Sketchbook blog

Earlier this week, I had the privilege to visit Emerge Gallery at the Pitt County Arts Council in beautiful downtown Greenville ,   North Carolina.   Please forgive the low light photo.  I visited in the late evening with my friend, Elaine Anderson. Here is the lovely Art-o-mat machine at the Arts Council. Elaine is an amazing REALTOR(R) and wonderful leader in civic and charitable organizations locally and all over our state.  She was a wonderful host to me and took me on a tour of downtown Greenville, which has undergone a Renaissance of revitalization.  The home of state-of-the-art medical facilities and East Carolina University , Greenville has become a favored relocation destination in our state. Again, please forgive the low lighting here.  The knobs are beautiful and vintage on these recycled cigarette machines.  Now made to vend handmade art instead of cigarettes, the machine offers affordable and accessible culture experiences for the low, low pr

Recently I had the good fortune to travel to Nags Head, NC , on business. Of course I made a point to stop in to the Dare County Arts Council and purchase an Art-o-mat original during my short stay. This Art-o-mat resides in the Arts Council gallery on Roanoke Island  on the corner of Queen Elizabeth Avenue and Sir Walter Raleigh Street in Manteo , NC.  If this sounds familiar, it should:  this is the site of the Lost Colony . Although it was pouring the rain and the Outer Banks were flooding, I still managed to grab some photos on the porch of the Arts Council historic building.  "Only through service can one be great," read this Clerk of Court honorary marker. Sheriff Cahoon also left his stamp on the area. Inside I found the machine. It is always so hard to decide what to vend. I think they have a "Mystery" pull because there are a miscellaneous few artists left don't have enough art at the time to

This was my first pair of painted shoes from Old Navy back last fall.  I completed them around December.  This was the pair on which I really learned how to do this.  I used Aztec-inspired patterns. My Posca paint pens were outstanding with one exception:  the gold iridescent marker bled a bit (on this top sun/circle).  That is very unusual for Posca pens.  I did not have the trouble again with any other pens, but I stopped using the metallic pens on canvas shoes. On the back, I used Sharpie pens. I painted my circular "suns" with white pain on the opposite side of the shoe. This was my underlying drawing. I used a light art pencil as the base layer. This was not as complicated a pattern as I completed on the white canvas shoes earlier this summer . Have you painted shoes?  Drop me a line with your tips and tricks. I'm gearing up to paint my first pair of Van's white canvas shoes.  I'll keep you posted on the

On a recent business trip to Portland, Oregon, I had to take a side trip to see the Radio Room restaurant. The Radio Room is an Art-o-mat host, and I know that some of my work has sold here in the past. My outstanding cab driver Valeiry hails from Portland via Siberia.  He was so wonderful to get me to the Radio Room and back to my hotel during rush hour -- just so I could have the treat of seeing this place and dining there. Artists In Cellophane:  Do you see your artwork?  Obvious Front was out when I visited.  Here is another view.   Even more Artists In Cellophane represented here.  I wanted to buy all of them... ...but I settled on this Woodland Baby, which I had never seen before.  This is by Margie Leslie.  Check out Margie's attention to detail.  My kids are going to love adding this to our Art-o-mat collection. This is quite possibly the coolest Bingo light-up Board I have ever seen.  The staff gave me t