Here are few shots of things in the garden that are inspiring me lately. I started growing some veggies from seeds this year. Brussell Sprouts, Eggplant, and Leeks where the only things to actually sprout. Since this photo I have moved them into the little veggie garden that existed when we moved into our house last year.
The fig tree was starting to bloom, until we had it trimmed! Not sure there will be any yummy figs this year, but at least the tree will be happy and healthy!


The nectarine tree has more than doubled in size! It fills with beautiful little pink flowers before the fruits start to develop.


And can someone please tell me how to get rid of these bastard grasshoppers!! They are terrorizing the whole yard!! I hate bugs. Despise them. Fear them! Every time I water I inevitably disturb one and send them into a hoping rage. Which in turn makes me run screaming like a tiny little girl! Its kind of embarrassing! I always end up feeling like an ass! But these things fly at you, you know?

Quick post tonight. I have been working hard on getting ready to hang a show at the library in Calabasas, CA. They have a bunch of huge wall spaces that have inspired me to create some new larger pieces. The two ladies on the horses are 36"X48" each.


This picture is of two couples in the 1920's standing in an arched walkway. I love this image. It reminds me of old Hollywood and the days of Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin. In the background there are fabulous old magazine ads and articles featuring such Hollywood legends as Marlena Dietrich, Cyd Charisse, Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner. Its so nostalgic. I love this era!

These photos are really terrible. I am kind of embarrassed! I will replace them as soon as the sun comes up! Best to shoot these outside in natural light!

Yowser!! 10% off today only!!

Yesterday was a HUGE day!!

First, thanks in part to being featured as the Blog of the Week on decor8 (Thanks Holly!!) this blog received twice as much traffic in one day than it has since I started! Same with Creative Swoon! Two blogs, both with twice the traffic!! I am beaming!!

Second, Esty.com reached a huge milestone. The 50,000th item was sold, and since the site has only been up 10 months, that's a pretty incredible feat!

To celebrate both major markers and thank everyone for taking the time to stop by I am offering 10% off of all items in my Etsy shop!! One day only, today April 26th. Simply hit the Buy Now button, mention this post in the "Note to seller" field on the check out form, and wait for me to send you a revised invoice! Do not pay the automatic Etsy invoice.

Prickie.com

Joy, of the Oh Joy! blog, recently posted about Prickie, a new online shop for the badge crazy peeps out there! (You know who you are!) They are tons of fun and have work by over 150 really talented people! I love the site! My images can be found here. The etched women have bright, vibrant colors wrapping the edges. I just placed an order and when it arrives I'll take a pic of the sides. The logo will be changing soon to match my new look!

(Thank you to Joy for encouraging me to submit!!)

Gift Certificates

I was finally inspired by a client to get it together and design a Gift Certificate! With my new look settled it was actually a really quick adaptation, but sometimes you just need a kick in the toosh!

These GC's can be used in a few different ways. Purchase a certain size outright or help put money towards a friends commission. They can either be made out for a certain dollar amount, or for a specific size to keep the price a secret.

Feel free to contact me for more info!!

Pop Experiment

I recently got in touch with Zach over at Pop Experiment. I somehow stumbled upon the site and loved the ecclectic mix of artists he has listed in the Visual Arts section (including Kenichi Hoshine, who I recently featured on Creative Swoon). Agnes2 is up there representing me! Take a scroll through the work at PE. It is wonderful to see all the talent busting their butts out there!

Wedding Portraits

These are a couple of commissions I recently finished. I am so excited about them. One is 8"x10" and the other, of the couple dancing, is 16"x20". Both are portraits intended to be given as wedding gifts.

My favorite wedding portrait that I have done is called Jamey and Adam. At the time of the commission I had not met either of them, but in the nearly 2 years since their nuptuals we have become great friends. It is fun for me to look at that piece now and see all of the background items and how they truly do represent these two. I got to know them through another persons eyes before we ever shared laughs over sushi!

The season is upon us! Dahm Dahm Da-Dahm . . .

Psst! I just uploaded lots of new work to Etsy!! Take a look why don't cha!

Today was a good day!!

Today I drove out to meet Mr. Brad Cook at his lovely store SHOW in Los Feliz! What a great find! Brad carries vintage furniture, art books, and a wonderful array of designer items including John Derian, Tord Boontje, Jason Miller and Sarah Cihat just to name a few.
I am proud to announce that Show now carries my work too! I am so excited to be a part of this wonderful space next to the work of many artisans who I admire! It is a major step in my evil plan . . . art and good design for everyone! And after seeing all of the goodies at Show, I know Brad has the same mission!

(All images courtesy of Brad Cook)

Jury Time Again

I swear you will never has as much fun with a Jurying duty as you will participating in the Projekt30 May Exhibition.

You get to click through a bunch of exquisit work and rate each artist entires. You decide, on a scale of 1-5, what you think of the entire submitted body of work! You'll discover great new artists and yes, of course my stuff is up there too. So get clicking!!

The final 30 will be on display at www.Projekt30.com May 2006.

Style Bakery Contest

Over at Stylebakery.com they have teamed up with Girlshop.com to host their second annual "on the rise" awards!! And you could win a gift certicficate for voting!

They are looking for the best new indie designers working in a variety of fields including Jewelry, handbags, accessories, clothing etc. I have placed myself in the running in the Home/gift category.

Get out and vote for your favorite little guy who is working hard for a little love! Everyone who votes will be entered into a drawing and be eligible to win a $250 gift certificate to girlshop.com (one winner to be chosen at random).

The voting deadline is June 1, 2006, so hurry, hurry!

Click on the flashing logo you will be taken to the pages entry form.

Self Portrait Tuesday 4/11

OK, Self Portrait Tuesday post number 2! Seems like I might be able to keep up with this! I took this photo for my passport in 2001. When writing my declaration, or whatever it is you have to write on the back, I messed up and ripped up the image. When I went to throw it out, I thought, as a mixed media artist, better to keep it and glue it to something (did I mention this was 2001?) I have moved these scraps of paper through 5 homes in 3 cities. They are still not glued down, still not in the garbage either! At least now they have been used for something. I think I will cleanse myself of them while the sting of schlepping is still fresh in my mind! Fool indeed!

I like the nostalgic feeling I get participating in each weeks SPT. My first semester in art school I was in a class called Visual Literacy. Every week we would have an assignment to Graphically represent ideas and images, etc. It was a real challenge to be original, and not always go for the obvious solution, to really push myself. Hey, I was barely 21, alone in NYC for the first time. I had bigger fish to fry! Now, I see the value in the lessons, and look forward to the weekly challenge of SPT. And the best part is that no one is grading me ;)

Notecards on Etsy

I have finally gotten a chance to photograph the notecards I have had printed an put them up on Etsy. These are all part of a limited print run.


There are also new original works up, and more to come throughout the week!

(All images © 2006)

Crazy Weekend

It seems not matter how ambitious I am with my weekend plans, 1000 things always spring up!

I am way behind on my blogging and sadley now is not the time to catch up, but I thought I would post a quick shot of a piece recently finished that was commissioned as a 90th birthday present to be given to the subject. I am just so captivated by her eyes! Such a fun piece to have done!

Be back later with news of more new art and items going up on Etsy!

Ta Ta For Now!

Self Portrait Tuesday

So, here is my first attempt at Self Portrait Tuesday . . . and even though it is Thursday, I am going with the better-late-than-never frame of mind!!

Why am I an April Fool you ask? Because for a split second I thought I could get a little love from the meanest cat in the world! See him turning away!! He only has eyes for one person, and that would be my husband. He simply tolerates me! I live in his world.
Lewis, the cat, is so cruel that he will walk up to our younger, but larger, cross-eyed Siamese cat Charlie and SLAP HIM for no reason. Do you know how hard it is to get a cat to sit in the corner?? Especially one with Freddy Kreuger nails? (cant cut 'em! He wont let us!) And yes, I am aware of the irony pertaining to the recent story of the cat in CT, named Lewis, who had a restraining order placed against him! (Kind of a funny story. Click here to read.)

And as it is his world, I thought I'd let him pick out a self portrait too! He is so vain, he posed!

Fresh batch!

Gadzooks! The pieces that where being sold at Kingfisher Road pretty much sold out in 5 days!!!! I have been working hard to get more work done to replace the stock. Here is a quick shot of some of the stuff I have been working on. I will be taking most of these pieces into the store first thing Friday morning. If you see something you like email me and I will hold it back! They are all 6" x 8".

Free shipping ending soon!

Just a reminder that the free shipping offer on items in my online shop ends Friday!! Lots of new stuff has been added, including 8"X10" prints. Be sure to take a look! (Not sure why the images are blue!!! Check out the site for the real deal!!)

(applies only to US shipping)

Creative Swoon now posting!

So, I have decided it is time to get Creative Swoon off the ground! I have been trying to hold out until I could get my HTML skills up and running, but I think I will just have to play as we go! I want to have some fun!!

Check out my first post about the Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, CA.

Last chance to Vote!

Here is your last chance reminder to help Jury the April Exhibition at Projekt30!! As I said in my previous post: Click through the mystical array of varying mediums and dizzying talent and be sure you are ready for a little Oohhing and Aahhing! You get to rate each individual artist on a scale of 1-5. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the quality, and quantity(!), of work. And yes, my stuff is up there too!

The final 30 will be on display at www.Projekt30.com April 1-30, 2006.

Great weekend!

What a great time we had up North this weekend. The drive from LA to San Francisco, or really the East Bay, can be a pain. The drive up Interstate 5 is 5.5 to 6 hours of dry, brown hills and a few slaughter houses (which is enough to turn you vegetarian on the smell alone!). However, in Spring there is a lot of green, and a good portion of the fruit trees and crops are starting to grow. The landscape is peppered with trees sprouting and flower fields. It was on the verge of raining the entire drive there, so the quality of light had an almost cozy-ing effect, making us wish we could curl up by the fire instead of being trapped in our rental!

We stayed with friends and the morning before setting out for Calistoga (another hour and a half drive each way!) to the wedding which prompted the trip, we took a lazy walk through the neighborhood. Berkeley is a beautiful place to walk around, especially when everything is just beginning to bloom! Again, it was overcast and threatening to soak us any minute, so we set out knowing we might regret leaving the house! Our friends Basak & Mark took us to a garden begun by Alice Waters in the local middle school (I will be posting about this amazing place separately.) Then we roamed through an nursery that had more trees and flowers and shrubs than anyplace around our house in LA! I have to say that that is probably a blessing because I was already formulating a strategy in my head to bring plants back with us in the car! My husband would have loved that! I would go crazy if I had access to that kind of green house right down the street! It would be like a forest in our backyard!!

Mark was to serve as the Cellist for the ceremony so we set out for Calistoga a few hours early. The wedding was at the beautiful Hans Fahden Winery. This is an incredibly romantic place to get married. The grounds consist of ponds and trails, geese and ducks, and of course the vineyards! To top it off there is a huge covered deck wrapped in Wisteria over looking the entire pond area. The ceremony was touching and emotional. The bride, Jane, was stunning! Both of them looked beautiful and happy, as you should be on your wedding day! ;) It was such a surprise when the doors opened for the reception, and a cave was revealed! The environment was just perfect. Candles and flowers everywhere. It was one of those weddings that is unpretentious and all about the experience of sharing the occasion with family and friends! Made the 15 hours of total driving very worth it!

Overall we had a great time this weekend visiting with friends and sharing in such a personal occasion. We where really honored to be invited to Jane and Oddells wedding! And a special thanks to Basak and Mark for inviting us to stay with them. We really miss all of our No. Cal. friends now that we are in LA and rarely get to hang out! I have to say though, it is good to be home!!

What is the most incredible place you ever attended a wedding?? Please share with us!!