Living it up in Bankrupt California!

Playground Theater

2012-01-31T08:21:00.001-08:00

Yesterday at recess Phoebe was talking with her good friend Alexis. Alexis is the tallest girl in Phoebe's fourth grade class (possibly taller than me)...

Alexis: "I read that men like petite women"

Phoebe: "Really? Let's be be petite then!"

So they hunched down and bent their legs and walked around in circles squeaking in tiny voices "We're petite! We're petite!"

Alexis: "Are the boys looking at us Phoebe?"

Phoebe: "Lots of people are looking at us."

Alexis: "Being petite is hard and this is hurting my legs."

Phoebe: "Let's be large!"

So they stretched out their legs and stomped about the playground and said in deep, deep voices "We're large!!"

Alexis: "Are the boys looking at us now?"

Phoebe: "Everyone's looking at us now!"

Alexis: "Excellent!" (in a deep voice).

The End

This is another title image to be projected on the overhead screen for "Once Upon A Mattress". This time both Phoebe and Chloe tried out for the play and they've been cast as "Ladies in waiting"! The first rehearsal is this week.

Our kickstarter for "The People That Melt in The Rain" the graphic novel is down to the last 12 days. It's done pretty well though one of our backers changed their mind today (which is a drag). There aren't too many all-ages books out there with strange tiny people, screaming trees, and mysterious curses. Anyway this is a penciled page that you can receive if you pledge and help us out!

Happy Tuesday!

A peek into my sketchbook....

2012-01-24T08:36:00.000-08:00

I bring my sketchbook with me to theater meetings....

To church ...

And sitting through Naomi's swim lesson at the Y....

Yes, I'm paying attention. In fact if I don't draw, I zone out and am probably not listening. Anyway I'm posting my sketchbook on my art blog and on facebook.

If you'd like to see more check in from time to time. :)

Art of The Red River Returns

2012-01-23T06:43:00.000-08:00

Well, it's a new year, 2012, and as of yesterday it's also the Chinese New Year, the year of the dragon (very cool!). Anyway... We're back! Our first show this year has some great guests...

Our first guest will be Bay area artist, Cody Vrosh. "Vrosh is a mainstay at artists’ expos of the Bay Area and beyond, plying his concept to an unsuspecting world. The concept in which a quaint and waiflike fragility is forced to wear its daily apocalyptic wardrobe of gasmasks and revealing clothes. It speaks of innovation and talent, his pieces bridging the gaps between concept, pop and comic art all at once."

Next on the show,we will be speaking with children's book illustrator and fine artist Giles LaRoche. Little did Giles know that when he grew up, other people would gaze at his books about faraway lands and that he would also travel to many of the places he would come to illustrate and write about in such books as Bridges Are To Cross, Sacred Places, What's Inside? Fascinating Structures Around the World, and If You Lived Here: Houses of the World. Whether Giles is exploring in Europe or hiking in New England, he always has a sketchbook in hand.

Our final guest will be children's book illustrator and monster artist, Kevan Atteberry. Based in the Seattle area, Kevan's delightful drawings have appeared in a wide variety of books, magazines and other media throughout the world. Famous for creating "Clippy the Paperclip" for Microsoft Office, Kevan Atteberry has been illustrating since he was knee-high to a crayon. Join us this month and listen in as we talk with these incredibly talented people.

Cookies and Whales

2012-01-21T15:53:00.002-08:00

Yesterday evening we went to Sea World. It pains me to even write that sentence, as Sea World's record for animal cruelty is distressingly bad, but this year's "Cookie Kick-off" for San Diego Girl Scouts was taking place at Shamu Stadium, so I caved.

Here are the girls by the "Whale car" at the entrance.

We arrived early to pick up our tickets and waited in a throng of Girls Scouts out front.

Posing with a penguin. Naomi loves it. Phoebe's okay with it. Chloe's gonna kill me.

So I jumped in the next picture with the whale guy to make her feel better.

We filed into the stadium and got a seat at the edge of the "splash zone". The girls in the crowd were so-o excited. We spent about 40 minutes in a rally to gear up for selling cookies, but unfortunately no cookies were served and we all really wanted cookies after that!

They were selling hot chocolate to the crowd,though, but much to my disappointment, no coffee.

Here you can see the trainers dancing onstage. The trainer's ability to dance is as important as their experience with animals and any marine biology degree they may have. It fact the whales are so intelligent that they are not so much following the trainers direction as following cues like any human actor. Unlike a human actor though they don't get to go home and live a normal whale life after the show.

In this shot you can see the whales onstage in their final pose at the end of that segment.

The whales came to the edge of the pool to pose for the crowd. I was crying while I watched this show and I think it was either the whales or the shrieking girl behind me who burst my eardrum (I'm so not kidding she had a super powered voice!).

Anyway by the time they were setting off the fireworks I could barely hear. It was like listening to faint popping corn.

The big news for the week is that my new e-book of "The Horribles" is out...

Check it out!!!

The Queen Mary and The haunted phone

2012-01-16T19:42:00.003-08:00

On Saturday our friend, Cody Goodfellow asked us to come to "The Queen Mary" in Long Beach and help him.

He was leading the Cthulu Prayer Breakfast, and needed "deacons" to participate in the ceremony on board this classic luxury cruise liner. So we said ummm... ok.

So we zipped up to Long Beach Sunday morning and boarded the ship. Then we donned robes and squid masks to participate in this crazy performance, worshiping the squirming god from beneath the sea, for a crowd of Steampunk Symposium attendees.

Here's Cody in his crazy priest getup! It was actually pretty hilarious. Fortunately I was hidden behind a mask.

The breakfast was in the Royal Salon.

The crowd was as interesting as the boat.

On deck was a raptor show.

Naomi loved the pretty bird!

I liked the bird guy's hat!

Walking through the boat was like being back in time.

There was a paranormal tour near the stern of the ship.

Not that we bothered...

The lower decks were pretty spooky on their own.

The halls reminded me of that hotel in Stephen King's "The Shining." But I don't think you could ever sign up for a tour and expect to really see dishes flying around of their own accord and real ghosts walking about. I've had only one unexplained event in my life and it's my kid's favorite story... So here it is. The story of...

When I was pregnant with my oldest daughter, Mike and I bought a house in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York…. In the middle of nowhere. We drove down winding roads for 40 minutes just to go grocery shopping, and most of our neighbors were only around in the summer or on holidays.  It was a nice little house, next to the creek, and in the kitchen mounted on the wall was an old fashioned dial phone with a coiled cord.  

When we first moved in I picked up the receiver and heard a quiet conversation between two women about hair dye.  I didn't want to eavesdrop so I said "Hello? Who is this?"  
The ladies stopped talking. Then one said, " Did you hear that?" 
"Yes, is someone there?" 
"Hi, Can you hear me?"  I said. Then it was silent, no voices, just a faint dial tone. 
I quickly decided this old phone was somehow hooked up to an old fashioned party line.  After that we used the phone very little, preferring our cordless phone hooked up in the other room.  The handful of times I did use it I could hear whispered voices in background, always assuring the other person that the line sometimes "picked up" other calls.  

A year and a half passed and we mostly forgot the phone was even there. Then in September of 1999 Hurricane Floyd passed through our area, leaving us without power and the road with large impassable trees blocking the way.  Fortunately we were already prepared.  We had stored food and clean water in a paranoid frenzy for Y2K and we desperately needed it all.  We bathed in the creek, painted in the day and played board games by candle light while waiting for our power to be restored. After a week the road was clear but still no power, and it was getting tedious for Mike and I (though, one year old Chloe was loving it!).  I lamented that we couldn't call my sister as the cordless phone didn't work without electricity, when we heard an unfamiliar ring.  It was the wall phone in the kitchen. I raced to it and I heard the faint voice of my sister.  She was just checking in on us and invited us up to her place until our power came on.  So off we went for five days and when we returned, everything was back to normal, and I was so glad we had a hardwired phone that didn't rely on electricity!

A couple years passed and the phone was mostly ignored, except by three year old Chloe who thought it would look better covered in sparkly stickers. The power went out at least once or twice a summer, usually just for a few hours. During one of these outages Mike decided to try the phone in the kitchen to make his call, but it was dead.  Concerned he drove up the road to the local country store and called AT&T's service line.  I believe it went something like this…
"Hello, yes, my phone has stopped working."
"Can I have your account number?"
"Yes, it's  xxx-xxxx"
" I don't see anything wrong here"
"Well, we don't have any power right now."
"Well, that would be the problem."
"No, but we have an old fashioned dial phone hooked up in the kitchen, it should still work."
"I'm sorry, but according to our records you have no phone in the kitchen."
"Yes, we do, we've used it."
"No, you don't.  If you do it's not connected through us."
"Oh. OK."

After this Mike came home, walked into the kitchen and pulled the phone off the wall.  The only wire on it was about 3 inches long and attached to nothing.   It never was hooked up!  (Spooky music plays now).

Discoveries in the sand

2012-01-10T12:21:00.002-08:00

On Saturday we went to meet up with Mike's Aunt and Uncle and their giant labradoodle, Max, who were visiting from Arizona. They were staying at a dog friendly hotel on "Dog Beach". The place was dog heaven. Their room opened up to a play yard for all the dogs in the hotel. They were next to the beach and a walking path that headed over to Mission Bay Park. We even ate lunch at one of the many nearby restaurants that let Max flop at our feet while we ate.

Naomi walked along the beach with Aunt Jill and collected a big plastic bag full of wet, sandy, and somewhat smelly shells. I let them dry out on the patio, then I brushed off all the sand, and tossed the sharp broken pieces. Her approach of picking up EVERY shell she saw yielded some nice ones.

What I learned this week is that there's much more to sand than it's annoying quality to get in and on everything you own.

This is beach sand magnified over 250 times real life size. This photo is from an incredible online article here. Apparently, the beach is even more amazing than what we can see!

In other news I've been busy working on "Once Upon A Mattress" this week. This is one of the "Scene Titles" that will be projected overhead during the show.

Also Fables for Japan, Book II has been released here.

The story Mike and I contributed, “In the Realm of the Sea Dragon,” is in this one along with some other great work. All proceeds will go to help tsunami victims.

And last, but not least, our kickstarter promotion for "The People That Melt in The Rain" graphic novel, has reached it's goal in less than a week! So now we're just filling orders for books and art. You can still participate though-take a look!

These aren't my thoughts, they're my cat walking on the keyboard.

2012-01-05T11:12:00.001-08:00

Here is the stupid poem I wrote today....

Fuzzy wuzzy wuz a cat

clawing me while in my lap

purring like a motor boat

I'm bleeding and I'm full of pokes.

This is my cat, Isabella. She is the only cat I've ever had who rides in the car, looking out the window and checking things out. Most cats I've had hide and wait for it to be over (or in the case of my cat, Smudge, cries, pees and poops all at once). But she's a traveler.

We adopted her almost four years ago in Argentina from a young woman who didn't speak a word of English so she hilariously pantomimed all instructions to us about her litter box and deworming medication. It was even funnier because our Spanish wasn't that bad at the time so we understood her anyway.

Two days ago we launched a kickstarter promotion for our new graphic novel "The People That Melt in The Rain"...

Anyway we have some great offers including original art, signed copies of the book and other fun stuff! If nothing else take a look at the video that I spent three days making. :)

Our New Year together and the float is nearly done!

2012-01-01T09:40:00.002-08:00

Yesterday we collected some supplies and began our yearly task of making the craziest hat for New Years Eve we could....

We've been doing this since the kids were tiny (but I talked about this already!)

This years hats were quite ridiculous!

At 11:20pm we hopped in the car and drove out to Shelter Island Point to ring in the New Year with the Buddhists again. Here we are waiting in the long line.

In the bell house watching the people in front of us (my teeth are ringing and talking is impossible!)

Here you can see the big log you have to thrust at the bell to ring it. I got a good sound out of it this year! Actually all the kids did well this time. :)

In the mean time the South Pasadena parade float has made incredible progress this week.

Here you can see volunteers applying the potatoes that represent "rocks" on the ground. They were telling me about this last week, but now that I see it it's easier to understand how it works.

Adding flowers to the saucer.

The lemon tree with lemons attached.

The sticky balls we put on look much better with flowers all around them! Anyway this weeks volunteers have worked long hours to prepare for the final judging which is this morning at 7am! To check in on more pictures or how it did you can go to the Facebook page here! Also be sure to tune in to The Tournament of Roses Parade on Monday morning to see the float roll down the street.

In other news my new graphic novel is available now! Be sure to stay tuned for some special offers!!

The Sunset at Ocean Beach

2011-12-30T15:26:00.002-08:00

The End

Venice Beach and The Big Balloon Parade

2011-12-28T19:11:00.000-08:00

Christmas was a quiet one. On Christmas Eve Nana and Grandpa stopped by for presents and dessert...


With Grandpa by the tree.

We've all been recovering this week since the flu descended on the house. By Monday, though we were feeling much better, so on Tuesday we headed up to Universal Studios to use our passes one last time before they expired.

Unfortunately when I bought them I didn't pay much attention to the fine print about blackout dates, which is what Tuesday was. So we were turned away at the gate. In an attempt to make our journey through L.A. traffic worthwhile we headed over to Venice Beach to check out the boardwalk.


Here's Phoebe at the beach.

A fantastic photo of me at the beach!

These are the art walls. Street artists can paint anything they like here but must get a permit (which is free).


Chloe studying some of the art work.

Along the boardwalk they sold these incredible "Day of The Dead" skulls.

And we found the famous fortune telling machine, Zoltar, from the Tom Hanks movie"Big"....

Of course the girls had to get their fortunes!

It wasn't "Grinchmas" at Universal but it sure was a beautiful sunset.

Today we woke early (for vacation) and headed down to the San Diego Bay to catch the "Big Balloon Parade"...

Here's Jay Jay the Jet Plane making his way up the very sunny street.

Mother Goose lurking overhead.

Apparently maneuvering a giant balloon near the waterfront is a challenging task. They kept losing control of these things right next to us!

Raggedy Ann was a favorite of the children standing near me.

Her "handlers" all dressed the part and the little girls nearby loved it!

This astronaut was my favorite one. Perhaps because I once co-designed and built an astronaut amusement ride.


Raggedy Andy

Uh-oh! Andy started tipping over a bit... Pull!!

If it happens in San Diego the zoo is there!

And here's the San Diego Zoo's panda balloon. :)

Some of the Native American dancers in what must have been some very hot costumes (they were all smiles though!)

They were followed by this giant eagle balloon.... A VERY hard balloon to manage, it was crashing and turning every 100 feet!

Here he is nearly hitting the ground. Those boy scouts really had to work hard with this guy.

And here's a crowd of wiener dogs. They were tossing plastic hotdogs into the crowd! My kids were never so excited to get a dog toy!

And here's the giant wienerschnitzel balloon looking good as he "ran" by.

Like at every parade the Shriners were there in their tiny cars and fez's. It's funny (and somehow endearing) that some men come to a place in life where they decide to do this with their free time.

There was also a clown in a tiny bus, though I can only assume there are many more clowns in there than just this one...

Woody also spun about overhead, but Mike took this great shot of him!

This was truly an impressive parade and very nearly worth the horrible sunburn I managed to get.

It ended with the "Cat in The Hat" and then everyone cleared the sidewalk. So we headed over to the festival on the Broadway Pier.

Over at the fair we found the Lorax posing for photos....

So of course the girls had to pose!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T22:02:00.000-08:00

I hope you have a joyful holiday!

Gluing sticky balls and other projects

2011-12-20T19:41:00.002-08:00

Today we headed up to South Pasadena and pitched in to decorate the float for the Tournament of Roses Parade...

This is the girls at check-in.

As you can see the float is evolving.

It's been painted (partially)to designate where the different flowers and seeds will be glued.

This is part of the spaceship.

Some of these pieces have already been covered in leaves.

All of it though must be covered with natural materials.

Seeds have been glued in many sections but there's lots more to do.

This was our assignment. Take these pokey, sticky balls and glue them to the float!

Here's Chloe at work using the nasty smelling floral glue.

They were to be shading, the bright areas will be covered with various flowers next week (if they put them on now they would wilt before the parade). First we glued the sticky balls in place.

Then I held them there till they stuck.

Then I'd stand up and step back to get away from the fumes.

We managed to put down A LOT of sticky balls.

It's quite a huge project!

Here at the tables, other volunteers are adding glue in advance to sticky balls so they attach better when we glue them on.

If you'd like to see the design again go here!

This week I also managed to paint the cover for my next e-book of "The Horribles". I was told to put a cat on the cover so here's Remus...

I also had a design meeting on Sunday for "Once Upon A Mattress", so I sketched my design for the back panel that will be "The Wizard's Chamber"...

Now that I've gotten my work out of the way I need to run in circles with hundreds of other shoppers over at the mall! In the mean time "Happy Hanukkah" to all who celebrate. :)

The Float, some thrones and a new graphic novel...

2011-12-13T14:02:00.001-08:00

I've begun my work on "Once Upon a Mattress". I've actually designed the first set piece....

The director wanted the thrones to be incorporating the first letter of each of the character's names. This was my first try. I guess I'll see how this goes over at the design meeting (crosses fingers).

In other news, I'm currently waiting for my review copy of the first graphic novel of our series "The People That Melt in The Rain" which will be hitting the shelves very, very soon!

About a week ago I shared some photos of Chloe (and her art class) working on the float for the Tournament of Roses Parade up in Pasadena. Apparently none of the pictures of her were any good, so I'm sharing some different ones today courtesy of Mrs. Fouseki (Chloe's teacher)....

Chloe is putting on gloves and preparing to paint leaves.

Painting the leaves.

Here are the kids and Mrs. Fouseki posing with the lemons (if you recall the theme was "If Life Gives You Lemons...", then there were aliens making lemonade in front of their crashed spaceship.)

Here a volunteer is adjusting the fabric on the side of the float before it gets rim coated. The rim coat will make everything as hard as fiberglass. (We've done rim coating in the past when we made a carousel ride a few years ago.)

And here is the rim coater at work.

On December 20th we'll all be heading up to help with final decorations of the float. We should have some great photos of glue covered roses! In the mean time I'm nervously eyeing the rain as it pours down past my window. It was about a year ago that we had our big flood here and two days of rain makes me anxious.

My Spicy Christmas Tree

2011-12-08T12:05:00.003-08:00

This is my plastic Christmas tree. We bought it last year after my noble but sadly unsuccessful attempt to keep a potted live tree on the patio (I killed it in less than two months). Unfortunately my cat likes it a little too much. What she really likes is to chew on it. I don't know why she likes eating plastic, but since it seemed like a bad idea to me, I, of course, turned to the internet to solve my problem (I don't really remember what we used to do back in the days before Al Gore invented the internet). Anyway, the internet told me to spray it with tabasco sauce. Well, I don't have any of that, but what I did have is a big container of chili powder. So I mixed a large amount with water and brushed it all over the tree. My kids think it smells like Mexican candy and my cat stopped eating it, as she hates candy.

Just over a week ago we had our final show of the year of "Art Of The Red River". Our guests were photographer, Michael James Butts, calling in from Boston, Massachusetts, and Andrew Farago curator of The Cartoon Art Museum in San Fransisco, California. It was a great show worth listening to!

I'm going to be the set designer for Looking Glass Theatre's spring production of "Once Upon A Mattress". On Monday I met our new director at our first production meeting. I think this show is really going to be incredible so stay tuned for photos of sets in progress!

Also on Monday I took Chloe shopping for a dress. She needs it for her costume in her school play. Their show, "Little Shop of Horrors" hits the stage next week just before Christmas break. As I stood waiting outside the changing rooms for her I listened to a woman talking nearby. She was describing how she collected pine cones and brought them home to put in her microwave. She said they filled the house with the pine scent of Christmas that she fondly remembered from her childhood. When I heard this I began to picture my kids in 20 years attempting to make their house smell like Mexican candy. Hmmmm....

The Tournament of Roses Float and a crisis from New York

2011-12-04T21:22:00.001-08:00

Chloe and her classmates spent the day in Pasadena yesterday working on a float for the Tournament of Roses parade...

Here's Chloe and a friend gathering supplies.

Lots of supplies.

This is the float as it is for now. There was a terrible wind storm in Pasadena last week which downed trees, caused power outages, and unfortunately set back progress on the float. The kids wound up redoing a lot of work that was damaged.

This is the top part of the float.

And here's a closeup on the side.

It's a great design and the theme is "When Life Gives You Lemons", and has aliens in it!

Here the kids are sorting flower holders.

And making green leaves.

This is what you get when you loan a middle schooler your camera... Chloe's shoes are the ones that are drawn all over.

And this is the talented woman who designed the float. I don't know her name but all the kids were invited to come back with their families on the last week of December to help decorate. We're already signed up! So maybe I'll get to meet her and let you know! For more info on the float you can check it out here!

Unfortunately I've got some sad news from my friends and neighbors in New York. Our friends Joe and Joanne Cartelli suffered a terrible house fire last night. They lost so much including several cats. The worst part is the tragic death of their son's teenage friend who was sleeping over. Their son is in the hospital recovering. Today I'm just so sad for them.

Drawing dragons

2011-12-03T11:05:00.002-08:00

Today is Saturday and I was actually awake before 5:30am this morning. WHY! WHY! Because Chloe had to go to school...Not for any horrible reason, but because her art class has an amazing opportunity to help build a float for the Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena. She caught the bus and she's working up there all day today! She promised to take some photos that I'll be sure to share here.

I've been recovering from our trip and for about a week now, I've worked on new dragon drawings...

Mostly revisions of drawings I've done, but some completely new...

To follow my progress on this children's book you can check in at Carolyn's Art , my art blog. In other dragon news I was recently spotlighted on "The Fables For Japan" website here.

The comic story Mike and I worked on together "In the Realm Of The Sea Dragon" will be in Book #2 of their anthology which is coming out very soon.

Now for some non-dragon news! My hand turkey (yes, I know that was so last month) won third place in Hyaena Gallery's hand turkey contest. (If you go to the link you'll discover my fabulous prize!)

Happy Saturday! (maybe I'll go back to bed.)

A road trip journal… the Grand Canyon and a birthday

2011-11-27T12:44:00.001-08:00

The night at the Grand Canyon hotel was long and frequently interrupted due to my cold, so I was up at 6:30am and consequently so was Mike. He decided this was great we could get some much needed laundry done and get out early!

drawing in my sketchbook...

The laundry part went ok. As I waited for the wash I drew strange pictures in my sketchbook that attracted the hotel employee's attention.

My cat had other ideas about getting out early. We finished the laundry. Woke the kids and loaded the car and the cat was.... missing.
Panic ensued. My hysterical kids wandered the huge hotel searching. My husband alerted the front desk and I continued to search the room. Finally.. a tiny squeak. My cat, who talks nonstop about nothing when at home, trapped herself under a bed that is walled off on all sides, and could only manage a little squeak. 20 minutes later after a call to maintenance,we were on our way!

We picked up donuts for breakfast and sat in front of this...

What can be said about the Grand Canyon that hasn't been said a million times by better writers.

A balancing rock.

Can you see the tiny tree out on the edge of this rock peninsula?

We hiked along the trails that meandered along the rim.

We posed for a mediocre picture (the canyon made it better!)

The sky was perfectly clear and the sun was bright... so the pictures were high contrast and dull compared to a cloudy day. The canyon is still a sight to see in any light though.

Mike and I came here together before we had kids and before we were married. Our lives have changed so much since then, but the canyon is the same. The entry fee however is now $25.00!

At least this time we got a picture together. :)

After hiking for hours we headed down to Cottonwood to Mike's one year old cousin's birthday party.

Seeing family was a great way to end our epic journey. After one night in Phoenix we finally drove home to San Diego, to our own beds.

A road trip journal…through Monument Valley

2011-11-26T22:43:00.001-08:00

We left Boulder at night and wound our way around the Rocky Mountains in the dark. We got as far as Grand Junction and spent the night. The next morning my sore throat was a full blown cold and Chloe's throat was aching.

It was Thanksgiving morning and our day was set We were to get to the Grand Canyon by nightfall. We wove our way around the mountains back into Utah.

The scenery was majestic...

...and awesome.

....So awesome!

Mike mastered digital photography thru the window of our grimy, well traveled, moving vehicle.

The region was called Monument Valley.

Finally it was so amazing we just had to stop and walk around.

We got some great photos and stretched our legs.

Then we were back in the car, but we kept taking pictures.

It was a beautiful and isolated place. At the base of these mountains were the Navajos in dingy trailers and run down little houses. Near the side of the road ran a skeletal black dog, and we began to worry about finding lunch in this desolate place on Thanksgiving day. Finally we spotted an open convenience store run by the Navajos. It was a bit dark and dreary but they had the most important thing… coffee! They also had some bread and cheese and mayonnaise. So using the sterilized hotel key card that I'd lost as we checked out of the last hotel, I cut the cheddar cheese and slapped together some Thanksgiving sandwiches.

We continued our drive the rest of the day and as the sunset we entered the Grand Canyon National Park. We checked into our hotel in Grand Canyon Village and drove past this natural wonder of the world in pitch black darkness. The canyon would have to wait for morning, tonight we were ready for pizza.

A road trip journal... finally, Boulder, Co

2011-11-24T21:56:00.002-08:00

This was the fantastic and heated hotel pool in Boulder, Colorado. My kids loved it. They also loved the hot, hot, hot tub and the climbing area. Which is good because by the time we arrived here it was clear that I was really coming down with something and needed some rest. So Mike took them here while I conked out.

After we checked out we headed over to Pearl St. to get some lunch.

We also did some shopping.

Naomi liked the bears.

After lunch we met up with Sofia. Sofia is Phoebe's friend from Argentina, who then became friends with us all. She is now an exchange student in Boulder. In this photo we're posing in front of her host family's house.

One of her hosts, Bob immediately told me the story of his house. He said that one day a man in Atlanta chartered a plane and as he flew he decided to commit suicide by flying into the Rocky Mountains. He missed the mountains and hit the house. Bob lived a couple blocks away at the time, and came running in time to see the giant fireball that consumed this house. He and his wife bought the new building that is here now.

We took Sofia out for frozen yogurt and went to the Scott Carpenter Park nearby. Scott Carpenter was an astronaut so there is a spaceship here. Mike lived in Boulder as a child and remembers playing on this very spaceship.

And here he is on it again!

We really enjoyed seeing Sofia and she is adjusting to life here in the U.S. The three things she noticed right away as being very different from Argentina are:

1. Everyone has a really nice car and there are so many!

2. There are American flags everywhere.

3 Everyone speaks English really fast!

I have finally finished with all of my hand turkeys on my art blog.

Today was the last one.... HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

A road trip journal...travels through Utah

2011-11-23T06:55:00.001-08:00

On Monday we drove and drove...

Passing beautiful scenery all the way.

This is the girls at a gas station in Utah. Moments before Chloe brushed against a succulent plant and her leg was spurting blood. Then it swelled a bit. I stopped the bleeding and gave her a claritin, and...crisis averted.

Before our big day of driving I checked Roadside America's websiteand discovered we'd be passing "Big Rock Candy Mountain" famous for the song that just happens to be Phoebe's favorite song ever since she was four. Unfortunately we arrived after dark, but we took a picture anyway.

We stayed in Moab, Ut and this sign for Chinese food by the scoop was right outside. We didn't go for it.

Our hotel had some choice bathroom reading...

As we left Moab to go to Arches National Park we came across the incredible spider mural!

It was a perfect day to explore the park....

The hikes were incredible!

The shadow on this cliff face looked like a man.

We were seeing things in all these rock formations though...

There was so much to see.

And so much to climb!

That's Naomi!

There was so much to explore...

The kids loved this place!

Mike seemed to like it too.

It was pretty awesome! Next stop.... Boulder, Colorado.

A road trip journal....Visiting Vegas

2011-11-21T21:49:00.001-08:00

I'm writing this as we drive through the majestic mountains of Utah. Arcing over our car is an amazing rainbow that we are driving under like a tunnel. Up ahead dark clouds of a threatening storm gather in the midst of the stunning view. I can see the rain streaking across the distant landscape and falling on a farmhouse in the plains.

Last night we were in Las Vegas for my first ever visit. We set out early and arrived by late afternoon. After checking into our hotel and settling in our frazzled cat we headed off to the Vegas strip.

Here we are on the pedestrian bridge over the strip.

We went in to the MGM casino and took a look at the lions habitat.

There was an incredible view of the NY, NY casino from the bridge.

Then we headed over to the Hawaiian Marketplace. The girls found this odd looking Spiderman who appears to have over done it at the buffet.

They also found these interesting superhero knockoffs, which were only slightly off....

We stayed for the show, and this fire dancer was riveting to watch.

The girls took a hula lesson.

Then they posed with their new friends...

The girls and Mike stopped for photo on the pedestrian bridge (a different bridge)by Cesar Palace. There were so many pedestrian bridges it was amazing! (I seriously love pedestrian bridges).

And we headed over to the Forum shops for dinner.

So many amazing fountains…

Naomi posed by the volcano at the mystic.

This was a great show at the top of every hour.

In an attempt to find the monorail we wandered into the Venetian. There was no monorail, but the ceiling was worth the visit!

There were even gondola rides inside with men singing Italian love songs.

In the end we found the monorail near Hara's…

Which we took to the shuttle, which we took back to the hotel and…. collapsed.

On a side note my "little" Phoebe turned 10 on Saturday. Here she is with her friends at the Children's museum.

And this was the red velvet cake she made for her party (yes she made it herself -Those cooking lessons have paid off!).

drawing and packing and a party...

2011-11-18T22:19:00.001-08:00

I'm racing in circles this week. I have work to get done, classes to teach, a trip to plan and Phoebe is turning TEN tomorrow! We're having her party at the children's museum downtown. We've been planning that for months and then I went in to schedule it only to find that their theme for the next few months is "Trash". Which I'm sure makes an interesting and educational visit but not what Phoebe was hoping for. She's decided to go with it anyway.

I just received the go ahead on some of my pieces for the "Catch a Dragon" children's book. I thought I'd share some of the sketches...

This one is a double page spread.

This guy needs to be softened up. Maybe some eyelashes.

Another double page spread. This one will probably be cut. Too scary.

This page was good as is (I have to paint it of course).

On Sunday we leave for our trip to Boulder, Colorado. We failed to find someone to watch our cat ( it seems all kennels and pet sitters need about 2 weeks notice for Thanksgiving week). So our cat's coming along! She probably won't enjoy it. She never eats when she's in the car, but she's been getting pretty fat lately anyway.

The showerhead.... My old nemesis/my new friend

2011-11-13T08:49:00.002-08:00

Ever since we moved here 2 years ago, we've had a hand held shower head in the bathroom. The long tube dangled down as it rested in it's over head position and yanking the tube was the only way my youngest daughter could get it down to hold it. Why she needed to hold it is still a mystery to me as she could have just stood under it, but kids are... mysterious. Anyway she broke the gripper within a month and it rested up there precariously. Every day I would turn the water off and the change in pressure would send the hand shower crashing down on my head. Some days I jumped out of the way. Lots of days I didn't. Last week the whole device came crashing down on me and we installed a new not hand held shower head that stays in place. It's fantastic and has many settings and hasn't brained me even once!! I still wince though when I shut the water off.

As you can see I'm still posting "Hand Turkeys"

They're still for sale on many products in "The Hand Turkey Store"

And I've even entered a bunch of them into a "Hand Turkey Contest" online. Feel free to check it out!

Planning stage

2011-11-10T08:38:00.001-08:00

“The major advantage of domestic travel is that, with a few exceptions such as Miami, most domestic locations are conveniently situated right here in the United States.” -Dave Barry

As Thanksgiving break inches closer our big travel plans are coming into focus. We've decided to embark on an epic "Griswald" style family vacation. Our destination is Boulder, Colorado to visit our friend, Sofia, from Argentina who is now an exchange student here in the United States. Along the way we hope to see some interesting things. Las Vegas will be the first day and that alone is worth the trip! It's over 1000 miles to Boulder so just one way will be quite a drive. This is the longest drive I've ever planned, so any advice on driving for days and days with kids is very welcome!

Over the last week I'm still posting hand turkeys on my Art Blog....

As you can see I've taken a lot of different approaches to the theme...

It's really a lot of fun. I also have set up a store with my hand turkeys on various products (posted on the side bar).

Anyway this weekend is Veteran's Day, so have a great three day weekend everyone!

Sunsets and Hand Turkeys....

2011-11-04T06:27:00.001-07:00

Halloween was a blur of driving my kids around to meet up with their friends, but then we walked the streets of Ocean Beach with our friends while Naomi and their daughter joined a swarm of "trick or treaters".

As we waited for our friends to prepare at their house, we watched an amazing Halloween sunset over the ocean.

This picture is pretty nice, but it just doesn't capture it.

Each day until Thanksgiving I'm posting a series of "Hand Turkeys"on my art blog.

The goal is to do a new one each day.

So if you get bored or just want to see them...

Go here to Carolyn's Art!!

Ahhh! Zombies!

2011-10-31T07:59:00.000-07:00

On Saturday night Phoebe and Naomi and I decided to join a zombie hoard making it's way through Old Town.

First we had to look the part. Still feeling pretty sick myself, I definitely felt the part.

Chloe also dressed as a zombie girl scout. She was going to be a guide at a haunted house built by her youth group.

The zombies gathered in the graveyard as we prepared for our walk.

This zombie family waits as we are given instructions. No blocking traffic, no using weapons (some people showed up as zombie hunters- the shotguns were disconcerting. )

Mostly, though it was a good crowd.

They had shops along the way that gave out "Zombie Treats" (mostly candy for the kids).

And people along the walk had agreed to be "victims". They would scream "AHHHH ZOMBIES!" and we could "attack them".

Naomi and I in the graveyard.

Phoebe mingles with the other zombies.

Chloe was also a very spooky guide at the haunted house which came out great!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Can't stop coughing...

2011-10-27T09:38:00.002-07:00

My dear doctor, I am surprised to hear you say that I am coughing very badly, as I have been practicing all night.
-John Philpot Curran

When I lived in upstate NY I would get a cough that lasted for 2-3 months every winter. When we moved to South America, it stopped happening and I was so-o glad. I haven't been sick like that since. This week I'm getting a reminder, and so is Mike, and Chloe, and this morning Naomi had a sore throat... arrgh!

I'm also trying to get some work done in my haze of fever and coughing. I need to draw dragons. Lots of dragons. I've been commissioned to illustrate a children's book called "Catch a Dragon" by Ginger Nasser and I need to complete these sketches, but it's slow going.

Tomorrow is my class in InDesign (a design program on the computer) at the local community college. Maybe it'll be better to sit in class than try to design a children's book, however tomorrow night is also the drawing class I teach. I think I'll just buy some pumpkins and let the kids draw them while I try not to choke on my tongue in the corner. In the meantime please enjoy my spooky pumpkin man...

Halloween on the "Art of the Red River"

2011-10-23T20:01:00.000-07:00

For our Halloween episode we have special effects artist and reality TV show star, Megan Areford, from last season's run of "Face-off" on the Syfy channel. Megan grew up in Pittsburgh, PA in a loving household with her mother and stepfather. At the age of seven, her grandmother taught her how to put on makeup and encouraged her to paint and draw. She's a graduate of Tom Savini's Special FX School of Makeup.

Megan Areford with one of her creations

Our next guest is horror artist Joel Trudeau from Niagra Falls in Ontario, Canada. He's the lead artist of Wormfood Studios, and currently lives with his wife in Brampton, Ontario.

by artist Joel Trudeau

Our third guest will be Mark Thompson from Monstark Studios. Mark is the primary artist for bay area band "Nuclear Rabbit" and has a natural tendency towards drawing horrible monsters. Mark resides reclusively in San Rafael, California with wife and fellow weirdo, Laura.


by Mark Thompson

Our final guest is artist Robert Logan from S. Harpswell, Maine. His electric paintings appear on Pirate Ware, Beer advertisements and even Food trucks!

Some of Robert's client's include Red Bones, Capitol Records, Peabody Essex Museum, and YMCA...

Robert Logan painting

Tune in and listen to great conversations in art!!!

Good Times

2011-10-20T11:44:00.001-07:00

Two days ago my 8 year old, Naomi, asked me to check tomorrow's weather for her. So I popped open my laptop and quickly viewed the weather forecast.
"73 degrees and sunny . That means warm and sunny."
"Ok, Mom"
Except the next day was drizzly and overcast and a little chilly. So Naomi cornered me. "Mom, you were wrong!"
"I wasn't wrong -the computer was wrong."
"Oh, your computer is broken." Then she let me off the hook.

Downtown in San Carlos de Bariloche

I've been missing life in Bariloche lately so I thought I'd share these other silly stories ….

As a family we made our way slowly down Calle Mitre in Bariloche. This was the downtown tourist district and the street was lined with cafes and chocolate shoppes and filled with people. A six year old Phoebe bent down and picked up a tiny, plastic toy off the sidewalk.
"Look what I found Daddy!" She said waving it up high to show us the little prize she found. It was a cheap little thing from inside a chocolate prize egg that are commonly sold in the chocolate boutiques. Immediately, 4 year old Naomi burst into hysterical tears.
"I didn't get one!"
So Mike turns to her calmly and says "Don't worry you can have the next piece of crap we find on the sidewalk."

Phoebe and Naomi took baths together when they were 4 and 6 and we were having a problem. They would decide to make it a bubble bath when I left the room and dump in all the shampoo. They were even doing this with the "Head and Shoulders" shampoo, which was alarming as that shampoo was full of chemicals and expensive. Mike went in and "discussed" the problem (loudly) with the 2 girls, and they promised to not do it again.
The following week, Mike traveled back to New York and I was with the kids alone in Bariloche. I walked in every 4 minutes or so to check on the girls in the bath and there was Phoebe holding the "Head and Shoulders" bottle.
"Phoebe!"
"Don't worry Mommy. I just put a little on my shoulders."

In more recent news we just had a great review of our comic "The People That Melt in The Rain" go up here, as well as this interview called "13 Questions for Mike and Carolyn".

Hasta luego. :)

Amazing Japan

2011-10-14T09:58:00.000-07:00

For the past couple of months I've been researching Japanese folktales for a comic book series called "Fables for Japan"- the proceeds of which go to victims of the earthquake and tsunami. This week Mike and I are under a mad deadline to finish up our contribution.

It's definitely been a fascinating experience learning about their beautiful country and incredibly rich cultural heritage. Many of their folktales have much to do with samurai warriors and ghosts, but some are just strange stories of shape shifting animals called yōkai (usually it's a fox or raccoon).

However one thing you learn very quickly when researching Japan is that it is the capital of weird.

In fact a google search on "weird Japan" will keep you stuck at your computer laughing for hours.

Anyway, the country has normalized for travel and there are many beautiful areas to go see that aren't glowing at all. Some of these things would definitely be worth seeing in person!!

In other news, my last post on the chalking festival in Little Italy was quite popular. If you'd like to read more about it check out my article on the event that I wrote for the Examiner!

Gesso Italiano Festival-Drawing in The Sun

Drawing in the streets of Little Italy! Òttimo!

2011-10-11T12:33:00.005-07:00

This weekend was the Gesso Italiano Festival in Little Italy . It's one of two huge sidewalk chalking festivals here in San Diego, and Chloe was one of the kids chosen to represent her school, and create a masterpiece on the hot pavement.

Here she is with some of her other team mates on Saturday morning.

The teams all had to create a work of art that has an Italian influence or is a reproduction of an Italian master.

This one appears to be the Virgin Mary.

Saturday morning people were just getting started.

There was a large collection of artists nearby that were recreating the Sistine Chapel.

The cracks in the pavement really added to the illusion.

On Sunday morning the mural by Roosevelt I.B. Middle School was complete. I think they did an amazing job!

The Sistine Chapel came out pretty good too!

Some artists, though were still busy working even into Sunday.

This was one of the more contemporary images created by a family that participated.

Of course this was my daughter's favorite... Anything manga!

The fruit basket was flawlessly done.

This was a great event and an incredible festival. I was so glad Chloe had a chance to participate!

On Saturday night we went to "Nunsense" and saw my sets in action.

Before the show I snapped some photos of my backdrops hung up.

For boring paintings of a school gymnasium they looked pretty good.

The nuns are pretty bleached out in this shot... Sorry.

It's a pretty cute show.

I really liked this nun puppet (made by Pam in the costume department). The play runs for another week. If you're in San Diego be sure to get your tickets!

Yesterday was really crazy. Mike was rear ended while stopped at a yield sign and now our bumper is quite crooked. By evening we needed to run to the art supply store and since we'd had enough driving for the day we walked. After shopping a bit we decided to stroll up to the manga store as Mike had a gift certificate. While we walked Phoebe talked (and talked and talked about her friends and school). I was listening carefully to her and didn't notice the people up ahead running out of the manga shop. When a car squealed and I looked up at the crowd around me, all standing and staring off towards the sound.

Then there was Mike saying "Did you see that!!"

"No." As a distraught young woman came stumbling back to the shop holding one of her shoes. A man had just run into the manga store and stolen the sales girl's laptop. Of all the things to steal he stole the one thing there that wasn't covered by the store's insurance. That poor girl looked miserable. After that we decided to head home as the shop girl was in no shape to sell us anything. Mike hadn't seen enough to be helpful to the police and I missed the whole thing.

Anyway, Mike has a new website up and many things for sale in his shop! Be sure to check it out. :)

Nunsense, and a day at the clinic....

2011-10-08T08:52:00.005-07:00

I finished the final two backdrops on Thursday in haze of exhaustion.

Here you can see one of them set up on stage (it works as a hallway stretching behind the set pieces.) The other two are more interesting.

Naomi in the waiting room, by Mike Dubisch

Friday was spent at the clinic with Naomi (they couldn't give her an appointment on Thursday). It turned out she needed an x-ray. When they discovered we were cash pay they signed her up for a special temporary health insurance for kids. Which is good as they prescribed antibiotics as well (last time they cost almost $100.00). Anyway they tortured her by poking a hole in her nail to relieve the pressure (I say tortured because the nurse was doing it wrong and by the time they found a doctor who knew what to do Naomi was terrified and cowering in the corner.) Once he did this though she was doing much better and went back to school. She also slept through the night! YAY!

Today Chloe joins other hand selected kids from her school to draw at the chalking festival in Little Italy. It's a huge event that I've been wanting to see since we moved to San Diego! Hopefully I'll have some great pictures of the festival and Chloe's team to share.

Last night "Nunsense" opened. I couldn't go as I was teaching my class, but tonight we'll be there for the second performance. This should be a great weekend- Ciao.

Painting in the wind

2011-10-06T05:11:00.001-07:00

Today was rain and wind... lots of wind. We're painting the backdrops under a covered patio area near two buildings so it was a wind tunnel today. Which was intense but got even more intense when the roof started leaking!

Phoebe and Chloe helped me after school and Phoebe went about and took pictures...

Our progress was pretty steady. The girls painted red.

Chloe was determined to finish the tiles on backdrop number 2, even though she was only wearing shorts and a t-shirt (thirteen year olds are crazy-it was freezing with out there). She did it though.

I continued my work on backdrop number 1. I'm painting in the lockers here.

Slowly this backdrop was coming together.

This one has a payphone painted on it. We're actually attaching a receiver to it and one of the nuns answers the" phone" during the play. Anyway this backdrop was completed when we left. One down two to go!
On Tuesday Naomi slammed her finger in our front door. She cried a lot and her finger swelled up (a bit like a lollipop), but she calmed down and even though the nail was bruised she slept through the night. She seemed much better yesterday so we didn't go to the clinic.
When she came home from school she changed her band aid herself and put it on too tight. Then she complained all evening, but we gave her ibuprofen and she went to bed.... Until 2am. When she woke up hysterical. I stayed up with her removed her bandage and got her back to sleep. Now it's 5am and I'm still up. No point in going to bed now though, my alarm goes off at 5:30. Happy Thursday!

Three days and counting....

2011-10-04T20:19:00.000-07:00

I'm making progress on "Nunsense". I cleared my schedule this week so I can finish painting the three backdrops necessary to make it look like a school gymnasium.

This is where I finished yesterday (with Chloe's help.) The gray will be tiles, the blue will be lockers and the black square is a pay phone (it's an old school).

Me working on the tiles...

This blurry photo shows where I stopped today (I also started the other 2 backdrops).

This is the car for the "Drive-in scene". I painted it last week.

This window was started last week as well. I finished it yesterday though...

This is the finished window.

As you can see it looks better onstage.

In fact most of these things look better onstage!

Only three days and two nights till the show opens on Friday. I think the actors may have to watch out for some wet paint!!

Coming soon... Nunsense!

2011-09-30T09:37:00.002-07:00

I've made some steady progress on the sets for "Nunsense". This is the bed frame for Sandra Dee's room (remember it uses the sets from "Grease)...

Phoebe (and both the other girls) have helped a lot!!

I've also been working on the menu for the wall behind the lunch counter...

This is the design I sketched at home.

Painting it on the wall, while standing on an uneven chair.

This is it still in progress.

And it's done!

Today I paint the window on the wall behind Sandra Dee's bed, and then next week is the HUGE backdrop! Then the show opens.... Panicked? No not me.

Later today I'll be teaching my drawing and illustration class. All three girls are coming with, because Mike's out of town. He's at "The Alternative Press Expo" in San Francisco doing important things. I miss him though.

Red River Radio presents...

2011-09-25T21:04:00.000-07:00

September is our month of book illustration tomorrow on Art of The Red River! Our first guest will be Matt Tavares an author and illustrator of numerous children's books. His first picture book, Zachary's Ball won an Oppenheim Gold Seal Award, a Massachusetts Book Award Honor, and was named one of Yankee Magazine's 40 Classic New England Children's Books. His artwork has been exhibited at the Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators, the Brandywine River Museum, and the Mazza Museum of Picture Bok Art. His books have won many awards, 3 Parents' Choice Gold Awards, a Parents' Choice Silver Honor, 3 Oppenheim Gold Seal Awards, an International Reading Association Children's Book Award, and an Orbis Pictus Award for Oustanding Nonfiction for Children. We're thrilled to have him on the show. Matt lives with his family in Maine.

The next guests on the show will be Beck and Frank from "Tiny Kitten Teeth". Tiny Kitten Teeth is a hand painted online comic that currently updates a couple times a week. They are also the creators of "Tiger Buttah" a hand painted all-ages book inspired by Golden Books. Our other published work includes anthology contributions to Popgun Vol. 3 & 4 (Image Comics), You Ain’t No Dancer Vol. 3 (New Reliable Press) and Discovered (Top Shelf). Becky is a graduate of Savannah College of Art & Design in Sequential Art and Frank is a graduate from Griffith University in Media Communications. After living in New Zealand for quite some time they have recently moved to Los Angeles, CA.

Our final guest is artist/illustrator Nick Gucker. Nick has been involved with comics, story boarding, painting and illustrating with a focus on horror and the Lovecraftian genre since graduating from The Art Institute of Seattle. In 2010 Nick became one of the many tentacled appendages of Strange Aeons magazine, working as the sole staff artist. Recent collaborations include illustrations for a comic and a short story with Los Angeles-based writer and raconteur Cody Goodfellow, artwork for a story by Sci-Fi mythos writer David Conyers for Perilous Press. Originally from Alaska, he currently lives with his wife Denise in Seattle, Washington.

Tomorrow's show should be great! Join us at 12:00pm central time for "Art of The Red River"!!

Lovecraft and blue men

2011-09-23T12:22:00.002-07:00

Last weekend was the H.P. Lovecraft film festival at the Warner Grand Theater in Los Angeles.

This is a really cool poster that's hard to see thanks to my lame photography skills. We raced up to L.A. after we picked up Chloe from school on Friday at 2:30pm. We arrived at our hotel at 6pm (this drive usually takes 2-3 hours) to discover that even though we booked a room for 5 people there were only 4 places to sleep and they refused us a roll away bed!

Mike was a guest at the festival and his art was shown as slides between films. Here he is selling his art and books . Though it doesn't look it this was actually a pretty crowded event.

After spending a lot of time in the "Green Room" eating the complimentary food for guests, and playing cards. I managed to get the girls to come for a walk around town with me. Naomi found a skull.

A dinosaur lurked beyond this gate.

The festival was great but exhausting. Especially the part where we took turns sleeping on the floor. And the part where my kids were so tired they woke each other up to fight and yell some more. That was the worst night in a hotel in recent memory.

On Monday was Mike's 40th so we thought we'd do something special...

In these lousy pictures we are posing in front of the poster for "The Blue Man Group". Which was an amazing extravaganza and if you have never seen them... GO!

The Civic Theater downtown is a great venue. Mike and the kids are studying the massive chandelier before the show. Happy Birthday Mike!

This week I've continued to work on the sets for "Nunsense" which is opening horrifyingly soon!

As you can see I've started on Sandra Dee's bed frame. Time's running out and yes, I'm a little panicked.

Today I start teaching art again through an afterschool program at a local elementary school. They gave me a curriculum... I'm changing it (yes, I have permission), but seriously, lesson one is drawing 3 different kinds of lines!! Forget that we're doing cartooning.

Today my heart goes out to our friend and team mate from the US Open Sandcastle Competiton , Kristen Clark Magnus, who was bitten by a baby rattlesnake in her garage yesterday. She was kept overnight at the hospital for treatment. Speedy recovery Kristen!!

More sets and props for Nunsense!

2011-09-13T17:44:00.000-07:00

Now that the kids are in school I'm trying to catch up on my work. For "Nunsense" I painted this sign for the entrance where the audience comes in...

It will look better on the easel.

I also designed this layout for the backdrop.

Yesterday I started painting this lunch counter.

Phoebe was helping me. This was built by Ray Evans. It's still not finished though.

I also wrote two more articles for the Examiner. I wrote a review called "Art Underwater" about the Art Glass exhibit at the Chula Vista Nature Center (which is an excellent day trip if you are in San Diego),

and I reported on the Contemporary Art Fair we went to over Labor Day weekend (which you can see here).

Anyway, this weekend, Mike is a guest up at the Lovecraft Film Festival in L.A., so we'll be up there for a few days. The kids are excited to get away! (I think I am too) :)

Taking down the towers

2011-09-11T15:27:00.001-07:00

On February 26 1993, I lived on the Upper West side of NYC (E103rd St to be exact). On this day I was oblivious to most of the world. It was ancient times before internet and iphones, but we did have cable TV. Well, the world had cable TV, not us. Outside our building stood José, the super for our new apartment building and the reason for our utter cluelessness. We'd just moved in a few weeks earlier and promptly arranged a cable hookup. The day before the appointment we noticed José standing alone on the sidewalk with a cardboard sign announcing his strike. At the time his scrawled sign and lonely presence seemed comical until the next day, when the cable company refused to enter the building and cross his "picket line". So no, we had no idea the World Trade Center had been bombed until hours later when Mike's parents had called in a panic to see if we were "Ok."

In the beginning of 1994 we left NYC, moved to upstate NY and said goodbye to José (who for some reason thought we were now moving back to our own country). We were still living upstate eight years later on Sept.11, 2001. I was 7 months pregnant with my second child and painting in my studio, in our little house on the mountain, when my sister called.
"Turn on the T.V."
"What? Why?"
"Just do it."
Then I shared my afternoon (and evening) with millions of Americans, doing the exact same thing. Glued to the T.V. Running through an inventory of friends and family in NYC who may be in danger. Then waiting for that one phone call that said.
"She's okay. She transferred out of the World Trade Center office to the uptown one just 2 weeks ago."

In the days that followed so many people I knew traveled three hours south to volunteer. Meanwhile I was turned away from donating blood (no one can use the blood of a seven month pregnant woman even if it is type O+), and even though the air in downtown Manhattan was white and gritty it was "perfectly safe".

Of course everything changed. I lived on the far side of the reservoir, that supplied water to NYC. Now the bridge was closed and the remote, and isolated mountain lake had patrols 24 hours a day. My 35 minute drive to the hospital to deliver my baby was now over an hour as we wove through the back roads around the massive lake. But, I didn't lose anyone when the towers fell. I didn't decide on a new noble profession like doctor, or firefighter. I just watched with sadness and shock as the world changed around us all.

The shortest week

2011-09-09T09:35:00.000-07:00

School began on Tuesday in the rain. It seemed cooler outside so I pushed some hooded jackets on the kids and sent them off. By noon the rain stopped and the temperature spiked. A record high here and in the hot and humid afternoon we picked up three hot and sweaty kids from school. They all were happy though, despite the fact that Chloe's middle school has 100 more students than last year and Phoebe's class is has a whopping 36 kids in it. This year the only complaint was the heat.

Which lingered into the next day... And the next. As temperatures spiked, here and in Mexico and out into the desert, air conditioning was cranked across the region (not in my house though, ours is broken). Which means of course a BLACKOUT! Yesterday around 3pm the power blew.

Here at our condominium complex people sat by the pool reading books, talking to each other, and playing cards and mancala. All the kids jumped in for a swim and one neighbor gave them glow sticks. Like everyone else we rummaged around in the cabinets for dinner, looking for things that don't need cooking, now that the public grill has been removed. This place became an actual community! I couldn't believe it!

At 9:00pm last night (and again at 6:00am this morning) we received a call from San Diego School District. All schools will be closed Friday due to the power outage.We spent the evening in candle light, and went to our very hot beds. After finally drifting off our fan burst to life at 2:00am, signaling the restoring of our power and the end of the "crisis". Oh well, back nodding to our neighbors as we pass them in the hall.

Labor Day weekend

2011-09-06T11:32:00.002-07:00

As the weekend winds down and we prepare for a new school year I thought I'd share some our latest adventures...

We witnessed some amazing kite flying in the Seaport Village by the bay.

Discovered these froggy friends by a gallery in the Seaport village.

And ended the evening with some excellent pizza after a spin on the carousel.

On Saturday we took the girls and their friends to a Contemporary Art Fair on the bay front.

The art show was incredible. This head is a house that you can go inside of. The kids all took turns and rang the little bell (that was also shaped like a head).

The ceiling looked like seashells (this was huge!).

This is a famous series of paintings of La Boca, in Buenos Aires by an Argentine artist, Poupée tessio. At this part of the exhibit the gallery had a big plate of flower cut watermelon out and all the kids lined up to stare at it. The lady smiled and cheerfully offered the kids some. It was such a departure from the underlying hostility we get from so many art museums and galleries that panic at the sight of children, but of course, she was from Argentina!

After the art show they had a drumming demonstration on the lawn by the waterfront.

Once the kids were all trained on the drums they did a big parade with puppets and kites! All in all a pretty good outing. :)

Monday was the last day before school began so to distract the kids from this horrifying reality (as they put it) we spent the day at the Chula Vista Nature Center. Here's everyone (except me) before boarding the shuttle bus.

On display was their "Art Aquatic" exhibit. Which as you can see here was some beautiful art glass worked into the fish tanks.

Here we have "Mrs Puff".... ((Sorry stupid Spongebob Square pants)) :P

"Nemo" (Ok-I watch too many cartoons.)

Find the eel.

I can't help but post pictures of jellyfish.

The girls with a very active snake.

Naomi studies the art glass with fish display.

The big sting rays with sharks tank was in a separate building.

Phoebe finds a place to nest... er, rest, I mean.

Loved these sea turtles.

Hiking into the marsh in the rain.

Near the raptors outside the center. It was a gloomy last day of summer, but my kids love the rain.

Hope you all had an excellent Labor Day weekend!

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.....Last days of summer!

2011-09-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

For the last week or so we've been trying to squeeze in some vacation like activities, even though Mike has a mad deadline. Yesterday we brought the kids to the beach....

This is Ocean Beach around 5pm. (Yes, I bring my kids to the beach an hour or two before sunset).

Even at five the sun was pretty intense.

The girls went in the ocean and the sand!

Naomi attempted to build a sea wall.

After the beach the girls changed their clothes in the nasty beach bathrooms and we headed up the street into the town, (where there just happened to be a street festival making dinner super convenient!)

I've been busy buying up back to school items for the kids this week. I took each kid out one at a time so I could think straight. In the end though, this just meant I had to do three mega shopping trips instead of one. Next year -different plan.

I just had another Examiner article published this week here!
-It's about some of the amazing library programs we've been attending, and will attend this fall!

This week my thoughts have been with our friends and family on the east coast as they clean up from the massive mess of Hurricane Irene. Fortunately no one I know was hurt, but flooding near our old house in Greenville, NY was very bad, and many people lost cars, businesses, and homes. Much of the contents of our old house are still in storage in Greenville , but we have no news on it's status. The good news is that the house in Maine just had some branches down, so that's quite a relief.

This is the first year that all three of my kids are upset about school starting. Maybe I'll take them to that giant puppet parade this weekend. :)

Naomi's Day!

2011-08-24T11:45:00.004-07:00

Today Naomi is a whopping eight years old!

Here she is at her birthday party. We had it last Saturday at "Boomers" (on the weekend just so we could be sure kids would show up, unfortunately that's an issue here in California.)

As you can see Naomi had a great turnout though!

A mediocre picture of me chatting with some of the moms.

Present time!

It was an epic party, they rode rides, played arcade games, and (attempted) mini golf till dusk!

I wrote another article for The Examiner recently called "Creative Education in The Spanish Village"

If you do read it let me just say now, yes, I wrote an article interviewing my own daughter about her summer camp, but hey, it was a really great summer camp!

I've also begun work on sets for Looking Glass Theatre's production of "Nunsense". These are my sketches so far...

A rough drawing of the stage. (This has already been changed by the director.)

A drawing of the juke box. (I thought we'd have to build one, but it looks like we might rent it -Phew!)

...And this "Grease" sign is what I'm building/painting this week. I know what you're thinking-Didn't you say you were doing a play called "Nunsense"?? Yes, but it uses the sets for Grease- it's in the script! To learn more you'll just have to come see it!!

Art of The Red River... Today! Come join us.

2011-08-22T07:49:00.001-07:00

This month our guests include, Ashley Wolff, an author/illustrator of more than 60 books including, Doctor Bird Three Lookin' up Tales from Jamaica by Gerald Mausman,The Miss Bindergarten series by Joseph Slate, and Mama's Milk by Michael Ross.
She likes to illustrate in many different mediums and styles and am currently working in collage. She just finished a book called Compost Stew by Mary Siddals. She uses a lot of found material and papers in her collages. Her website is http://www.ashleywolff.com/

Jordan-Alexander Thomas is a Phoenix based artist who's been building robots for several years now. Each robot is created from wooden blocks, found and recycled items and carefully hand painted. Mostly he centers on steam power pseudo-Victorian era styled robots and he's also been working on a collection of historical ray guns from the future. His work is carried in stores at "The Red Hot Robot" (6042 N. 16th St.,Phoenix, AZ), "Evermore Nevermore" (127 W. Main St.,Mesa, AZ), and the "Made Art Boutique" (922 N. 5th St. - Phoenix, AZ). Take a look at his amazing robots here!

And closing the show is Anthony Watkins. A Las Vegas, Nevada based sculptor Anthony has a strong passion for art, but discovered that his artistic outlet was best expressed with 3 D modeling.
He is (and always has been) a huge fan of comic books and fantasy and his desire to create and recreate some of his favorite characters is what drove him to begin sculpting.
Along with working as a freelance sculptor, he decided to begin designing his own characters based on fantasy, legend and myth. His webpage on deviant art is http://antwatkins.deviantart.com/

This should be an exciting show, and hopefully very little will go wrong (GAHHH! Something always does... It's live!)
Be sure to join us!!

Laser Tag and Chess Camp

2011-08-16T17:08:00.001-07:00

Naomi spent last week at chess camp. I was very surprised she chose chess camp as she's quite a bad loser whenever we play games at home. It turns out a "chess guy" came to her class last year and made chess lots of fun so she was adamant about it.

Naomi with her trophy

I'm glad she was so determined, because she had a great time, won sixth place and wants to go back next year! I think her Uncle Ralph will be proud (he's a chess master).

Last week my comic "The Horribles" became available on amazon. This means you can now subscribe to my web-comic for your kindle and each week's update will automatically be there. You can even read it when you're not connected to the internet!!

For Chloe's big 13th birthday we went to UltraZone last Friday. Yes, a laser tag birthday with a bunch of teenagers!!

Here's the girls in the party room.

The table with presents, balloons and armor and a laser gun!

The girls are suiting up here to go into the multi-level arena with fog, flashing lights and an alien. They are supposed to take the other teams' bases and defend their own! It's like being inside an action movie.

Chloe with the cake.

Make a wish!!

It's birthday season here at the Dubisch house and Saturday is Naomi's big party day!

So..... More party pictures coming soon. :)

As if turning forty wasn't bad enough....

2011-08-12T11:02:00.000-07:00

How does this happen? One minute I'm the exhausted parent of a newborn baby...

... And today, I have a teenager!!

I wish I was awesome enough to make a cake like this!

Happy Birthday Chloe!

Midnight Run

2011-08-04T09:28:00.003-07:00

I saw another one as I drove Phoebe to her art camp in the Spanish village two days ago. A white balding man late in middle age, wearing only trousers and a hospital gown. No shoes. He had that wild look in his eye, a little bit panicked and about a block from Scripps hospital. He was in the meridian of the road, and waiting to cross.

We see the hospital escapees a lot as we're often driving through the downtown area with all the hospitals. Once I saw a woman shuffling along around 10pm at night (I'd been working late on sets for "Seussical") She was obviously shuffling as fast as she could away from UCSD Medical Center, same panicked look. All she wore was her gown and some slippers and was pushing her IV stand along the pavement. Another day we spotted a man on Washington St, several blocks from the hospital. He was also in a gown with some pants on. No shoes but tubes and wires streamed behind him as he wandered up the street. Early morning and late at night are usually the best times for a sighting, so with Phoebe's art camp in full swing this week I'm sure I'll get to see my fair share of runners!

Friday night Mike is taking our two youngest kids to "Night at The Museum"-no, not the movie, the event! The San Diego Air and Space museum is having a special sleep over event. They take a flashlight tour of the place, watch a space movie and sleep either next to a fighter plane or on "the moon base"!!

I have a new article published from The Examiner. It's called "Visions of the Past" and features some amazing murals by William Stout (great artist, great guy!). Also I'm going to be working on sets soon for the Looking Glass Theatre's fall show "Nunsense"! This is a very zany show and the sets are actually the ones from "Grease" (hard to explain but it's in the script). Anyway that's across the street from UCSD Medical Center, maybe I'll get the nerve to ask one of these runaways why? What's going on in these hospitals around here?

The War against Shade

2011-08-01T09:03:00.000-07:00

This is the front lines...

In San Diego's "War against Shade of ANY KIND!"

As a state California guarantees sunshine to all it's citizens...

As you can see some shade is still being cast on the pavement by this "tree".

We can do better!!

Moving forward

2011-07-29T22:57:00.002-07:00

Even if you fall on your face, you're still moving forward. -Victor Kiam

Comic con ended on Sunday. Last Sunday. Finally.
I have all these photos of people in crazy costumes, giant inflated cartoon characters, unusual statues of characters from various movies and TV shows sitting quietly inside my camera just waiting for me to upload them.... I'll get to it. I think. Though with my kids out of school and home all day thinking gets harder to do, and doing anything productive is even harder than thinking so we'll see.

If you missed me at comic con and were hoping to get a promotional copy of my book "The Horribles", -not to worry, like most things in the world these days you can still buy it online. It's right HERE!

This week's article I wrote for the Examiner was approved and published yesterday (YAY!). It's called "Exploring The Magical Circle". It's about a beautiful sculpture garden called "Queen Califia's Magical Circle"-an amazing place I visited with my family last year on my birthday.

In other news our web comic "The People That Melt in The Rain" is doing a special recap (reruns... I don't know) on Facebook all summer and fall as we prepare for the big graphic novel release. So if you're on Facebook it's a page a day from the very beginning for the next couple of months!!!

Back to the Red River...

2011-07-24T06:47:00.002-07:00

Tomorrow morning at 12pm central time we go live again with "Art of The Red River"!

This month's guests should be a fascinating bunch!

First on we'll have Alison Paul, originally a native of sunny California, who lived a comfortable snow-free existence until attending the Rhode Island School of Design. Even though she's graduated, she inexplicably remains residing in Providence, Rhode Island. She's the author and illustrator of two children's books from Houghton Mifflin, her most recent book is pictured above. She's also created animation and works with cut paper and collage.

Our second guest is Scott Johnson and yes, this parade ballon for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in NYC was one of many Spiderman projects he worked on! In 2005, Scott Johnson became the first artist ever to sign an exclusive contract with Marvel Characters Inc. After four years of exclusivity he is now freelancing again, but his relationship with Marvel remains strong and he continues to create art for their products, among many other clients. Scott currently works from his home studio in the Chicago suburbs where he lives with his wife and 2 children.

Closing the show we have cartoonist, Ben Glendenning. He was born and raised in Evart, Michigan, where his dad inspired what would be his lifelong obsession with comics. Currently living in Arizona with his family, he's created and produced the successful mini-series “Skulljammer" and is the artist on the popular comic series "Zombies vs Cheerleaders".

In the meantime we're still wandering through the sea of weirdos (ummmm...errr... comic enthusiasts) over at the San Diego Comic Con. Today I'm drawing for the benefit of The Cartoon Art Museum at booth #1930 from 12pm-1pm! I'm also handing out a copies of my comics, "The People That Melt in the Rain" and "The Horribles" (the latter of which can be purchased here if you aren't at comic con today!)

"Annie" onstage!

2011-07-22T19:20:00.001-07:00

Well, the kids pulled off a great performance! It was a showcase so it only ran an hour.
This is in the opening at the orphanage...

Annie consoles Molly...

This is Grace (yes- that's Chloe!) , Daddy Warbucks and Annie

This is called the N-Y-C scene on the streets of New York!

Here we have the radio show where they begin their search for Annie's parents...

And this is Mrs. Hannigan, Rooster and Lily, plotting to take the reward money, by posing as Annie's parents...

And close up...

One last picture of the mansion....

Finished this one in a mad panic this morning.

My latest article for the Examiner has been published. It's called "Art in The City" and you can read it here!!!

Comic con begins, school ends, and "Annie" goes on... and on....

2011-07-22T08:19:00.001-07:00

We went to preview night Wednesday night and it was the usual comic con madhouse. The girls and I handed out comics and a woman rushed over and asked to take our picture. I shrugged a yes and she snapped a photo. Then she hands me a piece of paper and says, "I'm from XX1090am- sports radio! Your picture will be on the radio tomorrow!" Sounded way too much like that old joke (you have a great face for radio). Anyway she handed me a piece of paper, and there's the website..... Our photo is here!
(It's photo #33 -make sure it's the Wednesday 7-20-11 gallery).

I took some pictures of us painting yesterday on the NYC backdrop at "Annie" camp...

These are some of the camp counselors. They love working on it.

Detail of buildings.

More detail... Sorry about the shadows of the trees. We also finished the orphanage and got really far on the mansion, but I haven't got photos yet.

Yesterday was Naomi and Phoebe's last day of school. After school they went to a friend's house where Naomi, rather conveniently, lost her report card.... hmmmm.

"Annie" in a week, and the craziness begins

2011-07-20T16:05:00.001-07:00

I'm working at the CYT Theater camp this week, where we're putting on an entire musical ("Annie" -in case you didn't notice that in the title) in one week. It's very intense, for all of us. The kids are constantly rehearsing, and rehearsing, and rehearsing some more. It's really more like a theater marathon!

Anyway I thought I'd share my sketches for the backdrops…

Here we have New York City, which I drew while others traced with markers, yesterday onto the backdrop. We started painting today. I'll try to get some photos but the camp has photo restrictions.

This is a rough drawing of the orphanage… It looks much better on the backdrop. We finished this one today.

And This is Daddy Warbuck's mansion, which we will start on tomorrow...

Speaking of things starting today, San Diego Comic con begins tonight. Here's an article about it (Mike and I were interviewed a couple of weeks ago by The Reader)! Anyway we're in it, of course this isn't my first appearance at SDCC like they say it is, I just meant I usually have a "Exhibitor" badge.

This is another article. This one I wrote for the Examiner. It's about The U.S. Open Sandcastle competition, which is happening this weekend as well. So traffic will be mad crazy here in San Diego with hundreds of thousands of people driving to these insanely popular events!! Happy trails!

Harry Potter- The Phenomenon

2011-07-15T09:08:00.006-07:00

Chloe was in this morning's paper (The Union Tribune)...

Nelvin C. Cepeda • U-T

This is a link to the article: What Harry Potter Means to me

After 3 days of begging I let her go to the premiere of the new movie last night with the youth group. When I dropped her off at the mall it was a mad house. People in Hogwarts robes sat in long lines around the mall. A booth was handing out butterbeer and many booths had prizes like chocolate coins and bracelets. A radio station had a big stage set up and was calling out "winners" every few minutes! She had a good time, but she sat with a friend who burst into tears every time Fred Weasley walked onscreen. As the final credits rolled this massive crowd of Harry Potter fans raised their wands (or twizzlers if that's all they had) and called out "Mischief managed!!" in chorus.

Yesterday was a difficult day for me though. I learned through Facebook that my cousin Scott Weber, was killed in a bicycle accident on July 4th. I wasn't that close with him, but there are childhood memories that will be all I ever have I guess. It's devastating for that part of my family and my heart breaks for them. May you find peace, Scott.

Hello Kitty is so big!

2011-07-12T17:34:00.003-07:00

This is my new painting. It's called "Hello Kitty is so big, for some reason".

Today Chloe is attending theater camp. She is upset, because the part she got in the play is an old man named "Grunt". I think it's kind of funny though. :P

This week my first article for the Examiner was published! It's called "San Diego Comic Con, The Gathering of Artists". If you're planning on coming to the convention, it's full of useful (hopefully) advice!

We also had a review of our comic, The People That Melt in the Rain, come out on this site! Which is great.... Except it's in Greek and I don't really know what it says. I did the "Google translator" thing, and it seems to be a positive review, but many phrases are odd when you use one of those things. Anyway, if you're able to read Greek or want to practice, here it is on Comicdom!

Don't Drop the Microphone!

2011-07-10T10:03:00.002-07:00

I only say that, because well I did. This week as we rehearsed for "Get in on The Act", and I learned my job as assistant backstage manager, I dropped a mike onstage. I also smashed my headset and slammed the lid down on the piano while swearing... onstage. So much for a silent and stealthy tech crew. I also designed this program cover....

I made it more graphic than the logo for the poster since I knew it would be printed with a photocopy machine. As you can see from this though, the big show was last night. My kids sat in the front row, while Mike sat a few rows back (in a reasonable spot). Anyway they said it was great!

Naomi took some photos for me. This is our M.C. Roy Attridge in the beginning of the night....

We open the show with Dorothy Gale singing "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" (played by Kelly Mustain)- She did an amazing job and was also the musical director.

Unfortunately it's a blurry one. The kids really started having fun when the mentalist, Jeff Marcus, called them onstage for his act. He was apparently quite hilarious....

After this Naomi forgot about the camera, and just watched the show, which included a gypsy violinist, a belly dancer, variety of singers young and old, swing dancers,and an amazing light show using batons (which Mike said was worthy of "America's Got Talent") . Anyway they were great, I wish we could send them all on to Vegas!

As for me, I discovered how intense it is to work backstage. All night was one nervous performer after another (one of them actually started to back towards the door when I opened the curtain for her). I had to track each act down and make sure they were present for their intro, and move a piano without swearing or even being noticed. At least I kept my headset intact all night!

Buried in Ashes...again.

2011-07-06T14:16:00.004-07:00

On June 4th while we were celebrating our 17th wedding anniversary, down in Chile, a volcano called Puyehue erupted and sent an ash cloud 6 miles up into the sky. Unfortunately San Carlos de Bariloche is only 62 miles downwind...

Photograph: Francisco Ramos Mejia/AFP/Getty Images

This is the famous hotel Llao Llao, a few kilometers outside of town.

According to reporter Laureana Fuentes, "It turned dark from 4pm (1900 GMT) and a kind of rain started. We can hear thunders and you can't see anything in the streets. There is a two to three centimeter ash accumulation"

Photograph-Sofia Sandor

Ashes covered everything. My friend Sofia shared this photo of her father's car with me. When we lived there in 2008, I posted this. It was the first time ashes had rained down on the city in either a long time or ever, but since then it has happened three more times.

Photograph: Alfredo Leiva/AP

It was obviously quite a mess to clean up. It also closes the airport, and puts a huge damper on the city's tourism (their whole economy is based on it). I remember my friend, Betina was worried back then that this one would erupt.... Only 60 miles away she said forebodingly. It's really such a beautiful place, such a shame to see it turn gray!

On a different note, we are busy preparing to visit San Diego Comic Con. I just received confirmation today that I'll be drawing at The Cartoon Art Museum booth again this year, and I will also be reporting on the event as a new writer for the Examiner in the "San Diego Artisans and Crafters" section.

July begins!

2011-07-05T13:06:00.003-07:00

For the 4th of July we went to Hollywood again and used our pass to visit Universal Studios. It was hot. Really hot, and crowded (mostly with people from out of the country who don't celebrate the day we sent the English packing). However, we had fun. We stopped in on shows we hadn't seen and went on rides we enjoyed in the past. Then after dinner we drove home through L.A. while the city exploded with fireworks around us. It was an amazing ride with some explosions happening right overhead and in front of us. I've never experienced anything like it!

Chloe has been home from school on her summer break (her sisters don't finish for a couple more weeks), and noticed in the paper that they were soliciting essays about "What Harry Potter means to me", as a send-off to the big movie release. So she wrote one and sent it in.... They LOVED it!! Now a photographer from the Union Tribune is coming by to do a shoot on Thursday! In the mean time Phoebe has managed to set up a summer job for herself. She'll be tutoring our 5 year-old neighbor in reading and writing. Not bad for a nine-year old. :)

Tomorrow is my first rehearsal for "Get in on The Act". The variety show from Looking Glass Theatre. I'm working backstage, which reminds me... I need to go shopping for nice black shirt.

The Humungous Box

2011-07-03T12:12:00.001-07:00

I just got my order in from Dick Blick art supplies....

I was very surprised. Mostly because it was so very big.

Not so surprised that it was so very light.

Because all I ordered were 2 colored pencils!

By plane or by car?

2011-06-27T17:11:00.003-07:00

Last week my good friend, Victoria, brought Naomi and I to the San Diego Wild Animal Park (well, that's what I call it, they've changed the name to safari park or something that I can't remember). Here I am with the kids puzzling over the map. Despite the heat we had a really nice time exploring the park.

My friend was excited, but agitated most of the day as she'd just booked a flight to visit a friend this summer. Unfortunately she's terrified of flying, but not as terrified as her friend is, so she's the one braving the trip. I tried to console her with the same old adages about how it's safer than driving to the supermarket. I don't think it helped very much.

As if on cue to back up my claims our other good friends here in San Diego were in a collision just a couple days later. Their car was hit by a young woman who plowed through the red light as she texted on her cell phone. Their car was totaled and two out of three of them left the scene in an ambulance. We went to visit them on Saturday and they will be okay after they have some time to heal.

So, I concluded, flying is the safe way to travel- right? Perhaps, or perhaps you should consider this anecdote that was recently shared with me...

I couldn't find my luggage at the airport baggage area. So I went to the lost luggage office and told the woman there that my bags never showed up. She smiled and told me not to worry because they were trained professionals, and I was in good hands. "Now," she asked me, "Has your plane arrived yet?"

In conclusion idiots are everywhere. The End.

Another Magical Monday...

2011-06-26T14:53:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow morning we go live again with "Art of The Red River". We have a star studded guest line-up this month and I hope you'll consider listening in! I know 12pm Central time may not be a perfect moment for some of you, so lucky you!! It gets recorded for your convenience!

Penny Farthing Bike from Steam Crow

Anyway artist Daniel Davis from Steam Crow studio will be with us. Steam Crow is a Phoenix, Arizona studio, that designs, illustrates and creates astonishingly good monster goods! Established in 2005 by Daniel and his wife Dawna Davis, they’re dedicated to making amazing and odd goods using the Steampunk aesthetic. Daniel Davis will be joining us to discuss their books, their toys, their prints and and the phenomenon that is Steampunk!

Bruce Fuller working on a piece for Hell Boy II

New York native, Bruce Spaulding Fuller is a sculptor, makeup artist, puppeteer, and concept artist on scores of motion pictures. We're thrilled to have him join us on tomorrow's show. His filmography includes such classics as Army of Darkness, Misery, Resident Evil Extinction, Aliens vs Preditor, and all three Underworld Films. Currently his handiwork is on display in such features as Marvel's Thor , Xmen First Class, and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. He lives and works in Hollywood, California.

Bridge of Bottles by Tom Brown

Tom Brown will be talking with us from his new residence, on a long boat in England. He was scheduled for an earlier show, but due to his recent move has rescheduled to join us this time! Over the years, art has taken Tom to some strange conceptual places including a Christmas card featuring Lovecraft, and H.P. Lovecraft mythos themed designs for a deck of cards. He'll be talking with us about his web-comic Hopeless Maine, which was recently nominated for an Eagle Award.

As you can tell, I'm so excited to be offering such quality programming! It should be a wonderful show!!!