This amazing show turns 50 years old this season. A cornerstone of Tempe civic pride since 1968, the Tempe Festival of the Arts has had all the usual ups, downs, and sideways distractions of big regional art fairs. If you’re in the Tempe AZ area this upcoming weekend (Nov 30-Dec 2, 2018), stop by Mill…
Read More Tempe Festival of the Arts: Fall 2018How many times have we heard ‘Money doesn’t buy happiness’? At best that’s a warning to value the non-financial things in life. At worst, it’s a ploy to convince poor people to be content with their lot. Money *can* buy opportunity, or the chance to maximize opportunity. It can buy time. Fox mouthpieces mocked Alexandra…
Read More Art On A Kitchen TableMatthew Whitaker, the new Acting Attorney General, may act on his threat to stop the Mueller investigation by bleeding off its funding. Whitaker has been chasing a state judicial appointment since Trump got into office, and doing it by dangling himself coyly on TV and social media so that The Orange One will ‘notice’ him…
Read More A GoFundMe For Mueller?Well, podcasts, videos, websites, merch, etc. I’ve added two sites to my Links sidebar under ‘Webcomics & Podcasts’: ‘Stuff To Blow Your Mind’ and ‘Overly Sarcastic Productions’. Stuff is a deeply nerdy and affectionate podcast look at fiction, history, and myth…through a scientific and scholarly lens. It’s great for any fiction writer wanting to get into…
Read More Two Amazing Podcasts For WritersThis single strand necklace: Just became this multi-strand freeform necklace, with the addition of two more chains interwoven with the first. There might be some more orange beaded flowers, but it’s mostly finished. Maybe. This is what happens when I don’t get rid of art projects: they get rebooted. Happy Halloween!
Read More Orange Orchids (rebooted)On an amble through an Arizona art cooperative, I found an emerging artist’s gallery offering hand-embroidered clothing. ‘Cool!’ I thought, stepping close enough to see details. I am a sucker for embroidered clothes. ‘Awww, dammit,’ I thought next. The stitches were large and roughly spaced, an effect probably meant to be charming and rustic to…
Read More Economics and Hand-embroideryWhat a month it has been, my readers. First: the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the direction of the current Saudi crown prince. I’m no big fan of the Turkish government, and I know they have blood on their hands as well. But they are at least keeping the Saudi government reeling off-balance and…
Read More Free Press, Gaslighting, and FearThis falls under ‘book arts and text-based art’, so I’m including it here. It’s one of the loveliest and most wistful art pieces I’ve seen recently. It also launches me into an art rant, so be forewarned. Irish fabric artist and writer Heather Richardson memorializes Kathleen Hutchinson, the aunt she never met, who died as a…
Read More A Dress For Kathleen: a stitched memorialA new pretty done in record time (for me): just a little over a month from concept, research, design, and sewing. This, while dealing with a health issue in my family and a new job. Just put the last beads on the tassels and edges today! This book measures 5″x5″x2″, with eight double-sided fabric pages…
Read More Book Art: Copper StarI’m making a hatband for a friend who just moved back to New Zealand this year. The hatband is going onto a very nice black felt cowboy hat said friend found in Goodwill. If I were demented enough to make more of these, I’d charge around $300 for the finished product. I am being paid…
Read More Alexander Hatband (in progress)Thanks to the wonders of random number generators, we have our winners for the book and jewelry giveaway, celebrating the debut month of my fantasy novel THE PURIST. The two formal runners-up are Green Dragon Artist and Stephanie D. You get a choice of THE PURIST in the ebook formats of Mobi or EPub. (If…
Read More Book and Jewelry Giveaway Winners!September 7th has arrived and left. That means I’ve now closed the jewelry and book giveaway I started a month ago. I’ll be turning the entries into numbers tomorrow, then letting a random number generator do its thing. I’ll post the results on this blog and get in touch with the winners soon! Thank you…
Read More Jewelry & Book Giveaway Now ClosedI’m vain enough to be really happy about this review of my book art. Especially when *someone else* gets why I make art in the first place. Especially when this comes from ASU, which has an incredible group of book artists. Here’s a bigger shot of ‘Twilight Arc’.
Read More Book Art Review!To celebrate some really good news, I’m keeping the book and jewelry giveaway open until midnight MST on Friday September 7. Scroll down these posts until you reach my PURIST giveaway post. Or go here. Add a comment to be eligible for entry. Two winners will get their format choice of a PURIST ebook, while…
Read More Book giveaway extended!I had toyed with the idea of doing some side-character interviews during the debut month of THE PURIST, and I still might. But today’s offering is an old, mad, bit of fanfiction that spawned out of my on-and-off-fanfiction obsessions from 1991 to present. As I say in the disclaimer, through what I’ve seen from far…
Read More Meta fiction! Character studies! Cheesy writing!Four tiny (about .75″ high) Arizona landscapes handpainted onto heavy canvas, then beaded. The beads are mostly #14 and #15 glass seed beads, with a few larger seed beads used for texture. The smaller beads are under 1 millimeter in size. The two panels at the top are mostly done, while I still have the…
Read More Scenes from a HatbandThank you to all the people who have purchased THE PURIST directly from NineStar Press, or from Kobo, Smashwords, and all the other non-Amazon platforms. Yeah, sure, you can buy it on Amazon, too. But if you do want to read this book, please consider buying directly. It helps my publisher and helps me! I…
Read More The Purist mini blurbFor the (very few) readers who haven’t run screaming from this page already, here’s a link to a new glossary of people, places, and things from my Lonhra Sequence books and short stories. I don’t include much pronunciation for these entries (maybe later). You can, if you squint hard enough, see a couple of overlaps…
Read More A Lonhraverse GlossaryWhen I finally settle on another online store, this reworked piece is probably going up for sale. ‘Enamel Flame Pendant’ is a 17.75″ tiger-eye and green aventurine necklace with an elaborately cast .925 sterling silver hook clasp, .925 Balinese sterling silver accent beads, and an original .925 sterling silver jointed pendant by yours truly, circa…
Read More Enamel Flame Pendant (reboot)It’s Thursday 2 August 2018, and that means we’re getting closer to The Purist being available for general purchase from www.ninestarpress.com and other vendors. To celebrate (and calm my nerves a bit), I’m setting up a giveaway on this blog. What is this book? Learn more here. Rules are simple: From today until 3 September…
Read More The Purist Launch Party and Giveaway