Anahata Katkin

Peep Show

I'm currently hailing from a hotel room in the midwest. I'm in Chicago for a minute and wanted to give you a preview of some new Little Sweetie designs (formerly known as Mini Cards!)  I've whipped up 20 new images that are only 3.5 X 5 inches.  They won't be out for a couple of months still.  I'm feeling really positive about them though.  I'm wanting to combine more and more hand made artwork into my digital pieces.  The image on the lower right is a crop of one of my paintings with just a small digital overlay in the right corner.  And the piece on the upper left has a hand made background from a workshop demo several years ago.  More and more the pull to originals gets stronger.  I wish I had more hands so that I could paint as quick as I can design.  Made by hand or by computer, I'm feeling flowers big time!  I just can't ever get enough of them.  I think freaky people and frou frou florals will always be a signature for me.  I can't wait to share the lithographs and engravings I purchased in Paris.  So many florals.  I'm going to be one rose happy artist for the next year. 

Rare Beauty

Thanks to the YouTube video circling on the internet I have had the pleasure of seeing for my first time the images from the Omo People. A collection of tribes in the Omo Valley of Ethiopia.  They say their incredible body art is purely spontaneous and for their own pleasure and experimentation!  I think I'm from the wrong clan people.

There is a book featuring the photographs of Hans Silvester.  Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa.  Incredibly inspiring images and people.  I have a giant canvas waiting for some Omo inspiration. 

A google images search reveals dozens of ncredible imagery from these beautiful people...

Plum Tuckered...

I'm back in Belize for a minute.  Don't ask me why I have to have such an irradic flight plan as of late.  But having a good life means that it's silly to complain right?  I've been on the go for the past five weeks. But I'm plum tuckered!  My idea of heaven right now would be a movie marathon in pajamas and a very unexciting town that I feel no compulsion to explore.  My Belizean sweet heart and I are headed to the good ol' US of A.  I'm looking forward to taking the time to apply some of the inspiration from the journey back in Oregon.  But first check out my friend Ras Creek and his gourmet fixings.  He made a curry lobster right on the boat that you should fly here just to try.  It puts all that incredible French Fromage to shame!  

Paris...

What the heck right?!  Where have I been?  I always think blogging on the go will be a snap.  But I've lost camera chords, internet connections...the works.  Jenny Sweeney and I are in Paris this week (and last). 

(subway stop) We've had a wild adventure in a city that Jenny says is "Pulp Fiction Fantasy". I left Jenny at the stuffy hotel bar last night and I missed a man getting naked for a fight with the police!  You never know here.  It's so charming and I love the unknown aspect of French personalities!!  I find them rude, charming, authentic and full of self acceptance.  What a trip.  

We've had evenings in catacomb clubs, journaling in the sand forest, shopping in red and blue painted shops, and a wonderful stay at a firends home on the outskirts of Paris.  Her house is the first image above.  A home of three artists on 5 levels and multiple art studios.  The house is a tribute to nearly a century of family artwork, sculpture and study.

We've been high fiving ourselves for managing trains, busses and subways without a lick of French.   We learned that Vodka in France tastes like Molasses and that cheese and bread are the new way of life.  

We are also quickly becoming masters of the SHATH!  The name we've affectionately given to the French, funky shower taken with bathtub spray nozzles.  We haven't scratched the surface of Paris but Paris has definitely left it's mark on us...