The Emperor's New Clothes

Thanks especially to the Allreds and their extended family for posing as all the onlooker townspeople, and to the actors at Valley Center Playhouse for posing as the emperor, the pole-bearers, and the tailors. You're awesome!The first painting, The Tailors, is a throwback to my first real "style" I came up with in college. I really admired Mercer Mayer and Maurice Sendak's illustrations, so I practiced drawing like them for a while, and it sort of evolved into my own style.The second painting, The Parade, sort of merges my old style with my newer, softer style.
Somehow I managed to paint these while sick with a 24-hour flu bug.

Did You Hear The Bird Sing?

Our good friend Sylvia helped me out with these pictures. When I received this assignment, my husband immediately thought of her to pose for it.
Her cute son Adam was a great actor as well!

I was delighted to find a prolific photo documentary of these Chicago monk parrots on the internet.