Desert Rose - Sting

I really love this song! It feels like the desert is coming to life in this song.

The cover of "Mexican Pulp Art". The bottom image is my favorite in the book, Medusa! Love her red lipstick and heavy eye-liner!

I am still nursing my back from the fall I took last week. I am hoping to get started soon on some new artwork that will include a series of self-portraits. Last night, I went to Barnes and Noble and bought a really cool book titled, "Mexican Pulp Art". It is pulp art from the 60's and 70's. I scanned a few pages from this book. The book is somewhat campy, but the drawings are rich in color and the artwork is fun to look at. I am planning to take the book apart and use some of the drawings in my artwork. At $16.00, the book is a cheap guilty pleasure.

A few days ago, I received this stash from Juliana Coles. I was supposed to take a weekend class with Juliana this weekend, but I took a very bad fall a couple of days ago, and am home resting. I was in the tub, taking a shower. All of our bathrooms have plastic mats inside the tubs. Somehow, the mat moved while I was in the shower. I lost my footing, slipped on the mat, and fell out of the tub. I landed on the tiled bathroom floor, flat on my back. I missed hitting my head against the wall by just a few inches. It all happened very quickly. I was very fortunate that I didn't break anything. I am very sore and bruised and my back is killing me! I can't sit for too long because the pain starts shooting up and down my spine. I really, really hate losing out on Juliana's class! So, I want to use the rest of this post to talk about Juliana. Juliana is so generous, creative, and nurturing. She is a phenomenal instructor and artist. I am going to steal one of Kelly's lines: if you have an opportunity to take one of Juliana's classes, don't walk, run to sign up! It will be worth every penny you spend to take her classes. I have taken many of her classes and have NEVER been disappointed! Support our artists - go to Etsy, www.etsy.com, and you can see Juliana's and other wonderful artists' works.

Happy Easter! No views on the world today. Instead, I am posting photos I took yesterday. These are all shots of my garden. The nasturiums have been blooming since winter and pretty much bloom all year long. The shot of the sweet peas is my favorite. These are the first sweet peas of the season. Shortly after I finished taking photos, I cut these beauties. They are now in my studio, on my desk. They are so fragrant. But alas, they only last for a few days. Lastly, the trumpet is ready to explode with flowers. Their color is a butter yellow. I have several trumpets in my yard, but this baby is the one that is really blossoming.

One more posting for today. On one of my postcards that I posted yesterday, it reads, 'Did too much religion cause 9/11?' There is a story as to how that piece came about. That part of the card was a copy of a piece I did last year. Like some of Juliana Coles' postcards, I like to re-work some of my old work and make it new. I made that piece in one of my classes @ the Art Center, in Pasadena. As part of our grade, each student was given a composition book. Before we started working in our books, the professor told us we would each need to focus on a theme for our books. Each week, all of us would trade our books and we would work in someone else's book. The theme of the book that I did that particular piece in was 'too much religion'. So, I tried to do a take on 'the war on terrorism', religion, particularly Islam, and propaganda and how they impact the lives of all. I have never thought religion was the reason 9/11 occurred. On the contrary, I think to put it on Islam is a very simplistic view of looking at the problems in the Middle East. I believe it is the U.S.'s bad policies that have created a lot of the problems we now face throughout the world. Looking back @ 9/11, it was such a horrific event, but as horrific as it was, it was the first time in my life I saw the rest of the world unite behind the U.S. There was so much goodwill towards the U.S. and it is hard to imagine that in a very short time, it was squandered away. As we start looking to November 2008 to elect a new president, it is very apparent that whomever is the new president, they will have their work cut out for them. Lastly, the theme of my book was 'the value of a life' something that I constantly try to address in my art and life. I have posted these pages before, but feel the message needs to keep coming out loud and clear.

I created this piece as a memorial of sorts, to honor the anniversary of Rachel Corrie's death and the thousands of Iraqi civilians, U.S. troops, and allies who have died in Iraq as a result of the United States' "war against terror". One day, we as a planet will figure out that sometimes, we are our worst enemy! Rachel Corrie, an American activist, was crushed to death by a bull-dozer in the Gaza Strip, on March 16, 2003. An Israeli soldier killed her. Rachel Corrie had tried to protect the area near the Palestinian wells and the Palestinian workers from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). For many years, the media has presented a very one-sided account of what has been going on in the Middle East, particularly in regards to the Palestinian people. It is unbelievable that someone such as Rachel Corrie, a pacifist, would be murdered because she was trying to help a group of people who face many hardships on a daily basis. It is hard to believe that we just marked our 5th year in Iraq. And after 5 years, there is still no legitimate evidence of nuclear weapons! What bullshit is the tale our leaders have tried to spin! Hubris at its worst. Self-denial is dangerous.