Transitions

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Much has happened since I've written a blog post on this site. After a fantastic trip to France and Italy last fall ( https://fabamoeuropa15.wordpress.com/ ) including an amazing workshop in Ravenna at KokoMosaico, it was time to get serious about our move to Bend. The reality set in that I was going to have to take a hiatus from making art, and in fact re-think what my professional life would be going forward. As I said in an earlier post, being an artist, I will never be officially "retired." Yet I needed to redefine how my life is structured. What with moving to a new city and living with a retired husband, a whole new life is unfolding! Our move from Hillsboro to Bend is requiring serious downsizing. The biggest issue is leaving a 400 sq. ft. studio. We have plans to build a free-standing studio in our yard, but at best it won't be complete until much later this year. In the mean time, we have a small room in the house that we are using as a temporary studio, but the majority of the "stuff" is going to have to be stored. Therefore, where do I want my creative live to take me in the interim? My friend Scott gave me a great tip to follow during this time: while you can't actually make art, keep those ideas that are swirling around your head coming, and put them down in a sketch book, words and pictures. And when the time is right, the creation of the art will flow.

So that's my plan. And in the meantime, I embarked on a brand new creative outlet. One that produced a functional piece of art. I painted a canvas floorcloth! For our little interim studio in Bend, a converted bedroom, we had hardwood floors installed this summer. It needs to be protected from flying shards of stone and glass, as well as printing ink when Bob fires up his etching press. I got the idea of floorcloths from my friend Joyce, who had created them many years ago, and they are still serving her well and beautifully, 30 years after she painted them. I discovered an important thing: trying out new art forms, new ways to express creativity in addition to one's primary medium, is an excellent thing to do. I discovered I actually enjoyed painting! And I thought I hated it. Well, I doubt I'll ever truly love painting rooms, but creating the floor cloth was a lot of fun!

base colors down

more details taking shape

design complete!

putting on the final clear protective coat

Chicago Mosaic Workshop

my first piece

What an adventure I had! I travelled to Chicago with my friends and mosaic artist colleagues Karen Rycheck and Scott Fitzwater July 7 - 13 to attend a 5-day intensive workshop taught by Scottish artist Dugald MacInnes. The three of us have admired his work for a long time, and had made plans to attend this coveted workshop way back in December! We were not disappointed.

The Chicago Mosaic School was founded by Karen Ami 10 years ago. I'd been there on two previous occasions: for a one day workshop with maestro Verdiano Marzi as a part of the SAMA conference in 2010, and then again 2011 when Bob and I were on vacation. We were able to visit on a day when resident educational director Matteo Randi was giving a talk. The school is a great resource for mosaic artists as they host a number of well-known international artists for workshops, as well as have a full slate of ongoing classes.

Dugald (or Dugie as we learned we could call him!) has been working with his native Scottish slate to create amazing works of art for many years. Back in 2009 when I co-curated the special exhibition on mosaics at the Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts, Dugie was one of the artists we chose to show in the invitational portion of the exhibition. So when he saw my name tag on the first day of the workshop, he looked at me with a puzzled expression and said, "I know your name!" and I remembered about the Cutting Edges exhibition!

Dugie is a fabulous instructor. He gently guided us to explore the properties and beauty of slate and shale, and the mantra during our 5 days was Simplify! I amazed myself that I was able to create 10 pieces during the course. It was a wonderful exploration. My eyes are open to new possibilities, and I am anxious to get back into my studio to create new work.

Here's a photo journey of our trip.

Two happy workshop participants on day one.

Third piece I did. Moving towards simplicity.

Scott taking photo

grouping of eight of my workshop pieces

final effort of workshop

Conveniently located next door to the school, a brewery taproom for us to visit! Mosaic sign by a CMS workshop lead by visiting artist Gary Drostle.

After a hard day at work, cheers!

Final day's agenda

Everybody's work laid out on tables for the last day.

Final group photo. Dugie is in the white shirt in the back row.

Karen and me out for dinner one evening. Time for a selfie while we waited for a table!

Karen and Scott downtown by a Calder sculpture. We had Monday free for a bit of exploring before heading to the airport.

Me with the whole Calder sculpture.

Detail of the Marc Chagall "Four Seasons" mosaic.

It's a really big 4-sided thing.

One side of it.

Landing in Portland. Awesome trip!

Meditation on Life at 58

Nasturtiums

Sitting here on a beautiful summer late afternoon, anticipating the heat wave that is descending upon Oregon, I am in an upbeat mood. It's time for an update, which will be both personal and professional. Fully ensconced in late-middle age, I am discovering that all aspects of my life are melding into one continuum. I don't really "have a job" but I'm not "retired" either. We have enjoyed having a second home in Bend, Oregon, for almost 11 years now. A retreat, a break, a place with access to different stuff than we have in Hillsboro, in the greater Portland area. When we go there, we're not "on vacation"… I view it as "just life." But having two properties to maintain, four hours away from each other, is not a sustainable endeavor. We knew we'd eventually consolidate and go back to having one property that we own. But where would that be? Many assumed we'd go to Bend; we never assumed that. Life had to unfold.

Bob has been retired from Intel for 18 months now. His year fellowship working with Community Action was complete in February, but he extended his work with them through this year. He really enjoys helping them with some technical projects. For all intents and purposes, he is retired. And he's looking for when I might be similarly retired! That is not as easy for me. I am an artist, and I feel that my artistic life is just beginning. I never want to be retired from that. So how do I fashion my life?

Earlier this year, we made that decision of where our "one and only" property would be. Bend wins. We are making plans to move to Bend, which will take about a year to completely make the transition. Meanwhile, we are living life! And things are good. Much is going on this summer, and fall. There are all sorts of things lined up that I am sure will expand me creatively and get me jump-started to create new art in 2016 and beyond. Here's a brief tour of what's coming up:

Rose mosaic, WIP

On the commission front, I have a couple of things going. One is a re-do of a project from 2011. Unfortunately, the concrete slab for a mosaic in the rose garden down the street from me in Hillsboro was not poured properly. The mosaic has had damage and is actually sinking as a result. Last year I volunteered to re-make the mosaic, if a new slab was properly poured, and the materials were covered. This is underway in my studio right now. The upside is that this mosaic will be superior to the original! I am going to be happier with the project this time— a direct result from the intervening four years of experience!

On the education front, I am excited to be traveling to the Chicago Mosaic School in July to take a five day intensive workshop with Scottish artist Dugald MacInnes. He is renowned for his exquisite work, primarily in his native Scottish slate. I've admired his work for years, and have long wanted to know how to work with slate like he does. My colleagues Karen Rycheck and Scott Fitzwater are taking the course with me. We should have a fabulous time!

Luca and Arianna of Koko Mosaico, in their laboratorio, 2013.

ravenna

I just confirmed that I'll be taking a course at Koko Mosaico in Ravenna, Italy, in October! I had the pleasure to go on Julie Richey's Mosaic Masterpiece Tour in Italy in 2013, where I first visited Koko, and met owners Arianna Gallo and Luca Barberini. It will be a terrific creative educational experience to take a workshop there.

Calanques

It will cap a month-long travel adventure Bob and I will be embarking on. Mid-September, we will fly to Marseille, France, and spend two weeks in Provence, then fly to Venice for four days, followed by four days at an agriturismo in the region of Friuli-Venezia-Guilia, in the north of Italy. Our last stop will be Ravenna for 6 nights, during which time we'll be able to see the Ravenna Mosaico, a biennial festival of contemporary mosaic, in the heart of classical, Byzantine mosaic history. 

When we return, it will be Washington County Open Studios. I am participating again this year, and I welcome everyone to come by my studio, and to take the tour of many other artists who open their doors in Washington County Saturday and Sunday, October 17 and 18.

Aix

Venice, October 2013

Life is full, and life is good! It's a long journey that I hope will continue for a good long time. At the same time try not to take anything for granted and embrace each day with joy and optimism. Which is why I'm not griping about the hot weather!  

Detritus of Industry

beautiful_decay

On Friday, we visited a place to go to in search of old rusty stuff. Stuff I can use in my artwork. I've been to salvage yards in other Oregon towns, but none of those are like this place. I hesitate to divulge the name and location of this "hidden treasure", as my friend who tipped me off dubbed it. But I don't think there's any harm in doing so. It is very out of the way, especially for people living in the Portland area, Willamette Valley, or anywhere else urban.  Midway between Redmond and Terrebonne in central Oregon, at the base of Smith Rocks, you can find Swift and McCormick Metal Processors. Expecting to find some small rusted bits and pieces I could salvage for future art work, I encountered something else entirely. Mountains of discarded metal. Anything and everything that is made of metal, that wears out, rusts, breaks or otherwise becomes useless. In piles so large that it is nearly impossible find small enough things you can even lift or untangle. But that was okay for my first visit. Because what else we got from our visit was a cool experience.

Stepping into the first pile I came to.

Strolling around the grounds, Bob and I encountered a quiet calm. There were people working, but not much was going on. We were free to poke around the whole place, gather what we could. Iron scrap is 30¢ a pound, and we were instructed to take whatever we want to the small scale at a building in the back.

Life-cycle

With Smith Rocks behind the salvage yard.

Still life in the weeds.

Contemplating mountains of detritus.

Before doing that, we wandered around. This landscape was so unexpected, it got me thinking about how much waste the world generates. Without regard to what happens to it, really. At least the material here can be repurposed, melted down to become something else, but I don't know. There's so much. How long as all this stuff been accumulating here? And is continually added to?

Never saw one of these before…

compressed_cars

Wasteland.

My 12th SAMA conference

Detail of mosaic at the Philadelphia School for the Creative and Performing Arts.

I've just returned from a week in Philadelphia, location of the annual summit of the Society of American Mosaic Artists. I've been a member of the organization since 2001, at the beginning of my mosaic art journey. I've watched the organization grow, along with my fellow members, these nearly 15 years. The quality of work in contemporary mosaic art has taken a steep skyward trajectory. It's exciting to be in the middle of it!

In addition to basking in all the mosaic love and camaraderie of my friends and colleagues, there is always much to be learned through workshops and presentations. A significant draw that keeps me attending conferences is that it moves around the country each year. I've seen more of the country going to SAMA conferences than I'd ever seen before I was a member! Chicago, Washington D.C., Miami, Austin, Houston, Tacoma, even Lexington, Kentucky! In addition to cities I had been: San Francisco, San Diego and Mesa, AZ. It's been an incredibly rich 12 years.

Here are some photographic highlights of my trip. Click on images to see larger.

This mosaic was saved destruction in the Loews Hotel 2014 renovation and relocated to the Philadelphia School for the Creative and Performing Arts.

Me and my buddy Mark Brody.

Mosaic and painted mural titled "Family Interrupted." Moving commentary on living with family members in prison.

Lovely Byzantine-style architecture, Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in Philadelphia.

Mosaic panel in the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in Philadelphia.

Dalle de Verre windows in the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia City Hall, in the beautiful Second Empire style.

Giant pipe organ in Macy's— former Wannamaker Department store.

One example of the many beautiful murals in Philly.

Example of art deco polychrome terra cotta decoration. They don't decorate buildings like they used to!

Giant game piece sculptures in downtown Philly. Fun Monopoly game pieces!

Our table of happy revelers at "Have a Ball for SAMA", the closing night dinner and party.

Philadelphia Love!

Happy New Year

Welcome 2015! After a jam-packed year, I closed out 2014 with a busy holiday season, full of friends, family and plenty of holiday cheer. The highlight of my artistic year was the opening of "Double Occupancy", my show in collaboration with Rebecca Buchanan. The show opened Tuesday December 2 to a good crowd at Walters Cultural Arts Center. The show stays up until January 26. It was an extremely rewarding collaboration. I grew creatively during the process, and gained a good friend in working with Rebecca. I chronicled the creation of the work in several posts on my blog, if you missed any of that. The staff at Walters created a fabulous show, encompassing more than just our art. Illuminating quotes from Rebecca and me, and wonderful photographs by Rick Paulson, documenting our creative process complete the exhibition. The whole display is a work of art on its own, and I intend to preserve it by creating a book capturing it all. Look for announcement of the book towards the end of the winter.

Untitled, Christmas 2014

I'm looking forward to continuing with exploring my voice with my personal work. Except for a fun little piece that was a gift in our family Christmas exchange, my art creation has been taking a break since I finished the last piece for Double Occupancy. It was only the time deadline that stopped me from making more work for that project! Rebecca made so many more paintings than I could make mosaics, that I would like to explore more with inspiration from Rebecca's vibrant color palette. And I've got inspiration for a new series just waiting for the time!

New Public Art Project Next up is a project for the McMinnville Public Library. I am partnering with my colleague Karen Rycheck of Talent, Oregon to create a mosaic "lily pond" for a cute little bronze sculpture of a frog to be installed on. This installation will be going in the entry courtyard of the library. They are undertaking a major renovation of the courtyard in the coming year. I'll post progress stories on the blog in the coming weeks.

Workshops Offered this Year I've got two workshops scheduled to teach this winter and spring at Sequoia Gallery + Studios in Hillsboro. The first one in February will have students working in the reverse method and learning the fundamentals of andamento. The second one in April will teach students how to make their own structural substrates for mosaics. For complete info and to register, go to the Class listings on Sequoia's website.  Scroll to #114 and #115. The listings are in chronological order of the workshops, not the reference numbers.

I wish everyone a happy, healthy and creative 2015!

Double Occupancy

All the work has just been delivered. Phew! We made it right on schedule. The show will be hung on Friday, and the opening reception is Tuesday, December 2, 5:00 p.m – 6:30 p.m. The gallery stays open till 9 p.m., so Rebecca and I will stick around as long as there are people looking at our work! 

Here's the official invitation from Walters Cultural Arts Center. I look forward to seeing as many friends as can make it. This collaboration has been a fantastic experience for both of us, and we're anxious to share the work with the world!

Two weeks to delivery day

It will be tight, but we will just make it! Rebecca and I have to deliver the work for our exhibition on November 20. I'm currently working on an interpretation of another of Rebecca's monoprints. At the moment I'm calling it "Lavender Houses" for lack of a more inspired title. It will be a companion to the first work I did for our Double Occupancy exhibition. Once again I've created a mortar and mesh substrate to represent the mat and paper the work was printed on. Lavenders are somewhat difficult to create in smalti, so my tones can't match Rebecca's ink precisely. I'm pretty happy with the colors I do have to work with though.

Moving Forward

Back from our trip to Spain, check. Back from the CMA Mosaic Summit in Ashland, check. Took a spontaneous trip to San Francisco to watch the Giants clinch the National League Championship, totally fantastic! Came back and participated in Open Studios, check. Final thing on the checklist: finish all work for the upcoming show, Double Occupancy! 

After returning from Spain, I was totally recharged and ready to hit the studio hard. The deadline looms large, so I had to knuckle down. I'm currently working on an interpretation of a cool panel Rebecca painted, a long and skinny dual house image. I'm having a blast working with the brilliant colors of the smalti, to coordinate with her paint palette. My piece is half size of Rebecca's painting. Hers is 48 x 12 inches, this panel is 24 x 6. Here are a couple of WIP photos. The finished work, with its companion painting, and all the rest of our work will be on exhibit at Walters Cultural Art Center December–January. Opening reception is Tuesday, December 2.

A Break in the Action

All summer I've been working on pieces that will be in my joint show with Rebecca Buchanan, to open December 2 at the Walters in Hillsboro. We've made an ambitious plan for ourselves, and there is still much work to go before the delivery date to the gallery in November. However, last January Bob and I made plans to go to Spain for the month of September. So here I am, typing this blog post from our Airbnb apartment in Madrid.

Taking a break in the action from creating in my studio, I'll be soaking in Spanish life, culture, food and sun for the next 25 days. And psyching myself up to be insanely busy, but having fun finishing pieces for the show when I return. Here is a WIP photo of the piece called O'Keefe & Merritt" that is waiting for me in the studio:

Creative inspiration in nature

Bob and I went on a hike Monday in the Three Sisters Wilderness of Central Oregon. From Bend we drove to the Broken Top trailhead. It's an easy half hour drive to the Todd Lake parking lot, and from there, a harrowing, rut and rock strewn 3 mile forest road to the trailhead. It's worth it, though. We've been there a couple of times before over the last 9 years. Monday was just about as perfect as you could get: Cool and overcast to start, trails not dusty since it had rained the night before. As we got to the ridge that would be our turnaround point, the sun began to come out, and soon we had backdrops with bright blue skies. It only got hot on the final quarter of our return walk.

Even though I'm racing the clock to complete another piece in the series that will be exhibited in December before we head off to Spain, this long weekend was very important. Turned out I needed to regroup on the design for my next piece, so I was able to work on that design back and forth with Rebecca on paper over the weekend. The physical exercise did wonders for both body and mind, and we were able to walk every day. And the inspiration in those mountains! More mosaics will come from that inspiration in the years to come…

WIP Chapter 3

I finished the piece "Green Chairs" this afternoon!  A satisfying part of completing a work is my routine of cleaning off my work table completely. Sorting and putting away smalti, sweeping off the table from the shards and crumbs, and washing the surface with Simple Green. And taking a photo of the piece:

I visited Rebecca in her studio last Saturday and checked out what she's been up to. Her interpretation of Green Chairs is finished so we put mine in progress next to hers for a comparison:

Big fun!

Tomorrow, I'm moving on to the second new work in the series. I'll be stepping back from this beautiful color palette and working with a more monochromatic one. The subject dictates it, but thanks to Rebecca's influence, I'll be spicing it up with some little touches of brightness!

WIP chapter 2

July trips complete. Time to get serious in the studio! Work continues on Green Chairs. I need to complete this piece by the end of the week, and begin on the second work in this series. Gotta set goals and to be able to make deadlines!

Meanwhile, down the street in her Sequoia studio, Rebecca is working on her new pieces for our project. Here's a snippet of one in progress:

WIP

Work In Progress

WIP. I love that acronym. But I never like to use acronyms without giving a definition of it first. So, if anyone reading this didn't know what it meant before, you do now! Rebecca and I are both moving full steam ahead with our collaboration project. Our show at Walters Cultural Arts Center in Hillsboro is scheduled to open on Tuesday, December 2, and runs through January, 2015. Which means that our work must be delivered to Walters for hanging before Thanksgiving. That seems like a long time off, but I've got plenty of previously scheduled things taking me away from the studio in the coming months. All good stuff: driving trip to California to visit my folks, a weekend with friends in Astoria, Portland to Coast Walk Relay, and the biggie: the month of September in Spain! Life is so full! Time for me to knuckle down and be very productive in the studio when I'm here. Discipline required! We've titled our show "Double Occupancy." Its meaning will be revealed with time. I want to keep your interest piqued!

Successes and Failures

Last year I started an abstract composition that I was excited about. While I was waiting for the go-ahead on the Sturgeon mosaic project I built the hand-formed substrate, got my sketches ready, and was able to get a little progress on the work before the green light came for sturgeon. Here's where the piece stood a year ago:

I wasn't able to return to it until April of this year. I was excited to get it done and move forward, but something interesting happens when there is a big gap in working on a piece. As I carried on adding tesserae, the continuity of the project had been broken. Looking back at this early WIP shot, I see that I somehow deviated from my original sketch and carried the top middle block down too far!

After I finished the striped section and the two sections at the top, I realized that the dark charcoal block in the middle top should probably have been at the bottom. That earlier section of mixed grey smalti in a kind of basket-weave andamento was falling flat to me now. But what to do? I have the hanging wire integrated into the substrate, so it's not possible to turn it upside down! I also realized that the large areas I was planning to leave "un-mosaicked", so to speak, textured with tinted thinset, was not balanced with the heavier mosaicked surfaces. So I decided to add another row of stone mosaic, in hopes it would balance better. At this point, I committed to finishing this, using it as a learning and practicing experience. Perhaps some good could come out of it!

Moving forward, I was really loving some of the new sections. This charcoal granite section is punctuated by some very cool tesserae. Look closely in this detail shot to see some other crackled material. This is the build-up of crud from the inside of my friend Tim Gabriel's forge! He brought me a little baggie of the stuff last year after he cleaned the forge. As I was working on this section, I remembered about it and it fit right in this section.

At this point, I am considering it done. While I don't think it's a successful piece, I am going to use the sections I do like as graphic compositions for note cards and business card art!

I welcome comments of all kinds. I'm interested in critical analysis in the interest of doing another abstract composition I AM satisfied with!

The New Project

I'm embarking on a series of new works, in collaboration with my friend Rebecca Buchanan. We are going to do a "call and response" — I'm interpreting works Rebecca paints or prints, and she'll interpret works I create in mosaic. We are also talking about doing one literally collaborative work where we both contribute to the same piece! For my warm-up, I set out to interpret a monoprint Rebecca made that Bob and I bought, because we loved it immediately at first view. The monoprint is untitled, but I decided to name my piece "You and Me". I felt the two houses had distinct personalities, and I am using them as a metaphor for Bob and me. This series will be exploring what home means to both Rebecca and I. Rebecca has been exploring this concept for a couple of years now, and I am intrigued with what she's been doing. Our joint work will culminate in a two-month exhibition at Walters Cultural Art Center in Hillsboro, opening December 2. I'm both scared and exited to be embarking on this project. It is going to be a challenging and exciting summer! Here's the work-in-progress for "You and Me":

Garden of Surging Waves Dedication

Saturday, May 17, 2014, at 10:30 am, a crowd gathered at the corner of 11th and Duane Streets in downtown Astoria to officially open the first phase of the Astoria Heritage Square. Celebrating the contribution of the Chinese pioneers to this area, the Garden of Surging Waves is a tribute to the men and women who helped build Astoria. It will be a beautiful, meditative place for citizens to enjoy for a long time. The sturgeon mosaic in the Pavilion of Transition is a shiny, bright spot in the garden, and I am extremely proud to have been able to bring it to life, with the help of my nine fabulous assistants!

SAMA Conference Recap

The 14th annual Society of American Mosaic Artists's conference was held in Houston, Texas, April 30-May 4. It was a great five days of networking, education and creative inspiration. This year I was able to simply be a participant, in contrast to last year when I was the co-lead artist on the Mosaic Marathon in Tacoma. It is a good experience to do that job once, but I was happy to be able to take a couple of workshops this year and just drop in for a two-hour session of the marathon, not be responsible for completing it! This year, Dianne Sonnenberg of Austin was more than up to the task. She and her Austin Mosaic Guild group created a very ambitious tryptich, that was not only big, it was sculptural and very involved. We were concerned they would not finish in time, but indeed they did! On Sunday I went on the bus that took a group of us to the installation site at Smither Park and watched the installation on the community-built, ongoing project that is the memory wall. Here is a photo recap of some of my experiences at the conference. Warning: 20 photos to follow. I won't be insulted if you don't look at them all! :-)

Annual SAMA Conference Time

For the 11th year in a row, I'm heading to the American Mosaic Summit, aka the SAMA conference! This year it's in Houston, Texas, another U.S. city I have not been to before. Thanks to the Society of American Mosaic Artists and the world of contemporary mosaics, I've now been to Chicago, Miami, Washington D.C., Austin, TX and Lexington, KY, and Tacoma, WA, all because of SAMA conferences. They've also been held in San Francisco, San Diego and Mesa, AZ, which I had been to before there was SAMA. Each year, I eagerly await to hear where the next year's conference will be held. Maybe I'll be going to another new city next year!

I've also had the privilege to have work chosen for the juried exhibition eight times out of 11. Back in 2007, it was super exciting to get the call learning my piece, Bosphorus Dockside, was chosen for a juror's choice award! As the conference was in Mesa that year, I was able to have my whole family come out to see my work in the show. Coinciding with baseball spring training in Arizona didn't hurt either, since we're all fans! It was a great reunion and family vacation.

This year, my Sturgeon mosaic, from the Garden of Surging Waves in Astoria, Oregon, was selected to be in the exhibition. It will once again be exciting to go to the gallery opening and celebrate with all my mosaic friends and colleagues.

During the conference, I will be taking workshops from Guilio Menossi and Emma Biggs, two masters of contemporary mosaic art. Very excited to learn new things and be inspired by these two.

Another fun event during the conference is the Salon and auction. Any conference participant is able to submit a work (unjuried) for show and silent auction. The piece I made for this year's salon is Still Life (after Morandi) Fun new style and subject matter for me.

Off I go to some sun and warmth in Houston! Warm weather, and more importantly, warm friendship and camaraderie from one fantastic group of artists!

Just for fun

Sequoia Gallery's annual "Hip to be Square" open show is coming up for April. I've participated in the previous two years, and almost didn't think I was going to be able to do it this year. I was hoping so,  because the show was opened up to free-standing entries this year— previously it had only been artwork created on 12" square canvasses, to hang on the wall. I had this crazy idea to put together some found objects that had been hanging around my studio. But time was running out! Earlier this week I decided I could do it, and put the finishing touches on the little piece just this morning. Before running it over to the gallery where they were hanging the show! But they let me come in at the last minute since it was just to go on a pedestal. Here is "Playground."