QUILTING DONE ON BLUES

 I worked and worked the last two days on the straight line quilting on the Rhythm in Blues quilt.  And I finished it up today.  I am happy with it.

Now I'm thinking about ways to finish it.  I thing regular binding would look too heavy and facing would look unfinished.  There's got to be the perfect solution, I just need to figure it out.

Today would have been Moe's 27th birthday.  I still miss her.  Best Dog Ever.

URN FOR MOE

 We went on the West Side Art Tour yesterday - and it was a beautiful day, too.  

There were ten stops along the way at artist's home studios.  It was very fun and interesting to see them.  There were several artist's sharing the space and displaying their wares.

I saw this small urn and fell in love with it.  It would be perfect for storing Moe's ashes.  They have been in a very plain wood box.  This will be much more pleasing.

95/100

Friday!  I got 13 triangle blocks made today.  

I finally decided to go ahead and get some little glass pieces made with ashes of Moe in them.  I had thought of doing this when I first lost her, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.  Now I wish I had done it then.  I like having a little bit of Moe in my pocket.  She can go with me everywhere again now.

SADNESS AND JOY

These last few weeks have been a series of ups and downs, sadness and joy.

Several months ago, I remember coming across a story about a Wayne Thiebaud exhibit in a California Museum (now I can't remember where). But, the show was closing soon and there was no way I could get to see it. I searched and googled and searched and googled, but could not find out where the show was going next. Oh, I would have loved to see that show!

Skip forward to last week. I was going through my emails, when I spotted an announcement from Wetcanvas.com where someone mentions that a printmaker I really admire

Frances Gearhart

(this is her woodblock print, "Sundown", 1936)

is having a show opening in Pasadena, California.

Wonderful! We are going to be in Pasadena in October. So, I went to the Pasadena Museum of California's website and Bam! the opening page has an image of a Wayne Thiebaud painting!

And the title of the page says, Join us for the opening of the "Wayne Thiebaud: 70 years of Painting" exhibit, the same exhibit I hadn't been able to attend earlier! Yippee! We are going to be in Pasadena during that show! And it's a double-header, Wayne Thiebaud and Frances Gearhart. I am so thrilled and can hardly wait.

Both of these extraordinary exhibits will be in Pasadena October 4th, 2009 through January 31st, 2010.

To refresh your memory and whet your appetite, here are two Thiebaud paintings,

Cakes, 1963

and

"Down 18th Street", 1980

And as for the sadness... a few weeks ago was the one year anniversary of losing Moe. My life has gone on, but as that date approached I started thinking more and more about her and how much I miss her. My heart still aches.

After about two weeks of no painting (or any other art-making) because I've been busy with life and cabinet-painting, I finally sat down to paint. Here is my rendition of a Thiebaud. I learned a lot about his style while doing this. I found it very enjoyable and very frustrating. Thiebaud is a master of control. His painting has absolutely perfect circles! I'm a long way from that kind of accuracy. Barring that, I realized that when left to my own I tend toward muddy neutrals. Thiebaud uses a lot of colors, but they remain very clean, very true. I had to 'clean' up my style. He also is working in oil while I'm working with acrylics, so that makes for a few style differences.

Because Moe's 15th birthday, would have been October 9th, I painted this for her:

acrylic on canvas, 11" x 14", "Moe's 15th Birthday"

Sadness in the loss of such a grand companion, and joy in the memories.

MOE PORTRAITS

Here's a little portrait on panel. I started out thinking I wanted to do 'little dabs of color'. I seem to start out that way, then as I get into it, I revert back to my 'natural' way of painting.

I like the way this turned out.

Acrylic on panel 8" by 10"

Here's another:

This one is from a contour sketch I did in my sketchbook. I took a photocopy, blew it up and used the acrylic gel medium transfer method to get the sketch onto a panel.
This goofy painting captures more of the personality of Moe.

I guess I should explain the bottle cap. Moe loved chewing on metal objects (?!!). It started when she was just a pup. I think it eventually morfed into an obsession with Snapple bottle caps. She was perfectly content to hold a bottle cap in her mouth for hours. Every once in a while she'dcome over and say, "Go ahead, try to take it away from me....go ahead, try. Try. TRY."
If I ever had a need to get whatever it was out of her mouth, the only way was to turn her upside down over the sink. Ptooey, out it would pop.

Love you, Moe!

MOE - Oct. 9, 1994 to Sept. 10, 2008

My constant companion and walking partner, my joy, my responsibility, my Moe passed quickly today. Having lived with diabetes for two years now, she was ready to move on.

I miss her terribly, my arms ache from wanting to hold her one last time.

This was after a hike up Mount Si (2000), while Darrell and I were changing out of our boots, Moe wandered into nearby bushes, only to come out so pleased with herself because she had found some sh*t to roll in...

This was taken last week, on our last dog-biking outing. We made a big loop around West Seattle, stopping to find geo-caches along the way. It was a gorgeous day.

I miss her so much.