Mom and Daughter Painting Time on the Deck

Last week I spent a warm day out on the deck painting. This canvas is 28x20. I haven't been able to come up with a title yet.

After school R had no homework and spent some time with me, painting these 3 canvas boards. The one on the left is a conservatory with telescope looking out into space, inspired by the lecture we attended a week ago by astrophysicist, Neil Tyson. It was fun, interesting, thought-provoking. During the walk to school the next morning, R was planning the colonization of Mars.

Asian and Middle Eastern - Two Must -Taste Little Restaurants in Fort Worth

I spent the day Wednesday painting outside on the deck. A real joy. But I haven't liked any of the photos of artwork I have taken lately, so today I am going to write about food. Specifically, about two fabulous small restaurants in Fort Worth.

Celaborelle is a Phoenician (Lebanese) restaurant in an old house on Hemphill, near Magnolia and the hospital district. I love restaurants in old houses, so full of character!

from the website: Celaborelle has been serving the Dallas/Fort Worth area with the best in Middle Eastern cuisine since 1997. Well known to be one of the world's healthiest, Lebanese food is something of a mystery to many people. Celaborelle provides you with an authentic, eye-opening mezze experience--a multitude of small dishes for one low price, which amounts to a tour of Lebanese cuisine, always fresh, always delicious. Whether you're a meat eater, vegetarian, or vegan, if you're an expert in Lebanese cuisine or a total newcomer, you will have a wonderful feast at Celaborelle. From our buffet line to our live action cooking station, which is all included in the buffet price, you can expect one of the best home-cooked meals you've ever had! And if you're in a hurry and need to order take-out, we offer a menu representing all our choices.

The buffet is definitely the best deal here at $8.95, less for children. In addition to the appetizers and many vegetable, meat and combination dishes on the buffet, it also also includes beef or lamb kabobs cooked fresh to order and the best made fresh for you falafel in Dallas-Fort Worth, perfectly crisp on the outside and tender, steaming and fragrant inside. I think I could come in and just have falafel with a side of olives and feta and be happy. But then I would miss out on the amazing melt-in-your-mouth eggplant, and that would be a shame. Batinjan mtabal, a charbroiled eggplant and tahini spread like babaganouj, is pleasingly garlicky and should not be missed. This place is a mecca for vegetarians or vegans, but also satisfies meat-eaters. We took our friends recently, a meat-eating family of four, and tested that. My 11-tear old daughter loves this place and is especially pleased with all the little dessert offerings, about half of which are some variation of baklava. Edward likes the pudding-like cake with rosewater. I'll just have another falafel.

Celaborelle has been closed for a few months or more a couple of times, but we are recommending it to everyone, dragging our friends in for dinner and hoping to help keep them in business. Bring your own bottle.



After seeing the baby ducks and squealing piglets at the Stock Show a couple of weeks ago, we drove around looking for some good (not-BBQ, non-cornydog, non-funnel cake) food for dinner, and we happened upon Thai Tina's, just outside downtown. It is the most non-descript building in a, well "unassuming" is putting it mildly, area. We would never have considered stopping, but when Edward read the name off the building, I said, Wait. I think I just saw that mentioned. And leafed through the FW Weekly I'd just picked up, which described it as "marvelous, authentic Thai food." We had to try it, and it did not disappoint. I had a perfect rendition of green curry with cocnut milk, vegetables and tofu, which I settled on remarkably quickly from the extensive menu. Most of the menu items come with the option of meats, seafood or tofu, something I have been seeing more and more, and which makes it really easy for people to order a variety when they have special diets, or just to get what they like. R looked carefully at the menu for quite a while, then announced that she couldn't find the California rolls. She was a little confused about what kind of Asian restaurant we were in, or expecting a pan-Asian menu. She then looked at the kid's menu and ordered the cheese sticks with fries. Well, Edward was wearing the smart daddy hat, because he then ordered the Pad Thai with tofu, mild, which he immediately gave R a sample of. She finished the meal standing at his shoulder with her chopsticks.

Monday our friend Marvin was in town from New York. We had introduced him to Celaborelle on his last visit, but when we called ahead, they were closed, so Thai Tina's it was. Several other friends joined us, including the family we had taken to Celaborelle last time, who had never tried Thai before. They shared the Pineapple Fried Rice with pork and liked it so much they ordered a second plate. Two appetizer sampler platters were quickly polished off. I ordered a variation of the curry I had last time; I couldn't help it, it was so good. (Next time I want to try the Grilled Salmon, served over avocado panang sauce, topped with steamed asparagus...if I can bypass the curry.) R had the same Pad Thai dish her dad had ordered before and pretty much demolished it herself. We were an even mix of vegetarians and carnivores, and everyone loved the place, even the three kids. Tina came to visit the table before we ordered and then came back to chat and check on us. We also hear that she makes a mean martini.

No website that I could find, but the address is 703 N. Henderson.

(NOTE: This review was done at the old location. The new address is 600 Commerce Street, Downtown Fort Worth.)

Two More New Collages in Blue

Here are two more of the little collages I have been ding lately. I finally set up the tripod and photographed them, but I can tell that I need to go in and up the brightness a little more. I think all the adjusting and tinkering with the light and color values and whatnot to get my images to look right takes as much time as any thing else. I get really frustrated sometimes just trying to get the photo to look like the collage or painting. The white/silvery/grey areas on these pics are just a little too dark.

The collages are pleasing...you'll just have to trust me. ;-) Well, they are pleasing to me, but then they're blue; of course they are.


I'm making no art today. R is home today after being up a lot of the night being sick. She's feeling better and wanting to eat now. I'm thinking about all the cool vegetables we got at the Fiesta Mart (fabulous produce section!) yesterday and trying to decide on something bland and soothing to make for dinner tonight.

Almost Spring Garden!

The baby plants are in the gardening centers! This week we got packets of seedlings for broccoli and cauliflower (I think a cat or two nibbled on the leaves of these while they were in the house), as well as two different kinds of spinach seeds to try. Also, many, many tiny arugula seedlings have sprung up in the garden.
It is still very dry, and has been pretty windy, and watering is still necessary, as it has been all fall and winter.

Other signs of spring:



We have lots of hyacinths coming up.




And of first of the daffodils has burst into full bloom.

Collages : Two New with Red

I tried putting these collages on the scanner, and I have had good results doing that with small pieces of artwork before, but I think with as much time as I spent after tinkering with the images , I could have just set up the tripod and photographed them.







I'll still have to do that; the color tones or saturation or intensity...or something...isn't quite right.

These, like the previous four, are 6x6 inches on a 10x10 heavy watercolor paper.

New Collages

I've been painting for the past several months and not doing any collage making, but I guess I got the collage bug from artist Mary Buek, whose blog I read. She usually does paintings, and posts a picture of a daily piece of artwork. The last month or 2, she has been on a collage binge, and I have been looking at her experimentations and works of collage art almost everyday.

So, the last couple of days I got out lots of sheets and small bits of paper, including a number of painted and otherwise marked papers, and created some collages. The pictures are not very good, pretty bad actually, but show the general idea of what I am doing.





I made the mistake of using colors I like in the last two collages, and when I finished I started thinking, Hmm, I kinda like these. Bet they'd look nice framed and hanging in my living room.

I learned a long time ago to beware of making much blue jewelry; I always want to keep it.

Go Mosaic, Sand Mandalas and Making Matte Glass, I hope

I just had to post this picture of the mosaic that R made from the pieces of her Go game.


It isn't glued down, of course, so it is probably more correctly a Go mandala, like the sand mandalas often made and destroyed, usually by Tibetan Buddhist monks.

Also, this one wasn't destroyed by its creator, but, uh, messed up by me...but it had set out on the kitchen table for several days intact. I think that was pretty good. But R wasn't too thrilled when my sleeve drug across it.

Sand Mandala, Tibet 1993
photo by John Hill

Sand mandala created for the visit of the Dalai Lama 2008

from Wikipedia: Ritual destruction

The destruction of a sand mandala is also highly ceremonial. Even the deity syllables are removed in a specific order, along with the rest of the geometry until at last the mandala has been dismantled. The sand is collected in a jar which is then wrapped in silk and transported to a river (or any place with moving water), where it is released back into nature. For this reason, the materials keeping with the symbolism are never used twice.

Several months ago I was working on this mosaic and could never find the right pieces to fill in the background. I placed 2 orders for mosaic tiles that just wouldn't work. So, this morning I cut up some little pieces of white opaque to semi-opaque (it's a bit swirly) stained glass and put them in my daughter's long abandoned rock tumbler. I want all the glossy to go away. I can't wait to see what happens. If they won't work for this project, I'm sure I can use them for something else...just like all the other rejects I have stashed away somewhere in my studio.

(Mandala photos from Wikipedia articles "Mandala" and "Sand Mandala")