Sara & Fawna~happy birthday girls mar 7 & mar 8

Today is the girl on left's birthday~ Fawna Moon, her sister on the right is Sara Rose, my daughter and half sister to Fawna. She turns 40 tomorrow~ HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARA & FAWNA!
Fawna recent new mom is a loving and proud mother and wonderful wife. I watched her grow from small to tall and feel very close to her and her family.
Sara the first in a long legacy of Willis children is turning 40 tomorrow. I celebrate with her although she is in Mexico and I in Sedona. As all mothers we never forget the day our children were born and where we were and how wonderful that first moment felt to hold our babies in our arms. We feed, clothe, play, teach and love them as best we can.
I am so very proud of Sara. She has been my best friend her whole life and although we are not near we have never been too far apart. I admire her tenacity, positive outlook despite all types of adversity, her sense of beauty au naturale and her biggest and most beloved accomplishment, having and raising the 4 most beautiful children on the planet. Although she is a self made celebrity in Cabo San Lucas, she is also very well known in Oregon from her delicious and marvelous cooking/chefing adventures.
I am so happy she is moving back to Eugene with her 3 small children so I will be able to see her and them more often. I have plans to cook and hang out with my oldest granddaughter Ellen, who is a freshman at the University there, to teach Tristan my art tricks, to gain wisdom and read stories from Ava who is 6, to cuddle Miranda and read her stories and just adore her with her 3 inch long eyelashes above her sweet face and take walks into the park with all.
I remember bringing SAra home to my small house in Avondale, PA. She was wrapped in a knitted wool blue blanket. It was a gift from a woman that was a friend of her grandmother's who was from ENgland. It was the tiniest stitch and the sweetest little blanket. that blanket stayed with her until she was 5 and it was left at a bus station. I am reminiscing. All I want to do is be able to go get a coffee with SAra and sit and talk about her next plans for her business. The kids will be in a sand box playing happily and we can just be, neither of us needing to go anywhere or talk to anyone on the cell phone.. that is my wish for her and for myself. You see mothers remain selfish, even if it is their child's 40th. I wish happiness and love to surround you Sara. And Fawn holds her love dearly and deserves her sweet IRis..
Both you girls are still as wonderful as you were in that photo.

PEnny Portrait Girl w Big Bow

Back to Gouache again. I am determined to figure out how best to use this medium. Its a challenge for sure as no other paint dries so quickly. I love the poster paint look it gives and rich opaque texture. I also realize I must attack or at least complete my taxes, there is no more running away from them. The aid from my accountant arrived on Saturday and I am still starring at the manila envelope on my desk unopened, knowing once opened I must work on them and really, who wants to work on their taxes, let alone pay them. I did make less this year so will owe less and with the move to Eugene will need more but it will all work out, it usually does. I will get Rita into college and a dorm safely and securely and then try not to worry about drunken parties and walking alone at night. All those things we don't want to think about but have to let go of the protection thing eventually.
A film called
An American Opera
America suffered its worst domestic animal crisis in history when tens of thousands of animals were left to perish in neighborhoods all across the gulf.

Follow the heartfelt story, magically crafted by Director Tom McPhee, of the pets, vets, owners, officials, rescuers and adopters of animals as they work through the chaos to do what is right only to discover not everyone is working toward the same goal!

The lost pets of Hurricane Katrina
The poster above is for a film that was made by Tom McPhee about the pets lost in hurricane Katrina.
I started to watch an independent film last night on the PBS channel which I love, it was called"Mine" a film about how people during hurrican KAtrina dealt with the loss of their pets. Apparently the hotels and motels put up signs saying"no pets" and the sky dome where the biggest shelter of all was didn't allow pets so people left big bowls of dog food and left their dogs and cats behind. I saw about 2 minutes of dogs perched on the top of homes that were floating and another of an older black man talking about the pet left behind, I yelled outloud and Rita thought something happened to me. The grief overwhelmed me and I changed the channel as fast as possible. I cannot forget the look on one large poodle's face looking through the screen door of a floating house with water up to his knees. His face was so hopeful, like "I know you will come get me" . It don't think we realize how hard it must have been for those people, first to lose their homes and then pets. I know many lives were also lost and I don't want to make light of that but this film was all about the pets and for me it was more than I could bear. I am sure there were good moments but I couldn't make it past the sad ones to see them.
This Site has a page of lost Katrina PEts. If you go there you will see many of the ones that were on the movie, including BAndit who belonged to the old african american man I spoke of. I cannot believe how many pets these people lost. GO and see it is stagering.

Grace Thorp Gemberling Dances at the Beach

LAtely I have been slacking off on my job. I came across a photo album that was filled with images that had to be drooled over and for me enhanced. This one just begged to be colored and kept. Her name was Grace and she was born in a town on the Main Line of Philadelphia called Bala Cynwyd. She grew up in a large tudor home with her sister Josephine and her parents. Her father was in the steel business and built bridges. Both parents were originally from Germany. She and sister Jo grew up and both married architects from Philadelphia who were both quite famous. A friend who is such a good sleuth at getting hidden info on historical people and homes sent invaluable information on these two sisters and for that I am so grateful. Some of the paintings that Grace did are easy to find if you google her name. She received her training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under Hugh Breckenridge where she was twice awarded the coveted Cresson Traveling Scholarship. Keast was also the recipient of the Mary Smith Prize for best painting by a Philadelphia woman artist, and the Fellowship Prize for her still life, Gourds. she maintained a studio and taught painting. She was a painter of landscape, still life and figurative subjects. Her style was distinct, leaning slightly towards modernist while remaining realistic, evoking a mysterious and eerie quality within her work. Keast exhibited at the Salons of America, the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, the Society of Independent Artists and the Corcoran Gallery Biennials. Born in Philadelphia in 1903, died in 1997. I hope to display more images from the album. Luckily many were duplicated so that I may keep a few for my own collection. Enjoy!

Hawaiian Dragon's Tongue Orchid

I felt the need for the tropics today and this orchid from Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii does not disappoint! While on a vacation there I was lucky enough to stop for an afternoon to see the number one item on my todo list for my vacation and it was to tour the botanical garden in Hilo. This place goes right down to the ocean and is filled to overflowing with hundreds of species of orchids and succulents. The moisture and warmth made it a perfect spot to have this wonderful garden and I can almost remember how it felt to walk through there. Honestly for a photographer it was like a kid in a candy store.. or better! This lovely and somewhat uncomfortable flower is the most outstanding one in the garden in my eye. IT so has the surreal otherworldly look and almost defies beauty in its own spectacular way. Sadly I didn't shoot this at a high resolution so to blow it up would be impossible past a 5X7 but still I was happy to have the image. I worked it in photshop with a special overlay and voila... almost like a 1960s B movie setting for a film noir. Don't ask how I made that correlation it just seems to go.
Click the link here to see it in my store.

Feed the Birds~Jan 25

click here to see this in my store- scanned from an 8.5"X11" original antique paper cut~ I called it "Feed the birds" as that is my favorite thing to do. Saw a beautiful red cardinal the other day. That was a real treat!

Did I mention that I have not been very good about blogging. I think it was so much rushing around during the holidays and then the new year and the pressure comes on us.. you know all the stuff. Lose weight, exercise(give me a break its about 30 degrees outside), get rid of all the extra junk in your house, make a resolution or two.
Well yesterday I decided to cash in my wonderful gift of a massage and lo and behold what came up was that I had two things to accomplish in the immediate future. One was to slow down(duh), and the other was to take more time for myself. I could see this coming but didn't want to face it.
Time goes by so quickly we must and I repeat must take time to stop and smell the roses, not just admire them but actually get our nose in there and inhale! I am guilty of trying to accomplish too many things and because of that my body was crying out.. stop and relax for Pete's sake.
SO I did, a luxurious steam bath and an hour which went by too fast. I realize how hard it is for us to all take care of ourselves. Mom's are the guiltiest because we put our kids at the top, and that is fine. However we are not capable of giving more than we have unless we recharge and rejuvenate!
Please take that time. Its all you really have. Make the best of it and enjoy!

Manatee~a new blue beauty!

this is the latest watercolor my daughter Rita has made. She did it in one hour in her art class yesterday. In person it is almost life like. I cannot help but brag because although I have 2 degrees in art I don't believe I am anywhere near as visually accurate or intuitive about painting as she is at 17. I only hope she never loses her desire to paint. I worry as she played violin so beautifully for 8 years then quit playing although picked it up a few times in the past 5 years. I guess whatever brings joy to your heart is what you must do in life. This is a good lesson for parents in general when they are pushing things on their children they wish they had done or wish they would do. It really is up to the kids to find their joy. I think Rita's is unusual and regular animals. I love this manatee in all his flubber!
enjoy your saturday!!

F is for Fossa~Animalgam's ALphabet

My daughter Rita is creating an amazing alphabet of unusual animals. This is one of her latest and I think nicest images. A fossa. Every detail is shown in this pen and watercolor illustration and I wanted to showcase it because I really believe it deserves it. She had to take a semester off from art to concentrate on her AP Bio and other classes but starting this next week she will do a class with her wonderful Art teacher for her last semester in high school. A perfect way to end the 4 years by doing something you love to do. I am hoping she will continue with the alphabet until it is finished as each one is more amazing than the next one. Please visit her shop (one of two)on Etsy and see her other animal and biological drawings. Have a wonderful day!
here is the link.
her description of this wonderful animal is:
This is a Fossa, the largest mammal predator on the island of Madagascar, even though they're not really that big (very large house cat sized). And although they look like they are of the cat family, they are actually very closely related to mongooses. That's an example of convergent evolution! Google it, its very cool!