Taking a Break

Due to many issues, I have to take a break from blogging.

Thank you for visiting the blog.  I have enjoyed  your blogs and hope to visit those as often as possible.

Origami by Won Park

I received these from a friend in an email and wanted to share them.

How fun would it be to take these to the bank and pull them out at the teller window? I've heard bills referred to as "folding money," but this is crazy!

Origami is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding.The goal of this art is to create a representation of an object using geometric folds and crease patterns preferably without the use of gluing or cutting the paper, and using only one piece of paper.

Won Park  is the master of Origami.  He is also called the "money folder", a practitioner of origami whose canvas is the United States One Dollar Bill.

Bending, twisting, and folding, he creates life-like shapes in stunning detail.

 

The Last Roses of Fall

The temperature today is around 75 degrees, perfect for pruning the last roses of fall. I have several different roses, and this lavender rose is a favorite.

This is a rather small rose, but in April they are HUGE.

While pruning this rose bush, I noticed that several looked different.

A little lighter than the rose should be.

almost white rose from the same bush

And then, at the bottom, this red rose.

A picture of both the almost white and the red rose on the same bush.  Is this unusual?  Have you ever seen this? 

This is what the bush produced for over eight years.

An Orchid for my Dentist

Last fall, I was eating some nuts, when all of a sudden I felt something in my mouth that wasn't a nut.  It was my crown that suddenly fell from a left back molar.  Oh, no.  It was night.  There was nothing I could do because the right back teeth were also missing. I stopped eating and went to sleep.

The next morning I called my dentist, but some of his machinery wasn't working so his office was closed.  A friend, Sharon, called, and when I told her my troubles she gave me the name of her dentist.  I called and Dr. Chen told me to come in immediately.

I drove to her office, expecting to get a temporary, but received terrible news.  Another crown was broken and I had an infection.  Of course, the financial news was worse.  She wanted payment before all of the permanent crowns could be replaced.  (We're talking thousands, not hundreds.)  I looked at her and said, no way.  Good-bye.

I live only 10 minutes away and she had called my house before I got home and told me to get my little narrow behind right back to her office.  She would work something out.  She did the work and against all of her rules allowed me to make monthly payments so I could get my new teeth.

This painting was my thanks to her.  She didn't know me but trusted me.  It's all paid off now and I'm eating away.  Another good thing that happened is I lost 15 pounds because it was so difficult eating some foods while I waiting for her to complete the work.

Painting by Carmon

No! I did not paint this.  I am not that good.  It was painted by a former student of my husband, Lindsay Carmon, who was a Ph.D student at the University of Michigan.  My husband came home and told me about one of his students who was living in his van that was full of paintings.  "Bring him here," I told my husband.  We always had room for another person.

Carmon moved into our home and was the most unexpected gift we've ever received.  He was quiet and unassuming, refusing to live in the main house, choosing instead to live in the basement.

Everyday while we were at work, he would find something that needed repair, fix it, and quietly hand us the bill from the hardware store.  He refused to accept any money for his labor, only money for parts.  He fixed things we didn't even know were broken. He was concerned that someone could easily enter our house from the patio door so he developed an elaborate safety system for the door.

One day we came home and he had all of our sons painting the outside of the house.  We were stunned.  We had never seen our boys work so hard.

Eventually, Carmon finished school.

We came home one day to an empty house.  Carmon was gone without saying good-bye. But he left this large painting, which I had always admired, with a heartfelt thank you note.  The painting was leaning on a wall in the living room and I was so moved that tears began to fall down my face.

We kept in touch over the past thirty years and he became an art teacher in Alaska.  We were so happy when we were invited to Alaska because we thought that at last we would have a chance to see him again.  Alas, when we arrived in Alaska and called him, we discovered that he was in the lower 48 and we would not see him.

Last year we talked by telephone and I told him how much we still loved the painting but had sent it to our son in Atlanta because we didn't have a wall large enough to display it in Las Vegas, where we now live.  I missed having the painting so much that on a trip to Atlanta I took a picture of it and had a graphic shop make me a copy which we display in our home.

I asked him how his painting was going and he told me that the painting above was the last thing he ever painted.  There was no more.

A Rose is a Rose

When I'm stressed or depressed, I paint roses. So, today I painted another rose.  I do this because when I'm looking at the petals, I have to concentrate so my mind won't hold anything else.  This is how it eases my stress or makes me forget my worries.  I don't try to make a perfect rose, just the journey of painting it is all I ask, anything to keep my mind off my problems.

When I painted my first rose I swore I would never do another one, but I can't resist. I just love them.

For you, Janie, I gave it a couple of thorns.

Obama - Red, White, and Blue

This is my first color try of Obama.  I'm not satisfied with it but it should be posted.  I will get better if I keep trying.  An earlier pencil drawing in on the blog.  I'm still having problems getting facial tones so my next post will be of different ways of coloring faces.

First Butterfly

This is my first attempt at painting a butterfly.  I love butterflies for their beauty and freedom.

Singing the Blues

This was done several years ago after I saw a picture in a magazine.  I hesitated to post it because her features are strange but there is something about this that I really like.  She looks sad so I titled it "Singing the Blues."

Strange flowers

This is my representation of a similar image I saw in 2004.  I fell in love with the picture and wanted to create my own version.

Flower Garden - Experiment with watercolor on canvas

Actually, everything I do is an experiment.  As you know I'm self-taught and didn't start painting until after retirement. This was painted a few years ago on canvas for watercolor.  It's very different from painting on paper and I might try it again because you don't need to buy a frame for the painting.  My three favorite flowers are here:  roses, irises, and sunflowers.

Sammy

Sammy Davis, Jr., one of the most talented performers in the world.  He was an actor, singer, dancer, and impressionist. He could do it all.

From a picture on the cover on Legacy Magazine.

 Mr. Bojangles is on my ipod and I play it frequently.  Whenever I hear the song, I see Sammy's life.

"Mr. Bojangles" is a popular song written and recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker in 1968 and covered by many other artists. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band took the song to #9 on the Billboard pop chart in 1971.

The song was inspired by an encounter with a street performer in the New Orleans first precinct jail and not the famous stage and movie dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson nor the New Orleans blues musician Babe Stovall.

According to Walker, a murder on the 4th July weekend of 1965 precipitated the arrest of all the street people in the area. In the crowded cell, a disheveled homeless old man began to talk to Walker who had been arrested earlier for drunkenness. The man told various stories of his life but the tone darkened after 'Mr Bojangles' recalled his dog who'd been run over. Someone then asked for something to lighten the mood and the man obliged with a tap dance.

Walker mentions that all the men in the cell had nicknames to prevent easy identification by the police. The dancer's nickname was 'Mr Bojangles'. In his autobiography 'Gypsy Songman',  Walker makes it clear the man he met was white. Further, in an interview with BBC Radio 4 in August 2008 he pointed out that, at the time, the jail cells in New Orleans were segregated along color lines.

from Wikipedia

Football Player

Just trying something different with a portrait.

Most of my work is experimental because I am self-taught and didn't make any attempts to produce anything until after retirement. It may seem funky, but to me art is what you feel.  I was trying to find a new way to do portraits, rather than just focusing on a face.  But I will continue doing just faces.  Later this week I will post one I'm finishing of Sammy Davis, Jr.

I've tried doing portraits with watercolor but I cannot get the face colors right and end up losing all detail.   I really enjoy drawing with a pencil because it is so portable.

UPDATE  - I think the player's last name was Taylor.  I didn't know him and had never heard of him, but when I read his story after he was murdered, I was overcome with grief.  I couldn't get him out of my mind.  I saw strength in him and mountains represent strength to me.

Husband

We Love Books

Rose in a Pink and Green Vase

Rose in a Pink and Green Vase

I saw a similar picture in a magazine and tried to put my twist onto it.

Roses, Roses

Roses, Roses

(Part of the picture didn't scan)

Three Faces

11X15

Watercolor

Janie's Flower

The flower has been renamed after a blog follower, Janie.  Thanks for your encouragement.

A Whole Lot of Flowers

A Whole Lot of Flowers

approx. 23X18

Tribute

Rhonda

In the collection of Dr. Deloris Saunders

Art for Sale

If you are interested, next week I will measure and price the art work that is available for sale.  If you are interested please contact me at christella@cox.net.  Thank you for the compliments on the work.

Notecards are also available.

Here I Come

Here I Come

Experiments with Springwoods

Springwoods 1

4X6

Springwoods2

Cool Ladies

Q and Friend

In the collection of Kris Colley

Lady in Circles

Crazy Quilt Lady

In the collection of C. David Moody, Jr.

Lady in the Park

In the collection of the Artist

Available as a note card

Lonely Lady

13 1/2 X 10 1/2

Watercolor

Little Lessons

Lemons and Lace

Teapot and Lemon peel

Lady in the Olden days

Dead Tree at Sunset

11 X14 1/2

First Bird on cruise to Belize and Panama 2008

Country Puzzle

More Flowers

Big Flower

Orange Pop

11X14 1/2

Spanish Flag

Frangipani

In the collection of Eldred Ellis

Susan's Lilies

In the collection of Susan Rogel

Waterlily

In the collection of Cameron Moody

Birthday Lilies

In the collection of Letitia Byrd

Flowers and Rocks

What is it?

Sweet Violets

10X10

An Orchid for my Dentist

In the collection of Dr. Chen

Waterfall Plant

9X11

watercolor

Birthday Bouquet

Flowers and Mountains

10X14 1/2

Birthday Lily

Looks like bugs to me

18 X 23 1/2

Christmas Card

Red Flowers and Rocks

11X15

Christmas Butterfly

Flower Mix

18 X 23 1/2

Sunflowers on a Boat

30 X 22 1/2