I recently had the opportunity to re-engage with a commission I created thirteen years ago. Revisiting your own artwork from more than a decade past is a bit like opening your teenage diary. It can be a bit cringey, revealing but oddly satisfying. Here are 10 tips for preparing and implementing your on-site artwork restoration or additions.

When thoughtfully combined, food, art, and ambiance create a powerful elixir. As one of three artists selected to help celebrity chef Kim Canteenwalla and his wife/restaurant-design guru Elizabeth Blau tell the story of the dazzling new restaurant Crown Block sitting atop of the iconic Reunion Tower in downtown Dallas, I share some of the excitement of the grand opening as well as the process of getting there.

What is it about trains that captivates artists? For me and many other artists, the allure of trains is a multi-faceted affair, drawing on their unique aesthetic, cultural significance, and romantic sense of possibility and adventure they evoke. With a new studio space set alongside the tracks, I contemplate the creative calling of trains.

I dive deep into Benjamin Franklin’s “Autobiography” in preparation for my 2023 solo show “How To Be” taking inspiration from thirteen self-help and reference books that were most influential in defining our American values.

Oh, how often have I wistfully wished for a wonder cure for my many “weaknesses?” Said no woman. Watch a video for the back story of “Snake Oil” made from the vintage advertisements for Dr. Pierce’s prescriptions for the “weaknesses of women.”

Hands down, the question I get most from other artists is “how do you use resin?” In this blog, I explain my process for using Art Resin to build a protective layer and add mystery to my artwork.

Using vintage materials —like the Big Chief writing tablet— in our artwork forces us to question why some logos and images became embedded in our cultural narrative.

I have a conflicted relationship with epoxy resin. Resin is a fickle partner, flashing a smile at you one minute and bitterly hanging on to bits of debris the next. Here’s why I keep coming back.

I feel like I can really relate to these women. They are working so hard at not much of anything. Reach! Balance! Collapse! Repeat. Struggling to stay afloat while wearing a fairly unflattering pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Quelle horreur!

Crazy Water Hotel—Where America Drank Its Way to Health. Come venture into the back story of the source materials for this artwork:—1950s prescription papers harking from The Crazy Hotel. Don’t you feel healthier already?

The publisher seemed to know their audience was both desperate for any source of personal income and incredibly resourceful, creative and determined to find independence. AND she could do all of these things all the while wearing the new Compresso Belt to keep that tummy tucked securely.

I have been a bit wistful for the freedom of an open road and unscripted days.

As advertised, the Mirro-Matic saved precious vitamins, preserved food, and, in fact, paid for itself many times over in the time, fuel, food and flavor saved. The Mirro-Matic was truly "simplicity itself."

“Learn how to do all the new dances—quickly and easily in the privacy of your own home.” — (The Other) Betty White

I connect with Richard Scarry’s love of chaos and order.

For many pilots, logbooks become a diary of their travels, an adventure scrapbook of sorts.

I am almost finished with a new piece that I have started calling “Stretched,” created from the pages of a 1980s exercise manual – 192 pages of faceless human shapes in various poses demonstrating stretches for any number of athletic activities.

So many things to love about old reading primers….the Century Schoolbook font, the compact size, the simplicity of the stories: “They had eggs for dinner. They had milk. They had cake. They had ice cream.” Enough said.

Time is such an elusive commodity. Artmaking always seems to resist any prescribed timetable.

“Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.” — Pablo Picasso (maybe)