I'm making progress in my New Year's creative workout challenge: Prompt #2 of The Collage Workbook: "make a collage using various shades of white only."

Although I said in the previous post I probably wouldn't be making anything new until next year, that is ba-lo-ney. As if I could help myself.

 

Although I still plan on seeing a lot of art these last few weeks of the year, I think my studio time is going to be spent purging, organizing, and prepping for the studio move rather than actually making. It's going to be, um, messy. There is much to sort through.

Is there anyone in Los Angeles this week? My feeds are all MIAMI, MIAMI, MIAMI. If you happen to be in town, there's an intriguing show at Charlie James Gallery. (Charlie himself is in Miami though.)

Helen Rebekah Garber's paintings are dense and appear obsessively created.

I like to give myself restrictions when creating, which for a collage usually means limiting the source materials and/or following a very specific technique. Today I decided to start a new collage using the same process I used for "Silver Lining"—pasting tears on a stretched canvas and then painting a grid over it—this time using only cuts and tears from the latest issue of W Magazine.

As an artist, of course I love a little red dot.

The Thanksgiving holiday was spent in Palm Springs—four days of laziness in the 90 degrees winter heat of this funny desert city. A lot of other sun seeking tourists had the same idea—it was hopping.

Strangely, for all the tourists crowding the sidewalks on "Black Friday," the economy seems to be really suffering in downtown Palm Springs.

My online shop has launched–go browse. Bonus: in celebration of the studio move everything is on sale, just in time for the gift giving season (for yourself or your loved ones).

I dropped off the deposit at the new studio yesterday, dog in tow. She sniffed every possible thing her short leash would allow, including two little girls who gave her a pat on the nose right back.

I'm thrilled about the new space and am feeling twitchy to start CREATING in it.

Exciting things are happening around the studio, namely it's moving. This week my architect partners at Somewhere Something and I have been negotiating a lease for a fantastic space in a fine and industrial arts warehouse. In anticipation of the big move I'll be holding an art sale, launching a store on my website next week. You can get a jump on it: go ahead and browse around here and on my Facebook photo albums–if you have a crush on anything I'll put a hold tag on it for you. 

The Resnick Pavillon (or Pom Pavilion as I call it) at LACMA is, as of this week, an eclectic, gorgeous mix of three stellar exhibits that couldn't be more different from each other: Walter deMaria's superb minimalst "sculpture," the Ken Price show I've already raved about, and "Bodies and Shadows: Caravaggio and His Legacy," which opens officially on Sunday.

Los Angeles, I urge you to check out the visual wonders in this building. And text me when you do--I'll join you.

I love my neighborhood. And I'm out walking around in it everyday--this is what having a young pit bull and a proclivity for exploring via foot gets you.

I always have my phone and tend to snap pics along the way (hello, Instagram). There is a particular house that has always intrigued me. On a street of beautiful, rather fancy homes just up the hill from the reservoir, it has a weeded out yard, peeling paint job, a funny toy sitting on its stucco fence, and an unoccupied vibe

I am a hoarder of scraps. Unlike my "clean as you go" mantra when cooking, when I'm creating a collage I save the mess I've made. I just can't get myself to throw away the little bits, edges, and torn pieces that don't make it into the final piece. This means that I have got a whole bunch of miscellaneous pieces of paper in the studio. On Friday I decided to give myself a collage challenge: make a new piece from nothing but leftover bits. No new tears were allowed, even to the existing scraps. I grabbed a few of my plastic sleeves of scraps and a 11x14" piece of mat board and got to work.