Larissa Marantz

Animation Insider Interview

2011-06-18T13:08:00.000-07:00

Mike Milo over at the Animation Insider has put up an interview with me on his site. Check it out.

Amazing Sunset

2011-06-08T20:21:00.000-07:00

My Studio Space

2011-05-28T16:50:00.001-07:00

Using a very cool program on Windows Live Photo Gallery, I was able to stitch this photo together. This is my art studio. I get lots of light, I have lots of flat space to spread out everywhere, and I have lots of art books. During the summer, I clean it up a bit and run children’s art classes through OC Art Studios here. This space is my favorite space in the whole house. Sometimes, I wish the doorway to enter it worked much like the wardrobe door from “The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe” so that I could enter the room, close the door, and paint for hours and then exit the studio with no time passing at all. Yes, as a stay at home mother of three, that would be my fantasy.

2011-04-19T22:33:00.000-07:00

I was inspired to do this drawing for a friend after looking at some fantasy illustrations in the Spectrum catalog.

Illustrator Talk at the OC Kids Book Festival

2011-04-06T01:06:00.001-07:00

Last years Children’s Book Festival, held at the campus of Orange Coast College, was lots of fun. Every year there are some really great authors and illustrators who come out to sign books and meet the readers. I was happy to do a book signing next to Mr. Dan Santat, awesome illustrator extraordinaire. Here’s a clip of a little interview I did with People Jar where I talk about being an artist.

Modigliani Self Portrait

2011-04-06T00:57:00.000-07:00

It’s the beginning of Spring, which means it’s time for me to begin preparing for the summer…. I am a born procrastinator, so I typically don’t prepare for anything until the day before. However, I’m learning all kinds of ways to make my life less hectic, and one of those lovely tricks is to plan ahead. So, I begin planning for the summer NOW… more specifically, I’m preparing for my summer children’s art classes now.
One of my many favorite artists is Amedeo Modigliani. Modigliani’s work is easy to spot because his portraits of people usually consist of elongated oval shaped heads, giraffe lengthed necks, simplified features and mask-like eyes. He’s a great artist to introduce to children because of these exaggerated elements. So, I’ve done a self portrait A La Modigliani that I will use as a sample of artwork to show my students when we begin the summer classes. I used oil pastels rather than oil paint because of their ease of use.

Summer Family Film Festival Artwork

2011-03-16T16:06:00.001-07:00

Here’s the artwork I did for the Orange Public Library Foundation’s Summer Family Film Festival. The theme for this years reading program is “One World, Many Stories.” The featured film’s will be “Tangled”, “How To Train Your Dragon”, “Shrek”, “Mega Mind”, “Legends of the Guardians”, “Toy Story 3”, and “Despicable Me.” I tried to incorporate some images from those movies in the poster.

Farmers Market NYC

2011-01-17T16:22:00.001-08:00

I did this for a friend. This is an imagined scene at a farmers market in NYC.

Nature Walk

2011-01-17T16:06:00.001-08:00

I did this for a friend. It was done from an old photograph.

Sequoia

2011-01-17T16:02:00.001-08:00

I did this for a friend who loves Sequoia.

RE:FORM SCHOOL

2010-09-12T23:33:00.001-07:00

Here is my latest piece of art. Watercolor and colored pencil on illustration board. I’ll be sending this to an exhibit in Brooklyn, New York. The show is being put on by the same folks who did the very hugely successful Manifest Hope show in DC and the equally large Manifest Equality exhibit in LA. This time around, we are working to get the word out that OUR AMERICAN SCHOOLS NEED SOME MAJOR REFORM. Here’s my take on the theme. Let me know what you think.

The Fuzz Budz Debut

2010-08-29T22:53:00.001-07:00

I was invited to present at two events in the next two months. First is Author’s Day at Pretend City Children’s Museum in Irvine. On Monday, Sept 6 from 10:30 am – 2:00 pm, I will be joined by Author Christina Das (Munchy Mouse), Author and Illustrator Jason Dobkin (Snobbles the Great), Illustrator Steve Gray (There Was an Old Monkey Who Swallowed a Frog) and Author Barbara Odanaka (A Crazy Day at the Critter Cafe).

There will be author readings, and artist presentations. I was hoping to debut my very own illustrated book at this event, but I don’t think it’ll be back from the printer in time. The characters were created by my 9 year old daughter. She learned how to draw these adorable characters based on the art lessons she attends with me. My husband thought that they were so cute so he told her to create a bunch more in the hopes that we could put them on T-shirts. Next came the idea for a children’s book. Two months later, a lot of really really late nights and lots of hard work, we ended up with a really fun family project where my 9 year old was the creative director, my husband was the author, and me the illustrator taking direction from my 9 year old daughter.

We’ll be debuting this book at the OC Kids Book Festival in Costa Mesa. This is the 7th year of the festival and I believe it is my 3rd year presenting. It happens on the campus of Orange Coast College on Sunday, October 3rd.
Last year, Robin Preiss Glasser was there doing book signings for her incredibly popular “Fancy Nancy” series. The year before that, I was fortunate enough to catch a lovely little moment with author and actress Jamie Lee Curtis.

The OC Kids Book Festival is FREE and is a great day out for the family. There are authors and illustrators doing book signings all day long. There’s family entertainment, a petting zoo, lots of fun activities and of course, lots of great children’s books to purchase.
If you haven’t made it out to the OC Book Festival ever, you should definitely make an effort to come out this year.
Don’t forget to stop by the Illustrator Stage where I’ll be doing a really cool presentation called “How To Draw the Fuzz Budz.” The characters are really simple and fun to draw. The main focus of the lesson is to teach kids how to draw animal characters using one simple shape. The largest shape that is used for all the Fuzz Budz character is a combination of a rectangle and a circle, or what we call a “Circtangle.”
It is similar to what my mentor, Charles Zembillas, taught me through his character design classes at the Animation Academy in Burbank. However, he coined the phrase “Squircle”, which is a combination of a square and a circle. You can see this exact shape in many of his amazing character designs, like in Crash Bandicoot or Jak and Daxter.
In the 20 minute presentation, the kids learn about how to draw the most important characteristics of an animal on any type of simple shape and from that, you can create your own animal character design.
For instance, the identifying characteristics of a cat are:

pointy triangle shaped ears
whiskers
triangle shaped nose
long tubular shaped tail

If you take these 4 elements and stick them on any shape, be it a circle, a square or a Circtangle, you can create your own Cat Character.
To see how it’s done, you’ll have to come out and watch me!
Hope to see you there!
Larissa

Eucalyptus with native birds

2010-07-15T23:56:00.001-07:00

I did this mural at a friend’s house recently. This is the laundry room wall. I painted a few so cal native birds and butterflies in there, too.

Rocket Power Press Art

2010-05-09T21:39:00.001-07:00

I had forgotten that I did this piece of artwork. Back in the day, when I was at Klasky Csupo, working on my first animation job on the Rocket Power crew, we were asked to create press art. I think that’s what it was for. Jim Duffy, the director of the series, had this work and likely some other work framed. It’s signed by Sergei Shamrovsky, the artist who created the look of the show, and by myself. Mr. Duffy sent me this image of the art on his office wall.

I really enjoyed working on this piece, and I guess you could say that this was my first time illustrating before I started working on the Rugrats books.

Thanks to Jim Duffy for the advice on creating interesting compositions.

Manifest Equality Exhibit

2010-02-21T00:50:00.001-08:00

I was invited to participate in the upcoming Manifest Equality exhibit in Los Angeles, March 3-7. The exhibit was designed to raise visibility for the importance of equality. 200 artists were asked to create works of art around the following themes: Equality, Justice, Unity, Respect, Civil Rights and Love. When I thought about the theme of Love, I thought “How would one paint the idea of love?” After reading an article in a Yoga Journal about the different aspects of love, I had this image in my mind of using the letters of the word LOVE to create imagery that explores those aspects of love.

The first image in the letter "L” is man’s love for God, a higher power, and God’s love for man. Being raised as a Baha’i, as a child I had memorized the hidden words “Love Me that I may love thee, If thou lovest Me not My love can in no wise reach thee. Know this, Oh servant.” Lately, I had been doing yoga and felt that this pose, with arms outstretched, would reflect that idea of showing reverence to God.

The second image in the letter “O” is man’s love for the earth, humanity and all living things. I like this image in that it also stands for Unity, another theme of the show.

The “V” represents the love found in intimate relationships. I have three couples holding hands- a man and a woman, a man and a man, a woman and a woman.

The “E” is familial love. Both images are of a modern family: an interracial couple and their interracial children. And then a gay couple with their adopted children, and the youngest child being born from one of the mothers.

My hope is for people to see that love is manifested in many ways and to respect the relationships that we all have with one another, even if it is different from one’s own experiences.

Pages from my Sketchbook, continued

2010-02-04T23:39:00.000-08:00

These drawings are from my sketchbook during Fall 2009. I brought my book with me to my daughter’s gym practice, the Santa Ana Zoo, my Mexico vacation and to my class field trip to Irvine Spectrum.
Have a looksee.

View Full Album

Orange Public Library & History Center

2010-01-27T01:23:00.001-08:00

Here’s a little something I just did for the Orange Public Library Foundation. This image will be used for their upcoming Gala invitations and program book.

Pages from my Sketchbook

2010-01-23T23:35:00.000-08:00

Here’s some drawings from my most recent sketchbook. I assign a sketchbook to my students at Laguna College of Art + Design. They are strongly encouraged to carry their sketchbook with them at all times and to draw in it constantly ( in fact, if they don’t, it affects their grade ).
I brought my sketchbook with me on my vacation to Cabo, Mexico. You can see the fun time I had drawing the many varied shapes of figures decked out in swimsuits.
Among the drawings are a few from inside my classroom at LCAD.

People at the airport

This loud New Yorker just got off the plane and was drinking at the Palapa bar.


The following are from a Sketch Crawl at the Irvine Spectrum

NYC farmers market sketch

2009-12-30T22:04:00.000-08:00

This is a sketch of a commission I'm doing for a good friend. It will be acrylic on canvas 24" x 48". Will post final art when it's done.

I love going to farmer's markets when they are setting up their stands. All the produce is vibrant and alive with color. I hope to catch this with an early morning slightly overcast sky. I'm going for the lighting of an Edward Hopper painting, and thick pasty impasto brushstrokes.

The LA Cast of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"

2009-12-28T21:48:00.000-08:00

This was done as a commission for the Los Angeles cast of the Grinch musical performed at the Pantages Theater. The Grinch was played by Stefan Karl, also known to fellow toddler mothers as Robbie Rotten on Nick Jr's Lazytown. Old Max was played by Emmy award winner John Laroquette. I had to draw the cast as they are in their make up and costumes for the production, but also attempted to catch a likeness. It was a fun project and it was even more fun researching for it, as my family and I enjoyed the musical as well. Thanks to "Who Kid" Shannon Mills for the opportunity.

What people put on their cars...

2009-10-20T22:38:00.000-07:00

I was driving the other day and saw this car ahead of me. I purposefully changed my route to take a picture of this guys car. I hate to think what this bank did to this guys life that made him put so much effort into sharing with the world his point of view.

I have to say, I agree with him and stopped banking with B of A when I was 18.

Studio Del Sotano in Santa Ana Artists Village

2009-10-20T22:00:00.000-07:00

Here is my artwork displayed in a gallery in the Santa Ana Artists Village. The gallery, Studio Del Sotano, is in the Santora Building on Broadway and Main. The first Saturday of the month is First Saturdays Art Walk where all the galleries in the village are open from 7 pm -10 pm. There's music, wine and lots of people. These photos were taken during set up. During the artwalk, the place is teeming with people.

Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia and Sean Connery

2009-08-26T22:21:00.001-07:00

These are from the archive-- like, waaaay back in the days when I was doing quick sketch portraits of people down at the Huntington Beach arts and crafts street fair on Fridays, or at the Orange County Marketplace. I used to sit and draw people in 10 minutes. Someone called me "Kodak" once because they thought I was as good as a photograph. Well, I guess some days I was "on" and some days I wasn't. So, I accepted that compliment and have always thought of my knack for capturing someones likeness as a fun ability to have. These images were NOT done in 10 minutes. I used to sell small prints like these, and of other jazz celebrities, like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Dizzie Gilespie. Anyway, these are buried deep in a pile somewhere, but thought I'd take the photos out and show them off. I kind of miss doing quick sketch portraits-- out at the beach, just chillin with all the other people out having a good time. I used to barter my drawings with other sellers. I've gotten a pair of shoes, a few items of jewelry, hair accesories, yummy food, and even a adriondack (??) chair for doing a drawing for someone. I'm planning on doing it again soon, but in the comfort of my own home-- think "Christmas Gifts".

Orange County Children's Book Festival

2009-07-31T00:15:00.000-07:00

Mark your calendars for the Orange County Children's Book Festival. I'll be there as a featured Illustrator, along with some amazing people-- Robin Preiss Glasser of Fancy Nancy. Last year, Jamie Lee Curtis was there doing a book signing and I got a photo opp with her. It's sure to be another good year at the festival.

Art Walk June 4, Laguna Beach-- Whelan Gallery and Laguna Banners

2009-06-05T13:48:00.001-07:00

Had a great time last night at Art Walk Laguna Beach. Met my new favorite artist, Patrick Whelan. What a great guy and a great talent. We saw my banner hanging on Ocean Ave and PCH ( great location !!) and we drank wine, ate cheese and took in all the art.

Orange Public Library Exhibition- Obama Paintings

2009-06-01T23:13:00.001-07:00

A big thank you to Yolanda Moreno over at the Orange Public Library for allowing me to display my art in their exhibition space.
Guess what! I get to put more artwork on the wall.
For the summer reading program, I will be displaying some illustrations from my children's books. I'll have to dig some stuff up, as well as get some new paintings ready for hanging.

Purchase a Limited Edition Print/Poster or Giclee'

2009-04-10T23:27:00.000-07:00

Signed limited edition prints are available for purchase.

Please click above to be directed to my store.

Thanks !

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009

2009-04-10T23:10:00.000-07:00

The first law signed by President Barack Obama was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. Lilly Ledbetter worked for Goodyear. She discovered that after working for almost 20 years with Goodyear, she was paid a lesser amount than the men doing the same job that she did.
She initially sued Goodyear and was awarded by the jury a sum of $200,000 for back pay and over $3 million in punitive damages. However, the Supreme Court, following the existing law at the time, did not award her the money because of a law stating that an employee has only 180 days from the first decisive act of the discrimination-- which would put her window of opportunity at roughly 20 years ago.
Obviously this law is ridiculous and only benefits the companies who do the discriminating.
Obama knew that this was wrong, and signed the bill which now enables my daughters, and anyone elses daughters for that matter, to receive the same pay as a male who does the same exact job.
The law is changed so that employees have 180 days after every paycheck received where the discriminatory pay is occuring.

Speaker at Young Writer's Conference

2009-03-28T22:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I spoke at the Young Writer's Conference at the Alta Vista elementary school in Redondo Beach.
Every year, this organization puts together a conference for kids to become better writers, while experiencing the joy of the writing process and the empowering activity of communicating and expressing themselves.
I gave two presentations entitled "Creating Cool Characters".
Here's my bio along with the description the kids had of the class.

"Larissa Marantz began drawing after she fell in love with the Sunday comics as a child. She used to copy Snoopy and Charlie Brown from the pictures, and then would draw them everywhere. She started drawing for animation as a Character Designer on the Nickelodeon show The Rugrats and Rocket Power. She went on to illustrate many books for the Rugrats series as well as the Wild Thornberry's, Lazytown and Avatar: The Last Airbender. She teaches art classes to little artists and big artists in her home studio and even teaches big artists at Laguna College of Art and Design. Her favorite thing to do, though, is paint and has shown her work at the Inauguration Gallery in Washington DC featuring the new president, Barack Obama.
If you like to draw and are interested in illustrating your stories, Larissa will teach you how to create your own characters. She can even show you how to make your characters more cute, more funnhy, more mean looking or more goofy."

The presentations were really fun to do and I think the kids enjoyed doing it, too.
I am very off the cuff and spontaneous so it was funny to see how the presentation went after all the preparing that I did for it.

I usually have a plan of what I want to present and how exactly I'm going to present it.
But, depending on the energy I get from the class, or the reactions I get as I'm talking, things may change.
No class can ever be the same for that very reason.
However, it was nice to hear at the closing of the conference that one of the students said his favorite session was where he got to learn how to draw really cool characters.
Very cool indeed.

My Banner Chosen For Laguna Beach Competition!

2009-03-27T22:38:00.000-07:00

I was having a bad day when I got the call from the Laguna Beach Arts Council informing me that my art was chosen as one of the banners they will be using for the downtown lamposts in Laguna Beach.
"Oh, hey, that's great!" I said to the woman casually, and with not a lot of excitement, as I seriously was not in a positive mood. "That's great news."
After a bit of talk, the woman informed me that they only chose 6 banners. All this time I was under the impression that they would choose about 20 or 30 of them, at least, which is why I reacted so casually to the news that my art was chosen. I could recall last summer seeing some banners that were nice, but not truly fantastic.
"OH! I see!" I had said surprised, with a little more interest in my voice.
"And how many entries were there?" I asked.
"66" she said.

So I made the top 10 %.
Woo HOO!

I've included for your perusal my process of one side of the banner.

SO!!!
Look for this in Downtown Laguna Beach this summer!!!

Laguna Beach Banner Competition

2009-03-20T12:06:00.000-07:00

This is my entry for the Laguna Beach Banner Competition. The format is 4" x 16" to be completed on a 4 Foot x 16 Foot banner. If you have been to Laguna Beach during the summer, perhaps you have noticed the colorful artistic banners that hang from the light poles in the downtown area.

My painting is simply entitled "Laguna Beach is Art."

Ever since I can remember, I have been in love with the city of Laguna Beach. The town, the people, the community and the ART!!! I used to collect the free art magazines that you would see around town. When I was a child visiting Laguna with the YMCA summer day camps, I would bring these magazines home and stare at them, mesmerized by the different paintings, in total awe of the beautiful colors.
Maybe someday my own work can be included in those magazines that I treasured as a child and still to this day collect and bring home with me.

"This Moment" Obama Poster on Zazzle.com

2009-02-12T21:13:00.000-08:00

If you are interested in purchasing this painting as a poster for your wall, or your classroom, you can buy it on Zazzle.com.

Someone I know told me that they saw my painting on the wall of a high school classroom.

That makes me feel happy to know that my image will be used as a teaching material for students who are learning about their current president and the historical ties to him.

That also made me wonder -- "How did they get the print?"

Well, you can buy a poster of this painting on Zazzle.com.
See the link.
http://www.zazzle.com/president_obama_poster-228677719443882239

Thanks!

Manifest Hope:DC

2009-02-01T21:34:00.000-08:00

Justin Hampton and I hang out in front of his awesome painting. We talked about the logistics of creating a painting for such an amazing exhibit in such a short amount of time. It was interesting to hear that he too got very little sleep the weeks before the show. Paint, paint, paint.
I saw Shepard Fairey standing next to my painting, so I stole a moment and took a photo with him. He's holding in his hand the postcard with his Obama painting. Very cool.

My first Big Gallery exhibition.

In my hand is the Washington magazine, with Shepard Fairey's painting on the cover.

The Marantz family in 10 degree weather in front of the US Capitol.

The Washington Monument

Bowers Museum

2009-02-01T21:20:00.000-08:00

Here I am with my very good friend Vanessa at the Bowers Museum today as part of their African Cultural Exhibit.

My painting was displayed with a few other paintings of Obama.

I met some wonderful people today and had a great time with the family.

The first Sunday of every month is Free to enter the Bowers museum.

Obama Painting "Unite America" to be seen in Upcoming Movie

2009-01-28T22:26:00.000-08:00

Wow.
Yesterday someone bought one of my Obama T-shirts on zazzle.com.

That someone was Charles Dutton.
Think "Emmy Award winning, African - American actor, lead in the 1990's Fox TV series 'Roc'."

Cool.
He's going to wear the shirt in a movie!

A movie in which he plays a HUGE Obama fan ( kind of like me! ).

I think that the shirt will play a pivotal part in the movie, too!
Excited!!! ???
Yeah!!!!!

Now, If I could just get Oprah to fall in love with my paintings.........

Want a shirt???
Heeere you go-- go and buy one -- make it exactly to your liking- pick long or short sleeve, crew or boat neck.... go craaaazy.

http://www.zazzle.com/unite_america_shirt-235481619736268424

Featured Article in the OC REGISTER, A & E SECTION

2009-01-28T21:45:00.000-08:00

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/obama-marantz-art-2283439-painting-president

Here is a link to my featured article in the Sunday Jan 18th O.C. Register.
The article is written by Richard Chang and fabulous photographs are by Kevin Sullivan.

It's a great write up. I was shocked when I heard it would be front page of the A & E! And Sunday EDITION!!! That's the day when everyone sits down with their pancakes and coffee and reads the entire paper ( that's what I do, anyway -- that's part of the luxury of a perfect Sunday morning!!!)

I've actually been in the newspaper a few times in my life -- the first was when I was a senior in High School. The Register chose a promising young student from each high school in Orange County and wrote up a little bio on them. Out of all of those students, 12 were selected for a photo shoot that took place on the overpass of the 405 at Fairview ( back when there was nothing but strawberry fields in the area -- now it is a huge outdoor shopping center ).

Anyways, I was one of those 12 students. Most of the students were chosen for being a star in a certain area -- like science, or math, or history. Almost all of them were involved in extracurricular activites and clubs that would have looked great on their college applications along with their 4.0 GPA and their 1600 SAT scores. Out of all of them, I had the lowest GPA. I am most certain that I had the lowest SAT score, too.

Now, I'm not dumb- I was a GATE student in elementary school and was enrolled in the Honors classes in high school. But lets just say that Math, Science and History were my worst subjects. I did pretty good in English-- but that's creative, so you can see why.

So for any parent out there who is concerned that their child isn't hittin' the high marks in those major academic areas, but has an uncanny ability to draw anything from his imagination or can draw the layout of the kitchen without batting an eyelash---- you just have a gifted child.

A child who sees the world differently than most, but can also do things that not many others can--- like show others a new way to see the world.

I would be interested to see what the other 11 students have done with their lives. I'm sure they've done fantastical things, like finding cures for diseases, writing nobel prize winning books, or starting Fortune 500 companies.

Well, I'm doing okay. And I'm thankful to Richard for sharing what I did with all of you.

Why I love Obama

2009-01-23T22:04:00.000-08:00

The first Executive Order given by the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, is amazing.
It is absolutely essential in having a government that is not ruled by corruption and money and power.
This is what I had dreamed of.
The following is taken from the White House website, listed under Executive Orders.

Executive Order -- Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Personnel

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 301 of title 3, United States Code, and sections 3301 and 7301 of title 5, United States Code, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Ethics Pledge. Every appointee in every executive agency appointed on or after January 20, 2009, shall sign, and upon signing shall be contractually committed to, the following pledge upon becoming an appointee:

"As a condition, and in consideration, of my employment in the United States Government in a position invested with the public trust, I commit myself to the following obligations, which I understand are binding on me and are enforceable under law:
"1. Lobbyist Gift Ban. I will not accept gifts from registered lobbyists or lobbying organizations for the duration of my service as an appointee.

YEAH!!!!!! No more bribing!!!
Also, another executive order that I love basically cancels out one of the first Executive Orders given by #43 ( I don't have to even say his name anymore!!!) -- the Global Gag ban, which essentially cut medical funding for women's health care ( think "birth control, condoms, abortions in the case of rape, incest or any other situation") in third world countries.

I love how Obama's administration is basically trying to undo all the crap that #43 did. They've got a lot of work to do.

My DC Experience, Part 3

2009-01-19T23:31:00.000-08:00

Have you ever left a party early, before it really gets hopping, and you KNOW it's going to get hopping and be the biggest party there EVER was, but there is just NO WAY that you can stay?

Yeah, that's the feeling I had today.

Leaving DC on January 19th, the day before the Inauguration, feels pretty much like that.
You see everyone coming. EVERYONE is coming.

And we were going.

But, as the great poet Maya Angelou says, Be Grateful.

Be grateful for what you have. And I am. I am lucky to have had the opportunity to go to DC at all. I am thankful for the chance to see where history will be made -- to become more familiar with the images that will be seen on tv screens across the world tomorrow.

I am thankful to be watching the history unfold in my home, comfortable and warm, and seated on a couch, with loved ones by my side, instead of standing, in a 2 foot square area of grass, likely unable to move for several hours, dressed in 5 layers of clothing, with hundreds of thousands of other people..... Hundreds of thousands of other people who are all thankful to be standing in the miserable weather, in the crowds, witnessing history....

Okay, I said I was grateful.

Oh, and on another note: On the way home today, we were watching news from the seat of our plane. Keith put on Fox News, just to see what the coverage was ( we're not partial to that station...) and the next thing I knew, I got a slap on the arm.

"WHAT was that for!!???"

He looked at me, with his head phones ripped off his head and completely shocked, said, "They just showed your painting on TV!!"

Yup.
My painting got a 1 second air spot on the Bill O' Reilly show.

What's up with that/?????

My DC Experience, Part 2

2009-01-18T21:00:00.000-08:00

Friday, January 16th, the National Mall was lined with at least 4 dozen parked news vans, thousands of porta pottys, and the occasional tourist or local walking to lunch.

Saturday, Jan 17th is the day the people started to come.
The National Mall started to fill with people, young and old, black and white, from far and near.
Some looked like they were just barely covered for the aching cold temperatures-- layered hooded sweatshirts and ski coats with jeans and mittens. Others, like the older African American couple I saw, both decked out in matching long beautiful fur coats and their polished fancy shoes, looked like they came straight from the late night Jazz club.
People emerged from the underground Smithsonian Metro stop and looked around in amazement and awe at the location where history will be made on Tuesday. People were taking pictures of themselves with the Washington Monument or the US Capitol in the background. We took a few pictures ourselves. My son had to get one of him "holding" the Washington Monument.
We walked to the Air and Space Museum where the kids got excited to touch a moon rock that is apparently 9 million or so years old. From the museum ceiling hung airplanes, space capsules, a missle and a jet plane that were amazing to see. I even learned how airplanes get off the ground from the kids exhibits. Lift, Drag, Force, Air Pressure... I never could really comprehend it until I had it explained to me so simply. Yes, there were many impressive things to see, and we had a whole hour to see it. A half day would have been better to devote to it, but we had places to go, people to see. What I was glad to see was a small exhibit that showed the answer to many a child's question " How do astronauts go to the bathroom????" Well, the contraption is like a toilet but with suction. Enough said. But glad to know I can answer the question now.

After paying way waaayyyy too much for a McDonalds lunch at the museum, we put on a gloves and scarves and headed towards the Lincoln memorial. I was really looking forward to seeing the famous sight where MLK gave his famous speech, and where Obama would be standing in just a few days.
The weather was the coldest it had been all season, and we walked with the wind in our faces. It was painfully cold, and although I had thought I dressed my children warmly, I had neglected to think about the wind factor. Poor little Sasha couldn't handle the cold temperatures and Keith, my sister Yvette, and I took turns holding her and carrying her while wrapped in a blanket. Then Kela's feet began to ache, and we took turns carrying her on our backs, all with the thought of making it to the Lincoln Memorial with enough energy for the kids to walk the 1/2 mile trek.

Well, we made it halfway across to the Washington Monument. Alek ran to touch it. We took some pictures. And that's when the kids absolutely lost it.
Sasha couldn't take it anymore. The tears and the cries were continuous. Kela didn't understand why we were walking at all when she could be back at the room, warm and cozy, playing her video games. Her feet were aching and we were reminded of that every 5 minutes.
No amount of convincing would have made my children's spirits lift. And that's when I came to the realization that I would not be seeing the Lincoln Memorial.
My sister was sad. I was heartbroken. But what could I do? There were no taxis in sight, nor those cool bicycle taxi guys to take you where you want to go but are too tired to walk. So, we turned around and walked back to the Metro station, to seek warmth for a spell. I decided I would try to get back to it in the evening, and that made me feel a little better.

Next we went to the Inaugural Fest, where a friend of a friend has organized a very interesting and cool exhibition of the celebration of the Presidency. There was a replica of the Oval office, a replica of AirForce One, lots of Obama stuff to buy, and a great Lincoln exhibit that showed all about his life and his years in the presidency.
My favorite quote that he said was something to the effect of " I would not want to be a slave, nor would I want to be a master." It was a bit more profound than that... i'll have to look it up.

After that, we headed towards the White House. We were directly across the street from it when we were immediately stopped by police. They wouldn't let anyone cross the street and asked us all to stay put. There were police blockades at the end of each street surrounding us and more police showing up by the minute. Eventually, we realized something big was going on. A local who was with his friends said it was no big deal. This kind of thing happens every day.
Yes, well , when Bush was president.... I wouldn't have cared. I would have ran to get some tomatoes. But , with the thought that Barack could be driving by any minute. We stayed put. And we stayed put for about 20 minutes.
I fed my kids every snack I could to keep them quiet and happy. Then , it happened.
You could hear people down the street, screaming and hollering.
The motorcycle cops came, 3 or 4 of them, speeding past and turning into the white house back street where the empty bleachers are set up for the processional on Tuesday. Then a limo type black car drove past, with the silhouette of two people in the front, and a clear silhouette in the back. The silhouette that I am so familiar with. Rounded head. Slim neck.

Oh my God. Was that him??? Was that really him????
After that car, another town car, and then police car after police car after police car. At least a dozen, all whirring past, sirens blazing, lights flashing.... people screaming and waving their hands, jumping up and down, cheering and cheering.

When it was all over, people were crying and shouting. " WE SAW OBAMA!!!!!"
Through absolute PURE LUCK, we were in the right place at the right time.

My husband, the devil's advocate, and man who needs physical and scientifical proof before he believes anything, argued and said that it could have been Bush.

No way. No way.
Later, we found out Obama's whereabouts. He left Baltimore around 5 or 6 pm to head to DC. That would put his arrival time at about 7 pm. Exactly when we were there.
:-)
Serendiptious.

My DC Experience -- Opening Night Manifest Hope:DC

2009-01-17T04:07:00.000-08:00

I cannot sleep tonite.
I have never been so excited in my life -- not for anything this big.
Last night I attended the gallery event of my life ( thus far ). The biggest, hottest gallery in the nation.
This morning, I am reading my first ever featured article in a major publication.
It is 7 am in DC -- 4 am , California time, and I've been up almost all night, reliving the evenings events, thinking about what's to come.
The only other time I felt this way was when I first found out I was invited to participate in the inauguration gallery.
I couldn't sleep a wink that night either.

Last night I attended the opening night for Manifest Hope:DC. The gallery housed hundreds of paintings by some amazing artists. I met Shepard Fairey as he stood talking to someone in front of my painting. I introduced myself and asked if I could get a picture with him in front of both our works of art. He looked at me puzzled. I showed him the painting in front of him and said it was mine. He said he had been admiring it and complimented me on the work. We both stood in front of it and he held his Manifest Hope postcard up as I stood proudly in front of mine.
I also met Ron English, the artist who created the Obama Lincoln image-- btw---phenomenal. I hovered around my painting for a few minutes to talk to the gallery goers. But it was hard to stay in one place with so much to see.
While I was walking around, my husband spoke to someone about my piece "This Moment". This person told him that my painting was his favorite piece in the entire gallery.
Wow. that floored me.
I spoke with a few other artists as well, who were so excited about the inauguration -- most , like me, won't be able to attend. I've spoken to a few people who will be attending, though. I get this sad feeling when I think about missing out on witnessing history first hand. Then I realize that I can't feel my toes or fingers because it is 18 degrees, and I think that watching the inauguration at home, with my good friends, is REALLY not such a bad idea after all.

When we got out of the metro station and stood in the center of the National mall, with the Washington Monument and the LincolN Memorial on one side and the US capitol on the other, I became so overwhelmed I began to cry. My sister, who is visiting with us from NYC looked at me and smiled. Its hard to believe that I am really here. After telling so many people how amazing it would be to go to DC and be a part of the excitement.... it is almost as though the universe heard my cry and fulfilled my wishes. Serendipitous -- a word I've been using to describe the events in my life quite frequently lately.
I'll post some pictures later. I've got a lot !!!

Inauguration Gallery-- Manifest Hope:DC

2009-01-08T23:13:00.000-08:00

This painting will be on display at the Manifest Hope:DC gallery on the National Mall during the Inauguration celebration of Barack Obama. The work, entitled "This Moment" celebrates this historic moment ofthe first African American president. Illustrated within the portrait are pivotal moments in history that were an integral part in creating this reality -- Harriet Tubman leading slaves northward to escape to freedom, Abraham Lincoln announcing his Proclamation of Emancipation to slaves along side a symbolic image of slave hands in shackles with the chains being shattered. Within the space of Obama's neck and head is an image of Rosa Parks getting on the bus, Martin Luther King Jr. giving his "I have a dream" speech at the National Mall in DC, the Little Rock 9 students who were escorted into their newly segregated school by the national guard, John F Kennedy announcing his Civil Rights Act of 1964, and lastly, the record number of voters who turned out on Nov 4th to cast their votes in a landslide victory for Obama.

Within the background, or the "negative space" of the portrait are images of those things that have repressed African Americans- a plantation owner standing over the slaves in the field with a rifle, a segregated bus and a segregated drinking fountain.

200 artists will be displaying their works in the gallery which will be on display from Jan 16- jan 19.

I was invited to particpate after my first painting, Unite America, was viewed as one of the favorites of Yosi Sergent, publicist to Shepard Fairey and producer of the Manifest Hope show.

I am truly honored for the opportunity to create a work of art that will be viewed by thousands during this most exciting and historic time!

Obama Painting "Unite America" to be featured in Inaugural Obama Diversity Calendar

2008-11-30T23:11:00.000-08:00

I was recently contacted by a non-profit organization that produces Multicultural calendars. For the past 16 years, they have created calendars that include the holy days of the world's twelve major faiths and cultural festivals of many cultural groups in North America.
This idea is unique and definitely in need in my household, as we are a biracially, multicultural family.

This years calendar will be an Inaugural Obama calendar featuring the artworks and photographs of artists like myself who have been inspired by Barack Obama's unifying and inspiring messages.

My "Unite America" painting will be one of the 12 artworks featured in the calendar. I am honored to be a part of this project and was touched by the executive directors compliments on my work.

I am excited about the opportunity to expose my very personal creation to more people through this avenue and look forward to receiving the calendar as we ring in our new president!

Why I support Barack Obama

2008-10-15T09:12:00.000-07:00

My Dad recently asked me to give him 10 reasons why someone should vote for Barack Obama. I wanted to use factual reasons why he should receive your vote, rather than opinionated statements, although I do have some strong opinions on Sarah Palin, I only needed to point out her positions on issues and her record as a politician to prove my point.

This is what I told him.

Well, Dad, get your coffee ready, because I've got a lot to say.

I've got some reasons why your friend should vote for Obama and I also have reasons why she should NOT vote for McCain/Palin.

Regarding their campaign and funding of their campaigns--
Obama has not taken money from lobbyists but has built his campaign on a grassroots level.

McCain has at least 4 former lobbyists in charge of his campaign, one of which is STILL receiving money as a lobbyist.

Regarding taxes--
Obama has said that for every American who makes under $250,000 a year, they will not see a tax increase, but they will see a tax cut. Those that earn the most in this country because of capital gains, rather than earned income, will be paying higher taxes to help our country pay for what our country needs. ( repairing bridges and schools )

McCain gives a greater tax cut to those who make over $250,000 a year and under McCain, the more you make, the more tax cuts you get. In effect, the rich stay richer.

Regarding the Economy--

Less than a month ago, McCain was quoted as saying "the fundamentals of the economy are strong". Oddly enough, days before the stock market crash the led america into the great depression, another politician was quoted as saying exactly the same thing--this leads me to the opinion that many republicans leader are severely out of touch.
Now we have an economy that is collapsing and near depression levels.
Months ago, McCain was quoted as saying he admittedly didn't know much about the economy.
Even now, he still is scurrying to make a plan.
Mc Cain's economic adviser, Phil Graham, who has been an integral part in the Deregulation of the banking industry, has been quoted saying "America is a nation of whiners"

Obama has the top economist leaders on both Democratic and Republican sides and was given an 80% approval rating from ECONOMIST magazine in handling the economy.
Obama has a plan for the economy that will help bring jobs back to the USA under his energy plan- He is planning on ending our foreign dependence on oil by increasing funding on solar, wind and clean burning coal energy. Both candidates have argued in favor of off shore drilling, but Mc Cain's plan for "Drill,Baby,Drill" lacks the urgency that we need to see a change in the immediate future that will help increase technology so that we can actually have more hybrid cars and more solar/wind power. Also, Drilling off shore will only show results in 10 years which will do nothing to lower the cost of oil today.

Obama wants to put 10 million hybrid cars on the road by 2015 - Hybrid plug in cars get 150 miles to the gallon.

McCain has been in congress for over 20 years and has repeatedly voted against bills that would help our way towards using alternative energy.
He has also voted for bills that would benefit the oil companies.
McCain supported 4 out of 5 of Bush's Budgets which have made this country go from a surplus to a deficit.

McCain's plan for health care is to let it run the course of the free market- he would do to health care what he did to the banking system -- deregulate it.
McCain was involved in the Keating 5 -- the Lincoln Savings and Loan scandal.
He helped deregulate all of these banks and said that there should be more deregulation- This while he was receiving huge campaign contributions from Charles Keating, the man who bilked millions of dollars from people.

Regarding Health care-- McCain says he will give each family a $5000 credit to buy their own health care. However, he also is taxing the benefits from the companies so that these companies will likely drop their employers to avoid paying taxes -- thus leaving people without health care- and having only $5000 to cover a $1200 health insurance plan.

Obama wants health care to be affordable and accessible to all americans. Under his plan, if you are happy with your current health care insurance nothing will change, other than your cost will go down $2500.

McCain has voted with Bush over 90% of the time. If you are not happy with the way this country is going ( and today 89% of Americans ARE NOT happy with the direction this country is going ), then voting for McCain is not likely to change much. He has been in congress for the last 20 years, and has done nothing to progress this country. He is a part of the problem.

Mc Cain is a veteran and has served his country with honor. But he has an extremely poor rating from the veterans associations. When bills come up in congress that would benefit veterans, McCain has either voted against these bills, or simply not been present to vote for them. Obama's is favored by more veterans groups than John McCain.

On Education-
Obama plans to improve education by increasing teacher pay. He also wants to give students a $4000 credit for college if the do 100 hours of community service-- With this plan, he is not only making college affordable, he is improving our communities and strengthening them with the energies of the youth -- something we understand is an untapped resource. From this comes a deeper awareness of others that are less fortunate or are

And on the issue of Sarah Palin....
omg
Sarah Palin is absolutely the worst choice for a VP Candidate. Her experience as governor of Alaska for less than 2 years and previously the mayor of Wasilla is NOT enough experience for someone who is to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. It is SCARY that she could be running the country. McCain could be the oldest man in the presidency. He has health issues that increase the chance of him becoming incapacitated within the next 4 years. Should he suddenly become unable to serve as Commander in Chief, we have a very inexperienced person at the wheel.
NOT only that. but she won't admit to not knowing what she doesn't know.

You and I know more about foreign policy than Sarah Palin. Her answer for her foreign policy experience was that she lived in Alaska, which is near Russia. "We can see Russia...." she said, from Alaska. Just because you can see the moon does not make you an astronaut. She doesn't have enough foreign policy experience and she is not admitting to it.
In her interview with Katie Couric, when asked what newspapers she read, she could not name one newspaper. She replied that she read all of them. But when asked again to name a specific paper, she could not read one!!!!!!
She does NOT read the newspaper! Simply put, if you read the newspaper, you would be aware of the newspaper you are reading...
If you are a politician, you should be aware of what is going on in the lives of the people that you govern. She is as out of touch as McCain and G.W. Bush.

Palin is under ethics violation and has been found guilty of abusing her powers as governor of Alaska. Being a step away from the presidency - we should be concerned what she would do with such power and how she would abuse it.
Palin is against freedom of Speech-- She threatened to fire a librarian after the librarian told her that it would not be right to ban certain books simply because of bad language.

Palin charges women in her state of Alaska for rape kits. She claimed it was to ease the burden of taxpayers. Alaska, which actually has a high rate of rape, is in a sense, raping the victims again-- by charging them to investigate a crime scene, which in the case of rape, is a woman's body. The reason for her charging for these kits is because Palin is against abortion of any kind, even in the case of rape or incest. Included in these rape kits are "morning after" pills, which offers these women an option of not giving birth to their rapists child.

She would also be in favor of overturning Roe Vs. Wade. Although I do not personally believe abortion is the best option, She would be making the decision for all women in America.
Palin does not represent me or many other women as a mother. Nor does she seem like a very good role model as a mother-- her teenage daughter is unwed and pregnant, Her son enlisted in the army only after he was given the option between that and jail after he was caught vandalizing.
She claims she is ready to take on the role of V.P, yet she has a baby with special needs who most likely would need his mother at this very important stage of his life.

Bridge to Nowhere-- Palin said that she was Against this huge earmark of building a bridge to an island with less than 100 residents that would cost millions of dollars. But she was actually FOR this bridge and very willing to take the earmarks until she was told that she was not getting it. Then she became Against it.

Palin appoints her friends instead of qualified applicants to high paying high level jobs in Alaska.
She appointed a highschool classmate to head the State Division of Agriculture -- a job that pays $95,000 a year. The woman said that her "love of cows" qualified her for the job (!!!???!!!)

On more personal notes-- Obama and Biden graduated at the top of their class in college.
McCain graduated in the bottom 50th from the naval academy.
Palin went to a variety of community colleges.

McCain is known for his many moods among other congressman and even recently by a CNN political reporter. The president should be a person that is thoughtful and rational, not emotional and irrational.

Here are invalid reasons why one would not vote for Obama.

Because he is a terrorist-- He is , not, in fact, a terrorist.

Because he is Muslim.-- He is not, in fact, Muslim. He and Mc Cain are Christian. AND EVEN IF HE WAS MUSLIM-- That would not be reason enough to not vote for him. People should not be judged because of the religion they practice.

Because he "pals around with Terrorists"-- He is not involved with William Ayers and has denounced him.

So, there's my reasons--
love
Larissa

Illustration page Layout step by step

2008-10-09T22:52:00.000-07:00

This is the process that I work when doing my layouts for my newest book - Shadows.
First I do a tonal painting on a gessoed illustration board.

Next I begin the underpainting. Then I lay in the final colors. I work in acrylic and work in a variety of ways. Where there is underpainting, I will work in layers of color to keep the underpainting slightly visible. I also work wet into wet and layer the colors thinly. I found this works better for me as I have to start and stop frequently. This book has taken me 7 years to complete and I'm almost done.
Working thickly in impasto or with oil techniques is something I enjoy, but was unable to do with this book simply because I have to stop at any given time and would have to remix the paints. I use a Masterson wet paper palette that I can keep my color mixes in when I am ready to paint again.

Unite America - Obama Art

2008-08-17T17:47:00.000-07:00

This painting is entered in the Manifest Hope contest. The artwork to be submitted must be inspired by Barack Obama and the themes of his campaign - Hope, Change, Progress, Unity, Patriotism.

The artwork needed to be creative, memorable and informative and will be graded on its overall impact, originality, positive message and artistic merit.

Within the words Unite America are certain parts of his speeches over the last year that have had an impact on me personally.

The idea behind this was to convey Barack Obama as the unifying force behind a broken America. The people putting these broken pieces together represent people from all socioeconomic backgrounds -- a young student, an older service worker, a blue collar worker, a working professional women, a farmer and a businessman.

Inspired by Obama's leadership, we can all work together to bring this country back together.

finished mural

2008-04-02T21:45:00.000-07:00

This is a photo taken after Kathy and I finished the mural. It took us the whole weekend to paint it together and I think it turned out pretty good! The mural had to have colors that went with the existing colors of the school as well as show the environment of the playground. Nohl Canyon Elementary is lucky to have a fantastic view of orange county from the playground, and I kind of hinted at that on the bottom corners of the mural with the city scape.

Elementary School Spirit Mural

2008-03-16T22:18:00.001-07:00

This is a copy of the color sketch I did for the Nohl Canyon Elementary School spirit mural. The left side is cut off, but you can see the basic idea of it.. At the top is room for the name of the school and the mascot, the Roadrunners.

our new atrium

2008-02-28T23:30:00.000-08:00

This is a view of what you would see once you enter our home. The french doors at the end of the walkway were our old front doors. We've enclosed this walkway with an open roof to give an "outdoor - in" feeling. It's like walking into another world when you come through the atrium - it's bright and airy and calming. Exactly what I love to come home to.

my new art studio

2008-02-28T23:24:00.001-08:00

I love my big windows that let in so much light during the daytime.
I'll be starting up children's art classes again soon. I'm excited about that. Painting, drawing, making fun creative messes! That is what this room is about.
My 19 month old also likes to come in here and draw on big sheets of newsprint that I leave lying around on the floor for her.
This is my favorite room in the house.
Now if I could just freeze time so I could lock myself in the room and finish all the things I want to paint, that would be perfect!

Living room Photos

2008-02-28T23:17:00.000-08:00

It's amazing what the right paint color and a great flooring can do for a room. The furniture in the room is everything we had before, but the wine and gold colors make the burgundy couch feel right at home on the warm colored wood flooring. The gold toned ceiling visually brings the high ceiling lower and makes the room feel cozier and spacious without making the room seem too big. All the danish modern furniture is from the 1960's. The couch was built in the 1950's and originally had baby blue upholstery. My husband sells stardust clocks on ebay, so you'll see one in all the rooms. Only 2 of the walls have artwork up -- we're still getting to that part. It will come, eventually.

Photos of the New Addition

2008-02-28T23:05:00.000-08:00

These are photos of the new addition. This is the Bonus room. It has an airplane theme. My husband found an airline food cart at a thrift store and brought it home a little over a year ago.
I asked him what we were going to do with an airline food cart ( the kind the stewardess pushes down the aisle and asks you 'chicken or beef').
He said it was going in the bonus room. We didn't have a bonus room at the time.
But now we do. And this whole room is for that darned cart.
Of course, we can watch tv and entertain friends in the room as well...

Our Finished Kitchen Remodel

2008-02-28T22:58:00.000-08:00

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new kitchen!!!!!
I've got so much space now to cook, run around and chase the kids and storage for everything I need. I have 2 cutlery drawers, one on each side of the kitchen , so you don't have to go all the way to the other side of the kitchen to get a fork.... a nice problem to have.

Vegas, baby

2008-02-13T23:55:00.001-08:00

me and the kids in Vegas in front of the Bellagio.
That water show made me cry.

...Next time, we're leaving the kids with a sitter.

2007-12-13T22:43:00.000-08:00

We like Wendy's.

Here's Alek on one of our many dinners at the fast food hub.

Construction HELL-- Incident # 1

2007-10-13T21:17:00.000-07:00

This is is our addition to our home in the framing stage. It will be the new office, art studio and bonus room.
Inside the living room that connects to the new structure and the dining room. ( see our new pool!)
The kitchen and the addition to the kitchen.
The family room.
The view from our backyard - you can see the new framework is the extended kitchen. Nice and airy!

Well, it finally happened. About 1 month into our remodel and we have experienced our first bad experience with our contractor. We were expecting 30% chance of showers on Friday. Some of our roof is exposed and all of our windows in the living room and dining room our knocked out , not to mention our whole side of our house is exposed where the kitchen is going to be enlarged. These photos were taken a few days before the rain. The large area that is exposed is completely sealed off by a closed door and another doorway is sealed with plastic.

The photos at the top show our living room wall that will be connected to the new section of the house which will be the office, art studio and bonus room. My husband asked our contractor if he had enough plastic to cover the roof. His answer? No. -- Oh,.... okay. We've never been through a remodel before or had parts of our roof taken off with simple plywood boards to cover our heads, so we're not sure exactly what to expect. I was worried about the 2x4's getting wet, and the framing and structure getting soggy.... WRONG thing to be concerned about!

Our 30 % chance of rain turned into 100% chance of brisk rain. At 3 am on early Saturday morning, I am awaken by my husband, in a bit of a fit, who tells me that our foyer entrance is flooded and the living room is getting wet!

I drag my tired butt out of bed and dred seeing the damage. Yes, the front entrance was soaked, and my husband had taken 7 beach towels to soak up the water and dirt. The water was running down the front door and onto the floor, as well as through the edge of the exposed roof, onto the living room wall and all over the blueprints, the contractor's supplies, boxes of nails, and portable stereo ( oh , how I do hope it's ruined now).

After convincing my husband there's not much we can do about it now, so we might as well go to sleep, or at least lay down and worry about it in our warm bed, I wake up again at 7 am to my husband telling me that the photo albums in the hall closet are getting leaked on, too!

ARGH! I get dressed, groggily, and prepare to see the damage to my irreplaceable family photos. Fortunately, there is little damage to the photos, but I am darn well mad at this point at what could have happened.

And our contractor actually is not taking the blame for this. He claims that it was OUR decision to put up the tarps. He didn't think it was going to rain, so he didn't!

Well, He came today at 7 in the morning to put up the much needed tarps ( a little late if you ask me!) while it was still raining!

Now, we trusted our contractor to make the decisions that will keep our house safe, and he totally was negligent here. He should have put tarps on the roof knowing that the house was exposed and there would be leaking. He was too lazy to do it. So, he ended up doing it in the rain instead.

My husband and I are hoping that this is not the beginning of more bad incidents to come. I hope that his failure to accept responsibility for his actions and his lack of communication are a one time incident.

Ugh. I'm too tired to vent. I'm going to watch Heroes now.

Stomach Flu and a Bunk Bed

2007-10-02T23:05:00.000-07:00

Oh, I have heard of why it is difficult to have a sick child in the top bunk of a bunk bed. A mother can't tend to the child, or can't lay down to cuddle with the child, or can't sit and feed a sick child.
How about this one -- if the child gets the stomach flu and needs to vomit, the child, in his ill state, has to navigate a ladder in the dark, quickly -- mind you-- so that they can make it all the way to the bathroom to puke in the toilet.

I know it's gross, and graphic... but it gets worse.
( it's MY blog, if you don't like it, don't read it )

The likelyhood of that scenario is probably rare. What happened the other day in my home is what is more LIKELY to occur.

Child feels sick and has the urge to vomit.
Child sits up, and, not knowing what to do, vomits on the bed.
Realizing that this gets all over themselves, makes another decision, and vomits OVER THE SIDE of the bed.

Now, I've cleaned up vomit before -- I'm a mother of 3 -- it's going to happen more times than I'd like. But every time I do it, I know that I'm there to bless my child with love and care and I will do it without batting an eye, because that is my job. That's what I signed on for.

But I've never cleaned up vomit that was launched from the second story of a bunk.

It looked like a CSI crime scene in this room. The floors, the walls, the desk, the bunk bed below ( with a soundly sleeping sibling tucked lovingly under the covers that were now drenched with what I would be cleaning up for the next 2 hours ), and not only that.... but the splatter! OH my GOODNESS!!! I can not be more honest when I say it was EVERYWHERE!!!

So, this is a warning to you mothers--- if you have a child that is sleeping in a top bunk and that child goes to bed feeling a little fluish, it may be best for both of you if you pull out the trundle, or a sleeping bag, or a few towels with blankets, before you tuck them in at nite.

5 ( I kid not ) loads of laundry later, I can laugh about it!

Bathroom Stories

2007-09-21T22:24:00.000-07:00

Debbie and Allison with Heidi Klum, outside the women's room. ( Allison kind of stalked her in there, and when we came out and I saw Seal, I just about DIED!!)

I HAD to get my photo with that man.

I don't know what I'm doing with my face here!
Charlotte, Joyce and Debbie (cut off) just outside the women's lounge.

The Oil of Olay Women's Lounge -- they had it draped in purple fabric with lights shining all around as though you were walking on a runway in to the ladies room.
Here are some photos of the girls in the ladies room. This was the place to see the stars -- they all have to go to the bathroom eventually, right?

These pictures are of Debbie, Charlotte and Allison with actress Camille Guaty from Prison Break, soon to be seen on Las Vegas, with Tom Selleck. She was very sweet to talk with. She arrived with her date, Seth MacFarlane, the creator of one of my favorite animated shows, The Family Guy as well as American Dad. That's me inbetween Camille and Seth. I think out of everyone I met that night, I was most excited to meet Seth MacFarlane. Oh, and Seal. I LOVE SEAL!

Keith was hanging outside of the bathroom waiting for us to come out. While he waited, he heard Seth MacFarlane talking and realized who he was. Seth does the voices for a few of the characters in his shows, so it's hard not to notice. Of course, he is a funny guy.

In the hallway, we also saw Michael Imperiole of Sopranos, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. It's funny how I was actually scared to approach him! Mobster!

Stephen Colbert ran past us and we screamed out to him, but we've talked to him a few years before and new he wouldn't bother to feign interest in talking to us. Also walking up the steps to the theater we saw Holland Taylor, the mother to Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer's characters on Two and a Half Men.

In and out of the ladies room we sawbeautiful blonde Jane Krakowski of 30 Rock and also from another old favorite, Ally McBeal. Speaking of Ally McBeal, we saw Portia de Rossi and her gal pal Ellen ( hosted 2 years before and I bumped into her doing a segment in the bathroom as well -- ha ha !)

As you can tell, I'm star struck. I know they are just people, too. But they're so much cooler than i am.

Emmy Experience III

2007-09-20T22:04:00.000-07:00

Here is Allison De Francisco with Justin Chambers who plays Alex Karev on Grey's Anatomy. Sadly absent from my blog are pictures of me and girlfriends with Mc Steamy or Mc Dreamy. (:-((

Me with John Krasinski who plays Jim Halpert on the Office.

Deb, Allison and Eva La Rue from CSI:Miami. Beautiful!

My Emmy Experience II

2007-09-20T21:53:00.000-07:00

Here's Charlotte and Joyce with Milo Ventimiglia who plays Peter Petrellis on Heroes.

My Emmy Awards Experience

2007-09-19T12:39:00.001-07:00

These are photos of our Emmy Experience. My husband, Keith and I, invited our friends to come and join us for the fun. At the top are Allison DeFrancisco, Debbie DiGennaro, Keith and I, Charlotte Chou and her friend Joyce, in front of our stretch limo.

You must arrive to the red carpet in style, am I right? The anticipation was building as we drove up to the Shrine Auditorium for Orange County. We should have made a bathroom stop before we arrived, because of all the water I drank in the limo, and my tight gown, I needed a visit to the little girls room - BADLY!

Once we arrived at the red carpet, we walked slowly soaking it all in. To our left were the screaming fans in the bleachers. To our right were the television cameras waiting for the celebrities to see "who they were wearing" and to talk to them about their nominations. We arrived a little early and were not surrounded at this point by the celebrities, but more like the "nobodies" which we were very much a part of. Once in the shrine, I saw my first celebrity star sighting and made a beeline to John Stewart. I gushed , "I LOVE you!" as I was to do many times that night, to which he kindly replied, "THANK YOU!" He posed for a photo, and gave a little bit of a goofy expression ( more like -- 'I reaaallllly don't want to take a picture with these strange people!'), and we thanked him for that, after which Keith had to wish him a Happy New Year as we turned away and looked for another celebrity to smother.

It was still quite early, and the lobby was pretty empty. We saw a beautiful Sendill, the tall handsome doctor from Heroes, and he posed for a picture with us as well. I realized that this year, with so many new nominees to the emmy awards, many of them would be very approachable, (unlike Charlize Theron or Keifer Sutherland, who walk fast past everyone so as not to have to deal with anyone ). One of my favorite shows nominated this year was Heroes. And with many of the actors on this show as new faces, I realized that this Emmy experience would be as exciting to them as it was for me and my friends ---up and coming actors, thankful for their huge success, would surely welcome some grateful fans and a few photo opportunities!

My Home Remodel Stories

2007-09-11T23:23:00.000-07:00

Today is day 5 of our home remodel. We are adding on approximately 950 square feet to our existing home by extending our kitchen space and including a bonus room, an office and an art studio (YEAY!!) We are also remodeling our master bathroom to have a whirlpool bath tub as our current master bath does not have a tub.
We added a pool in our backyard for the kids, too. We had to build the pool first before the structural changes were made to our home because we didn't want to have problems with diggers and bobcat tractors unable to get to the backyard because of the new addition on the house. It's funny because we didn't NEED the pool , but had it put in because we were doing everything at once. What we really need is the extra space we'll be gaining from our renovation.

So, how is family life with two kids, a baby and a house remodel? VERY STRESSFUL!!
We are only living in the side of the house that has the bedrooms. The other side -- the kitchen, family and living rooms as well as the front door -- is off limits.
The contractors began with demolishing the kitchen. They basically took a sledge hammer to everything in there and gutted the kitchen. I loved hearing the sound of the ugly tile counter falling to the floor in a million little pieces. The yucky part was seeing all the bugs come out from their hiding places.
Then they began tearing out on the outside of the house. We are opening up our front walkway into an atrium, so our contractors had to tear off the roof just in the front walkway area. That was quite loud. The challenge was trying to get my 1 year old baby girl to nap at her nap time while people bang and pound on the house. My solution was to put her in a sling. I've worn her in a sling since she was a newborn, but every since her increased mobility, I've not used it. She loves the closeness of being with mama, so when I put her back in the sling for the first time in 3 months, she cooed herself to sleep! And she slept a long time! But that was just one day. The more practical solution is to get the heck out of the house. We've been spending time in the libraries and going to parks or neighbors houses for playdates.
We've made our kitchen in the garage since there is no room in the house for our fridge or food. We completely cleared out one side of our 3 car garage and put the fridge in their with the pots, pans, microwave oven and toaster oven. So far, Keith has made one real meal in our new "kitchen" and it was pretty good. He just threw a pork loin in the toaster oven and cooked it. Delicious. We've also got a rice cooker, a crockpot and a lean grilling machine (one of those sandwich press cookers) -- i've not used it yet, but heard it works great.
We do not have a sink in our garage, so we have to wash any utensils, pots, what nots, in the bathroom sink. We do have water hooked up to the fridge , but there was a problem getting the hose into the garage since there was no access from the side of the house into the garage. My husband cut a small hole in the corner of the door so that a hose could pass through. We now have running filtered water from the fridge! This makes life a lot easier. Especially because it is the end of summer and still very hot and I'd like to have cold water with ice cubes , thankyouverymuch!
The problem with the hole in the door is that it is just big enough for little rodents to enter our garage. I went out to the garage last night to get a drink of water and was met by a skunk. I screamed and howled , running for the door and he did the same as soon as he saw me. This was not the last visit. He came again tonite ( same thing happened-- I screamed and ran and he scurried away and hid). My husband excitedly went out to take a picture. I'm not too thrilled about the idea of little rodents running around in my garage where I keep and prepare my food. I'll have to figure out a way to remedy this. We put a container in front of the hole, but the little guy moved it out of the way!

Me and Hank Azaria

2007-07-26T23:43:00.000-07:00

This is me and Hank Azaria at the Emmy's in 2005. You can always bump into the celebs when they're coming out of the bathroom .... better to get them on the way out than on the way in! ha ha. Well, the Simpson's movie is coming out, so he'll be in the news again soon. I loved him in Huff. He's amazing. Also nice enough to let me stand next to him and take a picture!! Thanks Hank!

2007-07-22T22:02:00.000-07:00

Me and My Baby, Sasha

Azula, Toph and Jet - Avatar drawings

2007-07-19T23:24:00.000-07:00

These are some rough spot drawings I just did for an avatar book for Random House.

celebrity sighting

2007-07-16T23:44:00.000-07:00

We say Kareem Abdul Jabar at the Bliss Frozen Yogurt down the street from my house in Orange. What a trip!

my kids

2007-06-05T23:02:00.000-07:00

These are my kids -- Alek is 8 ( he's the one making the "L" sign to his lovely little sister ), Kela is 6 ( rolling down the hill -- a favorite childhood activity ) and Sasha on the beanbag is 10 months old.

Avatar the Last Airbender Activity Book

2007-02-22T22:33:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited. The cover art is finally on the Random House website. I always look to see the cover art on the websites so I can see how it looks all tiny and small on the computer screen.

It's available in May. yippee.

My 8 year old son has finished most of the activities in the book already. I actually had to draw mazes for this book. So all that doodling I did in grade school paid off in that respect.

I couldn't have done this book without the incredible talent of my good friend Taesoo Kim. He can draw anything! Check out his blog. He is INSANE!

And of course, I couldn't have done this book without my dear friend Kathy. She did all the "inking" of this book in Illustrator. Nice job, Kathy!

Next, the square yellow guy who lives in a pineapple!

How I illustrated a children's book: Easter with the Wild Thornberrys

2007-02-22T21:33:00.000-08:00

This is the first book that I illustrated. I started this book while I was still working at Klasky Csupo as a Character Designer on the Rugrats. I guess you can say that I am one of a handful of people in the world that can accurately draw that bald little baby with 7 hairs on his head who goes by the name Tommy Pickles. For this book, I had to run over to the Wild Thornberrys crew and secretly pilfer through their model sheets and background layouts. I've still got them somewhere, under my clutter.... hmmm... I wonder where exactly they could be.......

Anyway, I worked my butt off on this book because it was my first and I wanted to make a good impression! Well, it worked. When I sent the layout in to the designer at Simon and Schuster, they actually said it was the best laid out book they'd seen!!! Imagine my surprise!

Typically when working on a book, there are 3 stages that the illustrator goes through.

The first stage is the rough sketch/thumbnail stage. After the publisher sends me the Copy ( the text of the book with indications for what artwork they want to see on each page ) I look through it and make thumbanil sketches of my ideas for each page. I will do at least 5 thumbnails of each page to work out a composition that will work with the layout of the text and the story. Once I've done this, I circle the thumbnail sketch I like the best and move on til I've done all the pages. Typically, the books I've illustrated are 24 or 32 pages. Once I've finished thumbnails for all the pages, I look over all of them sequentially to be sure that I don't have too many close up shots in a row ( storyboarding talk ) or too many establishing shots. I like to keep it mixed up so that there is a good variety. It works in animation when storyboarding, and I feel it should work the same when illustrating a book. Too many times I've seen children's books where everything is up close and you don't get a feeling of where the characters are standing. When I'm happy with the layout of the book, I roughly sketch the drawings out to the size of the book making sure to keep the characters recognizable, but not spending too much time in the detail of the characters. Then I send it in to the publisher and wait, wait, wait.

At this stage, the publisher will see their book in its first visualized reality. They can then see if its what they want, and if not, it's very easy to change at this point. Sometimes they'll say " we want to see the character doing such and such" and when I show them doing such and such, they either say "yes, that's exactly what we wanted!" or "well, maybe have him doing such and such, but move him to the other side of the page" OR they'll say " Maybe it's not a good idea to have the character doing such and such at all", at which point, I am free to change the composition to however I think it will work the best. Sometimes I get more free range than others. I prefer to have as much free range as possible! (of course)

The second stage is the tightened drawing of the book. I take all revisions and comments into consideration and change accordingly. My drawings at this stage are much tighter and cleaner, but still not finalized. You see, they still may want to change something. Then I send them in to the publisher and wait, wait, wait.

While I wait, I usually paint a few murals, host a few playdates, go to a few birthday parties, play bunco twice and then when I'm having way too much fun, I come home to an email from the publisher saying "Here are the comments on the book... We'd like to see Final Art in 3 1/2 weeks. Let us know if you have any concerns" in which case I respond " I NEED MORE TIME TO FINISH THE BOOK!!! How about instead of 3 1/2 weeks, I give you the final art in 5 weeks??" This is not really a question to them, but more of a statement because inevitably, the designer has worked some buffer into the schedule and is happy to accomodate my needs. Because I know that in between the time I get the deadline and the actual due date, I will have had at least one sick child, or one major holiday or event, or even a long planned vacation that will fall dead in the middle of my deadline.

So, anyway. I then change any revisions. At this point, I've gotten my drawings Bluelined. This means that another character designer at Nickelodeon , who is much more talented than I, has changed my drawings either ever so slightly, or totally and completely, by taking a yellow post it note, putting it on top of my drawing and, using a blue pencil, redrawn my drawing so that it is On Model. I look at the bluelines and change my drawings, ink everything ( yes, I actually have paper and pen) and then I sent them to my Shannon Bergman who did the color on the book. She was a color artist at Klasky Csupo. She is the one who turns everything from black and white to beautiful color with a click of her mouse. One Two Three-- TaDAH! It's finished. I know from her end, it's more than 1-2-3. There's more work to it, but, hey... I don't do photoshop or illustrator.

So, now you know.

Any questions?

Maybe next time I'll start posting my rough drawings. Someone has got to appreciate them. They're just sitting in a pile in my garage gathering dust.

Sasha

2007-01-26T21:12:00.000-08:00

Here's my darling little one, all ready for an outing.

Hey Diddle Diddle Mural

2007-01-22T23:26:00.000-08:00

Here is a quick little painting I did for a mural that my partner, Kathy, and I will be painting in a nursery.

Clutter

2007-01-15T21:23:00.000-08:00

My house looks like a toy store blew up in the living room. There are boxes filled with 1000 piece star wars lego sets, even more tiny itty bitty eensy weensy polly pocket dolls and their miniscule clothing and shoes. Then there's the baby --- the rattles and the binkys and the teething toys and the burp clothes and the spit up rags all over the living room. HELP!!
I'm drowning!

Lazytown

2006-11-21T23:16:00.000-08:00

My latest book is out on the market. It's a Lazytown book put out by Simon and Schuster. Katharine DiPaolo did the color for me. Check this out and the other books I've illustrated. http://www.simonsays.com/content/destination.cfm?tab=4&pid=367221

2006-11-11T23:42:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this is the first big mural that I ever painted. My very good friend, Tara Eaton, allowed me the priveledge of painting on her atrium walls for her young son. She gave me free reign. She knew she wanted something fun and lively, kind of like the Toon Town at Disneyland. She lives in this great Eickler house that has an outdoor atrium at her entrance. Our kids play here all the time. The best compliment I got is when one of the kids actually tried to open up the door to the toy store that I painted. It took me many many days to finish. I was an embedded artist -- I should have set up a cot. Since this mural, I've painted many more. Thanks to Tara for giving me the big canvas to paint. I know that her son will grow to old for this eventually and it makes me sad that she'll have to paint over it someday.

Couldn't be HAPPIER

2006-11-10T23:41:00.000-08:00

I'm as happy today as I was sad the day Bush was elected (selected) as President. Both the House AND the Senate. WOO HOO. I was jumping up and down, boy! And If you think that Bush is not such a bad guy, then don't read on. I can't stand the man. I've never thought it was good to hate a person. Until him. Anyway, it's nice to see that the Dems have got both the House and the Senate. Let's just hope they help send this country back in the right direction. Now I listen to some talk radio and I watch some editorial stuff. My husbands tv is on CNN 24-7. So I get a bit of news. I've learned that with Dems in both the Senate and the House, that they get to control the agenda of government. Meaning, they get to decide what is talked about, what is important, what should be done in America. Let's see. One of the first things that Nancy Pelosi wants to do in her first 100 hours as Speaker of the House is raise minimum wage, and work on health care, including the ridiculous cost of drugs. WONDERFUL! YES! DO THAT! Sounds like we're off to a good start. Those are the kinds of issues that can help EVERYONE---everyone needs health care, many people that are struggling in this country are working their tails off and can't get out of poverty because they're living on minimum wage, yet it's too minimal to make ends meet, and raising the minimum wage will help raise these working families out of poverty. These are families with children -- children that don't eat 2 meals a day because their parents can't afford it. It's a shame. Our country has a high rate of poverty. I forget the statistic, but too many children in this country go hungry. Well, at any rate. Perhaps raising the minimum wage will help to ease thier burden. Nancy Pelosi is thinking about thses things. Meanwhile, back in the first days of President Bush in the white house, one of the first thing that idiot did was stop funding organizations in other countries that were family planning centers... places that were similar to what we have here called Planned Parenthood. Okay, why was that so darn important? Because in other countries, like Africa, where they don't have enough to eat and are dying of AIDS, they offer birth control. Well, Bush wanted to stop that. God forbid they practice safe sex!!! Wow, that was so important. ugh. I'll write something happier next time. Just had to get one rant in before I say this to those idiots . NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAAAHH NYAAAAH. Bye bye Rumsfield!

My faith is restored

2006-11-07T21:23:00.000-08:00

Oh, as I sit here watching CNN and the polls come in, I wait with baited breath and heavy anticipation that the Democrats will control the Senate. I want to see more blue on that map, baby. I don't like politics, but I voted! I'm so glad that we've got a Democratic majority in the House, Much less a WOMAN House majority leader (WOO HOO!!!) Come on, people. Don't be stupid. Since we've still got that idiot in the white house, we've got to have some common sense going on in our government. Maybe that will happen now.

2006-11-06T20:25:00.000-08:00

Here's my little sweet pea on her first halloween. We went trick or treating with the kids at the Villa Park Towne Center. The kids got lots of candy for me to eat (hee hee). I KNOW I ate way too much candy that night. Once I started, I couldn't stop unwrapping the snickers, almond joys, reese's, krackel. I finally stopped when I started to get that major sugar high (6 fun size candy bars later). I always wanted to dress one of my babies in a super cute halloween costume, and this was the year I finally did it. I've also always wanted to make my kids costumes, but this year I was too busy working on a deadline to make anything. I thought about shaving my 7 year old son's head and painting a blue arrow on it and all over his arms and legs, so he could be Aang the Airbender, but he didn't go for it. The costume would have been so easy to do! I wouldn't have had to sew or anything ( Mom's love glue guns! ). My daughter is easy for halloween - just grab something out of the dress up box, and she's good to go. Every day is like halloween for her.

2006-11-05T06:44:00.000-08:00

It's nearly 7 am. I'm up with the sun. It's saturday and I should be sleeping in. But I've got wheels turning in my head!
Here's my baby. She sleeps with me in my bed and she's an angel, But she's a restless sleeper. And it doesn't help being kept awake by my thoughts. I had to get up.

2006-11-05T06:12:00.000-08:00

Whoever first said "I slept like a baby " meant to imply that they had a restful sleep. But they probably never had a baby. If they had, they'd know that babies don't really sleep soundly and softly. In fact, they grunt and moan like an old man, toss and turn, and fart in the middle of the night , keeping the mother up! Well, my baby doesn't really keep me up. But I am up early now from all her movement. It is 6 am! IT's the WEEKEND! I should be sleeping in!! But here I am, typing my first blog onto the computer, in the early morning dark before the sun rises. The full moon is still out and is about to set behind the hills before it has to compete with the sun. And here I am, with my baby monitor by my side, typing, and listening to the lulling sound of my baby's breathing. I should be doing yoga, or drawing, working on that book, or , I don't know,... sleeping. But I can't. I am too anxious.
I'm anxious to create. I am inspired to draw. Not just to draw, but to do some amazing stuff like I've never done before. It's that kind of feeling you get when you experience something that really moves you from your laconic state of existence to a more enlightened and burning, fiery, passionate place where everything you do has this lasting and influential meaning. So, we'll see how long this feeling lasts. Probably until my kids wake up. Then it'll dissapate with the setting moonlight.

2006-10-30T10:19:00.000-08:00

Art is what I do inbetween changing diapers, picking up kids from school, making lunches and organizing playgroups.