San Miguel - Part 3

Yesterday we continued our explorations of San Miguel de Allende.  We decided it would be fun to go to Fabrica La Aurora, which is a group of art galleries, artist studios, shops and restaurants all housed in what used to be a fabric mill.  It's a great space, with huge soaring ceilings and polished concrete floors.  There are big bits of machinery still in place, as a reminder of the building's original use, but the art and antiques just flow around them.  There were lots of interior design shops with great furniture and design services (should you have a house here that needed decorating).  We had a lot of fun checking it all out.

We had lunch at Barushi, a Japanese restaurant at Fabrica La Aurora.  The avocado soup was wonderful and Nonie loved her sirloin and rice noodle soup.  We shared some cheese skewers that had been dredged in panko and deep fried---they were the perfect accompaniment to our entrees.

We stumbled into a gallery that featured woodblock prints by Artemio Rodriguez.  His work is energetic, compelling and varied.  I loved it!  I bought the piece you see above.  It's called Never More.
I definitely have this 'thing' about crows and this piece will be a fantastic addition to my bird wall at home and a lovely reminder of my trip to Mexico.

After we had exhausted all the shopping in Fabrica La Aurora we went exploring on our way to the bank to exchange some funds.  We saw so many great doors and door "jewelry."

Every where you look there is a photo waiting to be taken.

The pigeons were enjoying the fountain at El Jardin.

La Parroquia looked festive with the banners strung across the plaza out front.

This building is very near our Casa Feliz on Hernandez Macias.  It absolutely glows in the late afternoon sun.

And as if San Miguel wasn't perfect enough, we discovered Starbucks.  Sorry to say, but I do love the iced green tea at Starbucks.  Now I am in total heaven!

Black & White Collaborative Color Journal Pages

I belong to a Color Collaborative Journal group.  We have done several journals in the last two years.  I love my collection of these color journals, all of which feature pages by individual members and all are original artwork.  The members of this group are an amazingly talented group of woman and I have felt honored to be included.  This is, alas, our last journal.  I thought long and hard about how I wanted to express my feelings on black and white and finally decided that prints were the best way to go.

Each page in the journal will be 9 inches tall and 6 inches wide.  There is a back page as well as a front, so my pages, 9 inches by 12 inches, fold in half to make the proper size.  I have used my recently carved woodblock from the NPS workshop in Colorado as the featured artwork for the front of my page  in the journal.  I added some washi tape to jazz it up a little.

I did a foilographic feather print on the back.  I didn't get a great image, but it was first time using this technique.  I enjoyed the learning process, and the outcome was acceptable.  (I should have read and reread the very clear and concise instructions that are available on Charles Morgan's website.  Charles is a long time member of the Nature Printing Society and is a master at nature printing.  I will retry foilography soon, using Charles' directions.  I expect I'll have a much better result.  But, I digress....again!)

I had promised myself that I would get these pages done without counting down to the last second before the deadline of August 31st.  Well, I guess I met that goal, but barely.  They are in the mail, at any rate, and the lovely Mary Mouat will be receiving them in good time.  Mary is a member of the Color Collaborative Journal group and has volunteered to do the binding this time around.  Thanks, Mary!

And finally, on a silly note, here is a photo my friend Bee created on her iphone with some app she has.  (You might surmise that she had some free time on her hands while we were in Colorado.  Free time + iphone + app = silliness.)  My poor cat, Orcie, was one of the subjects she altered.  I will spare you the ones she did of me.  They are, ahem, not fit for a family blog being just too scary.  My Orcie is odd to start with, of course, being a cat, but he usually doesn't wear sunglasses.  I think he might like to wear them, but I, being a rotten and horrible person, refuse to purchase them for him.  The mustache, though, is just too much, don't you think?  He sort of reminds me of Tom Selleck.  (My apologies, Mr. Selleck.)