A Dodo Teaser

I have begun a custom dodo bird jester. I am thrilled by this piece as it encompasses several subjects that I just love including birds and extinct animals. I have an intense passion for birds of any kind. Ask my family, they're tired of it already! I am especially interested in birds brought to extinction by the hand of man. This includes the Carolina Parrot, the Passenger Pigeon and our famous Dodo. I recently learned that after it was discovered the dodo became extinct within eighty years. It is not clear what it looked like as all that is available are skeletons and a few heads.
It will be hard to part with this when he is finished. But I will. Stay tuned for completed images next week.

Caricatures and Our Booth

If you make it down to the market, look for us! I recently added the red flag banner to our umbrella. It makes us look just a touch more fund and festive! That's my honey awaiting our next customer. My caricature easel is on the left. Every weekend we hang sample balloons from our umbrella to dance with customers as they drift past. Our mermaid in the foreground is and especially accomplished lure. Last year one little girl wrapped her arms around our mermaid display calling out "MINE!" to her parents walking away from our booth. Needless to say they came back and got her one otherwise we would have probably ended up taking the girl home! I love when parents say that they couldn't see us until they were at our table but their kids could see us halfway down the block! They are lures. Hehehehe.


Here are some caricatures I've drawn over the weekend that I am particularly pleased with. This first one is a custom order for someone's daughter named Pheonyx. She is dressed in a Tinkerbelle-like costume while riding a friendly Pheonix and being followed by little pink butterflies.

This drawing is of two brothers. One turned forty and the other fifty. The younger one was visiting from out of state and had never been to Eugene before. They were alot of fun to draw. I always love it when so much much character sits down for a picture!

This drawing is of a friend of ours who works at a local coffee shop. Tony and I get out breakfast there every Satyrday morning before the market. It has become a little ritual and our day just doesn't start off right if we can't make it over there. She has yet to see this picture!

BRING Recycle Fair

Yesterday I worked the BRING Recycle Fair with some fellow Eugene Etsy artists. This was only the second month that this event has been going on so the scant dozen vendors was quite a showing to last months four! I believe that at least half, if not more, of the vendors are on Etsy. My favorite part was the networking. I enjoyed chatting with artists I had not yet met and am crossing my fingers that a little something comes of the business card and email addresses I passed out. We shall see!

Our little vendor lane:

Pam with a customer who bought one of her wrist cuffs.

Same customer with a traveler in their pack!

Pam's booth:

Susan's little hidey-hole:

Novena's record table:


My table with my other-wise unadvertised upcycled bags.


Susie with the MECCA display.


This was Mari's stand. I fell in love with her "Things With Wings."

* I know nothing about html... as you see I can't get it to stop underlining! And... I was unable to upload smaller photos this time. Even after I shrank them they uploaded too big to show everything on those that were taken horizontally. Please forgive me! I may try to fix it some day but for now I'm tired of playing with this thing!

Caricatures This Weekend

We lucked out this past Saturday and had our best location yet. It certainly helped that the weather was bearable this time around! Here are a couple of caricatures I did this Saturday. I actually drew two separate couples in the wedding theme. Why I didn't take a picture of the first one, I'm not sure. It was so much fun though. They had requested that the groom-to-be be wearing a kilt! I love customizing the pictures to make them a little more personal.

This week in art!

I love these two caricatures! I drew them this past Saturday while sitting in the insanely hot sun at the market. I am having so much fun drawing caricatures again. I am breaking out of my box and the boxes that were put upon me years ago when I began my training. I loved when this girl requested to be riding an orca whale. Fortunately I painted one a few years ago and remembered quite a bit of their anatomy. I am working on a custom order at home of a little girl who will be riding a phoenix! Her name coincidentally is Phoenyx so it will be super adorable. I will post it when it is finished.


I love the idea of the reusable shopping bag but have not been able to find one that tickled my fancy. They've been too small, too plasticy (new word!), to gimmicky, too touristy... etc. So... with a pile of fabric in my studio I dove in and came out with these! The main body of the bags are from old curtain displays that were going to be tossed in trash by a local major retailer while the flannel details on the side were purchased new. This is part of the batch of product that I will be bringing to the BRING recycle fair at the end of this month. Fortunately they only take between an hour and a half and two and a half hours to make so I should be able to add a few to the stash.



My Tickled Pink and Blue etsy site has been doing well lately. By well I mean that I've sold two super baby onesies. They are so cute! They come with a little red cape attached to the back and a "super" emblem on the front with the baby's initial in it. I love taking my son out in his. He always gets smiles and comments. Of course he doesn't have a clue how cute he is! But I have hordes of pictures to show him some day.

Here is a customized onesie I made a couple of weeks ago. The woman who ordered it said that her husband always called their daughter Madeleine "Rad Mad". She intends to put the outfit on little Mad for Father's Day.

Green At Home...

I am currently living with some people who are not terribly earth-aware. They go through paper towels and paper plates by the truck loads it seems. I have tried to push for earth conscience ways, but they are old and set in their ways and just smile at me. ARGH! So, a have begun creating my own re-usable items at home. These are fabric napkins. They are sewn together with old pieces of my sons receiving blankets and pieces of cotton remnants I have around my studio. Since I've taken these pictures I've made at least a dozen more! I keep them in a stack in the kitchen and use them for everything. From drying my hands, to wiping the counter, to toting with my lunch and even out the door with me in my purse. Pick up some fabric napkins today! I don't sell them but there are etsy shops that do.


My son, modeling a napkin for me! I have also recently made some really great canvas shopping bags. But those photos will have to come later.

I know this is a little late from Earth Day. It's never too late to help out a little. Recycle what you can, reuse what you can and be smart about what you're throwing away.

A Couple More Caricatures

Here are just a few more examples of some of the caricatures I offer: