oh my-what a month! the grand finale at olvera st was wonderful!  it’s hard to say goodbye-but time to move on- “our lady of guadalupe” will be opening at abuelitas in topanga canyon on nov 16th.

another busy weekend! friday night i’ll be at olvera st for the opening reception of “sacred memories” .  nov 1st is the actual “dia de los muertos”-i’ll be at the cactus galleries closing reception celebrating!

FUN!!!

i’m not a big las vegas fan-i don’t gamble, i don’t drink a lot and don’t stay up late. when my children were growing up-las vegas was a yearly destination for softball and baseball tournaments-thus perhaps my burn out. my husband decided that for his b-day this year, he wanted to go to vegas and see the cirque de solei “love ” show. he is a die hard beatles fan-so we planned a “family 24 hr vacation”. this is a tough one with grown children-everyone has a schedule.  fortunately all 3 kids were able to make it , plus my sister and her husband and a few friends.

we stayed at ceasars-lady luck smiled upon us and we got upgraded to “the rainman suite”-very vintage vegas . (yes, the suite in the dustin hoffman movie) “love” was fabulous, the food was great and no one lost their shirt in the casinos.

Cirque de solei was inspiring-when i got home i worked on my chair, for the upcoming ten women gallery nov window.

i kept all my dad’s old music-and i use it for quite a few projects. i love to look through “the stacks”- there are beautiful graphics from the early 1900’s through the 1950’s, but my all time favorite pastime is reading the titles. when i came  across “the princess charlotte, ex queen of mexico’s jig” how could i resist?

for those in the area-a fun sat night!

i’ll be at the folktree in pasadena from 5-6pm

ave 50 studio in highland park about 8pm

cactus gallery in eagle rock at 9pm

for  locations and times, please visit my website at www.turkeyred.com

keeping my fingers crossed i’ll still have the energy to get to my friend, artist liz hustons opening:

“I’m Not Angry, I’m Full of Power”The Art Show.

The Omnific Society

5pm-10pm

3633 Eastham Dr

Culver City, CA

we had our tamale exhange party yesterday-lots of great food, good company, and fun!

my friend cola, the queen of henna, beautified us during our many “breaks” -making tamales is hard work.

the girls-were not invited to the party, much to their dismay. (oreo did manage to steal a cupcake )

they were mollified by visits from kaylee and emma.

at the end of a very busy week-the bees paid a visit. friday late afternoon, we noticed a large swarm of bees on our back patio. they were buzzing around for about 20 minutes-then it was obvious they were not leaving. i have a potting bench on the patio-the “legs” are made to look like vertical birdhouses-complete with holes. the bees just started moving in-

we do not spray our yard for anything-we deal with the ants and spiders that make their way into the house with a non toxic  orange peel based spray. so-we have a lot of insect life-including bees-which i love. however, as much as i like having them in the garden, making their hive on the patio doesn’t work for me (of course one of the dogs got stung right away).

i started going though the yellow pages and calling bee services. it was fairly easy to find someone to come out and kill them-not so easy to find someone willing to do  a live removal.( finding anyone in LA to come out on a fri night for anything is hard in the first place).

i am thrilled to have stumbled upon kirk the bee man!  in desperation, i went on the internet and his blog came up. what a great guy, so knowledgeable and passionate about his bee’s. i am happy to say it was a happy ending of this colony of 20,000-25,000 bee’s (yep-all those zero’s are correct) it took him a little over an hour to collect them all-then they were on their way to spend the night at kirks silverlake home.  sat they would  go to their new home at a fellow beekeeper’s in the LA area- a happy ending for all except oreo (the youngest dane)- she ate one and had a very swollen tongue for awhile!

you can visit kirks blog at http://beehuman.blogspot.com/2009/03/bee-removal-in-los-angeles.html

here is the first of my altars-a very traditional one-honoring the compassion of the higher  spirits!

i am in the midst of  the hustle and bustle of preparation for one of my favorite times of year-dia de los muertos and halloween. so many projects-so much fun!

i am doing 3 altars this year-one at hollywood forever cemetery’s annual dia de los muertos “altar offerings”, one at ten women venice, and a very personal one right at home. (which will be dedicated to the “patron saint of reckless 21 yr old boys”)

i have a number of gallery exhibits i will also be in-which are on my website. i am especially excited to have been juried into the 2009 sacred memories exhibition. sacred memories opens at the pico house gallery at el pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument on October 21 and continues throughNovember 21, 2009.

i used vintage linen -filled with lavender and lemon verbena to create  my “huesos perfumados” (sweet bones).

i am slowly trying to catch up on projects. this is for the fiberart of so ca  challenge-the theme is inua.

in the inuit culture, Inua refers to a sort of soul that exists in all people, animals, lakes, mountains, and plants- they were sometimes personified in mythology. i choose sedna-the goddess of the sea. she is depicted in several ways -from the nurturing mother to a quite terrible force.  i have incorporated a wonderful vintage batik from bali-circa early 1950’s. i have the providence on this piece-unusual for me. my mother acquired this fabric as a gift-when she sent some life magazines to her pen pal in bali during the early 1950’s. even though the batik is not culturally correct-it feels right to me-(i hope sedna feels the same way.) for the background i used a lovely floral vintage damask tablecloth-which i dyed with dylon. i love the way the subtle pattern  pops!

i’m not quite sure how she will turn out in the end-kind or cruel-perhaps realistically somewhere in between.