Yesterday, I forgot to mention another artist who inspires me. Her name is Nathalie Kalbach and she lives in Hamburg, Germany. To find out more about her art, go to http://nathaliesstudio.com/.

I joined the Second Floor Challenge with Nathalie and Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, where they give you a challenge and have to create a piece of art using that challenge. Here are my pieces from the taking it to the second floor:

This piece started out as just circles and became what it  is now. It's called Sea Fairy.
To do this piece, I used a flea market board; Elmer's glue for the circles to create a resist; paint brushes and sponges; acrylic paints: Liquitex Mars Black, Color Traditions Cerulean, Delta Ceramcoat Oaisis Green, and Plaid Aqua; a fairy that I drew and painted, then glued on; a plastic fork; and Jim Holtz Adirondack Silver alcohol ink.

This one was created from using colored pencils; the challenge was to use pencils. I didn't name it, though. It started out as simple geometric shapes in primary colors and ended up like this.

To do this piece, I used: Crayola blue, green, red, and yellow colored pencils; a black Porfolio color pastel crayon; yellow, red, green, and blue acrylic paint; and Plaid Clear Acrylic Sealer Gloss.

This was the third challenge I did. We had to pick only five items and create something. It also has no name.

To create this, I used: a piece of cardboard covered over with Liquitex White Gesso; a picture taken from a recent JC Penney flyer, scanned, and changed to black and white using Corel Painter; and aqua acrylic paint--just five items.

I don't know what the next challenge will be, but I'll be ready for it!

If you or anyone you know is interested in participating in this challenge, check out how to join it at balzerdesigns.com or nathaliesstudio.com.

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SPECIAL ASIDE: A friend of mine, Helena Battle, wrote a book for children that I want to let you know about: Kids--It's OK to Scream Out Loud: to Get Away from a Pedophile Person. It will help kids protect themselves from sexual predators. It can be purchased on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. I had the privilege of editing the book!

I'll be back to you tomorrow, hopefully.