New Website!!

Did I mention my super amazing friend Shanna took new photos and made me a new website???  Maybe I did already, but I'll say it again:
http://www.raraavisart.com/

For those of you that can't handle change and don't know how to spell or pronounce Rara Avis, I will soon be mirroring it to my old site name:

http://www.rarebirdart.net/

It may take a few days, so just be patient.

Dancing on Golden Eggshells in the Rain...Especially Created for Shanna

"My painting!! Finally!" Shanna exclaimed as I lugged the 50 inch long, 2 years overdue painting  into her  Morrocan inspired home.  She had tried to stuff it into her teeny tiny VW convertible the night before...fearful I would say I wasn't finished for another year, but it just wouldn't fit.  It may actually be 3 years overdue, but I'm trying to keep that hush hush.  I wanted this painting to be so personal yet so perfect for her home that I gave myself paralysis.  I have known all along what I wanted to paint, but I have issues with small decisions and completion.  I am overcoming these issues and fears with the invaluable help of my dear friend, Shanna.  I truly cannot thank her enough.  Her support and belief in me has gone above and beyond.  I am so very blessed to have her friendship.  This past year hasn't been easy on either of us and has surely tested us down to our souls.

I won't go into every personal meaning of this painting, but the intentionally long title should say quite a bit.  I tried to push myself again with more texture and material experimentation....so, I just have to say, those are real eggshells people!  I also used tiny metal and glass spheres and various mediums.  Several of my usual motifs are there: nature and growth, movement and freedom, awakening and light.  Shanna especially loves butterflies, so we've got those fluttering about..  And, when you turn off the lights, you'll see the fireflies.

Shanna broke into my home and took these wonderful pictures as well as many new better ones!  They turned out so great....you can see more by checking out my new website Shanna created for me: http://www.raraavisart.com/

Anne's Tree

My dear Aunt Anne passed away this past Saturday of lung cancer.  She was both extremely talented and stubbornly ornery.  Her art quilts were a sight to behold, if you did indeed get a chance to see them. She hid them away as fast as she worked on them.  Like me, her artwork was "not quite finished, not yet good enough."  We shared a type of fear of showing things off.  But she believed in me.  Whenever I showed her a piece I had been working on, she'd always say something in a feisty possesive tone like, "That one is miiine!".  Well, the painting above truly was hers.  It hangs above the mantle in my aunt and uncle's living room and I'd like to think this first of my tree ladies watched over her and kept her at peace during my aunt's last days...at least I hope it did.

My aunt had quit smoking many years ago, but I guess it just wasn't soon enough.  I have a love/hate relationship with smoking.  I dearly love so many of my friends and family that smoke...but I truly hate it.  I don't judge anyone that smokes (I have my own bad habits)...but I do wish they would take a moment to reconsider.
Aunt Anne, you will be remembered fondly.

Labor of Luh...uhh...Labor Powder Room

Ok, so I am pretty happy with the results, but I put a pantsload of work into this seemingly teeny tiny powder bath....and I only spread it out over like 9 months. Yay me.
Month 1: Fret over how and what and when and how much to spend and how and what and when....( You'll notice a turquoise and brown glazed piece of pottery in some of the pictures.  This was my "inspiration", but I also wanted it to resemble both tiger's eye and copper without being too coppery and glammy)
Month 2: Purchase supplies, fret over purchase because sample boards looked like chalky poo...not exactly my vision.
Month 3: Sand down existing texture, begin smoothing and prepping...stand and stare and fret.
Month 4 and 5 and maybe 6: Ignore uneasiness in the pit of my tum tum and ignore the bathroom itself...close the door and work on Halloween projects.
Month 7:  Bite the bullet and just go at it.  Sanding, texturing, taping, priming, base-ing, blending....panicking.
Month 8:  Begin venetian plaster...troweling and burnishing and hating.
Month 9:  At some point I got my "Aha!" moment and realized what I needed to do to transform chalky poo into rad gorgeousness. *Ahem*  So I put on like 3 more layers of Venetian and Highlights, hand burnished and then stained over it, waxed and buffed and buffed to a high polish with my friend the electric buffer...and then troweled on a wax mixture of real mica flakes at the midline and drizzled down into plaster and polished again.
Baby revealed.

(Big D bought and hung the super neato edison squirrel cage bulb pendant from this company out of Seattle called Rejuvenation http://www.rejuvenation.com/ ...they still use people to put together all the parts and make your order to spec...lots of cool reproduction and vintage inspired lighting and hardware.)

Morning To Evening

I know I know...I can't believe it either, I finally "finished" a painting.  I have a supply hoarding problem, but I'm making myself get over it and push more texture and quit letting my ideas get all crusty and gather dust.  I used glass and metal beads and a good bit of resin and slickies.  You can hang it in all four directions and allow it to mean all kinds of things.  For me, its the morning, the day and the evening of your life.  Its your connections to family, to nature, to the earth and sky...the sun and moon. Embrace it all and celebrate before and until the sun finally sets for good.

You want it, don't you?? Well, too bad...it's already sold:).

Tree Jeans

My favorite neighbor of all time asked me to paint up a special pair of art jeans, Elaine (and Bill too!) (they just left us in Soco for a peacful retirement in New Mexico...I literally cried after saying goodbye:(...)

I knew she loved my tree obsessed art, so I came up with these.  I miss you guys!!

Another Rodent!

This paper sculpted sweetie won't be fitting into any tiny nooks and crannies of the house.  She stands at like 14 inches and was maybe 30 or so in diameter (I forgot to measure, so she may have been bigger)  She has a removable glittered up flower and a spring forward heart.  I made her with lots of detail and care...looking forward to doing some more mache soon.
Click on the pics for a closer look.

Leather! Ya, I'll paint on that too.

Gots me some leather paints in the mail...can't wait to do more projects.  Here's a vintage purse with a variation of my birdie logo and a thriftstore belt with my beloved lizards to start.  Throw some moo-lah down here: http://www.scatterbirdie.etsy.com/  I sure do love beggin' for cash.

Jack and Roses

Not the booze kinda Jack, but I'd take that too.  My Canadian cutey commisioned a special pair representing a Jack and Sally kinda luuurrve...lotsa extra painted roses were a must.

Mice and Rats and Rats and Mice

More hand-painted mice and rats.  A Skirt, a dress...and patches for pillows...or whatever.

Cave Painting

Just was messing around with textures and the idea of primitive forms. Buy the sucker here: http://www.rarebirdart.etsy.com/

Sealife jeans

I had a request on my etsy shop http://www.scatterbirdie.etsy.com/  for sealife creatures with that same sweet, playful demeanor as the mice characters using bright turquoises, blues, sea green, orange, iris, and orchid pinks and purples.  She was overjoyed with the result:).

Yoga Blocks

12x12 self standing, stacking or hanging wood panel boxes featuring my favorite form of torture.  I hock my wares of enlightenment here: http://www.rarebirdart.etsy.com/