Inspiration from Davis

The Wardrobe, Davis, CA



Display with some of my goodies




Loved all the color of the walls!



Heather and her friend Autumn with her darling twins

I'm not sure what it is about Northern Calif. that always seems to clear my mind and feed my creativity. Perhaps it's the clean air or maybe the roads that are not as congested as I'm used to. I know this time of the year it's the green rolly poly hills that surround me driving from the 5 to the 101 and driving from San Jose to Sacramento. It's truly a beautiful drive in the spring.

A few months ago I was invited by Heather Caswell, owner of The Wardrobe in the quaint college town of Davis, to participate in the town's art walk at her store. I jumped at the chance because I typically show in galleries or arty type stores as well as arts and craft shows. This is a high end boutique with very arty clothes because it seems Heather's philosophy is that clothes should be art in themselves. The store was beautiful and well, the clothing, lets just say I saw many masterpieces in that little shop.

The art walk turned out wonderful. The town was full of colorful characters and lots of students. I enjoyed many conversations that evening. She had dj's playing the most wonderful music. Old French garage band music. So much fun! The darling dj, Emily handed me a CD at the end because I loved it so much. Thank you Emily...I listened to it all the way home on Sunday! I had my book, Collage Couture, displayed for all to look at and I'm happy to say I had rave reviews on the design and look of it!

Being the capitol of natural foods, I ate well over the weekend. Gluten free and dairy free pizza and cheesecake. Delicious! Sorry to say girls, I did have to have my frou frou coffee the following morning!

Davis being such an artsy town, I thought I'd share a few pictures of my walk. It's the little surprises you find along the way that get your creative juices flowing.

The mural on the local art supply store

Bench outside the barber shop

Don't know what the building was, but loved the color. This was all ceramics I believe.

Thank you Heather and staff for a great weekend.   The Wardrobe

The Power of Pink

available at trashallamode.etsy.com

Can you believe it's already October?  It's a month of such contrasts to me. Dark, eerie, witches and goblins everywhere. And then there's pink. Breast cancer awareness month...I often wonder why October. I'm sure there's a reason, I just don't know it but I sometimes think that it gets a bit overshadowed by the darkness of the season. There is a real soft spot for the Power of Pink for me. It's really the beginning of my art story. Grab a cup of tea and I will tell you how it all began.

As I was nearing mid-life, I was feeling frustrated with my creative life. I have always created, dabbling in every art form and craft you could think of. Trouble was I never felt really good at any of it. I needed to find my niche. One night I sat down and listed one by one all of the arts and crafts that I enjoyed doing. I began to cross off the least joyful to me. When I arrived at the end of the list, three things stood out to me. These were things that gave me feelings of pure joy. The kind of joy where you completely loose yourself in what you're doing. They were fashion illustration, mosaic work and my love of paper. It doesn't take a genious to see where this led. I sat down and incorporated all of these things into one of my girls. I liked her so much I did 2 more.  These 2 lovelies were submitted to Somerset Studio for publication and within just a few days I heard back from them that they would be published in the Sept/Oct issue! How exciting was that? That was 2 years ago. After the magazine came out, one of the girls that I worked with sent a copy of the article to our corporate offices for the newsletter. I received a call from the art directer if she coulld use the images in the company's annual breast cancer campaign. My art, the girl dressed in pink ended up on a poster in stores across the country. That was just the beginning. One of our clients, an attorney, puts on a big pink tadoo every October to benefit the local hospital. I donated the pink girl to her to be auctioned off. I was assured she went to a good home! The following year, I did a pink spread in Somerset Studio with about 5 pieces of art and those were donated to last years function. I was asked to to the artwork for the invites and posters for last years soiree. It was so fun to see my girls in pink on blogs, posters and magnets! I went to this fabulous pink party last year and was quite surprised at the well, funess of it all. Ladies not just stopping at pink shirts but wearing big pink hats, boas and the works! Celebrating their survival, their journey with this devastating disease. Yes, celebrating. You can learn a lot from women like this. It was a day of laughter and I'm certain a few tears. I am excited to be attending this years party next week. I am glad they call it a party instead of a fundraiser.

That lead to a trunk show at the local store, Stamp Your Heart Out and that led to one more thing, which led to another thing and on and on. So it began with pink and every October it will continue to be pink.

Published Somerset Studio Oct. 2009