Monday, February 13, 2012

Several years ago, in my former life, I started an applique quilt of my kid-hood memories. At one point I put the blocks away in an old hat box and forgot about them until the next time I moved. Recently I was going through some sewing things and ran across them. I was Kind of on one of my lulls in having a painting to paint and couldn’t find one I wanted to do, so I pulled them out and started working on getting them ready to go into an actual wall hanging. There was one ½ done and 2 more to design & do, but the rest of the 16 squares were done and ready to go. What follows is the result of my recent endeavors of getting the last three done and the order they will be places on the wall hanging in. I have already sewn them into the dividing strip but will add the photos of that later after it has been totally completed.
Mom & Dad Wedding Day this month 71 years ago my parents married. LOVE AND MISS YOU MOM & DAD
The Old Lakeside House... the sisters had the up-stairs attic bedrooms. Mine (with my sister Gaye) was the window on the right. I remember looking out that window one night and watching the log cabin across the road from us burn to the ground. Sonja’s & Nan’s was the one on the left.




Grandpa & Grandma Hansen cook out pit.

Awwww the wonderful times we would have having weenie roast & cooking marshmallows over at this precious spot. I remember so many birthday parties being held there.




My oldest sister Sonja...the snowflake is because of the town she was born in is named Snowflake.
Below is my brother Malcolms block he was also born in Snowflake.



My Sister Nans square.


Sister Gayes square


My square above.

It is said that the old farmers would leave one tree growing in an open field so that if there were lightning it would go to the tallest thing, the tree, and not them. I don’t know how nay times this tree had been struck but it was a lot. Its trunk had been ‘hollowed’ out but lightning so you could go hide inside it…. Yet at the very top of the tree there was still fresh growth every year….Mom even shot a skunk out of this tree once. LOL


Ol' Paint

Someday I will write a book about this wonderful old horse. She was my nanny, best friend, escape from house work, freedom to roam and my protector.

You wouldn't think that a stinky outhouse would be on a kids list of favorite places. But this one was one of mine. WHY????? Because it meant that when I was outside playing in the good months I didn’t have to go into the house to go potty. You see, going in the house meant you were an open target for my mom to assign a new chore to.


Grandpa & Grandma Hansen House

There was refuge from the storms of life in this house. Sleeping at grandma’s house meant that I would get to hear her wind-up mantel clock as it ticked and then chimed throughout the night. I would make-up songs in my head to go to the rhythm of that clock. Grandpa sleeping in his favorite chair (playing asleep) and then right when we got up to him to see if he really was asleep he would snort at us, and make us jump in surprise. So many other wonderful memories to remember.


Every summer there was a fruit & vegetable peddler (from the Phoenix area) come and sit beneath a huge tree in town to sell his goods. My favorite was the watermelons. You will see in the close up that follows that I have written the names of OUR ‘Summer Visitors’ who would also come up from the Phoenix area in the summer time.



Every summer my parents made homemade ‘aged’ root beer and then when the cousins were to come we made homemade ice-cream to go with the root beer. On the wall behind this picture are all the aunts, uncles and cousins names written. The close up shows just a few





This block is for my Grandfather & Grandmother Davis.
They lived in the Gila Valley of AZ which has many, many cotton farms there and I used to love to ride down the road to their house and see all of the cotton rows run as we drove past. This is the car I remember Grandpa having most and the colored string of spots coming from the window is for the suckers that he brought to us every time he came for a visit. They were in a long line of cellophane wrappers and had a curved ‘stick’ on them so you could loop it over your finger. Funny the stuff we remember about our grandparents.

Yes that is an old Water bag hanging off the front bumper of the car...how many people remember those?


Woodland reservoir was about a mile up the road from our house. One of my favorite places to go to and play. Because I was so young at the time I was not allowed to go without one of my sisters with me. OH the fun times we had. We also had a pond on our land, my grandparents Hansen had their reservoir near their place and there was another ‘lake’ (O’Mally’s Lake) across the road from our place. Oh, LOOK, my brother Malcolm and his favorite friend Richard are fishing today.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

EMERGENCE

This is one of my pixel painting (digital art work). The before a rebirth and then after.

AVAILABLE IN FINE ART PRINTS ONLY

Monday, November 21, 2011

MY STUDIO



DESERT DWELLER




A day trip to Sedona AZ produced the photos
that inspired this painting. Comprised of two different photos taken in the Sedona area.

THE DANCE




We have a yard full of oak trees. Having
always loved the colors of fall, this year I finally put brush to canvas to paint some of them.

There is another part of this painting. My wonderful husband and I met and married after we were in our ‘fall’ years. When we met, we were both kind of flying around trying to find what we wanted to do with ourselves sand kind of ‘crashed’ into each other and now are dancing through the rest of our lives together. I would not want to be ‘Dancing’ with any other person on this Earth.

PRAIRIE ANGELS

EQUALLY YOKED




“Our concept of marriage is motivated by revealed truth, not by worldly sociology. The Apostle Paul taught, ‘Neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord’ (1 Corinthians 11:11).
President Spencer W. Kimball explained, ‘Without proper (equally yoked) and successful marriage, one will never be exalted’

WISE EYES

I painted this for a charity auction, that never happened.
I ended up really liking it and am very glad I painted it.

RED BARN


This last year I challenged all of my face
book friends to post photos they thought would make good paintings. Then after
a set date I would chose several and then they could vote on which they liked
the best. This painting is a combination composite of two of those photos, one for the main body, the other the sky. I will be giving them this challenge again
at least once a year. It was very fun to do the challenge.




Saturday, November 19, 2011

THE DREAM WELL



My own personal family histories have always fascinated me. Over time I have repeatedly heard the story of one of my ancestors who helped settle Northern Arizona as a Mormon pioneer.


The family had moved to an area in the AZ White mountains that was called Fools Hollow. My understanding is that the reason it was called Fools Hollow was because others had tried to settle there and had failed because they could not find water in the area for a well, making it necessary for them to have to travel a mile or more to get their supple of water.


While this ancestor was trying to settle there his brother and nephew came to visit. They had discussed the water situation and one night my ancestor had a dream about where he could find water. The next morning he told his brother about the dream and it was decided that they would start digging for water that day. Within a relatively short amount of time, of digging, they found water. This well ended up supplying several families for generations.


My grandmother’s journal included a very small black and white photo of this well taken year after the families had moved. I used this very small photo as the model for this painting called ‘The Dream Well’. Someone later told me that the well was still a producing well but that had been abandoned because they were putting in a new housing development and flooding that area to create a lake for the subdivision.

WILD ROSE



THE LESSONS



THE RED WINDOW

THE PROTECTOR



I painted this painting for my husband soon after we were married in June of 2005

OH MY LOVE



SHRIMP FLOWERS



THE GOOD MOTHER



THE LAST STEPS TO HOME



SMALL WONDERS



ROCKIN' K



THE GATHERING STORM



MONUMENT VALLEY SUNSET



THE LIGHTNING TREE



FORGOTTEN FUN



BIRD OF PARADISE



CELTIC CROSS



AFTER THE LONG RIDE




THE HEALING PLACE



BEST FRIENDS



This painting was done as a thank you for the surgeon who replaced my shoulders and made it possible for me to paint again. I will forever be in her debt.
For the years of 2009-2010 I was unable to paint much because I needed to have both of my shoulder joints replaced. The last year of that time I was in so much pain I could not paint anything. This painting is the first one I did after I had the first one done (my left shoulder…I am right handed). It was painted with my left hand…only small details on the cats were done with my right hand.

RIDE UM'