Santa Cruz Island

changing from Spring to Summer

Scorpion Harbor

Looking East to Anacapa

Leaving the island....

Thalia Chaltas... book No. 2

Our dear talented friend, our word loving companion and my sometimes travel buddy has a second YA novel coming out next month. DISPLACEMENT by Thalia Chaltas.

For those of you who don't know what the heck YA means... it means Young Adult which, in my opinion, means tweeners through adult. Remember the Twilight series? I know that most of my grown "teenage" girlfriends still finger their copies and take sides in the Jacob vs. Edward debate.

I had the great pleasure of traveling with Ms. Chaltas to Death Valley to do some research for this book and was thrilled when, at last, I got my grubby hands on it! The book is written in verse which is newish to me as most of my leisure reading is prose, fiction and either fantasy or classics.

I don't want to say a lot other than this was really a terrific read. You get lost in Vera's story immediately and the description of place, both physical and emotional, feel so tangible you can taste it, feel it, know it.

We'll be throwing a "soft" launch party for Thalia in June, once she has a stack of her second novel to place next to the first... another good read by the way. Don't forget to check out her debut novel BECAUSE I AM FURNITURE.

I'm already looking forward to what comes next!

New Print Offering - Libby Smith

"In Touch" by Libby Smith

Image size 9 3/4" x 7 3/4"
Paper size 22" x 15"
Paper is Rising Stonehenge Warm White
Graphic Chemical Bone Black Ink
Solar intaglio
edition of 25
2011

Available through the SB Arts Collaborative
Find out more about the project and the artists at Limited Edition Project

Garden Love Spring 2011

Doesn't get much better....

Island Dreaming

First coats of paint on my new obsession.. our local islands.
Santa Cruz Island, taken from the boat over.


Dreaming of a long spring and summer spent out in our channel and on the islands. This is a sneak peak of my Fall show focus.

Super offerings from Santa Barbara's finest

Thirteen artists are working in collaboration on a printing project to raise funds for the new organization Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative.

The idea was hatched by fund raising maven Tracey Morris as a means of, not only, raising money for direct-to-artist grants but also as a way to educate a growing audience that anyone can start a grand collection with limited funds.


Here are editioned prints {meaning limited to ONLY 25 of each image offered} at the affordable price of $50 each. They are hand made, hand pulled prints by our local and well loved artists. Half the money goes to the artist for the materials to make the edition, the other half goes to fund grants to help artists in our community stay in our community, realize a dream project or to purchase much needed materials.

The grants include all the arts, not just visual, but dance, theatre, music, literature .... I'm sure to be missing one, but you get the idea. The grants keep our community rich with culture, one reason why we all love it here.

How can this not be a win win for everyone! So far we have 7 prints available with a new print coming out the first of every month. There will be 13 in all, a good baker's dozen. You can get more information on the prints and their creators HERE as well as at the Arts Collaborative website.

Happy collecting! Let's get started!