Kaia Thomas - A path with ART

I remember a few years back someone asking me what my Chinese Zodiac sign was. I had no clue. I could remember those silly place mats at the Chinese restaurant with all the zodiac animals on it but I never paid any attention to it. However, after being asked this, I did eventually google it one night and to my surprise, found a fascinating world to explore. I learned I was a Rat - the first sign of the zodiac and I discovered, after looking up different friends and family members, that it was amazingly accurate! Wikipedia's chart has some good basic info on your sign, if you want to find out for yourself. So, this Chinese New Year, which begins February 3rd, is the year of the metal Rabbit. I have read a lot on the forecast of this upcoming year. It appears that traditionally, the Year of the Rabbit is known to be a calm period, a time for home and family, creative pursuits, creature comforts, that sort of thing. The Rabbit is the luckiest of the signs, so it is expected t...

Ok, so who the heck hit the fast forward button on 2010?? Or the past few years for that matter... I am finding it harder and harder to complete everything in a day - simple things even. This has been the case and getting worse for some time. I think the area of my life that has been hardest hit is in the creation of artwork. This constant feeling of having to race to get stuff done causes a great fatigue which is not conducive to inspiration at all! The creative expression process turns into any other job, which in my book is no good. There are many discussions out there on the subject of time speeding up - a lot of them are related to 2012. The latest doom date to look forward to:) Or enlightening date to look forward to, depending on who you talk to. How I look at it, date or no date, what needs to be done in our lives is still the same. We all have this rather short opportunity here on this planet to experience life, find joy, learn what it means to be this human being and so on....

So I received a special order for a gourd birdhouse before the holidays - it was intended to be a Christmas gift. It was one of three birdhouse commissions I received at the same time! They are a lot of fun to make and I continue to expand the creative possibilities with each one!  This one was actually inspired by a new found love - Moroccan folk art! I love discovering new cultural designs and I'm amazed that I had not stumbled upon their art before. Here I have a step by step look at the making of the birdhouse - although I was told I should call them birdpalaces:) Here was the start - cleaned and holes drilled ready for painting.... I did a quick sketch to work out the general idea...the actual design changed along the way. Drawing in the front design... Front design painted! Drawing in the rest of the design... Body design nearly completed... Ta da!! We have a birdhouse! As my friend said " That's one lucky bird." :)) Hope you enj...