Addendum to the Previous Post

Detail shot of Coach & Horses Coach & Horses I just posted about the above piece of artwork, Coach & Horses, but it occurred to me that I should throw in a detail photo so you can see the texture in the piece (which I love and is why I use paper instead of paint.)

Those who know me well, know that I'm a hopeless Anglophile. So it should come as no surprise that I am working on a London Series of artwork. The piece pictured here is my latest work in the series entitled, (surprise) Coach & Horses. Nobody loves a busy London pub more than I. So I had to capture one in my art. All paper and glue, as usual. It's pretty big, 36x30". I'm focusing on larger work lately both because I prefer it and it sells really well. This London Series will be featured in my September/October solo show at the Kotler Gallery in downtown Tampa. Want to see another? Okay. This one is called Covent Garden, London. It's 40x30" and it took me forever to complete. See all those railings? Phew. Now I'm working on a smaller piece that will be a wedding gift to my bestest friend in Tampa, H. She's British and happens to be the blond shopper in the Covent Garden piece above. That brunette is moi. After that I'm thinking of tackling a view of the parliamentary buildings as viewed from the South Bank. Stay tuned.

Ciao Art

My latest two pieces to sell are on their way to their new home in Venice, Italy. How nice to say that my art is collected internationally. And imagine someone from Italy coming to Florida and buying art. Usually it's the other way around. I suspect that the weak dollar might explain why buying art here in the US is attractive to foreign collectors. Whatever the case - I am delighted to have made the sale. One of the pieces is pictured above. It's called January Cote d'Azur. (We went to the Riviera in the off season when a family of three can afford to stay near the beach.) Ciao Art. Ciao nice art collector.

What Are You Doing This Saturday, March 8th?

Come to the art mixer at Tampa Artist Emporium -- I'll be there too. It's from 5 to 9 and you can drop in any time for a glass of wine and a nibble of food. Meet artists and fellow art appreciators. Tampa Artist Emporium is located on the main drag in Old Hyde Park Village in Tampa, right across the street from Restaurant B.T.

Rest in Peace, Cleo

On Wednesday, I had to take my 17 year old kitty to the vet to be put to sleep. (Long, dramatic pause). I blubbered like a baby even though I knew it was going to happen sooner rather than later. Girlie was sad too. Besides fish, she's never lost a pet before. She wrote an essay, made a memory basket, and fashioned a little room for Cleo's spirit out of a shoebox (it's now in one of Cleo's favorite spots). So cute. Luckily, I made a picture last year of Cleo and Max, my two cats. Cleo is the prominent one in the center. You only see Max's rear end because she was a feral cat and to this day (she's 12), she doesn't like to be held or pet, unless you are petting her right above the tail. Cleo was a lover (to me and Girlie) and till her dying day, Cleo was the boss pet of the house. The dogs recognized her alpha-ness and gave her plenty of space even when she weighed all of 2 pounds in her last weeks. Rest in peace, Cleo, and have fun bossing around the others in kitty heaven or wherever you are.

New! The Piece of the Month

I'm going to start something new at my website, www.wendyboucher.com. In an effort to make my website more interesting and to give people a reason to come back - every month or two I will be offering "The Piece of the Month" - a 12x12" piece at a substantial discount. I picked this size because it's easy to ship, makes a good gift, and can usually be incorporated into any household or office. So without further ado, here is March, 2008's Piece of the Month: Big Pot. Like all my work, it is a mixed media/paper on canvas piece. It normally sells for $200 but I am offering it this month only for $140 (plus tax in Florida). Shipping the piece adds $14 and I take credit cards via Paypal at my website. So if you are interested, check it out. It's first come, first served!

It's Just A Matter of Choosing the Right Sport

While on vacation, we discovered that the little girl who despises sports that involve balls, who in fact is flunking physical education at school, loves to ski. SKI! That's a sport that sends lots of folks cringing away. On her first day on skis, Girlie got so comfortable that she was doing the Chicken Dance on her way down the slope. No poles necessary on Belly Flop Run. It was awesome to behold. I took a few warm up runs on Belly Flop myself, being a beginner as well. On my first run, I ran smack dab into one of those orange mesh fences that keep ignoramouses like me away from more experienced skiers. I wasn't hurt in the fall but I wrenched my hip trying to extract my ski from the mesh. A very nice man offered to help me but my pride shouted "no" before my brains could act. So when my muscles thawed out enough to feel it, my skiing day was over. Arrrgh!

Maybe It's Mid-Life Crisis

We're in Maryland at a ski resort. When we arrived last Sunday, there wasn't any snow on the ground but there was a little snow on the ski slopes thanks to modern snow science. The first night it snowed an inch or two, much to the delight of my young nephews who had never seen snow before. Girlie is a snow expert thanks to a clump of family in my home state of Oregon. Then it snowed an official 18 inches thanks to a well timed winter storm. So we have tubed, sledded, gone skiing, and even gone for a ride in a one horse open sleigh on an Amish farm (yes, we sang Jingle Bells). Tomorrow is our last full day here and I intend to take a snow-boarding lesson. I cannot wait. It will be the highlight of my week and yet none of the rest of my family group wants to join me. So of course I wonder who the crazy one is: me, age 44 and determined to snow board or the rest of the family who assumes that I will break a hip. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Happy New Year, I'm moving

So you'll notice that I had nothing to say in December. That's because sometime during that month just past, we found out that we would be moving to a new city. Miami. City where somebody thought that powder blue was a good color for a football uniform. The truth is that I'm very excited. I've lived in Hubby's hometown of Tampa for more than a dozen years and now that my art career is getting in gear, it will be nice to move to a city where people actually buy art. A friend of mine has described Tampa as a cultural wasteland and really, there is some truth to that. Tampa has been an awesome place to raise Girlie but there are probably more art galleries per capita in the arctic. There are so many awesome artists in Tampa and not enough outlets. Frustrating for those in the field. I've been very lucky. Speaking of Girlie, she has been informed about the move and has been practicing her uber-forlorn look ever since. I feel so bad uprooting her from her school in particular but there are lots of Montessori schools in Miami so she'll feel right at home. And we have promised her a house with a pool, something we lack at the moment. So when we move this late spring, she'll get over her angst after the first dip in the pool. So Happy New Year everybody. I'm tapping out this post while holed up in a large cabin in western Maryland where I've come with my husband's extended family. There is a winter storm warning in effect and we are expecting major snow tonight. Hello ski slopes! We went tubing today although Girlie thought it looked entirely too dangerous and opted out of the activity. Who is that kid related too? Hubby and I are all about the thrill-seeking. Anyway, we are enjoying our week-long visit to winter but I know that I will be happy to return to Florida, even though I have to immediately think of some clever way to attract a house buyer in this worst real estate market in history. Sigh, wish me luck.

For the love of God, where is the Webkinz Snake?

Those of you with girls in grade school will understand the allure of Webkinz. My Girlie's Christmas list is miles long with Webkinz items. She even put little trademark symbols by them. No cheap imitations for my Girlie. The problem is, my Girlie loves snakes. We just got back from a trip to Oregon where she acquired not one but two more toy snakes of the stuffed variety. At night she goes to sleep with five stuffed snakes and a stuffed horse named Clementine. Can I just tell you, the horse was mine as a little girl. I found it in a bag of ancient stuffed animals that I've forced my parents to store in their attic for a hundred years. On this trip to Oregon for Thanksgiving, I cleaned out several boxes of old stuff. I found a bag of notes I'd passes with a girl code-named "Terrific". I have no idea who it was! I also found all the programs from plays I was in and the Varsity letters from sports in which I participated. So well-rounded. As you might expect, I was also a writer. I have several copies of my high school newspaper in which I wrote a column called, "Same to you..." I guess I haven't changed much. Reluctantly, I allowed the disposal of maybe 30 stuffed animals that are too old, dusty and probably lead-ridden to donate to charity. Sigh. It's so hard to get rid of animals that you have imbibed with human characteristics as a child. I let Girlie claim Clementine and she carried her home in her arms on the plane. It's very sweet but I'm not kidding myself. She'd trade Clementine in a Webkinz minute for a snake with a code and an exclusive item on the Webkinz site. But I'm guilty too. I found an old illustrated Stephen King book in a box that I have found sells for at least $200 on ebay. Ciao, Stephen King book. It won't be the first I've sold on ebay either. I got $600 for one a few months ago. I was a big fan in the 80's and I worked at a bookstore. Yeah me. So, as I started out in this post, when will they make a Webkinz snake? Girlie has needs.

Three Comments That Prove That Girlie is not Actually Eight

"I jumped on Daddy and he looked up in astonishment." (why say "surprise" when you can say "astonishment"?) "By the time we get home, by my estimation, I will have a message waiting for me on Webkinz." (who says, "by my estimation"?) And finally, I took her to see a performance of Faure's Requiem (Daddy sings in the chorale). On the way, we explained what a requiem is and that many requiems are performed just for the beauty of the music (i.e., we weren't attending a funeral). At the concert she read the notes about the composer and during the piece, she read the translation to English. Then, she burst into tears in the middle of the performance. I thought a bug had bitten her or something but she was just moved to tears by the words in the requiem. "It's sooooooo sad!" I love my micro-adult eight year old Girlie.

Luxury, thy name is Girlie

So my buddy H. had extra tickets to see the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play against Arizona yesterday. Since my hubby was headed out of town, I took Girlie and we had a blast. Was it because Girlie is a Bucs fan? No. She doesn't know the first thing about football. Was it because she got to eat hot dogs, drink beer, and shout profanities? No. She's eight. It was because the tickets were to a luxury box and we got picked up in a limo. She loved the limo ride, needless to say, although she was concerned about the lack of seatbelts. And she is old enough and girl enough to love the fact that we had a private bathroom in the suite. She watched about ten seconds of the game and spent the rest of the time curled up in a comfy chair reading a book called, Who Were The Beatles? (Paul is her favorite.) The helmet full of ice cream was a hit too. I got to watch the whole game and we even won. The weather was glorious, I might add. We're into our best time of year in Florida. The only downside to the whole day is the fact that the bar has now been set impossibly high for Girlie when it comes to sporting events. I feel sorry for her future boyfriends. I hope she dates a poet.

Happy Halloween

For me it's really, Happy Almost Christmas. I don't care much about Halloween although I did dress up this year for a party. I went as Bitter, Disappointed Dorothy attending her Class of '37 Reunion. I had a grey wig braided like Dorothy's hair, the appropriate blue checked dress and some matronly shoes with support hose. Jim Beam and a stuffed rat instead of Toto in my basket. You had to be there, it was pretty funny. Girlie is going as a dragonfly tonight.

So I Guess I'm Blogging Again

I'm a sneak. I used to be over here but I quit blogging for awhile. When I started back up, I had to switch back to Blogger (where I gave birth to my blog a long while ago) because the quality of my little cartoons is so much better on this program. So here I am again, completely without fanfare and looking like I'll post two or three times a week. Or more. We'll see. Here's a recap: I'm an artist and an author of two novels. But my most important gig is mom to my 8 year old named (for blogging purposes), Girlie. If you remember her from before, the answer is yes, she still takes her stuffed snake, Sara, everywhere with her. She has added Gabriel, Sasha, Rainbows, Kelly, Zoe and many others to the mix but Sara is the boss snake. Of course that is subject to change if they release a Webkinz snake character. Virtual pets seem to rule around here lately. Her virtual dog gets as much or more attention than her real dog, Marty, at least measured in minutes spent. So anyway, glad to be back. We'll chat soon.

Global warming

Art by moi

Red Dot 12x12"

The President Addresses a Graduating Class

Webkinz Terrorists

Lame Duck

Bush Hires a New Advisor