Squash Blossom Maiden

A couple of weekends ago I participated in my first art show as an artist. It was such a great experience for my first time out, and I was very happy to share it with two other artists from my meetup group. The event was wonderful, the site was incredibly inspiring--a treasure of a nature preserve as part of the Wildlands Conservancy. This first annual Art Celebration Benefit was a fundraiser for this fantastic organization. It offered a great chance to get public, face-to-face feedback on my art and to meet fellow creatives. As part of the fundraising efforts, each artist was requested to provide a piece for the event's auction. I donated Squash Blossom Maiden to the preserve in hopes to help them raise money toward their goal.

If you're in the Whitewater/Palm Springs area, you can go see this large piece and bid on it while donating to a great cause--the Whitewater Preserve and the Wildlands Conservancy. A place that has forever made its way into my heart. Below are the dimensions and description of the found items I used to create one of my favorite pieces, now up for auction :)

SQUASH BLOSSOM MAIDEN

72” x 27"

Made with found materials: locker door, metal panel, wooden hanger, can lids, seatbelt buckle, light bar, wall lamp plate, metal gages, other scrap metal pieces

Other materials: green acrylic wash, glass beads, stone beads, bone beads, copper wire, baling wire, duck feathers (Etsy), wooden spool (swapped material)

Moon Maiden

I’m in the process of creating 3 different “dolls.” One is a kachina, the other a Medicine Buddha (again, east meets west in our home!) and this one, Moon Maiden is the first to be completed. The inspiration for her was definitely the night sky during the last couple of full moon meetups with my Let Nature Be Your Muse group. I feel so peacefully at home sitting quietly under the silvery spell of a bright moon. I can (and have) spent hours gazing into the night sky. This is one way I wanted to celebrate this muse.

Moon Maiden is made from a 19th century organ key, painted a coppery purple and finished with hand drawn embellishments. Also a bone bead moon face, a can lid adorned with blue sequins (which I acquired from an artist’s recycle swap) and wrapped with glass beads, arms are bone and metal “twig” charm beads, and finally a raw quartz crystal point wire wrapped with glass beads.

Feminine

Undeniable
Luminous
Liberating


Moving
Omnipresent
Opalescent
Night

She is a Moon Maiden…