Glass and Paint Collaboration

 Hi All,

Well, today is one giant SNOWPOCALYPSE where I live in Portland, Oregon. Here, that means anything over 1/2 an inch of snow... we aren't used to this! We have about 4 inches on the ground right now, with more to come supposedly. Actually, it JUST started snowing again as I'm typing this! My work is closed today, and I can't make it over to where I'm painting the mural because there's a couple of giant hills in between me and their house. (Which my '86 Oldsmobile does not appreciate in the snow and ice!).  So, I am officially snowed-in... #cabinfever. I have to say though, even though I have things I need to be going out and doing, it is a nice excuse to slow down for a couple days, and catch up on life. After a cold walk around the neighborhood this morning, I'll be spending the rest of the day in my sweats, making valentines and watching Netflix. :) Enjoy the break, all you other Oregonians!

In other news, my cousin Terry sent me this in the mail! If you didn't get a chance to read the initial post on this project, see it here. Terry makes awesome glass and ceramic art, and I paint. So he's been making these glass pieces that have images imprinted on them, and he asked if I would paint him some things to put on his glass! We started with a lion :) I painted the background and the lion separately. I'm not sure if you can totally tell from the pictures, but the background is actually on the bottom layer of the glass, and the lion is on top. So there's a nice depth to this... you can kinda see the shadow along the right edge of the lion. I think it looks so cool! A really neat way to incorporate both our art forms. You can check out this piece and more of Terry's art here.

Happy snow day, if you are experiencing one, wherever you are!

Collaboration with my Cousin and Livin' the Dream

Hi All,

I've been working on a small 6" x 8" piece that will be a collaboration between me and my cousin Terry who lives in Chicago. He makes ceramic and glass art and asked me to paint a couple things that he could imprint on his glass. So, the background will be on the bottom layer of glass, and the lion will be on a layer above that. Should give it some depth and be cool looking. I'm excited to see the final piece! And I will definitely put that up here once I see it.

In other news, I'm feeling really happy. I finally have a "real job" where people pay me to do something I love to do everyday. And the job is reliably there, for the same amount of hours, and pay per hour, every week. (That part is HUGE). And everyone's really nice and I feel like I "click" well with my co-workers. I feel respected. And I get to exercise at a fancy athletic club because it shares a building with our school. I feel like.... I made it to somewhere that I really wanted to be. It took me a long time and a lot of soul-searching to come around to the place I'm in now. It has not been an easy, or obvious conclusion. But I have worked really, really hard for this, and I think I'm exactly where I need to be at this exact moment. 

Grateful. :)