April Calendar
The April calendar has arrived!
At the beginning of March, I got an annual pass to the Phoenix Botanical Garden. Wondering around in the garden I stumbled upon the succulent section and learned about the wide variety, twenty different kinds according to google, of aloe vera there are! Many of the aloes are in bloom right now and I find it fascinating how their blooms are different in shape and color. I discovered my love for the aloe rudikoppe, which was also called a Little Red Ridinghood aloe, and am now on the lookout for one for my yard!
May these blooms bring you joy throughout April!
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Random facts about me…round two
Round two of random facts about me on my birthday!
It is birthday time again! Happy 42 years of living to me!
I did the random facts about myself back in 2020, which was hard, and here I go again challenging myself to tell you 42 random facts about me.
1. I love the smell of the rain in the desert.
2. I have lived in four states - Minnesota, California, Arizona, and Colorado.
3. When I was a teenager I jumped off of a 50-60 foot cliff, at Havasupai, without hesitation, shocking everyone (including myself!)
4. Bryce and I have seen The Midnight, an amazing synth band, three times in concert.
5. I love hanging out with my kids.
6. My cat will be 19 years old this year.
7. My favorite type of ice cream is Thrifty ice cream. My favorite is a double cone with chocolate chip and mint chip. We used to get this after school when I was a kid. The taste brings me back!
8. I dream about someday owning a house on a lake. I can imagine the long list of fun times we could have there.
9. I got to study Spanish in Costa Rica, living with a great family, for five weeks.
10. I like to treat myself to coffee as a cure-all!
11. I love flowers!
12. I have three raised gardens in my yard and we are growing strawberries this year
13. Most often I end up watching the same shows over and over.
14. This last weekend I got to see Michael Bolton and Reba McEntire sing at a charity event.
15. I love to garden - both flowers and tasty foods!
16. My kitchen is a rainbow of different colors of Fiestaware.
17. I have three above-ground gardens and am trying to grow strawberries in Arizona, we shall see if it works…the first few have been AMAZING!!
18. I love cloudy and overcast days!
19. Visiting all of the National Parks is part of my bucket list.
20. If I could go anywhere today I would go to Greece.
21. I have lived in Arizona most of my life.
22. If I could go anywhere today I would go to Greece!
23. I have lived in Arizona most of my life.
24. I love taking walks with my dog. She starts jumping around and talking as soon as she sees me getting my shoes or going near her leash.
25. I get really excited to go flower shopping.
26. One of the things I love to do for myself, and everyone in my family, treat myself to wonderful-smelling lotions.
27. I like to listen to affirmations to remind myself to be kind to myself and others.
28. I lived in constant pain, from TMJ, for around 20 years. Almost four years ago my husband helped push me to the right doctor to get it fixed, and I had jaw surgery on both sides of my jaw. I can now, eat, talk, and breathe without pain.
29. The day that Bryce and I got married there were suddenly strong winds. We keep finding that happens whenever we have guests over, or when we have lunch at one of the National Parks.
30. I am a fine art photographer.
31. I love to talk in song quotes and movie quotes. It MIGHT drive some people crazy but secretly they really enjoy it!
32. I like to dye parts of my hair with fun and bright colors!
33. When I was in graduate school one of my images was selected to be on the cover of the photography auction magazine that year. I was, and still am, super proud of that.
34. I love when my kids are on break from school and we get to hang out and spend time together.
35. As a family we love to get to play board games on the weekend.
36. When I am in the car by myself I love to listen to podcasts. One of my favorites is The Art Curious where I get to learn about things in art history.
37. I tend to watch the same TV shows over and over. I am always looking for new suggestions though!
38. I have two sisters and I am lucky that they live close by!
39. When I am was a kid I wanted to be a librarian. My love for books has ALWAYS been there!
40. I have seen The Chicks in concert at least four times and I can't wait to see them on their next tour!
41. When I was in Costa Rica I got to see volcanos, jungles (where I went zip-lining), fantastic sunsets on the beach, and life in the city.
42. My favorite adventures are always the adventures that I get to take with my family. I love taking the kids to new places that fill them with wonder.
And there you are….42 random, and hopefully interesting, facts about me! What fact did you find most interesting? I would love to know!
March Calendar
The March desktop calendar has arrived!
March is here and that means that spring is right around the corner! I can’t wait until the cactus are in bloom with all of their colors! Cylindropuntia Acanthocarpa, more commonly known as, Buckhorn Chollas are all over the desert here in Arizona as well as Southern California and Southern Nevada. They are currently bursting with magenta leaves bringing a magnificent pop of color to the Arizona desert.
I hope that you will enjoy the beauty of the Buckhorn Cholla this month!
How to Download
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Crepuscular Rays
“The secret to a good morning is to watch the sunrise with an open heart.”
Crepuscular Rays/Intimate Abstrations
An abstract photograph of a ranunculus.
I am not a morning person, I love to stay in my bed all warm and snuggled up. Especially during the winter when the sun isn’t even up before I have to get up to get the kids up for school. I do enjoy that in the winter we get to watch the sunrise at breakfast. The kids and I sit at the table and watch the sky change from being dark to purple, light pink, and orange, and finally the golden glow of the sunlight making its way to greet you in the morning. Once the sun has started to rise it wakes everyone up a little more and
So, I present to you Crepuscular Rays, my interpretation of a sunrise via a ranunculus. This photograph gives me the feeling that I get when I am up watching the sun come up oh so early in the morning. I love that the feeling of sunrise can be felt throughout the day.
My Influences - Georgia O'Keeffe
One of my favorite artists Georgia O'Keeffe.
“Someone else’s vision will never be as good as your own vision of yourself. Live and die with it ‘cause in the end, it’s all you have. Lose it and you lose yourself and everything else. I should have listened to myself.
”
Abstraction White Rose, 1927/Georgia O’Keeffe
Many years ago, when I was an undergrad, I took a women's study art history class that featured many wonderful female artists. This is where I remember having an in-depth introduction to Georgia O'Keeffe's work. Little did I realize how heavily she would influence my work in graduate school!
Georgia said, “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things that I had no words for.” This was how I felt! I was a new graduate student, trying to find my subject, while living in San Francisco and I felt lost. When I started photographing flowers I found that I feel the same way about being able to express myself through shapes and color. I found that to be super inspirational! There I was photographing flowers up-close with my macro lens, discovering a distinctly unique world that you would never see when just viewing flowers from a distance.
I could quote Georgia over, and over, and obviously will, but she had so many things to say that just resonate with me toward my work. Talking about a flower she said, “When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.”
Each and every time I look into her work and hear her quotes about her work I think, yes, she really knew what she was talking about!
One of the things I learned in studying Georgia O’Keeffe’s large paintings of abstract flowers was that it allowed viewers to look at her subject of flowers in a different way. Each of her paintings gives you a new and intriguing perspective on what a flower can look like when you take a deep look within.
This work has been a huge inspiration to just stop and look closer at what you are choosing to create as an artist. Working through the lens of the camera, and moving back and forth to find just what I want to capture, is not fast work, it is an enjoyable, slow-paced work that takes me into a different world!
Red Canna, 1923/Georgia O’Keeffe
February Calendar
The February desktop calendar has arrived!
Happy February!
Another month has flown by and it is time to change up your desktop wallpaper!
How to Download
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All About a Canvas Gallery Wrap
Have you ever wondered about what a canvas gallery wrap looks like?
Viridian Skies/A Garden Variety
Photo Credit: Anne
Have you wondered what canvas gallery wraps look like? I am a visual person and so I thought it might help to see a more detailed set up to show you just one of options that you have when ordering images.
Canvas gallery wraps are one of my favorite ways, but obviously I love them all, to display my work. I love these because the image is lifted away from the wall, giving it depth, and having no frame it allows the image to go right to the edge.
Canvas gallery wraps are printed on premium archival white poly-cotton blend matte canvas and wrapped around a 1.5” stretcher bar, and the back is finished with thick black paper. Canvas gallery wraps are ready to hang -- images sized 16x24 and smaller will have a saw tooth hanger, shown last image, and 20x30 and larger will have a wire hanger, shown in the second to last image.
January Calendar
New desktop calendars for the new year!
Happy 2022!!
A little something new! This year I wanted to add monthly downloadable calendars for your computer! Be sure to check back every month for your new calendar. Subscribe to my mailing list, linked below, and get the new calendar reminder sent straight to your email.
How to Download
Save the image to your desktop by right-clicking and saving the image, or clicking and dragging.
Christmas Postcard
A Christmas postcard for you to share with your friends.
Happy holidays, my friends, with Christmas coming up we have a free downloadable postcard for you to share with your loved ones!
How to Download
Save the image to your cell phone or to your desktop by holding and clicking, right-clicking, or clicking and dragging.
Share the love by attaching the postcard to an email, text message, or other communication.
Saguaro National Park
Our trip to Saguaro National Park
What is on your list of places and things to do? Think of one of those things that you always want to do, no matter how many times you make a new list of things, but that one thing is always there that you want to do? One of my top things is going to the National Parks, the dream is to get to them all but one step at a time, I dream of just be standing in and amongst all the glory that is nature and that has been set aside so that this beauty is preserved for all to see.
Well, last weekend my husband, Bryce, and I went to Tucson, Arizona on an adventure and because I have been talking about wanting to go to Saguaro National Park forever, we spent the afternoon hiking, taking pictures, and becoming park members! (So all the parks within driving distance watch out because here we come!)
We didn’t have as long to spend at Saguaro National Park as I would have liked but since it is only a couple of hours away I certainly plan on going back before it starts to heat up again. This was the perfect time of year to go where we could walk around and enjoy being completely surrounded by nature. Walking the path where there wasn’t another voice around and you could just hear the wind and feel the sun on your back.
There is so much to see and so much to learn about the park and the saguaro, in general, that this time around I just soaked up the beauty of the park. When we got home my daughter, Violet, shared some fun facts from her class last year.
Fun facts:
Saguaros live to be around 125-175 years old
Saguaros start to produce flowers around 35 years old
The arms of saguaros generally start to grow around the age of 50-70
So, where is that place you dream of going to? I would love to add more places to go to my long list of places I want to travel.
Bryce and I at Saguaro National Park
We are easily amused!