Double Dutch 3

Double Dutch 3

Acrylic on paper "18 x "24

This is usually the time when you lose one person but you still want to continue to jump. So you jump in two’s. POP, POP, POP, POP!

Scottish Girl jumping rope

http://ssa.nls.uk/film.cfm?fid=0799 

Double Dutch 2

Double Dutch 2

Acrylic on paper "18 x "24

Ohhhh the energy of it! Now inside the rope. Still counting the beats or not. Just hoping to stay in the rope more than a minute. Sneakers pounding the pavement, The popping sound of the rope hitting the pavement….POP, POP…. POP, POP….POP, POP…. POP POP.

Double Dutch Bus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr7QvpHsJBg

Double Dutch 1

Double Dutch 1

Acrylics on paper  "18 x "24

This is one of my favorite games to play when I was growing up. My cousins and I would jump rope for hours. We used  two extension cords. We were careful of course….but I must admit, the sting from the POP of the wire motived me to stay in the rope and jump correctly…..OUGH!

We didn't do amazing tricks like the Double Dutch League but avoiding turning double handed and staying in the rope for more than one minute was our trick. We had fun. I wanted to recreate the moments of double dutch. Thanks to my sister Kish, her friend Kandis,and our cousin, Rashida, I created a series of three painting.

There are three phases of double dutch, in my opinion, first the moment before entering the rope. Count the beats, don’t get hit by the wire, jump in when rope on your side is up so your can enter, oh no WAIT! The rope is too fast, I keep missing the turn, forget it, stop being afraid, the rope is up now now, jump in now, keep your feet up, there you go…… JUMP, JUMP, JUMP!

http://www.nationaldoubledutchleague.com/

Basketball

Street Games

I created a series of painting with the theme, Street Games. 

Acrylics on paper.

The most popular street games in my neighborhood

 are basketball, double dutch, and handball.

Basketball

Acrylic on paper 

There is a guarantee that you’ll find a basket ball court within a block and half radius in my neighborhood, no joke and no LOL. This is a serious pass time for many, young and old, male and female. There are serval basketball tournaments held every year. 

This was not a tournament but you couldn’t these local guys that. It seemed like they were channeling Jordan, Russell, Johnson, Chamberlain, O’Neal and Erving.

I could go on and on………anyway these guys were playing between catching their breathe 5 minutes into the game. Bless their hearts, they had the competitive spirit. People ask me all the time if the the guy made the shot. I say with all the excitement I forgot (I'm sure it did) ha ha ha!

The Wake

Acrylic on paper 18"x24"

Expressing your feelings is difficult especially for an introvert such as myself.

During this time of my life, I lost several family members due to health issues, accidents and murder back to back.
It was one wake after another within a three year period.

My feelings were bottled in as I continued my daily routine in shock. I needed to release or I was going to explode. Maybe I should’ve cried, yelled, or shouted the desire was not in me. 

But I wanted to said good bye to all beloved family members in my own way. So my mourning process began the acrylics and a palette knife. Every stroke, small, large, scratches and blotches of color exploded across the paper. I was in the zone

 My expression of mourning turn out to be the most personal articulation to date.

 I would to paint like this again.....soon!

Cathedral

This acrylic painting on Illustration board was exciting to create. It was the first time that I explored graphic shapes and bold colors. It’s the dome outline of the “ Il Duomo” in Florence, Italy. During my visit to this beautiful city of art, I got to see the cathedral view outside my window daily. I felt at peace. I had the pleasure to enter the “ Il Duomo”. The larger that life art inside had a story to tell provided a walk through history. It was a phenomenal church. I stayed for hours staring at the visual stories of the past. It was a spiritual experience that I will keep with me for the rest of my life.

Hi Everyone!
"Are You Connecting The Ten Black Dots?"
. . . . . . . . . .

Check out my interview by Tarsha on her blog, http://www.wwwbuttafly.blogspot.com/. It's to help promote my workshop this summer called "What Can You Make Out Of Ten Black Dots?"

Enjoy!