news, etc.

Nancy Wride of the Los Angeles Times, wrote a marvelous article about my life and experience in the recent fire in my apartment complex, entitled "Lost Art, Found Heart", which was the cover story for their California section on Christmas day. I want to publicly thank Nancy for her incredible skill as a writer and interviewer, and also thank Doug Orr, owner of the trendy Four Olives Café in Bixby Knolls, for the wonderful fundraiser he gave me.

The San Diego County Fair gave one of my watermelon pieces a 1st Place Award in the Collage Division. This is a huge exhibit, with hundreds of art works and hundreds of thousands of viewers, so I'm very happy for the honor and recognition.

Printessdi Fine Art Note Cards has published 12 of my designs. 8 fruits and vegetables, and 4 cats. They are printed on archival cotton rag art paper, and are lovely. They can be seen and ordered at www.printessdi.com

I'm thrilled to have my work on Sweet Wednesday's debut CD, with La Gioconda on the front cover, Cool Breeze Mountain Flowers on the back, Esau in the booklet insert, and to my delight, Watermelon on the inside of the jewel case. The music is innovative and marvelous, and I thank Lisa and David for the honor of being part of this excellent endeavor. For more info on Sweet Wednesday and the CD, visit their website: www.sweetwednesday.com

Allport Editions has 8 recent "Cityscapes" in their catalog of Vernon cards. They were challenging and fun to do, and the cities depicted are New York City, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Portland, OR.