Gracias

While Ted was doing some work on his sister Rita's guest house he came across this old skull, he asked his sister if he could bring it home for me to decorate in the "Day of the Dead" style. Rita raises long-horns and when it is their time to go she always has their hides and skulls preserved. I love the bright colors and positive message the Mexican holiday Dia De Los Muertos celebrates. After Ted brought home the skull I called Rita to find out what the name of the cow was and I got chills when she told me her name was Gracias because she had been born on Thanksgiving. (By the way her calf-mate's name was Danka.) I have a ways to go on this one, but I hope Gracias will love it.

Hmmm, Humanity. An Installation.

Hmmm, Humanity. An Installation. By Kim de Young

Waking before daybreak, Dashing out the door to establish my place in the pecking order of the crowded freeways, Watching the sunrise over the asphalt, Spending the sunlit hours under the hum of the fluorescent lights, Prioritizing my day between demanding emails, boredom, and the sound of the urgency in a colleagues voice before their eminent breakdown into frustration, Walking the halls of framed buzzword-morality-posters perfumed with recently burnt microwave popcorn, Rushing into the night air for my place in the pecking order of the crowded freeways, towards home.

Plainly the reality of my life for twelve years working in the semi-conductor industry was on the verge of soul sucking. Evenings and weekends were cherished times of re-energizing and creativity, until eventually not even two days off, a week off, two-weeks off was enough to balance the demoralization of my vitality. This project is a way to forever cast off the binds of that old mindset and move forward towards a new self culture and embrace my potential instead of squandering it.

Fantasy Show

I am taking a Gallery Management and Technique class and one of our projects is to design/curate a fantasy exhibit using existing artists. I chose to show the work of Beth Cavener Stichter and Milo Winter. I admire both of these artist, Beth Cavener Stichter is contemporary and her work is absolutely amazing, please click the link above and see her work! Milo Winter is an illustrator from the early 20th century. They work so well together because they both portray animals with human emotions. This is the model of the school gallery that I made using Cavener and Winter's work. I scaled it 12 inches equals 1 inch.

Snow Bunny!

Ted built me my very own SnowBunny!

(He looks a little evil.... hmmm)

So yeah, it hardly snows in Southern Oregon.

Donkey (Ceramic Pinata) is not pleased.

Not too much composting goin' on in that bin.

Sure does look pretty.

Moon Bunnies in Order

Hi Mom! Here are all of the paintings in order.

Starts with a regular bunny reading the "Moon Bunny" Book on a windy day.

Then each page will have the story in the moon like below.

First the Moon Bunnies are waking up from their long nap, approx. 28 days.

Of course just like you and me they are hungry when they wake, here they are eating their favorite foods; Thistle, Fennel and Basil flowers.

Eating gives them lots of energy so flying is their first order of business. They also like to glide and soar.


Here they are swinging another favorite thing that Moon Bunnies like to do.

Usually vigorous swinging will lead to joyful dancing, Moon Bunnies are know for their spirit and grace while dancing.

There is always time for the Moon Bunny song to be sung. Here they are singing with great zeal even though they are mostly off key.

Because they sing so hard and loud, they end up with sore throats, drinking buttercup juice will normally help sooth their voices.

Sometimes they get them selves in precarious situations, like the time they decided go tip-toeing across the pond and the rocks turned out to be turtles.

Leaping for joy is another favorite activity of Moon Bunnies.

They barely notice when the day starts to break, except they start yawning.

Just in time they reach the ground, here they are sleeping sound until the next full moon.

So, there we are. I have some work to do on the story, but it sure was fun to paint these.

Felt Kids

This was the first, but he needed a friend...

This is the bear's friend... Donkey Ant

Then came the Monkey-Mermaid (Sea Monkey) and his pal Brine Shrimp.

Introducing "John Deer"

Made for my Sister-in-Law Rita's Bday.

Street Painting Design

This is what I will be using for my "street Painting" design next weekend. The square will be 8 feet by 8 feet. Should be an interesting challenge.

Squirrel Pants

All of my favorite jeans seem to have stains... this is my newly created squirrel jeans. I am used to Red Squirrels being from the bay area of California... did you know the squirrels in Oregon are grey?

New House

This is our basement living space. Contrary to what my brother may believe, we do not live in the forests of the movie Deliverance.

New paintings created for my sister-in-law's guest house, garden room. I probably should have painted lettuce for the snails... yum!

Search

What's with the search dog on MicroSoft?
I have a new computer at work and I feel like I need to say "Good Boy" everytime he retrieves a file for me.

I was attacked!

The weather has been perfect for motorcycle riding, I just can't get enough. Well today I was riding home and I was stung. I thought a bee hit my neck and stung me, but an instant later the bee (which turned out to be a yellow-jacket) flew in my jacket and down my shirt. Of course I got stung again. So, I pulled out of traffic, put the bike in neautral, put the kick stand down, and unbuttoned and unzipped my jacket. The yellow-jacket flew out, not before it bit me again. I rode home and bactined the heck out of my chest. Two bites and two stings. I had to keep my cool while the damn thing kept biting and stinging me. Bring it on!

bunny vase

This vase is handbuilt with a clay called Grogzilla. How totally cool is that? It has these pieces of feldspar that when fired to cone ten just jump out of the surface of the clay body. I used some locally made underglazes for the bunny, which to my surprise came out quite bright even in a very heavy reduction firing. The greenish glaze is called green shell which was applied and then wiped off. I just entered this into a juried show called feats of clay. http://www.lincolnarts.org/featsofclay.htm It's being juried by the editor of Ceramics Monthly. It's a long shot that I'll make it into the show. I also entered three of the 10 perfume bottles "scents of the sea".

My Birthday Present

For my birthday on the 28th I asked for a Thermos and a Motorcyle. The reason I wanted a thermos was so I could tote my coffee to work with me when I ride my Vespa and the reason I wanted a motorcycle is... well, they're fun!!
So in the morning my husband had two gifts for me and I opened the first one and it was a thermos. Then when I got home from work I opened my second present and it was a bigger thermos. Then later on that night he took me to the motorcycle store! He wanted to get me an Kawasaki KLX250, but they are not sold in California. I had been eyeing the little ninja ex250's so we cheked Craig's list and found the perfect bike!

Kimmy and Libby

Here I am on my Scooter named Libby.

Earth Meets Water- Showcase

We were so excited about the boat, it's just a prop, but oh so cool!


The reception was fun and we sold stuff! In fact, Mary and Gene thought it a great idea to serve all of the snacks on some of our ceramic platters. The funny thing was, someone wanted to buy one of my personal plates that had a crack in it. They just loved it so much and bought it with crumbs and a crack and all. It was one of my favorites too, I always assumed it would be mine, it was kind of sad to sell, but the couple just loved it.