Just figured out how to download photos from my iPhone into my computer- too bad I didn't figure it out before my beautiful new iPhone was stolen with all my great photos from the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Now I can record and post my current work.

    First stage of my most recent painting - Artemis statue from Ephesus in Turkey with an ancient Egyptian frieze of the Pharoah's boatmen docking on the Nile.
    The finished piece is at right. Luckily, enough traces of the original detailed sketch remain, though I tried to delete them for a paler effect. It's fairly simple to recapture the dense patterns that are so alluring to the eye. The saturated color enhances the beauty of the image as well.

I'm off to New York on Valentine's Day to see the Matisse exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum-http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/11/30/arts/design/20121130-MATISSE.html?ref=design#2. I hope to come home inspired to create new work

http://www.wimp.com/dolphinseeks/

This is an amazing video of a dolphin seeking help from divers to untangle itself from hook and line.

"> I hope this link works- it's a lovely video of bottle nose dolphins interacting with a very friendly cat !

    It feels wonderful to be painting again after a month's pause - I'm grateful to have a deadline, art class on Thursday night. The image is based on photos taken at the British Museum in London of the Elgin Marbles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgin_Marbles and the Egyptian collection - as a child,  I spent hours at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City devouring Egyptian art.
  I'll be teaching a children's art class next Sunday; it's been a year since the last one. It will be an hour long to accomodate their different age/interest ; he wants active play after an hour while his sister would camp out on my floor if she could,  her mother told me at Open Studio .
   I got an interesting link from a fellow San Francisco ArtSpan artist  Greg McKenna http://www.flickr.com/photos/valleylist/ . 

    Friends and collectors came from near and far on Sunday to my Open Studio- top photo I'm with Joyce who came from Palo Alto; she has a giclee of my vertical turtle. She bought a full set of my photo cards. Second down is Dale who came from Berkeley with her new honey and her smiling face- such a welcome surprise to see her. Third with his dog Sebastian is my friend Bill, a fellow artist from our MICA art class-  he's drawing again after a long hiatus."The disparate elements (of my Istanbul series ) , sea life, modern/industrial and ancient figures work well together- compelling.."
   Last photo is of my friends Patricia and Mark, the parents of Claire and Declan whom I gave an art lesson to last fall. They had several of my prints in the bathroom at their old apartment where I also did my gardening work. Since moving to their new house, the prints await unveiling discreetly in their boxes.They told me about the kids new activities- Declan takes fencing and is in the choir, Claire is into crayon art- pinned to a board and then heated with a hair dryer to melt into interesting shapes/patterns. They bought photo cards of their favorite paintings " for my wish list".  I'm looking forward to the next art session with the kids .
 I almost forgot to mention the first visitor of the day , Heather Villyard, the director of ArtSpan. She lives in my neighborhood and is hosting several artists in her  home gallery space next weekend- www.truesilversf.com .She was blogging about her artist visits on her smart phone and included a photo of me and my location. She noted the difference between her earlier career, working as a fund-raiser at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco and her current one- " it's so liberating it is to take collectors around to view art in the studios - people who can trust their own taste rather than rely on what " the experts" decree. I'll be at the gallery next Friday night .

      The first day of Open Studio was wonderful. My friend Denise, an artist who lives nearby, dropped by on her way home from her Saturday errands. She was concerned about the chicken she left in the car but she stayed for over a half- hour. She really liked my new paintings, the Istanbul Reverie series ; she commented that they have depth , in contrast to the more one-dimensional sea creature portraits - an interesting and informative exchange. She recommended a cafe in the Mission, the Red Poppy, as a good place to show my work. She made a lovely comment as she was leaving-" you represent all us crone artists, Rosie !" 
  While she was there, my son called ; when I called him back, he  asked how the show was going - I was touched by his thoughtfulness. He's learning about artists' needs to help them with the grant application process.
   Kelly Burlingham  http://www.stillmotionglass.com/  , the glass artist in my building gave a demonstration of fusing colored squares in the kiln and twisting them into long canes as they emerge. Tomorrow, she's making glass candy canes - so much fun to watch and see others enjoy.
  I was about to leave at 5: 15 when my friends Daryl and Gretchen arrived ;"but it says until 6 on your postcard ", said Daryl. We've been to many art events together so I asked her to distinguish between an original watercolor and a giclee - fine art print.  " You can see the paint on the surface in this one"- she's one sharp cookie !  They both bought some photo cards from me- 5 for $7 ; Gretchen likes the turtle images, reminds her of being in Hawaii. They also enjoyed the grapes and almonds from "Twin Girls" at the Noe Valley farmers' market.