The Bella Sinclair Award

My friend Silke @ Metamorphosis gave me this award! Thanks Sweetie! I am so honored to be getting all these awards lately, I must be doing something right. I love this blog community and whenever I feel lost or alone, (a lot of that lately)... I just visit you all and I am rejuvenated!!! Bless every one of you...


This award was created by Ces, in honor of her dear friend Bella to celebrate art, inspiration, friendship, sisterhood, sharing and caring. Please visit Ces' blog and read more about the award. This award is how I feel about all of you, you all deserve it! Thank you for being there and sharing the kinship!

Lemonade Stand Award

The award is for "Great Attitude and Gratitude". It works like this: After accepting this award...Thanks to Queen of Nostalgia, I then award it to 5-10 others bloggers who make me smile with their great attitudes and sweetness. Then they pass it on, and those who receive it, they pass it on... and so it goes...and grows!

1.Thom's Daughter

2.I'm Still Me (just better!)

3.Misty's Musings

4.JolieArt

5.Folk Art by Campbell Jane

6.Gaal Creative

A Lemonade Toast to One and All...!!!

Happy 4th. of July

Who are those adorable kids...I only thought it appropriate to share this photo of me, the little Majorette, and my older brother, the Boy Scout since this was taken just before we went to a 4th of July parade that we were in. I was a majorette in parades up until High School, I took dance, ballet, etc and was in recitals...bla, bla, bla...
How funny to look back on these pictures...don't 'cha just love my costume??? My Mom still has my batons..and oh yeah, I can still twirl!
Happy 4th!!!

Premio Meme Award!!!

My Blog was recently given the PREMIO MEME AWARD by Audrey of The Magic, Miracles and Joy of an Artist. Thank you, Audrey!!!... The rules of this award state that I am to share 7 facts about myself and then pass the award on to 7 others. And away we go....

1. I am addicted to kettle-cooked potato chips
2. I drive a VW Beetle and change the flowers (yeah, VW installed vases!!!) to go with the seasons/holidays.
3. On a good day, my weight will hit three digits. I need to eat more of those kettle-cooked potato chips...

4. I wanted to be a ballerina...art was just something I did...funny, huh...art is truly what I am.

5. I have an eclectic style, in home decor and dress.

6. Some day I want to tour Europe, all the places I studied in art...also, Italy, and look up my distant relatives to share a glass of wine and pasta and lots of hugs, we are a bit touchy-feely.

7. I would love to have a cottage at a lake, river, (water!!) where I can watch the seasons change and observe nature. And do all of my art. Amen.

Now to pass on the award to 7 others...

1.Queen of Nostalgia

2.Love Is My Religion

3.Pinkglitterfae Art

4.Metamorphosis

5.the art & life of the ruby nest

6.Michele Lynch Art Blog

7.Just me Jill

The Marietta Series

Thought I should show the page about the series of paintings I created last year for Marietta, OH. Yeah, that's me with longer blond hair...I change with the direction of the wind...I am my own canvas!

This style was used for "ED's House" and for another house portrait that will be titled "Penny's House." Penny collected all six of the prints of Marietta and asked me to paint her ...and I must say...magnifico house! She has also become the proud owner of some of my one-of-a-kind Christmas sculptures! A true collector of my heart...thank you Penny H.

Ed's House

This was commissioned by a friend who did reconstructive work on this historic house in Marietta, OH. This lovely old house sits on the Muskegum River in Marietta, OH, and is simply gorgeous! The owners are a sweet couple that I had the pleasure of meeting, they did not know I was creating a house portrait for them. This is painted in a funky folk art style that I used for a series of paintings I did for Marietta, OH in 2008. Since I now have a reputation for this look, I thought it proper to use it here since they already enjoyed the art work I created for the city last year.

Secret of Everything

The secret of everything-Everything IS Mental. All talent, skill, power, speed and ability is mental. Nothing is impossible. Anything is possible. There is nothing you cannot Be, Do, or Have. You can Be, Do and Have anything you want as long as you have the mind for it.

The inner World creates the Outer World. Your beliefs, intentions and emotions create your reality. Magic is causing change to occur in accordance with will. Whenever your mind focuses, your energy goes. Everything is Mind. Mind is Everything. The Universe is Mind. Mind Controls Everything. Mind is Reality. Reality is Mind. The Master of Mind is Master of Everything.

-Author Unknown

Great Quote

"the longer you spend time working on something-

loving it into being, almost-

the more you get attached. It's silly,

but you do hope they go to good homes."

-Anne Desmet

I haven't posted for a few and that is because I am in Florida visiting a best friend and designing a new web site for her! She was at my first birthday and she was nine months old...

'Fish in the City'

This is a fish that I did my art magic to last summer. I am going to do the same this summer... so you understand my gibberish...
I did a series of paintings for Marietta, OH, Tourism..go way back on my posts and you will see the article... and me with blond hair, hey I was born blond... now my hairdresser only knows the color??? I am an artist who supposedly knows color and I can't figure it out!!! heehe...
Anyhoo...this was a series of Catfish for the city to decorate and have around town for all to view and of course I created mine for the Tourism Bureau of Marietta. OH, that I had worked with... and guess what... I will be doing another for this July catfish event...

This fish form , that is a taxidermy form, I painted to look like my 'Sex and the City' fav show gals!!! My brother and sis-in-law always said I was the "Carrie" character and I totally agree... fashion , friends, and men problems.... I have all the shows on DVD and I took my 83 year old Italian Mama to see the movie and we LovEd iT!!! She is a fan, too! A Totally cool woman who has survived 3 cancers, none related, thank GOD, rectal( Farrah Fawcett) and both breasts at the same time..a total winner in my eyes!!! Her physical life is hell... that is why I am with her as close as I can be and still work in my profession. She is my Best Friend!!!

Anyway I used fish net stockings on the leg form and I gave her pearl necklace (fake) teeth and huge red lips..like mine, my signature if you know me! Also, she has a wig of curls and false eyelashes!!! Too fun and a flipper for her foot.

And the best part...I had to buy her back...she is part of my home art gallery...by the way, she is sucking on her fav cocktail...Cosmopolitan.

Another Father's Day Without You

There's something like a line of gold thread running through a man's words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself.

~John Gregory Brown, Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery, 1994

Me and Daddy-O back when I was a Senior in High School, this was Homecoming and I was on the Court! We had our Dads escort us onto the football field for the festivities. We all got to pick a rose wrapped in aluminum foil and whoever got the red rose was Queen and the yellow rose was runner up...well, with a name like Whitaker I was second to last in the line-up, so to speak, and just as I was getting the last of one of two roses to choose from, there were squeals of delight as two at the beginning of the line were the Queen and her Queen-ette. Geezzz, I never had a chance...
My Dad was a gentle soul. A quiet man, he loved to read and had always wanted to be a teacher, but could not afford to go to college. Instead, he put himself through Electrician School and worked for the power company. He made sure his children could go to school and be what they desired. He used to sit on the floor and feed our blind Yorkie with a spoon.
That was the only way she would eat.
I lived in Seattle for 5 years and wanted to buy a home there, but my Dad would never get on a plane. So, I moved back to Pittsburgh ( I had lived there while in art school) to be close to my parents in WV. So glad I did. He would call me at 5am when I was getting ready for work to tell me the weather all the time. God, I miss those calls. And to not go to the gym after work because it could snow. And then call to check on me to see if I went and if I did he would tell me how I worried him! Always Daddy's little girl... no matter how old.

It's been 10 years now and it still seems like only yesterday. And now one of my best friends is losing her Dad to lung cancer, practically overnight. Their relationship is like mine was with Daddy. She asked me to do a painting of her Dad in his favorite chair with his boy, Harley, his pug (who is always by his side!)
I was honored...This is going to be a tough one.

If tears could build a stairway

And Memories a lane...

I'd walk right up to Heaven

And bring you home again...

...Miss you Daddy...