I once heard a saying or a phrase that went something like this,
I wish I was able to remember to keep a camera attached to my side, but with so many other activities going on around me during workshops, the camera just kinda gets put on the back burner... I haven't posted for awhile. It's been a whirlwind of teaching and in between that, filling orders and preparing for the next set of workshops... Time goes by too fast these days.
So many of them came from so far to visit and it just warmed my heart... Several even road tripped it from Idaho and Utah! Talk about adventurous spirits!
In preparation for their arrival, I dolled up the studio as best as I could; made some new changes, and additions (I can't leave anything alone). I even have a new logo (as seen above pics) One of these days, I will overhaul my website and stick it on there...
I dusted and rearranged all of my treasures...Events are good motivators for getting long overdue projects done...
Lindsay and I with her Gridlocked piece...
Out on the patio for lunch. The weather could not have been more perfect so we all had came out for a breath of fresh air and sunshine in between class... 
I must share some pictures of some goodies I have been working on in the studio as I gather up the tools, paints, papers, glue, scissors, and the like into the many boxes that make their way off to Hampton, Virginia for an Art and Soul Retreat this coming week as I prepare to teach a set of workshops... Art retreats are really just that. A time to just get away and meld with kindred spirits who appreciate the arts as much as you do... I love meeting women from all over the country(world) for that matter and hearing their stories, sharing ideas and just plain hanging out. Doing that teaching thing is fun too... I'm so excited to get the ball rolling... For those of you reading this that are not familiar with Art and Soul and other art retreats, most of them offer art vendor shows that go along with the event. The pieces shown here are just a portion of the goodies that I am bringing to the event; don't want to spoil the surprise, but I wanted to share some of the newest work I've created in what I call "miniatures".
(Here is an overhead shot of all the adornments I could not resist 
I really struggled with the size concept of this group.. On one hand, I wanted to ship a group of art that was small, easy to pack, and did not take up any space in the box.. By the time I got done adding all the crystal knobs, feet, and whatever else bling that seemed appropriate, I still had to bubble wrap like crazy, and in the end, the pieces wound up being much larger. All in all I was very happy with the results and do plan on creating more.
Enjoy the pics and hope to see you in Virginia!
Time to get "All Dolled Up"
and "Color your World"
for your to creativity to soar.
Sometimes I can be the biggest procrastinator...
Here is a before picture right before I painted it- the walls are sort of a
I found a lampshade awhile back shopping that sparked the inspiration for the color of this room!It goes perfect. In case some of you folks are wondering what that funny little mouse pad there is next to the pencils, it's a wacom intuos 2 graphic tablet- very fun for doing all kinds of digital work with a pen/pointer and or a mouse.
The floors are painted a grey blue which look really lovely with the green walls. Someone before us decided to paint the fir floors upstairs all of this color and then cover up quite a bit of it with carpet--- (one project at a time) --- but for right now I am very happy with the floor and wall color combo.
My favorite rocking chair next to one of my favorite paintings
An old desk I picked up several years ago for $5 at a garage sale. It was painted brown. I stripped the paint off and this is what was under it; natural wood with distressed cream paint left, so cool...
My dad used to store his tools in this rundown treasure at one time in his workshop before I rescued it... It was really damaged, but the hubby restored it, painted it and brought it back to life. I shall cherish this piece for many years...
As a small business owner who works with brick and mortar small businesses daily which includes everything from galleries, grocery stores, bookstores and everything in between, I hear daily that people have just stopped spending or severely limited their spending. I'm sure there are a variety of reasons which include unemployment, credit, bills etc etc. I also think that another reason is fear. Fear is a very powerful and motivating emotion and the press seems to be thriving on it lately which only compounds the problem.
Anyway, I checked out the post on the Always Upward:the blog.
~Here is an excerpt from the Always Upward blog,
written by Cinda Baxter, founder of the 3/50 Project.
~~
A friend turned me onto a great piece about strengthening the local economy by patronizing local brick and mortars. Written by Rieva Lesonsky (Consulting Editor at BizWomen.com), the post Support your small local businesses titled” touched my retail-lovin’ heart in a big way.
(Her article sprang from a customer service-related experiment last summer. In that case, a guy decided to purchase goods and services only from businesses whose owners he’d met. Before long, he was frequenting the same three restaurants repeatedly, which inspired Lesonsky to twist the concept slightly, then consider the implications of her own shopping habits:
With more and more small businesses on the edge of survival, I’ve been thinking about which three stores I would most hate to see go out of business, and how
I can support them with my dollars.
Puts things in pretty clear terms, pretty quickly.
And this got my wheels spinning.
Why not build a campaign tieing this three-door concept to the $50 Retail Challenge?
Call it the 3/50 Project, supporting local business in small, easily consumable bites.
The goal is simple: Ask consumers to frequent three local brick and mortar businesses they don’t want to see disappear, and to spend a very affordable $50 per month doing it.
Could be those three. Another three. Doesn’t matter. It’s about funneling revenue back into local business. You know-—the folks that pour money back into the community via commercial property taxes, payroll taxes, sales tax, and salaries (not to mention all that good will by way of volunteer time, silent auctions, sponsored softball teams, workshops, book signings, etc. )
~~
Here is a link to the actual project outline
http://www.the350project.org/home.html
Please spread the message by word of mouth, website or blog. Small businesses and your local economy is the glue that keeps this country moving.
God Bless
Lisa
The pics in this post with the exception of the first one are my own personal photos, but I wanted to share with you a few glimpses into my creative world. As time progresses before the magazine is released in May, I will be sharing more studio highlights on the blog. Maybe some nitty gritty pics of all the tools and stuff too. 
This is a photo of part of the studio right before a workshop. 
Some of my favorite vintage game treasures.
A cloudy snow day fills the space on this piece.
This particular painting is part of a series of a print collection that I did for the
Wee little Pinky balances on one vintage crystal knob.
Reminds me of wallpaper...
Along with the pale shades of color, I paired up vintage crystals and antique door knobs. It is such a shimmery combination. Combined with the layer of beeswax and a few rustic elements hammered into the wood substrates, the pieces make for a very luminous collection.
Another fun piece similar to the clock in the post below this one. 
More bling...
The Bingo game card aged so beautifully when a sheer layer of extra warm beeswax was applied over the top. You can achieve some amazing effects when applying wax at different temperatures to vintage papers because of its porous quality.
One of my favorites out of the whole grouping is this house mixed media clock.
I found some really worn and chippy glass cabinet knobs to use as legs for this piece. They are so fitting and work really well with the well worn, rusty door knob that sits on top of the clock.
'Love Blooms Here'
I'm beyond tickled! 
My favorite piece out of the whole group is this mixed media clock. A very substantial piece piece with crystal door knobs as legs supporting the body of the piece. Texture, vintage papers, graphite, found object and beeswax are used to complete this particular piece. More of a neutral almost earthy palette, that I do not do as often, but I love it!
Dripping beeswax over nails. With the exception of the working clock mechanism, I usually add the beeswax last after everything else is complete and nailed on to the surface. This gives the piece a more authentic look when the beeswax is applied carefully around things such as the chandy crystal to the left...
I do love color and this piece is no exception. For the article I tried to incorporate some monochromatic pieces (pieces with little to just one color) and then creating some pieces that just are wonderfully saturated with my favorite palette of colors.
Little tiny game piece surrounded by patinaed copper.
Another piece filled with lots of color, detail and found object...
Joyously Thankful (above) is a study similar to the Playground Found series.. I am still taken with the concept of building tiny vignettes within a larger composition and love building up all the details or little stories within each square and playing with the negative and positive spaces surrounding each element. It can be quite challenging, but I love the results when complete.
She's a cutie!
Untouched snow...until...
Working together to build a snowman.
Side garden
Back to the studio...
Please excuse my absence away from blogging. This time of year is filled with holiday madness.... Good of course. I can't complain by any means, but between the studio and the family leaves me time for not much else.. Except for the annual Christmas tree which came late this year partly because of Thanksgiving and because I had a hard time just fitting it in.. But it is a tradition in our family to get out the camera, gloves, cookies and head off to the local Starbucks first for something warm and sweet, before we get out Christmas tree.
Well, one week later and most of the tree is decorated. The top is still sparse and not finished with some of the details still needed. This tree was way more work than I anticipated but it is grand and stately. We ended up taking 3' off the top and literally pruning the back off of the tree flat so that it would not come out to the center of the room and also pruned about 2' or so around the whole base of the tree...
Getting a little holiday decorating in finally!
I recently wrote a technique/project article for Cloth Paper Scissors Nov/Dec, o8 issue about the fun and creative uses of sheet copper. It is fun to roll out the big sheets and slather on the distressing agent, let it sit, age and patina, but I save even the smallest of pieces because you never know where they might wind up...
I have talked about these paper doll girls before. In fact, not too long ago, one of their friends wound up in a very pink painting...This was a too fun project... A magical copper theater for little girls to share there giggles and secrets... Oh and I am thinking about this as a workshop too, I may tweak it a bit though. Since re-reading my article, I have decided I may need to make a few changes to the theater, or the girls or the copper, who knows..
The theater itself stands about 16" square.
This piece titled Kindred Spirits was also in the article. I wrote about this piece on the blog awhile back ago and you are welcome to read it. It is one of my all time favorite pieces. It too is embellished with hammered and patinaed copper.
I've always defined my color palette as intense but diluted. Diluted, I mean that I never use just one color or one wash of anything. I tend to do several washes of color and then layers of water soluble crayon over the top, then graphite pencils, more paint, etc. By the time I am near completion, what was once very bright, singular and flat has become multi-layered, and diluted with so many colors and washes that add to the wonderful visual textural playground if you will. Diluted may not be the correct terminolgy, but to see my working style and to know that I come from a classical fine art watercolor background, you can see where I might get that thinking from.
This piece titled "Open the eyes to my heart" has lots of visual and textural elements going on within its 8x10x4" wooden confines. Just a simple shape of a heart for lots of impact and lots of deep intense reds. I outlined or grided the outside edges of this piece and the sides of the substrate to create individual little vignettes to play with much like the Gridlocked piece that some of you are familiar with. I really enjoy doing that as it challenges me and gives me a chance to explore tiny spaces but still am able to work on a larger scale all at the same time! I doodled away on this piece and added lots of found element and embellished with nails and tacks as well... It's hard to see from the pics but a layer of beeswax is also added for additional texture and dimension to the piece too... Plus beeswax smells great!
Patinaed copper wings are the finishing touch.
It's all in the details...
Autumn inspired houses.
Love those crystal door knobs- my latest obsession! Graphite pencil and rust enhances their beauty-LOL
Three in a row... Cozy little neighborhood
Magic #3 
