solarts

I live in the hot desert of Az. I love art and arts and crafts. I do mostly mixed media art. I paint with acrylics, water colors, stamping, paper, gold leaf,ink, ceramics. *Favorite crafts: Anything involved with paper such as origami,mini books, journals, felting, hand made little paper boxes, button fairies, ornaments, postcards, cards, stationary etc. Creating anything using gourds, (plant). Creating stuffed animals, photo transfering, collages, mask making, anything Asian and hispanic or foreign type of crafts . I enjoy learning new art craft ideas.

LOVE- crafting, art, cats and dogs, wild life, sea life, nature,traveling, hiking, films, writing postcards, pen pal letters, skiing, biking, owls, & all creatures great and small. Favorite seasons are: Halloween, Christmas, and Spring time!

I COLLECT- Cat postcards for our Az. Rescue shelter where I live. I make collages to decorate some of their rooms. If anyone sends me a new and cute cat postcard/s with with one of the swaps I sure will give you a heart. ** Colored ink pens, or gel pens that work. Especially the glitter ink pens are my favorite. HALLOWEEN THEME LIKES - Circus Side show posters, pictures or anything by Madame Talbot. http://www.madametalbot.com/pix/posters/sideshowposters.htm Skulls, and skeletons from medical books or vintage like photos or sketches, Day of the Dead themes, Witches, Flying Monkeys from Wizard of Oz, or anything from The Wizard of Oz, Anything by Tim Burton such as "Nightmare before Christmas", Edward Gory, Sleepy Hallow, headless horseman, vampires, pumpkins, Jack-o-lanterns, magic, fortune tellers, good and bad fairies from the artist Brian Froud, some of the vintage halloween themes, cats, owls, ghosts, and gargoyles. I love anything with the Christmas theme such as reindeer, santas,snowmen, gnomes,pine trees.

~DISLIKES~- Anything gory such as Freddie's Nightmare, and I hate slasher films, zombies, clowns, and anything girlie or childlike Halloween themes. Little girlie stickers and kid stuff because I don't have kids. I love kids but please don't send me kid items like little note pads, little pencils, little erasers etc. I end up giving them away to another swapper who likes things like that or I end up throwing them out. HAPPY SWAPPING! CHEERS! *)

Artists I'm inspired by: Brian Froud.

Arthur Rackham, Totorro Pablo Picasso, Edward Weston (photographer) Doyle, Van Gogh, Jackson Pollack, Frida Kahlo's monkey paintings, my best friend- Jill Theirren, my cousin- Phillip Ringler's photography, Ansel Adams, Annie Leibowitz another photographer and, Barbara Bosworth,and many others.

I love drama, suspense, mystery, some foreign films,funny comedy (it's hard to find good ones today), true stories, and foreign animation. Rocky Horror Picture Show, Amalie, Young Frankenstein, Hell Boy 1 &2, The Triplets of Belleville (animation), Totorro, Spirited Away, Nacho Libre, Akira Kurosawa's Dreams , Copying Beethoven, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Pan's Labyrinth, Tombstone and many others.

National Geographic, Sommerset art magazines, Edward Gory, and more.

I enjoy listening to a variety of music. From rock n' roll, some classical, pop, oldies rock, blues, but I don't care for country. David Bowie, KT Tunstell, The Who, Feist, Muse, Evanescence, Alice Cooper, Yo-Yo Ma, Tracy Chapman, Alicia Keys,The Working Horse Album, Mozart, and many more.