonight. It was so exciting to see everyones original artwork from In This House on display. I also hung my exhibit Soul Dwellings, which encompasses my journey through this thing called life in black and white hand painted photographs and altered art. The show will be on display through October 12th...but I will post my pieces on my website as soon as I get a minute so you can take a peek if you can't make it to the show.
Gotta go now...lots to do before the doors open at 5:00.

tin and marriage...

Just thought I would post this commission I finished up a couple of weeks ago. The couple will be getting married the first week of September in New Mexico, and the bride had seen my table numbers in a past issue of 'Somerset Wedding 2'.

These table numbers I made by embossing tin, bronze and copper sheets and wrapping them around a 4x6 template. For the family tables I attached photographs from the happy couples family and childhood the others were embellished with milagros, flaming hearts and marriage symbols.
The backs have mini 1 inch family photos from the plethora of photos the bride sent to me. Here's wishes to the couple for a glorious wedding day...

crazy, mixed up workspace

what a mess!!!
My little studio does not always look like this...
this is how it looks when I have several projects going at the same time
when I am in the throes of just creating...

when I am under the gun to get things finished...
when deadlines loom overhead...

it's funny I can find anything in this clutter...but...
I know where everything is when it's like this...

but when this phase is over and once again it's all neat and tidy...
I'll have put to bed this soul dwelling series of art I am working on...

and Peyton says...take a nap already would you?

a little morphing around....

art is a healing thing...

art is a healing thing...at least it is for me...it is the space between reality and art that is the most comfortable for me to sit in. The more my mind goes to that zone...the more I create, the more I create, the more I heal...and the easier it is...

And it is ironic...that there is a space between sadness and joyfulness...at one end of the spectrum there are things we can do nothing about...at the other we must make sure our hands are open to grasp at it as it passes by.
I have been making altered photo art for my exhibit for awhile now. It has been named 'Soul Dwellings' for months. It is about the journey that each of makes, where we are going, and where we end up... I had photographed my Dad and Mom's hands to be part of my journey... and it's ironic is all...that art imitates life...or is it the other way around...
You can see it all here: soul dwellings

we are really going to miss you...

Richard Compton

March 2, 1938 - August 11, 2007

soul washing...

It's healing for me to take off for the beach to clear the pebbles out of my brain...

The sea air, the textured sand beneath my feet, the light playing on the waves, all shift me into a different state of mind. Sometimes I need that...

As I walked down the beach I checked out the sand art at my feet...



created by Mother Nature...

I didn't move a thing...honest


Mother Nature has a sense of humor...


She washed out my soul....

and I headed home...

mega news

This week Sarah Fishburn's and my article on "In This House" and the "Skylines and Skyscrapers" swap came out in Astarte's Mega-Zine. This publication comes out of Australia and is really cool. Three of my mini skyline houses and four of Sarah's houses from this swap appear on the front cover of this issue.

Go to www.go-make-art.com and look for the interview link in the blue box on the right side of the page to hear our half hour audio interview that we did with Stacey Apeitos, editor and publisher of Go Make Art. You can also download a free copy of issue #1 while you are at the web site, but if you subscribe you can get our project article in issue #3.