new art

These are some things I have been working on lately.

The Raven bird is made out of sculpey, painted with acrylic paint and varnished. The cathead guy is a collage where I took an old 19th century photograph (one the used to hang in good old Scrote Manor), and gave him a cat photo head. I played around with the background a lot...I guess I'm pleased with it now.

I will be making multiples of the ravenbird and finding more pictures to collage to make more of these animalhead people.

Peanut Sauce recipe

So, the other day I was craving Thai food and made some home-made peanut sauce. Since I really don't measure ingredients as I make things...this recipe will hopefully come out how mine did.

You will notice that I do a lot of halves of things. This is because I make food enough for two. I tend to make multiple meals out of one vegetable, or tofu instead of making heaping amounts and leaving it over.

Tofu, Vegetables and White Rice in Peanut Sauce

serves 2

1/2 red pepper

1/2 eggplant

1/2 brick of Firm Tofu

1 cup white rice

For the sauce:

1/4 cup crunchy peanut butter (just plain peanuts...no sugar and stuff added)

1/4 cup coconut milk

1/4 cup water

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon hot chili oil (or regular oil and then add sri racha or any chili paste)

1 crushed garlic clove

1 teaspoon rice vinegar (or whatever vinegar you have)

some shakes of chili flakes

lemon or lime zest

Stir it up with a wisk or fork or whatever. Stir a LOT to make it creamy. You want creamy, not weird chunky.

Make the rice. 1 cup rice to 1 1/2 cups water. Do this in a sauce pan or rice cooker. Bowl water, add rice and then simmer for like 20 minutes...or do it how you make rice. I'm still working on the rice on the stove top since I was spoiled with a rice cooker for so long.

Fry up the veggies in tofu in a wok (if you don't have a wok any old frying pan is fine).

When the veggies look pretty much almost done add in the sauce and stir fry for a few minutes. Put the rice in bowls with stir fry over it and serve!

Let me know if you try this...and I PLEASE encourage you to just put these ingredients together as you go...let loose. It's way fun. Just keep adding and mixing and tasting until it is just right for you.

RoCo show

If you get a chance to head out to Rochester Contemporary between now and January 17th you can see one of my paintings in the annual member's exhibition along with many other pieces by some of my friends and former teachers. The cost is only $1.00 for non-members.

This is actually pretty exciting as it is the first time I have had something in an art show since college (aside from 6x6...but that was anonymous).

recent

Old Victorian photographs\portraits have always held a special place in my heart. Coincidentally, and fortunately, animal\human hybrids have always been a staple as well.

I have started a series of 5"x7" paintings influenced by Victorian portraiture and literature as well as a child like curiosity.

I layer water soluble oil pastels and acrylic paint, which I have found makes for a neat texture. I found the frame at Hobby Lobby, which is probably the worst place to look for art supplies but has pretty decent and inexpensive frames. I hope to find some antique frames soon, as I have become quite excited about antiquing lately...

I will post these as I continue to make them.