Mona in Mustard with Wine is the painting hanging on the wall above the Mexican Chest.  The chalkboard with the menu is actually the cardboard backing on the refrigerator.  I painted it black and used it as my menu board, as a way of adding to a detracting element.

The menu states:
Soup du jour:   Dakota Hamburger Stew
Fresh Baked Bread w/ herbs
Olives
Vino: Petite Syrah, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon

The picture was taken when I was living an adventure in North Baja California, Mexico in what is fondly referred to as "The Military House."

This house was actually a duplex that had been built in 1942 in San Diego for military housing.  The owners moved this duplex onto their property in Mexico in 1963.  When I moved into the house, it had not been inhabited full time ever, that I know of, and the house was maybe used a few weeks in the year.  There was much to contend with.

Little did I know how much of a princess I really am.  But now that I have distance from the experience I remember the many amazing times I had living in that darling house.

Being once  a duplex, it had two of everything, with its dividing wall removed.  Two kitchens, two living rooms, two bedrooms and two bathrooms (on each end).  Electricity had just been added to the house 5 years earlier and that amounted to a meter box with electrical wire trailing  1/2 acre down a dirt road and into the house.  The wire was buried in the dirt in places and not in others, since erosion from rainstorms exposed it.

I have many short stories that came from me being inspired by the women's voices embodied in the walls of that military house.  Music was a key element as well.  And at that time in San Diego, there was an AM radio station I could pick up in Mexico that played tunes from that era — the Second World War.

Mona is a painting I made for the Mustard Festival when I lived in Napa CA.  She is happily sitting in a field of mustard, sipping a nice Napa Valley chardonnay from a crystal wine glass.  Even though I moved from the Military House back to California Mona stayed on to live in Baja, waiting for my return.  My dear friend Jo placed her over the fireplace in her beautiful casa, in a guest room where I stay when I visit.  Mona and I have something in common, we love color, vino and living in Northern Baja.  Once I build my house there, she may have to move.  But who knows?  She may want to stay with Jo.



This is one of the living rooms in the Military House that was converted into the dining room.  The painting on the far end is one in my series, "Loose Works" called Until Ten.  I painted this as an experimental piece using a polyester fabric as the carrier, rather than the usual linen, cotton or silk ground.  It has held up beautifully and as the series implies, I don't stretch these pieces but rather let them hang as loose works.  I can't even count how many pieces I have made that fall into this category, and what I especially enjoy is that they are mounted to a wall using dressmaker pins.

One thing that I ought to add is how I feel when I paint.  This sketch I did a few years ago speaks to the freedom my spirit feels when I'm in the art making energy field — hanging loose.