Me and the Girls

I treasure the time I spent with the girls, Elena, in orange, and Kat, in yellow. Shopping, seeing the sights, more shopping and just getting to know them better. I am the one in blue, we were at Starbucks taking a break before we finish our trek around a amazing, huge discount mall in Charlotte. It was sad to leave them, each going their separate ways, one to Chicago, one to Rhode Island and the other to England. Oh, did I mentioned that Elena is an architect with a real interest in building and living "green." Go my darlings and live and dream big, the world is yours. I love you both so very much.

Always Bragging..............

I do brag a lot about my goddaugther, Kat, can't help it. She is just a delightful young woman and on her way to Rhode Island School of Art and Design for her masters!!! Kat is the one in blue jeans, by the way. The gold lady is actually a large canvas hung gallery style. The other lady is contemplating life. Just 2 pieces of Kat's art. The canvas is magificent and huge, an art project from her studies at the Art Institute of Chicago. I am so proud of her.

This is Charlotte, NC

You might be wondering where I have been, well, in fact I was away visiting family in Charlotte, NC. I don't have to say that it's a pretty place, warm and humid, sunny and friendly. Can you image that it will stay this way until at least January?? That's when it gets cold, about 50 degrees or so. Hard to believe when we are all looking forward to the change of season to Fall. I had a wonderful time there. One reason I went is because my niece Elena and her son, Angleo were visting from Southampton, England and I had not seen them in 3 years, so I took a deep breath and boarded a plane & in 90 minutes I was there to hug the stuffings out of them.

This is my latest creation, a circle board book. This is a fun medium to work on, you really have to think about placement working in a circle. This is the back cover of my book and the artwork of the Princess Kat and Queen Carol my first pages. Kat is my goddaughter and we are working on each other books, fun, fun. The cover is done and will show later. The hole at the top is for a ring and I will hang ribbons and charms from there. Just thought I would share. I love that wicked face and she is covering the Mona Lisa, Mona never looked so good.

So what are you doing this Summer?

Maybe spending time in a bookstore, looking for Manga to read for yourself, it's a new experience, try it. Or doing the best artwork you have ever done. Drinking lots of Starbuck's iced lattes and reading a bestseller. Outside with a camera, doodling in your art journal, reading all the special Somerset Studio publications. Share. Have a creative summer, friends.

P.S. You see that I have mentioned 'reading' alot, it's is one of my favorite ways to pass the time.

Manga Mystery

There is a little catch to reading Manga. The book's back cover is really the front cover and you read it back to front?!?!?! And you read it left to right, okay? By the little diagram above you are shown how to read the comics, you can bet that I kept my finger inside that cover while I was reading it because it was a bit confusing. There is so much going on with the characters and drawings that you need to check that diagram once and awhile. The way the characters are drawn - well - everyone has long hair and it is usually across their features so you can't tell the boys from the girls, their names might be nicknames or Japanese style, so the same character might be called by several names. But why get all bogged down with that? It's about a school academy for day students (humans) and night students (vampires) and the 2 main characters Zero and Yuri try to keep the peace between them. It's fun and light hearted and since scifi and fantasy are my middle names, well, I am hooked.

Manga Mania

So what I am doing this summer?? Reading Manga, of course. Japanese comic books!! I never read any comics as a kid, not that I remember at least. My goddaughter, Kat, turned me on to this little gems of sheer fantasy. If you haven't heard about Manga just ask any one younger than you and they will tell you all about it. I do watch Anime, Japanese cartoons so this was not a stretch for me. I liked it. Of course, there are a number of books in the series, for this one, about 12 books, I think. Read the first 4 and I must know what happens to Zero and Yuri so I guess I will read the rest this summer.