Children's Book Illustration Art Show - Sharonville Fine Arts Center

Next month I (along with the above talented artists) am participating in a Children's Book Illustration Art Show at the Sharonville Fine Arts Center. Next Friday, Oct. 4 from 6-8 pm is the Opening Reception so if you are in the area you should stop by for a gander and some refreshments. The show is up from Oct. 4th to the 27th and each weekend during the show there will be special events with the illustrators as follows:

October 5th, 11 am: Tammie Lyon and Jeffrey Ebbeler will do a Live Drawing and Painting event, plus Story-time!

October 12th, 11 am: Christina Wald will do a Live Drawing and Story-time event!

October 19th, 11 am: Viki Woodworth and Vanessa Sorensen will do a Jokes, Mazes and Story-time event!

Hope to see you there!

Cincinnati & Suburban Bell Telephone Building in Westwood - Sketch

I've been getting behind on posting my sketching with Christina.  We sketched the old Westwood Library Annex almost a month ago now.  It is a very interesting building covered in cherubs and other odd figures that made sense after we discovered it was the old Cincinnati Bell Telephone Building.  You can see Christina sketched some more of the details here.  Apparently the building is considered an "architectural gem in the Italian Romanesque revival style" and is hopefully going to be renovated by a local puppet group (full story here).

Walnut Emboss

This was my second emboss project for printmaking class at Xavier.  I wanted to do something that had texture and that would recede and protrude.  So I decided to do two walnut halves.  As I was cutting the walnut texture out of cardboard I happened to lean it against my sewing machine and it made the coolest shadow.  I almost wanted to keep it just like that but I had to glue it down to make more layers for the emboss.  Part of the assignment was to make a colored version and I am not quite done with that but will post when I finish.  I ♥ embossing!

Metal Tile Roof with Solar Panels

After

Before

We recently added a metal tile roof and solar panels to our house.  Our roof was about 25 years old and we had a small leak above the front porch so we knew it was finally time.  I have always loved the tile roofed-houses in our neighborhood so when we investigated our options I was so excited to find Cornett Roofing's metal tile roof.

I am not usually a fan of products that try to appear to be something they are not (i.e. laminate floors that look like wood), but I was very impressed by the look of this roof.  We drove to Indianapolis to make sure we really liked how it looked and when we pulled up in a couple of the driveways I thought we had the wrong address because it looked like real tile.  You can tell that it isn't real tile once you look closely, but from the street it looks like clay tile.

We had a hard time choosing the color.  The tiles come in many different colors (and 2 finishes) and we narrowed it down to brown or red powder coated.  If we had chosen brown we could have left the dormers red, but I think we will end up painting them soon.  Overall I am very pleased with the roof and I think it upped our curb appeal by 110%. 

In addition to metal roofs, Cornett also installs solar panels.  George was super excited about this option. He has always wanted solar and it is a great time right now to install solar because of the government rebate.  It is a cool system because you can monitor real time how much energy you are making on your computer.  George has been obsessively checking it throughout the day and was excited because yesterday we made 17.5 kilowatts! When the Duke energy guy came to install our new meter it was set to zero and we were actually going negative until we turned the air conditioning on.  George thinks we can get back to zero this fall when we have no air on and lots of sun.  I told him I don't know if zero is a realistic goal, but as Les Brown said, "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."  (Hopefully a bright star with lots of light to make solar energy!)

Bird Flower Emboss - Printmaking

I am so excited to be taking printmaking this semester at Xavier.  This was our first test run project for embossing.  We had to come up with a 4''x4'' design to run through the press just to see how it works.  First we drew the design, then traced it onto cardboard.  Then you had to either carve the design out of cardboard or cut out layers of cardboard and stack them to create the emboss. 

I was beyond excited when I pulled this out of the press for the first time.  I never knew it but I looooooooooove embossing!  I love the subtle white on white with the design only created by shadow.  I could just do this the rest of the semester and I would be happy.

Balloon Plant Flower Arrangement

Last weekend we went to pick up our CSA vegetables at the Hyde Park Farmer's Market when I spied these incredible pale green orbs in the flower stand attached to our CSA.  I asked Sayward, the owner what they were and she told me they were a kind of milkweed.  (I looked them up and they are called Balloon Plant or Swan Plant (Asclepias physocarpa or Gomphocarpus physocarpus) and they are native to southeast Africa.)  I was so taken by the orbs I asked if I could have a  bouquet of just orange flowers and green orbs.  Sayward is totally amazing in that she can put together an amazing bouquet in about two minutes while you wait.  And this is what she made me!  I do believe this might be my favorite flower arrangement of all time.  Every time I walk down the stairs this bubbly green arrangement fills me with joy.  Thank you so much to Sayward and Hazelfield Farms Flowers!  You brightened my whole week.

And btw if you ever need flowers for an event they provide beautiful chemical and pesticide free flower arrangements for weddings and parties.  You can check them out here and here.