Traffic in Seattle

Traffic!!! In Seattle. I think the traffic engineers should have to drive the roads they have planned work on, in a time-crunch-gotta-get-there way to see how super fine the plan is working out. Have you been on the West Seattle bridge lately? or driving to the stadiums lately?
Frustrating...

Desperate in Seattle

Carbon Footprint

I drove behind a car the other day, SUV style...and it was sporting a bumper sticker which read, "I offset my carbon footprint with TerraPass"...

So, I went online to check it out.

Kids and Art

My daughter needed to do a school project, decorate a t-shirt. She got out the marker pens and began. I suggested painting it with acrylics...and off we went to the studio. She mixed the color she wanted and practiced on one of my shirts that had an unfortunate stubborn stain. Here are a couple of images of the process.

Inviting kids into the studio is an excellent way to remember how easy it is to be creative.

Seeing Art

I recently took a class from Rita Natarova and it changed how I look at things. Granted, had I ever studied art formally, I would have learned this type of thinking and looking that the old masters used and students are taught, but, I'm a renegade, and have just lurched along, making art my way, and wondering why some of the things I make don't end up looking like I ha imagined.

There are edges, hard sharp edges of things, and soft edges, and shades of light to dark that I hadn't really notices before, and when artists hold out their paintbrushes and squint at things, I never really knew what they were doing. In fact, I was embarrased to ask in the class. Rita said, don't guess...everything is in front of you, just measure it. (How?)

Here are two pieces I made one before Rita's class, and one after, both worked on from the same sketch. I am improving! It's not too late to teach an old dog....