Sacramento Utopia

While house sitting for my sister for about a month last year, a friend of hers was most accomadating by entertaining me in activities, dinner and spontaneous fun in Sacramento.  Some of those events were at her home, she has a most beautiful, luxurious and tropical back yard, one of the largest I have seen in sacramento, where most yards are a small patch of green, hardly enough to let out your dog to do his business.  This is only a portion of her yard, in which I was prvilidged enough to attend cook outs and hang outs, very relaxing and quiet.  I did this as a gift to her in thanks for her time, kindness and friendship during my stay.   I know this one has been a long time coming, I have been working on this since before Christmas and it was meant to be a present for her before that day arrived, as usual, I am a slave to procrastination and I have just finished,  and now I  have to rush to the framer and get it shipped.   Oh, to have the ambition and drive to complete a task on time.

Bev’s Yard

I had forgotten all about this piece I did while sitting in my sister’s back yard in Sacramento, until I got here and saw it on the wall.  That was a fun day, it was beautiful outside, of course, and I did this lazy day ink drawing, she loved it, but I always tell her it is just a “scribble” mostly…I did most of it by just scribbling around with the pen to give the illusion of foliage, that’s what I mean by lazy…didn’t even take the time to draw leaves!  But I will say, this style was fun and moved fast creating good energy.   Good day….

California Spice Patio

While visting my sister one year in Sacramento, California, I found myself a little bored at her house waiting for her to come home from work on some days.  This day, I called her at work and asked her if I could paint her boring off white patio wall,  I just felt it needed something, she entertains here often and spicing it up with some original artwork would be unique.  To my surprise, she told me, “yes”.  Without even asking what I was thinking of doing to it.  I asked her, “don’t you care what I do to your wall?  I might screw it all up!”, she replied, “No, I trust you”.  Her trust inspired me to  be sure I did something Cool.  I rode her  bike to a nearby hardware store and purchased some supplies, then returned and started in directly.  I painted the whole thing with a three or four inch sponge roller, just free painting, no drawings, no outlines and no clear idea of what I was doing, I had a blast and actually enjoyed getting paint all over me.  I still wear the shorts and shirt with the paint stains!  The only sure thing I knew I wanted, was the flames coming out of the grill.  When she got home I was anxious and scared to see her reaction, she loved it.  The little outline of the doggy door in the bottom right was an ode to her two little wiener dogs, Sydney and Sammy.

Visit Courageous Patsy

Visit my other blog site, a writing page, where I have posted the book I wrote on coping with losing a loved one to cancer, in my case, my beloved mother.  I hope that this story helps people to connect, share and know that they are not alone in this tragedy….please visit  “Courageous Patsy”  to read my story.   Thank you for visiting Dissen Gallery.