So, I moved to lA. Via almost all of america.

Over the summer I moved to LA.  It wasn't so out of the blue, but it sure felt like it once I made up my mind to go.  Consequently, I've been absent!  But I'm back.  To get from DC to LA my friend and I drove 5,285 miles through 9 National Parks/Monuments/Recreation areas.  As two women from two different countries of two races with two puppies, we experienced some things.  We also won the License Plate Game at Yellowstone with our highly-coveted Washington, DC plate.  

Between Yellowstone and everything else I have a ton of great art fodder.  I'm taking technique ideas I got from Venice and applying them, one by one, to these pieces, which I will share with you.  Surprise!  I'm doing mixed media.  Allow me to walk you through my first Yellowstone-inspired piece:

I hadn't been to Yellowstone since I was a little kid.  Now that I know about science, this place was awe-inspiring.  The geothermal activity was astounding.  This piece is exclusively made of acid hot springs and the ire they wrought on nature.

I started with a base layer, inspired by the texture of the hot springs.  This photo is from one of the many springs in Mammoth Hot Springs.  Nature does this.  Man can't touch it, or he incinerates.

On top of the texture, I did a watercolor painting based on this colorful hot spring photo.  I believe this is from Norris Geyser Basin.  It is insane what color chemical reactions can make!

Finally, I used artisanal paper to add the silhouette of these trees, scorched by the moving acid that bubbles up from the core of our planet.  Let me know what you think of this new series!