My Newest Frida Kahlo Piece of Art, Making Cotton Candy + Chicken Curry with Spring Vegatables, Chinese Broccoli Beef Noodle Stir Fry & Japanese Christmas Cake Recipes

I've spent some focused time during the last few days trying to finish this piece, "Frida in a Shawl," so that it can be included on the poster for the Bella Frida part of the artwalk in Louisville in June. It is very exciting to have this opportunity. This piece is not actually finished, but it is close enough to be photographed. I actually like it better when viewed in person, than viewing the the photograph of it.

Here's what it started out as:

It starts with a drawing based on the following photograph.

Then I colored the image with colored pencils.

And then I added the encaustic wax and the wax covered tissue paper flowers. I really like this piece. Hopefully it will sell, so I might make another one, though a second one would not look the same as the encaustic colors are very organic in the way they combine.

I have an idea for a third piece in this series that I am hoping to start very soon.

We are also getting geared up for Ellie's graduation party. Natalie's kids have lent us their cotton candy machine. Ellie, Kenzie and Katy had fun figuring out how to use it. It was both fun and a bit scary. It was sort of like electric, tasty spider webs.

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I made this for Ethan and I this evening, in between working on the "Frida in a Shawl" encaustic. I worked on the encaustic a little, worked on making dinner while the wax cooled, etc. I served rice cooked in chicken stock. Ethan suggested that next time I make rice cooled with coconut water. That is a great idea.

Chicken Curry with Spring Vegetables
via: Eat Well 101


Serves 6
2 lbs (1kg) skinless chicken breasts, cubed
3 tablespoons olive or coconut oil
Salt and fresh cracked black pepper, to taste
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 red bell pepper, minced
4 cups fresh spring vegetables: asparagus, green peas, snap peas…
2-3 tablespoons curry powder*
1 teaspoon ground cumin*
1 ½ cups (350ml) chicken stock or vegetable stock
1 cup (240ml) coconut milk
Fresh cilantro, chopped (optional, for garnish)
Lime wedges, for garnish
(Cashews or peanuts for garnish)

* I doubled the amount of seasonings to make it more intensely flavored.

1. Season chicken pieces with salt and black pepper. Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the chicken pieces in batches and lightly brown. Remove and transfer to a plate and continue cooking all the chicken the same way. Avoid crowding the pot because the chicken will steam instead of browning.

2. Add the onion, garlic and ginger to the pot and cook about 5 minutes, until softened. Add the bell pepper, asparagus, green peas and snap peas. Cook another few minutes.

3. Add the chicken back to the pot. Add the curry powder and cumin. Cook, stirring for 1 minute. Add the stock, cover the pot and simmer gently, stirring occasionally for about 15-20 minutes. The chicken should be cooked through.

4. Add the coconut milk, and simmer gently uncovered for 5 minutes, stirring until the sauce is thickened. Serve over rice, with lime wedges and chopped cilantro for garnish.

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Ellie and Kohlton made this for dinner and dessert recently. It was a lovely meal:

Chinese Broccoli Beef Noodle Stir Fry
via: Steamy Kitchen

3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
3 tablespoons Shaoxing wine, sake or dry white wine
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon tapioca starch or cornstarch
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
1 pound beef sirloin, thinly sliced
1 pound fresh or 10 ounces dried noodles
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 large garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped
1.25 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 pound Chinese broccoli or regular common broccoli, cut into bite-size chunks or florets
Freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 tablespoon each soy sauce, oyster sauce and rice wine. Add the sugar and continue to whisk until completely dissolved. Stir in the tapioca starch and continue stirring until smooth. Add the sesame oil and beef, and mix well. Marinate for 20 minutes. Drain and discard the excess marinade.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the noodles until 1 minute shy of done and drain. (We'll finish cooking the noodles at the end)

Heat 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil in a skillet or wok over high heat and stir-fry the garlic until fragrant, about 1o seconds. Add the beef and stir-fry until tender, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil and when hot, add the Chinese broccoli, stir frying so that the oil coats the Chinese broccoli. Pour in the 1/4 cup of the stock, turn the heat to medium-low and cover with a tight fitting lid. Cook the Chinese broccoli until tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer the Chinese broccoli to the same plate.

Add the remaining cup of stock and the remaining 2 tablespoons each of soy sauce, oyster sauce, and rice wine to the same skillet and bring to a boil over
high heat.

Add the noodles and cook until the liquid has almost completely evaporated, leaving the noodles lightly moistened,2 to 3 minutes. Return the beef and broccoli to the skillet and toss to mix the ingredients thoroughly. Season with pepper to taste and serve.


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Japanese Christmas Cake
via: Sugar and Snapshots

KASUTERA SPONGE CAKE
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons honey
4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour, sifted

STABILIZED WHIPPING CREAM
2 cups heavy cream
4 tsp cold water
4 tsp agar agar or unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup frosting sugar
ALSO NEEDED
1 pint of fresh strawberries, hulled, washed and halved.

KASUTERA SPONGE CAKE
Preheat oven to 350° F
Use a large 5″x9″ loaf pan or 8″ spring form pan. Line it with waxed paper.
Place milk in a small microwave-safe bowl and heat just to warm (about 10 to 15 seconds). Mix honey in the warm milk, set aside.
Fill a large bowl with warm water, set aside.
Using an electric hand-mixer, whisk the eggs in a large bowl, adding the sugar gradually until completely combined.
Place the bowl over the large bowl with warm water, continue to whisk the egg mixture until it becomes light yellow (almost white), remove from heat and add the honey and milk mixture and whisk to combine and cool the mixture slightly
Sift flour, holding sieve nice and high above the bowl to get plenty of air in the flour as it goes down into the bowl, into the egg mixture. Using a large bubble whisk gently fold the flour into the egg mixture.
Pour the batter in lined pan and tap the pan. Tap very gently on the table to release any air bubbles. Bake at 350° F for 10 minutes, then turn down oven temperature to 300° F and continue to bake for about 40 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the middle of the Kasutera comes out clean.
Remove Kasutera from oven and grasping the parchment on both sides of pan lift the Kasutera out, carefully remove parchment and place on wire rack to cool.

STABILIZED WHIPPING CREAM
In the bowl of your stand mixer pour the heavy cream into the bowl and place in the refrigerator to chill bowl and cream.
In a small microwaveable bowl combine the cold water and agar agar or gelatin into the bowl and whisk to combine, keep whisking until the mixture is thick and looks dissolved.
Place in microwave for 10 seconds until warm and continue to mix until cool. It should thicken slightly and not look grainy but smooth and syrup like.
Put the chilled bowl of cream onto the mixer and on medium high speed with a whisk attachment, whisk until almost at soft peak. Add in the sugar slowly to the thick cream, and when it is at the soft peak stage slowly drizzle in the agar agar mixture into the cream until it thickens to desired constancy, I stopped at stiff peaks.

ASSEMBLY
Stabilized whipping cream (above)
Kasutera sponge (above)

1 pint of strawberries, hulled, washed and halved.

In the same container that was used to bake the sponge, line it with wax paper leaving an over hang enough to lift out the cake when assembled and chilled.
Cut the sponge in half as evenly as possible. Place half of the sponge cake in the bottom of the pan. Layer a very thin layer of the whipped cream on top of the sponge.
Arrange the strawberry halves around the entire pan. You can arrange them how ever you wish. I stood them up on the bases.
Layer 2/3 of the cream over the strawberries until you are unable to see the tops through the cream.
Add the last layer of sponge on top of the cream and gently push down to spread the cream in between the berries.
Using 1/2 of the remaining cream spread a thin layer on top of the sponge cake in an even flat layer. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours, You can use the remaining cream to pipe a decoration along the edge of the cake when ready to serve.

When ready to serve. Place your cake container next to your serving platter, and gently lift it out of the pan (or remove sides if you chose to use a spring form pan) and place on the platter. With a kitchen assistant and a large flat angled spatula you can then gently peel down the sides of the paper and lift the cake to remove the parchment on the bottom. At this point you have an option to use the remaining cream to pipe a decoration along the edge of the cake. Gently slice and decorate with extra cream and berries.
Recipes adapted from La Fuji Mama

An Exciting Day of Possibilities and Artistic Efforts

Here we are, it is Thursday during spring break, already. I can't really complain. It has been an exciting day. Yesterday I learned from my friend Mia that there might be a chance to get a scholarship to attend a workshop at Anderson Ranch this summer. It is magic for artistic adult, kind of like Disneyland is for kids. I feel transported to another, magical world when I am there. I may also have a chance to teach a kids workshop during the summer of 2016, so I spent a portion of my day putting together an art related resume. I made a standard one, and an artsy one. I am a geek like that. Or wait, would that be nerdy instead of geeky? Whatever. They are done and sent off.

It between things, I have been spurred into action by two calls for art. One is a call for art that is related to Frida Kahlo. I want to make a multi-media encaustic. Here is the first step, picking images and drawing them.

I am not entirely sure I like both of them. Sometimes that happens because I look at them so closely as I am drawing. I wanted to get a response as to what others think, so I posted them on Facebook and asked for a response. So far everyone that commented likes both of them, and some like the one with the shawl, the one I am not sure I like, the best. It is funny how that goes. I have glued it to a board and will begin the encaustic process soon.

Ellie and Kolton are at the Grand Canyon today, day 5 (I think) of their spring break road trip. Here are a few photos from Sedona. Ellie says that I would love it there; it is like Aspen, but with more artsy shops. I may have to take a road trip of my own soon.

Larr and Ethan are off on their own short adventure in Buena Vista. And Remmie, he went full tilt at the dog park today and wore himself out. He is happily exhausted and nearly passed out in the backyard enjoying the sunny afternoon. It is a nice change from the moping around he has done for the last few days due to the fact that Ellie, his favorite human, is not here.

Okay, well the iron is heating, wax is melting and I am off to do more art. Here's to good day to you, too.

Family Portraits - My Incomplete Works and Workflow, a Recipe and a Video About Being a Girl

First thing you should know, this post is incomplete, as is the art that I am featuring in this post. This post is a bit about the work flow for the new family portraits that I am creating for the family. Last time I went to Anderson Ranch Art Center, I created portraits of each of us. I was very cool to do that. I decided that I would have another go at it. I thought it would be fun to start a tradition like that. I had expected to use color photos (of each of us and some of the objects that are important to each person, some textures and some words) but once I saw one of the samples that Mia shared, I was smitten and captivated. I decided that I needed to give it a go. I decided to ditch my signature style and go for it. Afterall, I went to the workshop to be with other artists, to push my own style and add to what I do. Where better to dump your signature style and try something new. It was exciting and very scary!

Here's the encaustic of Beau that motivated me. It is by Mia:

I love the subtle colors and the contrast of the black & white image with that color.

I began with images that I converted to black & white.

Then I added layers of medium (bee's wax and Damar Resin) then layers of color. After fusing those together, I added some wax pigment. Wax, fuse, pigment, remove some wax, fuse, wax; wax on, wax off.

As you can see, I have way more color than you see in Mia's sample. Color is just part of me. I am working on making my portraits more subtle.

During our class critiques, one person suggested that I could let go a bit, scrape them off and start again. You see, it is possible that I am just a little too tied to my art; perhaps I need to let go a bit. I might do that, and I might not. I asked Ellie about it. She suggested that I keep these and make another set. Perhaps that is the right answer. She pointed out that we could take new portraits where each person is looking forward. Perhaps. Perhaps. I would like to have used photos that are tied to a moment, an experience. But a portrait might yield more satisfying results.

At one point I was super-tempted to add some words to the portraits, but I have not done it. I even discussed it with the others in the class. I have come to the thinking that the words would distract from the portraits. One person suggested that I could add the words to the edges of the portraits. I may do that. However, Ellie suggested that a sample, flat black might be a great way to tie the image to the color. I put some black tape on the edges and was confirmed that it was the right answer.

My gosh, I am so lucky to have a girl who has such a good artistic sense are part of all of her wonderfulness.



Cup Cakes
via: Deliciously Sprinkled (We modified the recipe)

Vanilla Cupcakes:
1 box (15.25oz) vanilla cake mix
1 box (3.4oz) vanilla INSTANT pudding mix, dry
1 cup vegetable oil
½ cup milk
1 cup sour cream
3 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line (2) 12 count muffin pan with cupcake liners. Set aside.
Using an electric or stand mixer, mix the cake mix, vanilla pudding,oil,milk,sour cream and eggs until smooth.
Pour cupcake batter into the cupcake liners (about ¾ the way full). Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Allow to cool before frosting.

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Tuesday - The Start of Creativity

(Griddle with a palette of wax colors.)
The last time I was at Anderson Ranch, I created portraits of each of the four of us. Each image featured a photo of the person, along with some other images, text and textures, that gave you an idea of that person's personality, or at least the kinds of things each person liked. This time I decided I would make a new set of portraits. I originally thought I would include much of the same kind of images, text, etc. However, I have decided to be really brave and push past my usual comfort zone, as well as forgo the usual kinds of things I use in my art. I am breaking out of my own imposed boundaries. I hope it goes well. My fingers are crossed. I have made each of our images black and white, then printed them on rice paper. I have attached them to a base that has 1 1/2" thick sides. I will decorate the backgrounds with colored wax and who knows what else.

On Tuesday, we began to get to the creative stuff. I was excited for this part since it would help give me an idea of what I could do with my images. In the world of encaustics, some of it is the art of altering photos and some of it is about painting or creating images with colored wax, transferred images, etc. I really have very little idea about how I wanted to treat the images I had mounted so far.

(Mia's Sample - Color overlay, graphic image transfer, script added by scratching/gouging and filling in with oil stick color, gouging and filling with colored wax)

On Monday we dealt with super smooth Epson paper that created very crisp, clear and saturated images - just the kind of thing I love. I printed up a photo Ellie took from the local amusement park, and photos of Ellie, as well as Ethan, painted for Day of the dead. On Tuesday, we began printing on a specially prepared rice paper. The images are warming, softer, a very different look.

(An unaltered image of Ethan that I created using techniques in Photoshop.)

The first stage is to prep the cradle (wooden frame or box (often with thick edges, such as 1 1/2", piece of wood, etc.) by taping the edges with painter's tape and painting the main surface with regular gesso if you are going to use an image (so that the color of the wood does not show through) or with encaustic gesso if you are going to paint a picture with the wax and no base image. Using regular gesso will not allow the wax to adhere well enough. Then, if you are using a photo or image, you need to glue it to the substrate (the frame/box). This is done by applying a very thin layer of Noro paste to the back of the image, letting it dry, and trimming it a bit later. If you are using rice or mulberry paper it needs to dry for at least a half day.

Next, you prepare the main surface by painting on a layer of medium which is composed of 8 parts bees wax and 1 part Damar resin. You start this process by making sure your piece is level. In our case, we used small levels and old pieces of matt board to achieve this.

After you apply the medium you let it cool and then fuse it using heat from a heat gun or a torch. (Using the torch the first couple of times was a bit scary. Mia promised that after you've used it about ten times, you will become comfortable with it; she was right.)

We learned about several ways to transfer images and then we set to work. Mia had more wonderful and inspiring samples of what we could do.

I love the bits of color at the edges of the Jesus and Barbed Wire Heart pieces you see above so that is what I went for.

I used my lino cutting tool to gouge random lines in the base medium, painted wax color on top of those marks and fused them. I did several layers of this process.

Then I took a clay working tool and removed the excess on the surface.

It was interesting to see the way various people use their time. Some folks prepped every base they were given, purchased more and prepped those, too. Then they began finding images. Some people prepped a few surfaces, picked, printed and mounted images and then started the whole process over again. A few of us prepped, printed and began altering just a few pieces. That is what I opted to do. I wanted to get my hands into the creative stuff. By the end of the night (which was about midnight - I want to make sure I get as much done as I can humanly do) I was feeling like I was lagging behind. I still have so many prints that I could make, and I have not even picked the images yet. I want to make sure that I get that done soon.