I'll start by posting what I wrote earlier this week on my 'other' blog, The Untitled Journey, regarding how I ended up finding the serenity prayer and what it means to me today: I'll admit it. I'm a dreamer. I have pictures in my head of how I believe things should be, and I have a hard time accepting it when people tell me I'm being unrealistic. Call me spiteful, but when someone tells me that I can't do something, I will do everything in my power to prove them wrong. Maybe it's a little sick and twisted, but I... Continue reading

A few months ago, I attempted to paint a ceramic plate with the photoshopped image of the daughter of a friend of mine. I really had high expectations for it, and I worked really hard to ensure it came out beautiful. Well, it came out kind of creepy. I was disappointed and afraid to give it to the girl because I was afraid it might give her nightmares. Surprisingly, she loved it! She vowed to draw me a picture and make me a necklace, and sure enough a week or so later I got a package in the mail which... Continue reading

The music of Dave Davies and The Kinks keeps me sane. I can't explain it but I owe much of my mental healthiness to them. I went through this huge Kinks phase in high school after hearing 'Lola' and thinking it was the greatest song known to man. I was obsessed and listened to nothing but them for years. Their music is amazing. Ray and Dave are extremely talented songwriters and musicians (did you know that Dave was the one who invented the distorted guitar sound that we all know and love back in the 60's?). Their songs are catchy,... Continue reading

Again I'm a little behind on posting about my weekly plates due to travelling, but fear not...the project is still going strong! One of my recent trips was to Maryland to visit Chesapeake Ceramic Supply and attend their first annual open house. This was my first trip there, and as always I wanted to experience all of the unique things that Baltimore had to offer. At first I was excited to be back on the East Coast because I could get a Yuengling....my favorite beer that isn't available out west. I proudly posted on Facebook that I was enjoying a... Continue reading

I've still got springtime on the brain....I was thinking the other day that I don't think we have robins in Fresno. I know we didn't have them in Phoenix, either, which means I probably haven't seen one live in at least 16 years. I remember when I was a little kid in NJ, I ran after a baby robin and ended up catching it. I showed my mom and she flipped out thinking I was going to get all kinds of diseases. I don't remember much more than that, but it probably dates back to when I was about 4... Continue reading

I've had this idea in my head for awhile now so I couldn't wait for April to roll around so I could make it happen! April showers bring May flowers....at least that's what my mom always told me. And when I think of rain, the Rhianna song Umbrella always gets stuck in my head. I actually really like that song, which is strange because I am usually not a fan of anything Top 40, especially dancey music like this. But there's something about the words to this song that appeal to me. So much that they inspired my 15th plate!... Continue reading

The other day I was taking a walk during my lunch break at work. We work in an industrial area which isn't very pretty, and there are a few abandoned buildings that are overgrown with weeds. Needless to say, I saw about a million dandelions and I thought about how much I loved picking them, making a wish and blowing as hard as I could to make the little fuzzy things fly way up in the sky when I was a kid...hoping that my wish would come true. I decided that I would relive a bit of my childhood that... Continue reading

I am lucky enough to live in part of the country where I don't have to deal with snow and ice very often. The downside to that is usually by the time springtime rolls around, the temperatures are already in the 80's and are well on their way to their summer high of 105+. I do like spring, but I usually dread when it rolls around because I know it won't be long before I lock myself in my air conditioned house and enjoy paying electric bills that cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars. This year, it seems like spring... Continue reading

For those of you who have been paying attention, you've realized that I'm a week behind on presenting my weekly plate to you. Fear not....I have been painting them as scheduled. But I have been travelling for the last couple of weeks and I only had a chance to fire them last night. Therefore...today I will be unveling two! This one is for the week of March 17-23. The inspriation came from a class that I took with the great David Hoff, ceramicist extraordinaire and my good friend. We both had to teach classes last week at Bisque Imports in... Continue reading

St. Patrick's Day is in the air...which makes a perfect theme for art plate #11 (you know what this means, don't you? The year is already 1/5 over. Can you believe it?) I didn't want the plate to end up looking like a St. Patrick's Day decoration, so I decided to accentuate the quote and make it the focus of the piece. I really like this quote. It's good to have a reminder to slow down and enjoy life every once in awhile. It's something I need to do more often. This plate was made with Duncan® Cover Coats®, French... Continue reading

I know I am going to regret trying to explain where this idea came from, but what the hey....I'll give it a shot. I was talking to a friend of mine about the summer back in the 80's when there was a bad gypsy moth infestation in NJ. It was really disgusting....the catepillars were crawling all over the place and you couldn't sit anywhere outside without one eventually crawling on you. I remember my dad would cut down the cocoons and burn them in the back yard, which subsequently stunk up the neighborhood. It turns out that my friend, who... Continue reading

I was a little stumped when trying to come up with an idea for my 9th plate, so I asked a very special friend of mine what he thought I should do. He said 'how about stars?' What a good idea! I searched for quotes about stars and came up with this one. It was a little lengthy, so I decided to use sgraffito to write the words instead of my usual French Dimensions. I think it turned out looking really nice, but it was really time consuming! And noisy. I started scratching at my desk during lunch one day... Continue reading

This plate was inspired by these cool little wooden and found object fish I recently saw in a local store. The minute I laid my eyes on them, I knew I wanted my next plate to feature a cute, colorful whimsical fish and an under water scene. The quote came easily...I think I was having residual romantic feelings from Valentine's day so when I found this one, I knew exactly what I was going to paint! This plate was made with Duncan® Cover Coats®, French Dimensions™ and Pure Brilliance®. Continue reading

My seventh plate of course has a Valentine’s Day theme. I’m not much for Valentine’s Day in general…even when I had a Valentine they were relatively uneventful. I might get a card or small gift, but that was only after reminding said Valentine the morning of so he had a chance to run to Target and grab whatever was left on the rack, whether it was my size or not. These days, watching young couples in love makes me want to vomit, but I’ve been working hard to try and change my view about this. One thing that has helped... Continue reading

I’ve had Plate 6 done for about a week now but I’m just getting a chance to post it now… I made this one the week of my birthday, because birthdays are just so much fun to celebrate at my age (yes, that was sarcasm). I didn’t mind my birthday this year though. I spent it with good friends and had a great time. To me it was more than a birthday, but a celebration of how lucky I am to have found such fantastic friends here in Fresno. I had just moved here when my birthday rolled around last... Continue reading

Week 5's plate was inspired by an article I saw by Gail Russakov in the latest issue of Somerset Studios (When Texture and Color Collide). I just loved the colors and different designs and textures in the project, and my mind automatically went to wondering how I could replicate it in ceramics. I decided to use every product and technique I could think of on one plate and see how they all worked together. The 5 stands for (obviously) the 5th plate in my series, and was inspired by my friend Alexa Westerfield's love for anything with fonts on it... Continue reading

My project for week 4 was inspired by my fascination for the Cairns, or rock piles, I found while hiking in Sedona, AZ a few years ago. Sedona is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It is known for it's gigantic red rock formations and is very popular with artists and spiritual people. It is said that several energy vortexes are found in the area and one day I decided to go on a hike to try and find one. Although I'm pretty sure I never made it to the exact location of the vortex, I saw... Continue reading

Everyone has heard of Pablo Picasso because of his incredible painting skills, but did you know that many of the things he said about art and painting have become famous quotes? When I used his quote 'art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life', I decided to take a look around the internet for other quotes by him. I found so many! I just had to make another plate displaying one. "Painting is just another way of keeping a diary" How appropriate is that for my ceramic painting meets art journaling project? Here's the resulting piece. This was... Continue reading

I was honored to be asked to collaborate with David Hoff in designing and constructing the Duncan® section of the iLoveToCreate® booth at the Craft & Hobby Association 2013 Convention. This is what we came up wiith! Duncan Ceramics - A Sixty Six year Journey Through Plates The company started in 1946 by Erma Duncan and her family. Low fire earthenware ceramics was a totally new art form that could be presented to the American public as a Hobby. Most fired art forms throughout the world were made by high firing clay bodies (temperature over 2100 degrees Fahrenheit). With the... Continue reading

Plate #2 in my series pays homage to the late, great Pablo Picasso. I am a big fan of his work, but even if I wasn't I'd still be able to relate to this quote. "art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life" What artist couldn't? The reason we make art is to get lost in it and forget about all the other stressful things going on in our lives. Creating art has gotten me through some very difficult times, and I am so grateful to have it in my life. It's the best therapy money can't... Continue reading

As you probably already have figured out, I am obsessed with anything and everything art related. I am an artist, but when people ask me what kind of artist I am I have a hard time answering. I am a painter, a scupltor, a potter, a ceramicist, a woodworker, a maker of mosaics, a furniture refinisher, an art journalist, a polymer clay artist, an interior decorator, an art quilter, a jewelry maker, a Zentangler....I'm sure I forgot to mention at least a few things. But, what I love to do the most is to combine any and every one of... Continue reading

I've got to admit, I really wasn't looking forward to Christmas this year. I have gone through a few very unpleasant life experiences in Decembers of recent years (including this one with the loss of my most favoritest cat Poopie) and I just haven't really been in the mood. Not to mention that I'm single this year and most of my good friends and family are hundreds, if not thousands of miles away. I'm not really complaining because my life as it stands today is pretty awesome and I wouldn't change much, if anything, even if I could. But I... Continue reading

This year, I tried something different for Thanksgiving. Instead of spending 3 days cooking, I decided to be lazy and order a pre-cooked holiday meal from the local grocery store. It's funny that I did that because I used to work in a grocery store that offered pre-cooked meals and I remember thinking to myself that I would never in a million years do that. But after several years of making a 15+ pound turkey and figuring out what to do with the 14+ pounds of leftovers, I decided that the 6 pound turkey breast plus 3 sides, gravy and... Continue reading

I am so lame...I just realized that this is the first post I've made since August! I've been busy moving and working and adjusting to Fresno, not that I'm trying to make excuses. I hate to show back up out of nowhere only because I need something, but I can really use some help. I have been trying to get some unpacking and decorating done, and the next thing on my list is to make curtains for the kitchen. Problem is, I can't decide which fabric to buy for them. I went to Joann's and Hancock today and took pics... Continue reading