This piece was originally based on the La Llorona legend. There are many versions of the story, but the most basic one involves a woman bathed in a watery blue light sobbing at the loss of her children. And if you hear her crying or are a little child who looks like her lost children she could come after you, (the legend is much more complex than what I am explaining it here). In the area I grew up the legend was always whispered about in Spring and Summer. The closest I came to her was there was a small shack near one of my friends house. I think it was an equipment shed for a near by farm out in a field. One night while talking about the legend we just happened to be looking in the direction of the shack where we saw a mysterious blue light in the middle of the night. A couple of weeks later a story about that shack appeared in the paper with the La Llorona legend attached to it. But once I delved into making this piece the idea of her morphed into a time when she was happier, before her tragedy happened. Maybe around the time of her wedding, hence the veil, and lovely purple flowers, yet there is the foreshadowing blue hue creeping out from the corners and over her face like an ever present looming sadness. I have to say I had so much fun making this piece. It really consumed me for a very long time.

Here is a sneak peak of a little lady I've been working on for quite some time now. She has been one of those projects that I would work on little bit. Then have to take a break from for a month to figure out where I was going with it. Then work on a little bit more, and take a break from. I'm happy to say that she is just about finished, and I'm unbelievably proud of how she turned out

Well, look who turned up all dapper and adorable on my work bench today. The steampunk ringmaster himself with his cloud of bats in tow. He turned out even better than I envisioned him. 

The Cultural Gutter is running their annual Gutterthon!!! They have a campaign running on Indiegogo to raise money for their day to day operations, and to pay their writers for their amazing articles. Their site is a wonderful oasis on the internet, and well worth the donation. Once you start reading their content I guarantee you'll be hooked so check them out when you get the chance. Below are just a few thing I have made as perks for donations, but they have lots more. 

 Oh, and I can't believe I have not shared the new love of my life yet. He has been a labor of love for months now, and he is finally ready to show his face to the world. Hi ruffley fringe is probably my favorite part. I made it all by hand, and sealed it over, and over to make sure it would hold up over time. Also, finishing him up also coincided with my birthday! Which now that I look at him from afar is very appropriate! 

Here is a little mixed media assemblage shrine to Jane Austen that I am particularly proud of. I have always been able to relate in a very real way to her characters. I thought that for all she has given me through her writings, she deserved to have a lovely little art piece dedicated to her. In my research for this piece on Jane I have found that most scholars say there is no definitive portrait of Miss Austen. There are silhouettes of her sister and parents, but none of Jane. So for her image I used a watercolor and pencil sketch, believed to be drawn from life by her sister Cassandra around 1810. Since the drawing is very light I touched it up just a tiny bit so her face could come though and then hand colored it and setting it in a cabochon. Her picture lays on a bed of crimson curly goose feathers to symbolize her country upbringing but the daring of her mind, and determination of her spirit. Rolled up hand written pages are creatively exploding from her prim proper Hanoverian/ Georgian period head. The papers are ornamented like little crowns with bits of metal elevating the pages to the regal status that we all hold her work in today. She sits on a canvas of hand painted light blue background. The canvas was then aged, and trimmed around the outside of the piece in light blue satin gathered ribbon.

I blame this piece of work entirely on Netflix. I started out watching a documentary on Joesphine Baker, then House on Haunted Hill (the old one), and lastly several Scooby Doo episodes. After a nap they all jumbled in my head and when I woke up this is what I created. If you look really hard you can see them all in there. I call it the Flapper Skull. 

The Halloween bug hit me pretty hard this weekend. There is a little hint of fall in the air right around 8:30 in the morning as I'm walking to my car. With in 30 minutes the heat of the day has wafted in and the Fall smell has dissipated  But none the less it was there for just that tiny bit so the wheels in my head have been turning. And because of that I have been seriously missing the dioramas I made a little while ago. They both sold a few months back. Once I make a diorama I put them on the shelf above my work bench until they sell so I get to see them everyday. When they sell I am very excited that they will be going to a new home with new adventurers, but every once in a while I miss them like old friends. 

This shadow box was designed around the theme of lost love, and the torment one finds in that lonely lonely place of despair. The winged devil sits above the lost soul and taunts them for eternity with the object they desire most, love, symbolized with a dangling spiked heart. The object they all strive to have yet once they hold it in their hands can pierce their flesh if they aren't mindful of how to care 

for it. There is hope of course, because where there is love there is always hope, but for these poor souls the road will be long to find their way home again. The scene is surrounded by a wood box with an elaborate frame around the outside. Decorated with my own rendition of hell's coat of arms a winged skull, crossed bones, and a little wriggling maggot.