Summertime!

Studio Five

I haven't posted in a while because things have been zinging along at a frantic pace. Most of my time this last few weeks has been spent finishing pieces for a show with my art group, Studio Five at the Thacher Gallery up at the University of San Francisco. The Wonderhub has spent his summer vacation building frames for the art and they look real spiff. Here's a sneak peak...

 Creatures from the East Indies

 Bird Book

 Doing some touch up.

 Prayer Flags

 

There is going to be a case filled with paper toys.

 

 My completely adorable nieces helped me put them together,

 The Toymaker's Christmas

 

The Toymaker's Workshop (Coming out in two months!) 

The show, titled Monsters on the Bookshelves will be opening in San Francisco on September 21st, 2011. If you are up in Bay Area please come and see the show. There is going to be a lot of  wonderful things to see and do.

More soon! Marilyn.

Lotus Blossom

Last year the Wonderhub got me a Lotus plant for the pond and it finally bloomed. It only blooms in the morning and I have no idea how long it will last but it is very beautiful.

 --

The Lotos blooms below the barren peak,
The Lotos blows by every winding creek;
All day the wind breathes low with mellower tone;
Thro’ every hollow cave and alley lone
Round and round the spicy downs the yellow Lotos-dust is blown.

We have had enough of action, and of motion we,
Roll’d to starboard, roll’d to larboard, when the surge was seething free,
Where the wallowing monster spouted his foam-fountains in the sea.

Let us swear an oath, and keep it with an equal mind,
In the hollow Lotos-land to live and lie reclined
On the hills like Gods together, careless of mankind.

For they lie beside their nectar, and the bolts are hurl’d
Far below them in the valleys, and the clouds are lightly curl’d
Round their golden houses, girdled with the gleaming world...

 The Lotos-Eaters  Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The Toymaker's Notebook

I keep a small notebook of new toy ideas, flourishes or new ways to fold paper.

Here's a peek at some pages from it.

 

These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves. ~ Gilbert Highet

Typography practice

Trying some lettering just for practice... What's your favorite word?

"Learning is a treasure which follows its owner everywhere." ~ Chinese Proverb

Dragonfly

Orange dragonflies live by the koi pond. They have the most wonderful wings. Beautiful things are everywhere. Click on the photos to make the picture bigger.

Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragonfly
Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky.
~Dante Gabriel Rossetti