blog
Got Paint?

The challenge I posed myself in This is Not a Tree was to create a work of art that was durable and eco-friendly. The papier-mâché process gets you half-way there. To date, the fly in the ointment has been the paint and the final finish, both of which are, well, “not green”. While you can purchase […]
Vanity on Display at Los Angeles Valley College

Ever challenging her students, Carol Bishop instructed us to depict the concept of entropy. As background, I read an utterly confounding treatise by the artist Rudolph Arnheim called Entropy and Art: an Essay on Disorder and Order. After that, a scientific explanation of entropy and the expansion of the universe by my husband left me […]
Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Free Pups!

We’re not talking Chihuahuas; we’re talking Agave Tequiliana (aka Blue Agave) pups. This handsome Mexican native anchors my Los Angeles garden and produces prodigious numbers of offspring with no help from birds or bees or me. The pups are the genetically identical baby plants that spring up from the base of the parent. While the plant can […]
Hug some trees, have some fun: Arbor Day events at LA Valley College

Come Celebrate Arbor Day at the LAVC Arbor Day Festival on April 26 at Los Angeles Valley College (LAVC). Did you know LAVC was awarded Tree Campus status by the Arbor Day Foundation last year? It is the only community college in California and the only college in LA with that honor. The LAVC Associated […]
Mama’s gotta brand new bag

Do not underestimate the power of shame. I have none, but one of my friends (RK) was so appalled when I pulled out my Ziploc bag wallet at a coffee shop that she took it upon herself to rectify the problem. (Turns out, even Daily Candy was on to me.) When she couldn’t buy the ideal […]
Sealed with a kiss

A kind assessment of my gardening style is “Desert meets Country Cottage.” Others might call it chaos. This speaks to a complete lack of restraint on the part of the gardener. No time is this more evident than in April when California poppies, tall pink Clarkia, Blue Flax, and Lavender “Spanish Dancer” all but obliterate […]
Joel Linares in his studio: Learning from the master

Most of the time, artists admire the sources of inspiration from a distance. Many are already dead. Lucky are we who have a chance to work, even briefly, with the master. Yesterday I was able to spend a couple of hours with the artist who has carried on a family tradition of celebrating the Day […]