"Kali," an assemblage of odd bits

In April 2013 I was getting ready to go to Bob Hoffa's yoga retreat in Zion, where I would be singing and playing harmonium and practicing yoga. Yay! A few days before departure, Bob asked if I had a Kali for the front of the classroom.

"No," I said, and as an  afterthought, "But I could make one!"

I thought about it or a few moments and asked, "Would it be o.k. to make a Kali out of dolls?"

"Sure!"

And the idea was born. I went to Saver's and pursued the bags of children's toys and found some old barbies and a Ken doll.

I began to study paintings of Kali and the meaning behind all the symbols, because at first glance, Kali can be a bit frightening to say the least: Red tongue hanging out, wearing a skirt of severed arms, holding a human head and a necklace made of severed heads, standing on a dead Shiva. All these things mean something, and  I recommend if you are remotely curious.... google it.

I was inspired, and taking my loot to the Pink Angel Art Boutique, I set to work priming and painting my barbies, and using my vintage doll bits to make her clothes. The wonderful thing about collecting almost anything is that you have almost everything when you need it for a project like this:

On Any Given Day....

This is what I may be up to in my garage, the studio, or out roaming the wilderness searching for nature's art supplies:

The reason I needed a studio in the first place (this photo was taken after I got the studio, but it was snowing so much that I was stuck at the house, I hadn't yet move all my supplies downtown.

 I received this dollhouse kit for my birthday this year, here are some pics in progress...

...that is, before truly knocked it off my dresser and I found it in hundreds of pieces all over the floor. Cats, you know? Fortunately all the pieces are perfectly in tact so I'm sure it will be just as fun and all-consuming as the first time.

I take my art very seriously.

This is my serious, contemplative face.

It was a lot of fun making my dino-dolls.

One day soon they will be in a scene.

Desert glass I found in Sedona while "hiking" with Gina! I say "Hiking," in quotes, because, I ended up puttering around in slow circles searching for bits of blues and reds.

 It was like beach combing, accept really hot, and no ocean. Look at all these blues!

Melted bottles!

 Purple Glass! Score!

The entire loot.

 Mother nature's creation.

 Beautiful combs.

Why I'm not allowed to paint in my nice clothes.

When I got these frames it made the miniature shadow boxes look big!

Bi-Annual Blog Update (I forgot I had a blog/ Time flys when you're gluing Stuff to Stuff

Hello dear friends,

I think about blogging a lot. It's supposed to be my art journal, but I forget about it most days until I'm going to sleep (the magical part of the day when you remember all the things you could have done, or had on your to-do list and forgot. Sometimes I dream that I forgot to so stuff and it's later in the week than it really is, and then I wake up in a slight panic.)

Anyhoooo, A LOT of things have happened in this half of the new year! Here is a brief synopsis:

January: I have a show at Gallery One13 galleryone13.com 111 E. Aspen Ave. I hang a large frame of 100 2.75in square shadow boxes and 50 2in shadow boxes, along with a few larger (by my standards pieces.) The January and February Flagstaff First Friday ArtWalks are pleasantly busy (not overwhelmingly so) and many of my pieces found their way into new homes.

February:Ma and I say, "Hey, lets go check out these office spaces downtown and get studios!" We go to see spaces, some down in the basement of the Knackard building, but on the second floor a space had just come up for rent and we take a look, just for hey of it, and AHHHHH! It is a beautiful space with little glass window like we like and lots of light and more than enough room for the two of us. So rather than us each getting our own studio, we get a big one to share!

March: Who knows? I made stuff.

April: I enter a piece into the Artists' coalition of Flagstaff and Flagstaff Cultural Partners "Recycled Art Exhibit." (Wouldn't that have been nice to know on here earlier, whoops, next year I will be up to date, I hope!) I create a special piece called, "Look into my Heart." (I'll make a special blog just about that one.

May: Ma and I dub our studio, "The Pink Angel Art Boutique," and we open for the First Friday Art Walk. We hang up our creations, and our buddy Gretchen Lopez hangs up some of here wonderful paintings! Nobody knew yet that we are here, so we put up pink arrows and voila! some curious souls followed them to our place and looked at our art!

Side note: I start belly dancing again! Yip! Yip!

June: I am featured in the June issue of Mountain Living! (more on that!) We open for art walk again and more people find us and some people take my art home!

Show at Gallery One13 opens tomorrow, January 4, 2013

Yesterday, after devoting the better part of my week to screwing in 300 tiny eyes and hooks into my shadow boxes and displays, I finally hung 150 miniature shadow boxes at Gallery One13 in Downtown Flagstaff.

I love seeing all the little pieces up on the wall together!

Tommorrow night during Flagstaff's Frist Friday ArtWalk from 6PM to 9PM I'll be at the Gallery to talk about my little works!

All 150 miniture shadow boxes are $25 each. There are also a few larger pieces on display!