Grill Out and Games at Peter and Cassie's 2009

I am happy to report in the ladder golf and bean bag toss tournament...

the women defeated the men!

Way to go ladies!

Guys, you will have to keep practicing for next year :)

Gals Team: Aleigha, Carrie, Cassie, Elizabeth, Linds and Heidi

Guys Team: Jon, Dana, Peter, Andy and Phil

Art

I am not an art major but I am an art enthusiast.

I am not trained in any specific medium.
I teach basic art in Elementary School.
I do not make a living with art...

but I really enjoy creating, experiencing and experimenting with art.

Here are some of my little experiments.

Peter and I love to watch HGTV. This is an idea we found while watching "Color Splash" with David Bromstad. He uses black canvases, water color paint, and a spray bottle filled with water. He makes a line of paint a few inches from the top and sprays the paint down with the water to create an organic look with the paint. Then when one half dries he flips it the other way and does it on the short side leaving a small section of white creating a linear detail through the painting. So Peter and I did this project together and created our own art work for our office wall.

This is a mirror I made this summer with sea glass, plywood and the left over mirrors from our wedding centerpieces. I used adhesive and grout and made a mosaic mirror that is now hanging in our bedroom.

This is a painting that began as a water color. The first try I was not happy with the painting, it looked like a big mess. So I tried adding a linear element by using painters tape to highlight three parts of the painting and using white paint to paint over the rest creating a graphic painting instead of a water color.

This was a little idea inspired by my favorite antique shop Hunt and Gather. I really did "hunt and gather" a variety of letters to make this little sign. This antique shop has a variety of what many people consider "junk" from the past. Letters from billboards, signs, license plates, games, magnets and more. I found my favorite ones and made a little sign with an extra piece of our bathroom molding, a hot glue gun and eye hooks. A different twist on the traditional last name signs. It hangs on the doorway into our living room from our kitchen.

This was a project that I tried in highschool. I made a mold of my foot to fill with plaster and make a sculpture of my foot to use as a door holder.

This was a project in my college art class. It is a water color painting of myself. We used a black and white photo of ourselves and made a color scale to match the gray scale of the black and white photo. Brown was for the dark black spots, then blue for the dark gray, then red, etc... light yellow being the lightest white. It was an interesting activity. Can you see me?

Art is for anyone and everyone.

My Favorite Place

God Bless America

There's nothing like listening to the Minnesota Orchestra live,

outside with beautiful Lake Minnetonka in the background.

Stars and Stripes Forever, The War of 1812, march after march...