AWAY THEY GO!

SO HERE ARE SARAH AND KRIS -OFF TO A NEW ADVENTURE!Leaving the LBC for beautiful Seattle. Sarah will be training at the Aveda Institute and Kris will be working at her business, Eager Beaver Works-where she is described as a General Enthusiast! Its deathly quiet here-thats good and bad but I will miss them both!
Also I included in my pics a lovely downtown mural from the Seventh Letter Crew-sweet

UNIQUE LA THIS WEEKEND-GET IN FREE!

Heres the scoop-mention my name and be among the first 10 peeps to do so and you will get in free to the fabulous Unique LA gift show-a $10 value! I will be demonstrating and doing your name or special requests for free!I'll be there from 2-4 pm on Saturday-the 24th-check it out at www.uniquela.com
Hope to see you there-pleease feel free to send this email to your friends-oh and I'll have some cool goodies for sale-new handpainted wallets and word pillows and more!


THIS IS WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU COME TO THIS!!

Your admission includes:
• Free drinks & a hosted bar (IZZE, Honest Tea, water, beer, UNIQUE cocktails)
• Unlimited re-entry for both days
• Your very own collectible tote bag, exclusive to each show… The Spring tote is designed by LA graphic designer Keith Scharwath! Sweet.
• Free eco workshops and cool handmade activities all weekend, brought to you by Your Daily Thread and Quayside Publishing ( Thats me folks-and many other cool make and takes!)
• Family/Kids creativity zone and seating area
• Access to giveaways and door prizes all weekend long
• Souvenir copy of the Vendor Directory + Mini Magazine




Giving Back to Community
Fostering community and using the show as a vehicle to bring awareness to great local community groups is very important to us. UNIQUE LA partners with a non-profit for every show and donates a portion of sales to the organization. We’re excited to announce our partner for the Spring Show is Ed Begley Jr.’s’ GreenWish, which raises awareness and funds for nine local environmental groups including Friends of Los Angeles River, Surfrider Foundation and Algalita. Our great past partners have included 826LA, Create Now and CityLabs, and have all received donations of close to $5000. Thanks for helping to make this all happen!

CRESCENDOH!

Oh my-Im behind a bit-but I am featured this week on the wonderful website from former Somerset Studios editor Jenny Doh's fabulous new project,Crescendoh! It's theme and mission statement is Art Saves-and I think you can't go wrong with that! I share this week with wonderful Tracie Huskamp and Suzi Blu and a very cool thing is our favorite links are featured and change daily! I had so much fun figuring out my favorites- My grafitti article is up now. my links are for sure quirky but check it out!
ALSO_Etsy store is coming along-I'll announce when we have some more stuff posted-oh and we'll be having a Parallel Pen sale soon too!It is so beautiful now here in SoCal-and its hard to come in out of the garden and work!

ANOTHER SNEAK PEAK-JOIN ME IN ITALY NEXT MAY!

Oh ho! I have such goodness to share with you! Im thrilled to be teaching Watercolor flowers in beautiful Orvieto Italy in May 2011! Here's a rough description and some samples-please go now to www.adventuresinitaly.net to sign up_ I think this class will sellout for sure!


FIORI BOTANICI
Splendid Watercolor Flower Painting with calligraphy

A Plein-Air workshop in Italy with artist Lisa Engelbrecht

One of the things I remember most about Orvieto Italy were the flowers everywhere! It seemed every villa was adorned with balconies of cascading flowers and vines and lined with color. What an opportunity to explore the nature and beauty of plein air flower painting. Plein-air is a french expression that means “in the open air” and that’s where we’ll venture.
We’ll begin by learning the basics of my no fail :” Really Easy” watercolor flower techniques in the lovely convent classroom. (The local farmers market will provide fresh flowers to study!) Soon we will venture out to the quiet streets and meadows of Orvieto, a classic hilltop town in central Italy. Communal class painting and individual solitary sojourns will spark individual and class critiques.
Midweek I will introduce a simple style of pointed pen lettering that you will love-even if you’ve never done calligraphy before. You will succeed at this-I promise!
We can label our paintings, write flower quotations and journal our innermost thoughts and feelings.
I am so excited to share with you this style of painting. We will all learn about the semitropical flowers of Orvieto like bougainvillea and wild orchids. You will receive a book of exemplars and samples for further study while you create a floral journal to remember this once-in-a- lifetime trip.

Art Saves

Heres just a little tease for you-Im so blessed! I am honored to be the guest curator for the fabulous Jenny Doh on her new website- www.crescendoh.com I will be giving you daily links to my most favorite of things. This will begin on April 12th-of course I'll be reminding you all when it comes closer. I love her slogan, Art Saves-and this is really a way of life and ties in so beautifully to what I am going through right now! How amazing is the universe that it unfolds exactly as it should. I am busy finishing up my book proposal-"Really Easy Watercolor Flowers and Calligraphy"Or some title like that and busy learning grant writing for my new graffitti program-and enjoying simply beautiful weather here in the LBC. Just wanted to also post I will be at the Unique LA market at the end of next month-check that out at the website listed on the left. I'll be signing books and making stuff ( Oh and thanks for checking out the Letters California Style Flickr pictures!)

HE(ARTS) FOR HAITI FUNDRAISER this Sunday

This Sunday Im participating in a wonderful event here in Long Beach-CARNIVAL DEL CORAZON or Hearts for Haiti is bringing together all sorts of art, music and dance to raise funds to rebuild Haiti-funds go to the Yele Haiti Foundation. Here are my silent auction pieces-go to www.lbcreative.org. for info , times, etc. It is being held at the Hancock University which I just discovered is one of the finest design colleges in the area...ALSO a great article in the District about this org-I think its going to be aMazing for the arts here in the LBC

LETTERS CALIFORNIA STYLE!

The Society for Calligraphy hosts a conference for 100 people every year and this year I was so lucky to take a class from Judy Melvin! Here are some pics from the week-but you must go to my Flickr account to see what happened in that class-about 17 pages (I think) of wonderful stuff. This conference is so cool-only 10 teachers, 12 students max each class-we stay in hotel rooms about 100 feet from our beautiful classrooms-I think theres only a few spaces left for next year-Its always on Presidents weekend and the faculty is amazing next year-Randy Hasson, Yves Leterme, Pat Blair ( me too) Go to SocietyforCalligraphy.org if youre interested right now to sign up-this will sell out this year for sure.Oh and its held in beautiful SUNNY Southern California! The other people in the pics above are Heather Lee ( top)-who I was so lucky to sit next to, Judy Melvin and Susan Richardson-who is amazing too!!

Tattoos, Books and sales!

Hello
Im back after Letters California Style-check out the Flickr account on the right for ALL the coolest pictures! Here is a picture of my very first tattoo design on the beautiful Jana Jennings
I have big news-the Book will be coming out in Paperback-next blog! There will soon be a sale on my website and a new Etsy store! Also Graff Diversion and Watercolor Flowers book-OH SO much goodness to report-stay tuned!!

SURGERY deets-FINALLY!!

Here is a picture of my hero Dr. Nissen! ( THAT PROBABLY ISNT ME IN THE SURGERY)who on Dec 17th performed the most amazing liver surgery on me at CEDARS Sinai. The surgery was 10 hours and he removed a tumor the size of a volleyball and 99% of all the other tumors so im free and clear of all tumors!! I was in the hospital for a week-ugh and then on Christmas eve went to stay at my in laws-Anne and John-I SHOULD SAY MY ANGELS-THEY TOOK CARE OF ME AND MY EVERY WISH ( sorry- I got a new IMAC AND the caps key is close to the a! Kristin returned early rom India on New Years day and we went home-to the kitties -JEFF TOOK REALLY great care of them and the house-I AM SO BLESSED! I am now up nad about more and more every day-going to CHA for a booksigning and demo-but still use the hoverround in Ralphs-too much fun!! It has been an interesting experience to let go of all the small stuff an appreciate whats important. I am profoundly moved by your love and caring-your prayers and wishes were totally felt and appreciated-Thank you so very much and I hope to beon here moreand more to tell you of the exciting plans I have!!

My very first tat!

Go to my facebook page to see this beautiful tat on the lovely Jana Jennings! These photos dont do it justice at all!
I am going in for surgery Thursday! Jeff will hopefully update my Facebook as to how Im doing so check it out! Wish me luck-OK Breathe Deeply!