Thar She Blows: A Recreation of Moby Dick by Cindy and Carmen

Cindy Michaud and I took on the ultimate challenge this year: the Mystery Build Competition. The whole idea is to make a recreation of a work of art from the objects in a small box. The Mystery Build organizers mailed the 9"x12" box to us, and we had to make our piece from nothing but the items inside, including the box itself if we wanted, plus paint. That's it. So the box contained a small variety of wood blocks and veneers, clay, a piece of rope, a square of canvas, a loose canvas, Elmer's glue and a few other things. We used the box, the packing material, and the instructions.

To see how we did it (there's a video) and (we hope) vote for our entry, click here: Mystery Build. There are a whopping 289 entries, and ours is Number 2 so it's easy to find.

posted by Carmen

Sleepless in Seattle

Denette and I, along with our husbands, had a wonderful time in the Northwest. Hap and I rode the Ducks with intrepid Captain Flip Dover. We drove through Seattle, then into Lake Union (the Ducks are amphibious landing craft). I keep a sketch journal, so I had to include the houseboat in Sleepless in Seattle. Flip was hilariously informative.

We met up with Denette and Jack and went off to the Olympic Peninsula. That's Denette in the tree. The rain forests are lush, green, mossy, and beautiful. I am trying to psych myself up to paint all that green.  The lower right corner of the above page is Cape Flattery, the most northwestern point of the lower 48. You go through a rain forest to get there. In other words, you hike through awesome beauty with a big punctuation mark at the end. We missed the whale that had just gone by, darn it!

Now I have many great subjects to paint, yet what did I do yesterday? A little white boat. Like I said, psyching myself up for the harder stuff. Besides, I really like the boat.

The Yellow Buoy

Posted by Carmen Beecher