Art Sale

Well this isn't for the art sale. I should post the finished work for that but I don't have it uploaded yet on the computer. But this will be the cover for the yellow pages.

Art Sale is going to happen. Hope to make a little extra. Student loans are going to start soon so anything for a little padding while I settle into the life of an adult paying off loans.

Tis safe now.

Made this for the wrapping paper for a friends wedding gift. I got them a hand carved gourd with a santa riding a shell slay and some sea horses instead of reindeer. But I figured to top it off it needed custom wedding-ish wrapping paper rather then tissue paper in pink white or blue. Sooo......

Its been awhile no?

So the Ketubah is finished! This is very exciting and I'm feeling nervous and ready to kinda get my name out there and continue in this little niche I fell into. Here's the finished piece.

Here is some painter work. I fail at this still. I need to keep playing with it, but there are just so many options it makes my head spin.

Also here is digital sketch for an idea for the art sale.

Lucky Lucy

So this is in regards to the house cat of the clinic I work. She past away after living a very long and relatively healthy life I think. Our morning kennel guy wrote the ode to Lucy and asked if I could put a visual to it. Its kinda rough but I like the outcome for what it is. She really liked Green Mill Hamburger. 

Not much left to say

I will come back to Maui. I'm sure there are other amazing islands I need to fall in love with along with the amazing wildlife under water in their own reefs. But this place feels good. 

Yesterday I got back to Makena Bay. Swam all the way out to Turtle Town. Thought it was going to be a bust but given time. Out of the blue we were visited by another sea turtle. Swam along with us for a good half hour. Soon enough we were trailing behind it as it went to the South part of the bay. It brought us to this amazing reef. Nothing like Molokini or the open flat reefs we were so use to swimming over. This was that kind of reef where there are mountains and valley's!

Fish of all different shapes and colors. The clicking noise of fish eating away and the wash of the current pushing you through and along with the schools of fish through the reef. It was unreal and so enjoyable. 

I hate that MN is so far away from such sights. I would trade pine trees, snow, squirrels, deer and of course our state bird the mosquito for this every time I went out to play outside.

I head to the airport within the next hour. I'm all cleaned, packed up and as ready to go as I can be. Taking as many deep breaths as possible. The sea air is so clean and refreshing. No allergies, no stuffy or dry nose.  Clean soft rain, hot sun, cool breeze. Thick jungle and bright saturated colors. THIS IS PARADISE!

Delays, delays

I apologize for the lack of post but the last two days were pretty exciting. Well yesterday more then the last. My minimal yard work consisted of mowing the 2 acres, taking down 7 trees and dragging them over the cliff and doing some hedge clipping all around the resort walkways. Refilling the washed out gravel and collecting palm fronds from all over and bringing them to the farthest side of the grounds. 

But it was all worth the work out. I was able to leave to spend the night down in Kihei since Susan was able to line me up with a free tour of Molokini and whats known as Turtle Town. So down off Makena Bay they picked us up in an awesome 61' Sail boat and in a matter of 15 min.  had arrived to the Molokini Crater! Jumped off the boat from the diving ledge and right as the bubbles cleared away all I could see was a school of very curious black triggerfish. Below you could see the coral shelf rising all the way to the sides of the crater wall. Closer inspection showed even more!

Rainbow, and striped parrot fish, 3 different types of box fish, a peacock and spotted groupers (baby sized so about as big as my forearm) butterfly and angel fish! An ungodly amount of tang fish. More I didn't recognize. I was worried they were going to force us to use snorkel gear and flotations. But instead I was free to choose, so of course I kept my goggles and flippers which were far better then what they offered. I was able to free dive around in the deeper parts and one of the tour guides showed me under the shelf about 30 or so ft. There was a hiding place where schools of squirrel fish hide. So we get down there and from above its like that illusion in labyrinth when sara is trying to get past the entry way and the worm tells her to walk forward. It looks like the coral just reached to the sand. Till you look at a horizontal view and there is a cave! Filled with wide eyed striped fish! It was so cool!

For about an hour we were out there and then we started to head back to Makena Bay, which not a 1/2 out from shore is "Turtle Town". We parked in about 30 ft or so of water and swam out afew yards and there was a lane made naturally of coral and it was a cleaning station for turtles and other large sea creatures. They swim through and cleaning shrimp and fish jump on and clean the shells while they chill. Got an entire camera's worth of pictures of these two 400 something pound Pacific Green Sea Turtles hovering about the coral. 

The rest of the journey was spent on the boat after this. Getting food and drink complimentary and enjoying the views on and off the boat. We also were lucky enough to have some bottlenose dolphins ride along side the boat. I got some film of them. Mind the swarm of kids that were infront of me. I was filming without seeing through the viewfinder. >.>

Overall and awesome trip, but the real treat was after. Right off shore when we were getting off, there were two more sea turtles not 15 ft away from the beach. Eating the algae and whatever off the rocks. So after the tour I jumped right back in and for an hour or so got to swim maybe a little to close to these awesome gentle creatures! That is what this trip was all about, and since all beaches on this island are public I'm heading back there 2 or more times if I can to see them again!

Fish of the day!

So I need to wait til I get back to develop the underwater camera pics I have. But here is my most common findings in the reefs today. We went all over the West side of Maui. Lots of driving but also lots of fun swimming and some shopping at Whales Village or whatever its called.

I found a needle fish around where I free dove (30ft or so) 

In the shallows when I was going out for another peak around (without my camera >.<) I found a spotted and stripped adult box fish hanging in the shallows!

Lots and lots of Picasso trigger fish. Very common I guess. Exotic and territorial. They have a little trigger fin on their dorsal that shoots up in aggression. I don't recall if its actually shop or just false danger warning.

Also a school of unicorn fish!