Art on display

At my local library, I gave some carved chicken eggshells to the people that works there. They didn't want them to take home, they wanted to be dispayed in a visible place to share with people that goes there. Since then I have added some more to their collection.
When I've been there and heard kids ask. "Who does that?" I yell and say "ME", kids stare at me ----usually someone that works there has to confirm my statement--- and then they start to ask me all kind of questions.

Pair of cats

It took me many weeks, not to draw it but to get the courage to sit and start this challenging drawing of these beautiful cats, because the color and because were TWO in one picture.
At first, I felt that I didn't have the skills to do it but I felt that I have to do it. It took me several hours of frustation and work because I couln't justify the beauty, color, shade and liveness of the cats. Finally I gave up and stopped it, a little depressed I showed the drawing to a lady, she looked at it, then looked right at my eye and told me that it was a picture. At first I felt bad because she made me feel that I was lying, then I felt it as a complement and achievement because I had fooled her eyes.
This drawing was commissioned by very nice lady. When she saw the drawing, she liked it very much. This lady owns a large private collection of drawings with same technique - pastel drawings -. most of them with diferent themes and styles. I feel privileged to be one of her favorite artists.

Chicken carved eggshells

At first I started carving goose eggshells, then I tried on chicken eggshells (because are more challenging...and cheep!) I started giving them to friends, colleages, and people that works, like in my favorite coffee shop or grocery store. People gets very excited when they get'em as a gift and I feel fortunate to make them feel that they are special people to me.
Once I was with some friends in a coffee shop with carved chicken eggshells on the table, some people went to the door---staring at the eggshells--- at the door they came back to ask if they were real chicken eggshells.

Silhouettes

I helped my local library to raise some money doing silhouettes. Although I'm new doing this, I feel very confortable. I know that I need to practice more and that's what I do anytime I can.
I have done silhouettes for money, the first time that I did it was at a fancy hotel in San Francisco for the "San Francisco Opera silence Auction" People were dressed to kill, they were really nice and they liked my job very much, then I thought "if I can please this people, I can please anyone".

Doing poodles

I'm here with two fellow artists ready to work at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, the funny thing is that we were hired with the condition that we had to do only poodles...and we were told not to use marker to draw on them. I, and my fellow friends felt stupid because we do all kind of figures and here we are doing only one single figure---well, it maybe could be justified, they were hundreds of siniors and the person in charge wanted us to make one balloon for each person.

Commission

A young lady asked my do a lamp-ostrich eggshell for her best friend and gave me the picture of what she wanted on it. She was very happy when she saw it done.

Silhouette carved -through-an ostrich eggshell

At first I called "MOON--ing 2" because it's similar to the other moon-carving. I carved this silhouette on a half ostrich eggshell to be hang on the wall.

Silhouette carved on an ostrich eggshell

At first I called "MOON-ing". The idea is, "What do you see?" Some people see first the silhouette of a child and sometimes they see the moon first. This technique is carving little by little to make the shell - ostrich eggshell - thinner to let ligh past trough, it has to be even, otherwise you will see spots.

Butterfly on an eggshell

This is one of the first carvings that I did over an Ostrich eggshell after of overcoming the fear of breaking it. They are not cheap!

Eggshell as a tray

And the shell becames a container for nuts with or without shell. An ostrich eggshell.

Lamps in a bath

At first the idea was to do the three ostrich eggshells, vertically but later on I decided to do the one on the middle, horizontally. The owners were very happy.

Relief

I went to Oregon to take a class of cob construction, we were told that we could do figures over the walls with cob and let us practice to do something. The wise boss was passing by and he was the inspiration to do his portrait in relieve.
The day after I did the portrait I was asked to do a sun over the wall.

Drawn cat

A lady asked me if I knew how to draw animals and showed me the picture of her beautiful cat. I did thid drawing with pastel pencils, first time that I drew an animal and first time that I used colors.

drawn potrait

I did this portrait a like in in March of 2009, I did during a portraiture class.

Portrait on an eggshell

This is has been the most challenging eggcarving, doing a portrait on an ostrich eggshell. I have to carve it on the ligh areas (working in the darkeness with a little ligh inside of the shell), doing the opposite when doing a drawing with pencil over paper. It's tricky for the brain to do that because usually you pay attention to the dark areas when drawing.
When I finished I showed it to the aunt of the "model" and she thought that I just had glued the picture over the eggshell, she got puzzled when I turned off the light to show her that it was carved.