the moon followed her

in all of these collages, i'd like to add more hand done elements, but am enjoying creating a kind of base or foundation with photoshop. i have lots of ideas for getting these off my computer an onto a final format, but i am also wondering what i'll do with them once they get off the computer. give them away? man i'd love to be selling artwork again...it's kind of the tree falling in the forest question. if i don't get it out of my hands, does the artwork exist? does my artwork need to matter to someone else to be important?

caleb's bird

i am loving having fun with some of caleb's scribbles. he loves pencil and pen the most, while he prefers eating paintbrushes and paint. some days we roll out a big piece of craft paper, scatter some art supplies on the floor, and he scribbles until his canvas veers onto the wall, baby brother, or the floor.  i cannot imitate the kind of urgent, energetic mark of a small child, and yet i love it. with my hand it looks too contrived, so instead i use the real deal.  i used to have my nieces mark up up a piece of paper to prep for a collage or painting, and love seeing their marks come through.  i don't think this collage is entirely finished as i want to add my hand to it, but for now it exists in photoshop!

{collaboration #1: by mommy & caleb}

it's that time of year...

after having taught or worked in schools for a decade, there are two times of year that get me a little nostalgic. early august when school buses roll out of hibernation, new shoes are broken in, and stores are littered with notebooks, three ring binders, back packs, and lunch kits.  and then early june when places like Jones Hall, UH pavilion, and even Reliant host back to back to back graduations.  i think about all the kids i know or have known who may be the first in their families to be handed a diploma or the first to head off to college. or they may be the 8th generation to do so, but nevertheless it's a time of excitement and relief. sadness and newness. anxiety and nostalgia. it's when i feel so happy to know the teenagers in my life who are glorious blends of confidence and self consciousness. it's when i miss teaching the most and the opportunity to shed a few tears over the kids who left a little handprint on my heart.

today i got to honor a beautiful young woman i've known since she was 7. i left her life for a few years when i moved to boston, but sandwiched around those years are memories of eating ice cream on hot days at the chocolate bar, when she first got into soccer, picking her up from school with her beautiful and talented mom....then moving back to houston and gradually back into her life and feeling stunned by the gorgeous and gracious young woman she's become. congratulations my young friend! you are loved, and though  it may not be the coolest gift in the world to an 18 year old, let this be a little talisman that marks the beginning of a journey.

{the little girl in the collage is actually my aunt judy as she embarks on one of her first journeys}

wel-o-come!

wel-o-come! wel-o-come! we are happy to see you today!

this sweet chant greeted me when i visited orphans in the villages of malawi and today i sing it to welcome helen autrey campbell! my old friend maggie - she's not old, just our friendship is - though two weeks overdue finally got to meet her little girl. and i had the privilege of making her a piece of art.

{commissioned artwork for maggie campbell}

helen autrey

9.25.10

exchange

i've been thinking about this for some time. this idea of intersecting lives and crossing boundaries. we all live in our own little part of the world to which we become accustomed (be it under a freeway, in a 2 room shotgun, or a 20 room mansion). and unless you stay inside all day, doing a whole lot of nothing and talking to no one, your life intersects with peoples' about whom you know nothing about...even if it's only through media like books, news, or internet.
i drove to 3rd ward the other day in my yuppy car to a meeting at project row houses - an organization you should know about if you don't already. i had caleb with me, who is the best meeting baby EVER, and i observed the people who were doing the work in my neighborhood as i drove out. although my neighborhood is somewhat diverse as neighborhoods go, it is largely middle class and white. most of the laborers, however, are working to lower class, black or hispanic. most of them probably live in places like 3rd ward. i thought about how everyday for 4 years i drove to south houston to teach kids whose parents were mostly painters, housekeepers, contractors, etc. in other words, they came to places like my neighborhood to work while i went to theirs. and no matter how uncomfortable i am with some of the implications of that, i know enough to recognize that we are teaching the kids in the hopes that they can one day move OUT of their neighborhood. or at least out of the cycle of poverty and lack of higher education.
driving that day it suddenly struck me as so...ironic (channel alanis) that we work in each others neighborhoods, but that we don't live in the neighborhoods in which we work. some of us because we can't afford to and some of us because we don't want to. it also struck me that people who work as housekeepers or child care takers probably know so much more about their employers' lives than the other way around. as in they fold their underwear. scrape their dirt. come to their intimate abodes and feed their children. i want to acknowledge that there are so many conversations about race, class, education...that could come from my observations.  i have my own thoughts about each topic and more, and i am in no way intending to judge this observed "exchange," but it has most certainly wormed its way into my consciousness over the years. maybe the main point is to notice. notice others and how our lives intersect with so many who aren't like us and have different experiences just as relevant as ours. maybe if we notice more we will open the walls of our hearts more and begin to live with "loving kindness and compassion," in the words of my greatest spiritual teacher. in order to do that though, we must also begin to tackle the great inequities in our society and world - a topic so uncomfortable for those who have gotten so comfortable.  so first just notice...then maybe the rest will unfold.

cloud machine

the latest digital collage

there are so many things you can't do digitally that you can do by hand, and vice versa. i don't think you'll see it on this lower res image, but there is some nice subtle stuff going on the background with layers and scratching up the surface with a thin pencil shape. i think it needs more, but i don't know what....

any suggestions?

you come back....

i wonder if i am really ever going to be a good blogger. funny that i even wonder because it's not like anyone is grading me. but perhaps since i have spent roughly 30 of my 34 years in schools as a student first and a teacher later, i think along the lines of being held accountable somehow. it would be nice for me to do something without thinking about it attached to a letter or numerical outcome. does anyone really ever do something just because without thinking about what someone else will think? without wanting some kind of feedback on it? everyone who has a profession of some sort seems to be "graded" in some way by returns, marks, raises, or how others respond. maybe it is precisely school that orients us in such a way of thinking. so if i were to give myself a blogging grade based on how many times i have actually written something and how hard i have worked on getting more readers, i would have to say i am only getting like a c-.  and i have never been a c student. in fact, i only made one (ONE!) in my entire life. so i wonder if i can do this just because it makes me happy without thinking i have to "get" somewhere with it.... so far, this blog is way too esoteric for the image i want to post. can you do a 180 real quick?
a few weeks ago while walking with my dogs and baby, i passed a little house in my neighborhood for like the hundred and eighth time. and on this 108th day i noticed the beautifully aged paint and wood. in terms of homes it probably would not be considered "beautiful," but with the eye of an artist who tends to be drawn toward urban decay, it was the picture of beauty. i made a point to walk back by with my camera (iPhone just didn't cut it) and snapped a few, complete with a pink plastic horse in front. as i took snapshots, a man came out in shorts only and barked, "why you take a picture?" he must have thought i was some city official or a complainy neighbor, complete with my dog and baby entourage...but when i answered i simply liked the colors, he smiled, patted his bare belly and replied, "oh! well...it needs to be painted. you come back when it's painted?" no thanks, i like it just the way it is! "you come back, you come back," he kept demanding. he only seemed satisfied when i said i was an artist, but even that explanation still got a kind of quizzical half smile. maybe i'll give him a digital copy of the collage i made with his crackly little house.

oh, and yes, the non-legible sign on the garage does say (in bright red letters) NO TRESPASSING. so maybe that's why the belly man came out. in my defense, however, i stood on the very edge of where the street meets his property... maybe my armed stretched out with the camera in hand did the trespassing.

a whale of a day!

okay, so maybe that's the most overused way to put "whale" into a sentence but it kind of fits here....
shouldn't we all have a whale of a day on our birthday? i love love love birthdays and think we all deserve that one day...or week...or month to be celebrated! i got to have lunch with my mom and sister at a place called haven. it's my sister's fave, and quickly becoming a family spot. it's green from head to toe and everything on the menu is from within a hundred miles of houston. go local food movement! such an important thing for local farmers and small businesses. plus you know what you are eating and it's more likely to be real food versus all the fake stuff allowed in our diets these days. i mean who goes up to the counter and asks for some red lake #9 and a side of fries? of course you don't, but trust me it's in there...but i digress.
if i could have one birthday wish just for me, it would be to go whale watching. my friend katy and i are currently dreaming about it, so to make my wish come true i am posting my recently finished "jonah the whale" softie. it was fun to photograph him and make a little collage for the background.


and here he is from the starboard side of our ship.


has anyone seen, by the way, the movie "the science of sleep" with my movie star crush gael garcia bernal? making my whale collage reminded me of the beautiful scenes created with moving toys, felt telephones, and cellophane pieces. i would love to help create a movie like that. sigh. maybe someday, jonah the whale.
for my birthday my sister linsey gave me some cute little hair clips she found by an artist named mai mckemy. the care she put into her packaging is so splendid i almost didn't want to unwrap it! inside the tiny envelope is a little note in little letters reading "thank you!"


so it was indeed a whale of a day! here's hoping katy and i get to go whale watching someday, and we really will be in our little red boat on the sea...