Black Shells

Yesterday I mailed my first donated art card to a buyer in California. The Black Shell at the top. The Black Sand Dollar is still for sale on http://ripplesketches.blogspot.com/ But you'll have to scroll down a ways because there is so much new art flooding in everyday. When I first donated Black Footprints in the Sand, I was around the 60th artist. And the blog had raised around $500. Now over 700 art cards have been donated. And the ripple has grown into a big wave. Over $6,000 has washed in!

Unfortunately I never received the addresses for my first 2 pieces that sold. Which leaves me to believe there was some kind of mix up. I feel bad about that because I was proud of my contribution. But the most important thing is that the blog is still growing and helping all the poor animals affected by the oil spill. I guess it takes 3 bottles of Dawn to clean one bird. And when someone buys 1 illustration for 10 bucks, that buys 3 bottles of soap.

My Black Shells are much like my Black Footprints in the Sand. They are meant to remind us of our imprint and responsibility with this disaster. We do hold the future in our hands.

He flew the coop!

Foot in the door 4 is now over. It was a show at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts that was around 5,000 artists strong and featured my friend Carie Shoen's delightfully funny bird sculpture. (My illustration Scared Dog was also on display) Carie's big bird flew all the way to my house after the show ended last week. And he landed in a pile of sticks by my hydrangeas. Go figure. I guess the cute baby bird thought it was the next best thing to a nest. Thank goodness my husband Dean always insists on keeping a big pile of sticks lying around. He knows how I love the stick piles. Ha! Well, when I discovered that sweet bird out there all alone I brought him into my studio right away. And he's obviously loved by someone because he's wearing a sparkly fringed collar. Maybe it's one of those tracking devices and someday he'll be able to find his way back home. But for now he's making me smile. No kitties allowed in the studio while big baby bird is here!

Ventenas Caves

I decided to do a really fun post to tie in with my, "Black foot prints in the sand." The sadness surrounding the oil leak is not a fun blog topic. The good news is that http://ripplesketches.blogspot.com/ has collected over $3,000 from art lovers so far! And I'm working on two new illustrations that I'll be donating to the blog by next week. This is Ventenas beach, Costa Rica. At low tide you can wander in the two caves that lead through the cliffs and to the ocean.

I LOVE these photos. We had so much fun inside the caves listening to the pounding surf.

A view of the beach.

This is a view of the caves from the water. We took a snorkeling and whale watching excursion. Unfortunately we did not see any whales. But it was fun just being out on the open water and enjoying the beautiful scenery.

We took this video while we were in the caves. Turn up your volume to experience the blast of the water!

Black footprints in the sand

Today's post is about footprints. When we were on vacation in Costa Rica this year I photographed our footprints. And my blog posts are just like those footprints. Footloose and fancy free.

But when I was thinking about what I could paint for http://ripplesketches.blogspot.com/ I thought about those same footprints. But this time in a more serious way. I thought about how each and every one of us leaves an oily footprint. And maybe we should all try to leave a lighter imprint behind. I don't want to preach, so that's all I'm going to say on the subject. The ripple blog is raising money for The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies and The International Bird Rescue Research Center. And has raised around $500 dollars so far.

Here's how it works. An artist paints a small original piece and donates it to the blog. People can go to the ripple blog, donate 10 bucks to one of the charities and pick out a piece of art. I bought one myself. And I feel so good that I might have caused a small ripple of change. So can you.

101 things to do with cat fur.

This is a dust bunny. I made it (Yes, I'm admitting this publicly) as a joke for my friend Barb Bjornson. http://www.barbbjornson.com/ She painted a magical illustration of dust bunnies. In her illustration the dust sprouts real bunny ears and springs to life. And if I remember right it starts cleaning up her studio. We could all stand a little self cleaning dust in our lives! Of course my dust bunny is made of cat fur. My friend Nina called it a dust kitty. Ha! I should have put cat ears on it. So is this Fur art? Maybe.
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Look it even has a puff tail!

Here it is before the so called "art" happened.

Our chickadee family just flew the coop. So my husband cleaned out the old nest so a new bird family could use the house. Rent free of course. I just saw a piece on the CBS Sunday Morning Show about a dancing cockatoo. Sorry pal, there's not enough head room.

I call this nest lasagna! And would you believe that upon close inspection the chickadee's used a combo of moss, cat fur and who knows what to build their nest. I just can't believe that when you throw some fur out the door, the birds are so adept at finding it. You'd think it would just blow to the far corners of the earth.

Go ahead and enlarge this photo. You'll see I'm right. It's fur! Oh and I lied. I only have two suggestions for cat fur. Although, I did hear about a gal that makes felty purses with cat fur. No joke. For more cat fur visit http://gattinamycats.blogspot.com/

Akua is a Twins fan

Akua is probably more of a fan of sleeping than a fan of baseball.

"Thanks for the buff big Dad. I'm sorry I'll never be the kind of son who likes to throw the ball around with you. But I've got skills. Just toss me a roll of toilet paper and I'll shred it like nobody's business. And my batting arm is always ready to slap my sister a fast one."

Someone got to go to a Twins game and hang in a fancy smancy suite. And it wasn't me or the cats. It was my husband. He and his coworkers got to enjoy an afternoon at a game on his company's dime. And I was at home working hard in my studio of course!

Our new stadium in downtown Minneapolis.

Next time take ME out to a ball game please. For more cats and not so much baseball visit http://gattinamycats.blogspot.com/ P.S. I've been doing so many cat posts lately that maybe I should rename my blog, "My Cats, My Art and Photography" Or not.