In my early art years I followed in the footsteps of my parents as a watercolor painter. Unbelievably I even had my paintings in a gallery at age 18. I moved to Chicago in 1991 to attend SAIC, but watercolor painting was frowned upon and oil painting was considered the classic standard medium. Naturally, I turned to oil painting and learned my chops in technique.

Painting was instant gratification. I would work with rapid abstract brush strokes. I could crank out three new painting in a days work. As I was exposed to the multi-disciplinary offering of SAIC, I began to branch out wanting something more that I felt abstract painting did not achieve... meaning.

Conceptual art was highly prevalent in the art world of the 1990's, which crept into my art education. During each critique, we sought out the "meaning" of the work, attempting to find it in the layers of abstracted form. In the early 1990’s, you would often hear the mantra echo the halls of SAIC, "painting is dead".

Well painting is not dead! There is always room in the art world for great abstract painting, like the work of artist Elizabeth Schuppe. I love her eye for color!

I was introduced to this great modern wallpaper for a kids room which is meant to be colored in through Pam from House Martin. What a great way your child's creative expression to contribute to his or her room decor. I would say wait until your kid is over 6 years old and can color within the lines, otherwise you distended to look at scribble for years. If you wanted to look at scribble just give you toddler a sharpie and tell them to go at it, without the cost of $42 dollar per role.

I always love a deadline. I am more driven, focused and deadline is even better if it is short. Honestly, I like working under pressure. I had a woman call me up on Friday night in need of a gift for a baby shower on Sunday morning. She loved the felted pom pom mobile, but with time crunch, I had to adapt the concept. Her only request was that is was gender neutral, so I took a series of cut boiled wool circles to create modern "tassel" elements. The individual pieces I then suspended on a canopy of piano wire.

I so love this duo of vintage upholstered twin beds combined with the modern marble floor and slick black floor lamp. The pop of deep red with ornate headboard makes such a lovely statement. What a great jumping off point for inspiration in designing a room! tip via Oheedoh.

I finally found a minute to finish off the edges of my daughter’s clubhouse curtain I made for her for Christmas! We had a house full of kids yesterday, so I slipped away to my sewing machine while my girls were pre-occupied with their friends. I mounted velcro to install it to the ceiling and sewed the other side of the velcro to the top of the curtain. This way I can easily take it down to wash it! Needless to say, the kids had a blast testing it out.