April Fools!

Mother Nature has pulled a classic April Fool's joke on Northern Arizona today. Following about a week of balmy weather and highs in the low 60's, I awoke this morning to 3" of white powder on the ground. How do you like them apples?

Kris has been gone for four days now, and I'm doing fairly well; I haven't missed any meals or appointments, and I still remember what day it is. We'll see how I fare once I knuckle down in the studio and start getting creative...

For now I'm taking care of a couple of major cleaning projects, the laundry room/pantry yesterday (omg! it sparkles!), and today is for a terminal clean on the kitchen, then tidying up the studio, putting everything in its place so I can work without distractions. I think I'll start on a new assemblage piece, and finish painting an old one.

While tidying up the studio,
I deconstructed some beautiful old Reader's Digest Condensed books that Mom sent home with us from Arkansas. I love the old RDC's! Remember how they had the most beautiful covers? This one's my favorite of the bunch. Wouldn't it make a gorgeous art journal cover?

Earlier in the week I made a couple of mail art pieces to send out. One is for a mail art call titled "Virgin Mary Rocks!" (front and back) and the second is in response to a mail art post card welcome I received from on of the IUOMA folk (front only).

The "Virgin Mary Rocks" piece is collaged on an acrylic painted piece of scrap matboard, outlined with black stabilo pencil; the "Ave Maria" is written in Latin using a deep blue gel pen. The "Greetings from..." postcard is an old image from my "Reflections in Red Rock" collection, titled "Cathedral of the Ancestors." The "Reflections" were alot of fun to produce, demanding and exacting, but fun!

And here are the two pieces I've received, so far. The one on the left is from a woman in Greece, and the other is from Washington state.

i have yet to design a return postcard for the lady from Greece; I think I'll do a small watercolor and pen piece of an Arizona sunset, and tuck in some of the slot canyon stamps from a prior post. What fun!

Well, I'd surely love to stay in here and visit with you awhile longer, but lunch beckons, as do the dirty dishes, and unfinished laundry, and all the things I'm anchoring myself to realtime with, so...

Thanks for visiting; come again soon. Don't take any wooden nickels!