I am still doing the journal stuff, this drawing started at the Jupiter show, I was so inspired by all the wonderful artists in that show. This page I named "The Tree of Life" just might do a painting similar to this. If you notice you will see faces and figures in this drawing. Fun stuff. Suz

My friend Bob, he has been feeling a little under the weather keep him in your thoughts. As for the second picture I went for my last appointment with the retna specialist and everything is good, of course I don't know about Sally.

Had lunch with my sister and nephew on Thursday and we were talking about how much fun it was growing up and how parents always want there children to have more then what they had and how kids today aren't as blessed as we were. We didn't have a whole lot of material things and we were happy just going outside to play or sit around the yard and just talk. Having our grandparents and how special they were to us, family was the most important thing. Riding our bike, or flying our kites, catching dragon flies and tying them to a string (sorry) or building model homes out of mud, playing our record players or listening to the radio, putting pennies on the railroad tracks and finding a quarter was a great thing. We were also talking about the Poinciana tree (that my dad chopped down) in the front yard, well my sister being 9 years younger than I looked at me like I had 3 eyes, we didn't have a Poinciana tree in the front yard, she remembered the ficus tree that my father was grafting limbs to make more ficus trees, (we had a laugh about that one.) I told her that I would find a picture and put it on the blog. Back then when you had photos developed they came in a small Kodak album. In that album was a picture of Tikie (check out thoses drapes, what were they thinking) our Wire hair terrior who was a terror(Tikie wasn't to kind to strangers) and a picture of us (my sister was not born yet) probally Easter dinner at our grandparents house and of course our brother was in the Poinciana tree, in fact the rest of the album was either him or I in a tree and tikie waiting for us below.

IN THIS PICTURE I'M WORKING ON A PIECE TO REPLACE ONE OF MY SIGNATURE PIECES THAT SOLD ITSELF AT THE ARTIGRAS SHOW LAST WEEKEND (JUPITER, FL). THIS PIECE SHOULD BE READY FOR THE GASPARILLA ART FEST IN TAMPA IN TWO WEEKS.IT'S MADE FROM NORFOLK ISLAND PINE WITH TURQUOISE INLAYS.........JER

Started this painting awhile back and finished it last night. I named it "Home".

Check out our bamboo tomato trellis. Picked a bowl full (tomatoes) this morning. The dogs love our tomatoes but they can't reach them. The plants are a good 10 foot tall and they came up all by themselves. Suz & Birdie

Happy Valentines Day/ArtiGra/Jupiter, Fl

What a beautiful day, a little hot, in the 80's. Rained just a little but not enough to bother anything. We usually do the St. Stevens show in the Grove but after last year we decided to do this one and sure glad we did. We have sold a few pieces and met some really nice people.

Tonight we had dinner with our friends that we met when we did the Winter Park show last year. Had a really nice evening. Lorraine and Gene make beautiful Nantucket baskets and purses. Lorriane is from Australia and we were talking about birds and on her last visit to Sydney she had hand fed a Kookaburra bird. She was telling me they are a friendly bird and there call sounds like a laugh and they laugh all the time.

4 the Birds

We have a beautiful botanical garden right around the corner from us, thought I'd go and take some pictures.

I am reading the book "Mind of a Raven" Bernd Heinrich, If you are fascinated with birds you will love this book.

To the left is a painting I did a few years back, called "And So On". I live near the everglades and I love going there to watch the birds and this painting was inspired by watching them talk to each other.

I remember when I was very young going to Kansas to visit my Grandparents and my Dad pointing out a birds nest way up in the biggest tree in the world and thinking that was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. Being raised in Miami back when I was very young we didn't have so many trees in our development. I think after that trip, my parents decided to raise Parakeets as a side business. My Dad built a CBS house in the back with nesting boxes and it acually had a screened in aviary on the side. I remember looking in the nesting boxes and seeing the babies. My Mother always had bird seed in her pockets, always was one of our family jokes, that when she went to the hospital to have my sister she had the birdseed with her. My brother wanted a business after that so he started to raise earthworms, can't remember if he ever sold any. My parents gave up the bird business after awhile and my brother the worms. My parents had something going on all the time, we raised and sold dogs, my mother would paint and sell her paintings and my dad had a full time job, after he retired they started to refinish antiques. We learned hard work but nothing compared to when they were growing up. One of my mothers sayings was "Can't Never Could Do Nothin" Suz

This was a cedar tree that came down in a storm in eastern Virginia. Didn't really know what I wanted to make out of it so I left it in the barn for 8 or 9 years. Then I decided to put it on the lathe and let the wood tell me what to do.

Pictures speak louder than WORDS!

Norfolk Island Pine/closed form with turquoise inlay-

Packing up my stuff for the show this weekend.

This piece is similar to a larger piece that I won an award for, and sold at the Disney Show last November. Jer

We will be doing ArtiGras Fine Arts Festival in Jupiter, Florida,

Feb. 14th-15th and 16th.

http://www.artigras.org/ I was just notified that I was one of two artist to receive "The Green Award". I am suppose to be interviewed about this award, who knows you might see me on TV.

Happy Birthday-Feb. 3rd

My garden where a hummingbird feeder hangs-Happy Birthday Mother.

I was scanning this page of my mothers diary and my little hummingbird came to the feeder outside my window. Didn't get my camera in time to take the shot.

To the right - our pool after huricane

Wilma. I was able to recycle many trees from that hurricane.

This fluted bowl was a Norfolk Island Pine tree that was blown down in one of our Florida hurricanes. The tree was so big that I made one fluted and the other not. Many hours in this bowl. Jer

Question- Why do I like Hundertwasser?

One of my favorite artists, so on this page I wanted to resemble his style.

I love Color, shapes, and he avoids theory, he uses the senses. I like his flamboyant style, and read that critics go crazy, they think his art should be logical.

?

Thought maybe I would start my 2nd page with a question, What is considered a weed? write that question, do the Carla O'Connor O'fillers, answer the the question.
I was at Myrtle Beach for a workshop and my friend Sally and I were walking somewhere or other and we saw a field with these pretty yellow flowers. I made the comment "Those flowers are were so pretty" Wellllll Sally said they were weeds (dandelions) and where she is from they put weed killer on them. So this page was dedicated to weed vs flower. I think the answer is "DEPENDs ON WHERE YOU LIVE"

First Page-

Well looky here finally got this picture loaded-don't really know what I finally did to get it downloaded. Oh well it is done. This is my first page in my journal/stuff, stuff. Got some helpful hints from a blog artsyville.blogspot.com Aimee- said ink down the page another blog said put a picture of yourself, so wallah, got started and couldn't stop! Almost finished, after downloading saw some more stuff to put in- Gee it's almost noon.

Had to add another photo-as I was writing this post about my parents moving to Florida, I happen to look down at my coffee cup and is it my imagination or is there a heart right smack dab in the middle of my latte?

Sketchbook Journal
Want to get into journal writing and drawing, my mom was an artist and always wrote and drew in a diary, notebook anythings she could write on. She loved to draw and she was very good at it, she is my inspiration and hero.
I usually start a diary and last for a month or so, but if I could combine writing and drawing, painting that would be really Good! I have a number of bulletin boards and stuff around my studio, house, yard to inspire me. Went out and bought books to inspire me even further, I will keep you posted to see how long this will last. There is just so much stuff out there to do.

My GreatGrandfather-

This painting was taken from my sketch book. I drew this a couple of years ago, but finished it this morning.

This is a painting of my Great grandfather (my mothers Grandfather, she lived with him and her Granny) taken in Pea Ridge Arkansas. My cousin Jerry and I were trying for years to find this house where the picture was taken. He finally found it but died before I had a chance to go with him there.

Three years ago after my parents past away, my sister and I decided to take a road trip to Arkansas and Kansas where our parents grew up. My sister located someone who lived in Arkansas and knew the man that now owns the property. He took us right to the house. It appeared just like my mother had talked about.

What a thrill that was, my mother had always kept a journal so I had read about this house (this was her aunt and uncles house, the house she lived in was torn down). My mothers journal told about her adventures as a teenager. It even told about the depression, and how they went to the bank and the bank had no money and how she would pick berries and gather eggs to sell. I have painted several paintings of past generations. The above picture is my sister in front of the house. Suz

"The Garden"

This was a fun project for me, experimenting with collage, watercolor, dyeing paper, trying to create a garden on paper. Didn't want it to look like a painting but a collage. Suz

This piece was made with Monkey Puzzle, I used bone across the top.

This tree was damaged by hurricane Wilma (Botanical Garden in Palm Beach Florida) and didn't survive. It is native to central Chile and west central Argentina, and is an evergreen tree growing to 40 m tall and 2 m trunk diameter. Because of the species' age it is sometimes described as a living fossil. Araucaria araucana is the national tree of Chile.
The origin of the popular English name Monkey-puzzle derives from its early cultivation around 1850, when the species was still very rare in gardens and not widely known. In Florida this tree is only found in Botanical Gardens. A monkey, trying to climb this tree would be injured by the spiky leaf points so it would be a puzzle. However, monkeys are not found in the species' native range . In Britain, it had been known somewhat puzzling as "Joseph Bank's Pine" or "Chile Pine", as it is not a pine. The spiky leaves of the monkey puzzle were never evolved to stop monkeys, but rather to stop grazing dinosaurs eating it before it could grow out of their reach.

Jer