Strawberries

No Longer Available

After the blue and green strings were pulled around the red blobs, wild strawberries appeared in the middle of the field. Painting the backside of the styrene gray changed the lighting of the piece and accented the texture of the berries which is diminished by the scan. The "twin" to this piece is "Joy to the World."

Joy to the World

No longer available
Determining the front or back; the top or bottom; or the left or right of this piece is entirely arbitrary. The white space is clear. This is a suncatcher that simply brings me joy. Now if I could only figure out how to suspend it on a window.

Holly Berries

9 x 12 Canvas

Red and blue strings were pulled across the green background. The combination reminded me of the holly bush right beside my front door. The mirror image of this stringy pair is "Go with the Flow". The green background made a very big difference in the results. Both pieces have a texture that is not shown by the scan.

Go with the Flow

No Longer Available

Blue and red strings were pulled to create the energy that flows across this piece. Brushes were used to created the confetti flying in the air. The mirror image of this one is Holy Berries.

Holy Cow

No Longer Available

Pink and purple strings were pulled to create this piece for Lisa. An orange string was also pulled, but it vanished. When the bright yellow was painted onto the reverse side, the cow seemed to jump into place. That is appropriate since Lisa loves cows.

Diving Dove

9 x 12 clear styrene

Lisa wanted a pink, purple and orange string painting. I see both a bird flying toward the ground and a big purple tornado. Turn this over and the textures and images are very different. Working with a clear support adds additional flexibility to the view of each painting.

Autumn Daze

No longer available

The leaves fell off the trees so quickly. Today all that can be seen are the bare black limbs.

Hutch

Photograph

This is Hurricane Hutch. He's learned to use that sad, sad face to his full advantage. Hutch is a Victorian Bulldog. If he can put it in his mouth, he will chew it. I'm struggling to convince him that I am not a chew toy.

Reflection

16 x 20 acrylic No Longer Available

The two sheets shown here are mirror images created by sandwiching several paint covered strings between the pages, applying pressure and pulling them out. The results remind me of a garden. What do you see? I did not use a brush as I worked on this one. The strings did all the work.

Kitty's Quilt

16 x 12 Collage

This is the same picture scanned from two angles. Each corner features a different quilt block. I assembled five of the quilt blocks shown previously to create a painted quilt. As I worked on it, Baby, our kitty, kept sleeping on the pieces. He got very good use out of this two dimensional quilt and I found a way to make the individual quilt blocks a bit more interesting.

Irish Lace

12 x 9 acrylic Yupo
The texture is provided by a paper doily used by the hospital during a spring stay. The scanner did not do the red tulips in the center justice, but a close examination will reveal the three red flowers in the center of the small nosegay. I tried to repaint the two splotched areas outside the lace, but the paint would not hold. I decided the table must be chipped.

Clearly Blue

No Longer Available
Much of the shading and shadowing has been created by the texture created by rippled pieces of gauze. I used the same tint of blue for the whole piece (a few smudges of yellow were not picked up by the scan). When I didn't know what I should do next, I called it quits and stopped painting. I was going to add to this later, but I never got re-inspired.

The dog ate it

16 x 12 acrylic canvas

For years I chuckled at my students who claimed the dog ate their homework. Puppy Hutch has convinced me that dogs do indeed eat the strangest things. This collage provides ample evidence. First, Hutch ate the original textured background off the canvas. Second, I collected other bits and pieces of items he shreaded and used them to create a new texture. Third, I created a visual of what the floor looks like after Hurricane Hutch has hit the scene. Anyone have good tips to help me tame Hurricane Hutch?

Animal Instincts

12 x 9 Acrylic No Longer Available

Here's my impression of what Hutch, our bulldog puppy, finds when he explores our back yard. He scents the trails of squirrels, rabbits, birds and humans. He also follows his natural instinct to chew whatever he can fit into his mouth. Thus the yard is littered with all kinds of bits and pieces.