A few years back I set out to draw a family portrait.  Not wanting a traditional, representational portrait, I went for abstract.  

We have a very character-ful family.  Each of our personlities, styles, appearances, moods, and interests are quite different, and each of us is engaged in interesting pursuits.  We are in the semiconductor industry; glass sculpting, casting, fusing, beadmaking, and jewelry making; drawing; baseball playing and umpiring; softball; music, with family members playing classical and jazz piano, euphonium, saxophone, clarinet and baritone; writing; childcare; volunteering; kayaking; beekeeping; classic car restoration; languages including mandarin, french and japanese; vegetarianism; recycling; wrestling; pets including a great dane and a python; and each person has their own brand of intelligence and humor.

I depicted us as a giant sunflower, one of my favorites.  Each family member has a section of the sunflower face, with each of us a “puzzle piece” of the whole.  Within each family member’s section, I have drawn details about them, their personality and interests.  Brent’s and my marriage vows are the thread that ties our whole family together. 

Recently I submitted my drawing to the Statewide Drawing and Print Competition and Exhibition at the Triton Museum in Santa Clara.  Last week I received a letter with acceptance to the exhibition!  Over 600 drawings were submitted and 70 chosen for the exhibition.  I am completely pleased to be included!

For local people, the opening reception for the exhibition will be December 11, 7:00 – 9:00pm.  www.TritonMuseum.org

I’ve completed a new piece in my toys series – a funny little futuristic car.  My brother Bob and I played cars often as children.  We had a variety of cars from Matchboxes to the big, hardy Tonka dumptruck.  We built big and small cities of roads and hills and bridges in the dirt and drove our cars around, talking the whole time – “… and then this guy drives up and dumps off a load of special rocks brought back from the moon … and these guys are using the moon rocks to build a bomb proof shelter for the President … ”

This car has one wheel in front and two in back, and a seat and steering wheel inside. 

Although rather lumpy and somewhat square-ish, the wheels on this little car turn, so you can drive it around and make up your own stories.  The little car is available in my miniatures auction. 

The first two pieces in my expecting theme are complete.

I started with a botanical cyclone, my symbol of growth and becoming.  It has a peach gestating inside, like a new idea formulating, a new direction being considered, a new commitment on the verge of being declared, connected to the cyclone vine with a long umbilical stem.

Second is a full-bellied vessel vine, pregnant with a nearly ripe, ready-for-the-world lemon.  The vines of this piece are made of an interesting color called English Ivy, reminiscent of the glass I used for the acorn trunk piece.  It appears opaque until light shines behind it, and then it is actually a transparent ivy green with blue and butterscotch streaks.

I plan to attempt pushing my idea of expectant plants even further, with the idea of enclosing the fruit fetuses in glass amniotic sacs within the plant.  That will be a tremendous technical challenge, but certainly interesting!

In the other realm of my recent expectations, our puppy is arriving this Saturday.  After nearly 2 months of our family unsuccessfully attempting to agree on her name, Brent finally coaxed the kids into letting me name her.  I named her Piper.  When I was pregnant with our youngest son, Reilly, and before we knew he was a boy, we had chosen Piper for the baby’s name if it was a girl.  So now our puppy will be Piper.

Here’s to expectations!

Oftentimes ideas come to me not when I am working in my studio, but in completely unrelated circumstances.  Recently while attending a business education course, I had the random idea of making toys in glass.  I’m always thankful and excited when a fun idea comes to me and I can’t wait to get to my studio and try it out.

Sitting in my business conference, I made a list of toys I want to make.  This had me reminiscing about my childhood.  When I was growing up with my older brother, Bob, we had toys that fostered creativity and imagination – Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, blocks, cars, a wagon, tricycles, and later bicycles.  We had a huge back yard with a large bare area in which we could dig, build, or whatever we dreamed up.

Just last night my mom and I were chuckling over our memories of the time Bob and I set out to dig to China.  Mom says we worked on that “tunnel” for the whole summer.  It grew to be a pretty big hole.  At some point though, we realized China would be too far for the two of us to dig to, so we transformed our hole into a submarine.  We installed benches across so we could sit and “drive” the submarine, and all manner of “switches, buttons and levers” into the submarine walls.  That submarine was good for days into weeks of undersea travels!

The first toy I decided to try making in glass was a wagon.  This piece was very fun to make, especially figuring out how to enable the wheels to turn.  On a wagon, that turned out to be easy – the wheels are on an axle that spins through loops mounted to the bottom of the wagon. I posted the wagon to my auction.

My second toy was a swing set, complete with glass chains, which will be my next auction.

My third toy is in the works in my studio – a tricycle.  That has been much more difficult to figure out.  Enabling the front wheel, pedals, and handlebars to actually work has been quite tricky.  I’ve been working on it for days and it’s still not done!  When the tricycle is complete, I’ll post images.

Other toys I have in mind include a model airplane, pouch with marbles, teddy bear, car, and a rubber duck.  If you have ideas for toys you would like to see me make, please send a comment.

In the meantime, enjoy the wagon and swing set!

Lately I am enamored with cyclones – glass cyclones, that is. 

The cyclone with the green leaves is the first I made.  My idea was to create a cyclone, a natural phenomenon, yet depict it in a botanical context.  What would a cyclone look like if it were corporeal, if it manifested in a botanical form rather than a wind form?  And would a cyclone have the same meaning if it was botanical? 

I think not.  It would unfold slowly so there would be no sudden danger and destruction.  A botanical cyclone would represent growth and life.  I took this notion a step further with my second cyclone, by adding a few buds. 

These cyclones feel very personal for me.  They feel autobiographical.  My life has been one of reaching – reaching to be a better person, pushing into the next challenges, stretching and growing myself toward the next horizon of learning and knowledge, striving for my next goals. 

My cyclones have come to represent the possibility and capacity for growth we humans are gifted, the inate life force that compels us to keep reaching.