Public Art - Painted Piano, Lots of Cats!

I was chosen to be one of 12 artists to participate in Pianos on State, an interactive musical experience that takes place in Santa Barbara during Arts and Humanities Month in October. Pianos are painted by local artists and are then displayed at various locations on State Street for impromptu playing as well as scheduled performances.

The eighth annual installment runs from October 2nd - 16th, 2017. My piano is located in front of The Red Piano at 519 State Street. Let me know if you see it! The design was inspired by my love of both cats and music, which includes musical terms and notations attributed to the various cats. You can watch me talking about it in this YouTube video. The title of my piano is Giocoso, which means fun and joyful, the theme of the piano and my life!



The "f" symbol is forte and means loud. Therefore "ffff" is very, very, very loud! The symbol next to his claws means "double sharp." 

 

 

Stentato is a musical direction to play loud or boisterous. The symbols underneath are crescendos, to gradually get louder.

 

Dolce means sweet, 'cause just look at them!

 

The musical phrase is from the song "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat."

Scherzando means joking, lighthearted or playful.

I wrote "Coda" on its tail which literally means tail.

Calando is on the left of the resting cat and means a gradual decrease in tempo and volume. The symbols around it are a whole rest, a quarter rest and an eighth rest.

On the right of the resting cat is a series of p's, or pianissississimo...very, very, very soft. And the mark at the end is decrescendo, to get softer.

The "p" stands for piano and means soft. 

Misterioso is mysterous. The symbol next to the cat's tail is a Coda, which literally means tail! 

The pattern below the keys is made up of little sideways "s" symbols which are musical "turns" and glissando which surrounds the center segno.

I put fermatas on either end of the keys.

Giocoso is the title of my piano and it means fun and joyful. At the end of Giocoso is a symbol telling you to go back to the beginning and repeat over and over again, so basically have a fun and joyful life.  


 













 

Mosaic Tribute, For Mom, Installed

My mosaic triptych, For Mom, can now be viewed by the public in its permanent location, GoletaValley Cottage Hospital. The panels, which are four feet high and total six feet wide, are made with stained glass and millefiori. They have been installed in the hospital's nondenominational Sacred Space, available for patients and families of all faiths. The design is of a Jacaranda surrounded by day lilies and was created with love for my mom who passed in 2013. You can read more about my tribute to her in this blog post.

 

 

A Mosaic Tribute to My Mom

Five years ago I was commissioned to create a mosaic triptych for the Sacred Space at Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital in California. After several years of delay, I began working on the design of a whimsical tree and colorful sky. It had just been submitted for approval when my mother suddenly passed away. My mosaic project quickly became more meaningful to me as I requested additional time to change the design and pour my love of her into it.

My mother adored nature and one of her favorite trees was the Jacaranda. She also had a tremendous love for daylilies, buying them, selling them, creating her own hybrids. She was deeply and enthusiastically involved with the daylily community with daylily pals all over the country. My original design had no flowers but I knew my redesign absolutely must.

My mother had more than 100 potted daylilies as well as maybe 100 more in the ground.  I couldn't possibly take them all home, so took 25 of her favorite potted ones and dug up 10 more. They had just finished blooming so had no flowers when I brought them home.  I used my mom's photos of them as inspiration for the design. 

A year later, as I was cutting glass for the flowers, they bloomed for me for the first time. As they were all different, I had no idea what colors or type they would be. For the next two months, I couldn't wait to go out in the morning to see what had opened that day. Sitting on the deck with my coffee and my cat, I was with my mom and her beautiful creations all around me. They are each magnificent and unique, as she was, and I am so grateful to have this part of her with me always.

After months of working on the mosaics, they were installed last week while I was out of town. I will be at the hospital this Thursday for the dedication ceremony to commemorate the opening of the hospital. The lighting is beautiful in the Sacred Space and I can't wait to see the mosaics in their new home. It will be another place I can go be with my mom, but nothing compares to being in my garden with the flowers she and I both love!

New Mosaic Installed at Children's Hospital

My latest mosaic, Joshua Tree, has been installed at Children's Hospital in Madera, CA. It is 20x30" and made with stained glass and millefiori.

When I learned the hospital wanted a desert theme, I immediately thought of Joshua Tree and how my father would take my sisters and I there on the way to visit my great grandmother who lived in Yucca Valley. Camping and being out in nature is something my dad loves probably more than anything, and my favorite memories of him in my childhood always involve him sharing this love of the outdoors with us.

Mosaic for Hospital

I adopted my mom's cat, Red,
who is watching over two of the three panels

I recently received the go-ahead on a project I applied for more than four years ago! After much delay, I was able to start cutting glass for a triptych that will be installed at Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital. The three panels total 24 square feet and will hang in the hospital's sacred space.

The design was originally an anonymous sort of tree, but after my mother passed away in 2013, I asked if I could redo the design to reflect more of who she was and what she loved, to honor her in this mosaic. So I re-drew it as a Jacaranda, one of her favorites, and added day lilies, her favorite flower. She was so in love with these flowers, she joined an online community of other day lily enthusiasts who shared images of their favorites and traded their day lily seeds with each other. Many of them, including my mom, would experiment with hybridization to create their own unique species.

Mosaic detail

She left behind hundreds of plants, some in the ground, others in pots.  I took home about 35 of her favorites, which weren't flowering at the time, but began to bloom almost a year later. It became my daily ritual each morning to visit them with my cat and my coffee to see which ones had opened up that day. Each was a beautiful gift and I am so looking forward to spring when I get to see them again!

Some of Mom's gorgeous flowers.

One of my favorites

Mosaic Commission Completed

Oh! I'm done with my mosaics for the Central Texas Medical Center! It was a two month project that kept me from working on my book, but I was so happy to do it. It is my first public commission out of state, so I'm very proud of it. The five panels (large one is 24x36" and the four small ones are 18x24") will be hung in the labor and delivery waiting room so they will be super visible and will hopefully bring a sense of calm to the expectant mother and her family and friends. :-) They are made with stained glass, millefiori and vitreous. I am anxious to get back to my book but have one more project to get done first: I participated in a game on Facebook where you create something for the first 5 to respond. Well, I took nine names so I'd better get to it! But after that, THE BOOK!!