Creativity in the local Brew Pubs Catches the Wall Street Journal's attention

This past Christmas Eve the Wall Street Journal gave some Bend, Oregon restaurants the holiday gift of an endorsement.  Reporter Adam Thompson wrote a piece for Off the Beaten Path on what to do, where to stay and where to try Deschutes County's local brews.

Among the list are some of my personal favorites including two businesses for whom I've created art: Deschutes Brewery and Jen's Garden. Though it's not a brew pub, Jen's Garden made the list, an accomplishment it fully has earned.

Many years ago I created the holiday Jubilale label for Deschutes Brewery (the second year of their annual artist label).

The painting "Jen's Garden" is in the restaurant above the fireplace.

It's been an honor to be involved with these two very creative companies. I recommend you visit both restaurants when visiting Bend.

New Retablos of the Guadalupe, Conquistadora and Others for Christmas Shows

Owning a piece of beautiful art may be easier than you think. Meeting the challenging economy head-on, art galleries are working hard to present collectors with affordable art pieces.

To make a series of affordable retablos, I put giclee prints of images from my Hispanic Culture art series of retablos and santos on hardwood panels. Hand rolling and cutting clay into a variety of shapes including leaves, crosses, birds and more I fired those then mosaiced them onto the hardwood. I painted the hardwood with a variety of gorgeous abstract colors then layered that with figurative leaves and flowers created with metallic paint.
The retablos are 15" across x 21" tall and sell for about $598.00.

This holiday season, three galleries are carrying my new series of retablos: These retablos retail for $598.00.

ChimMaya Gallery, 5283 East Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA
www.Chimmaya.com 323-869-8881

High Desert Gallery with locations in Bend, Oregon.
www.HighDesertGallery.com 541- 388-8964 or toll free 866-549-6250.

Suzanne Etienne Art Gallery, Ashland, Oregon. 541-482-1766
www.SuzanneEtienne.com

Contact the galleries to purchase one of these pieces.
www.CristinaAcosta.com

Easy Cookies for a Crowd

School events, holidays, potlucks and parties are busy enough without making yourself crazy with complicated baking. This cookie recipe is easy to modify and makes a bunch of small cookies. I usually make three kinds of cookies from one batch. Divide this dough into portions and add different ingredients and you'll have a batch of cookies for any occasion.

Tools: Blender / Vitamix or Food Processor or by hand, Oven, 

Baking Pans: 2 to 4 large cookie sheets - as many as your oven can handle at once

Yield: about 12 dozen
Baking time: 6 - 8 minutes. Assembly time including overall baking time, about 45 - 60 minutes
Oven 400 F (preheat for at least 5 minutes)

• 2 Cups Butter softened
• 1 T. vanilla
• 4 eggs large - beaten
• 1 1/2 C. Sugar - Mexican Moreno sugar, organic "white" sugar or light Brown sugar (or a combination)
• 3 to 3 1/2 Cups flour - unbleached white or add in some whole grain if you prefer, though the texture will change.
• 2 t. cream of tartar
• 1/2 sea salt
  
  Optional ingredients:

1. 1/2 C. colored sugar - roll teaspoon of dough in sugar before setting on baking sheet.
2. 1 C. Chocolate drops - add to dough or insert large drops on top of single cookie
3. 1 C. powdered sugar - when cookies are warm from the oven, put them in a paper bag and gently turn them in the sugar until completely coated. Repeat process again when they are cool if desired.
4. 1 C. dried fruits and nuts - add to dough
5. spices - 2 t. cinnamon, 2 t. ginger, 1/2 cloves for spice cookies. Adjust amounts to taste.
   
   Directions:
   Mix together dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
   
   In a mixing bowl whip butter with sugar until fluffy. Add vanilla and beaten eggs and whip for a few more seconds until everything is mixed. Reduce mixer speed to low and pour the dry mixture in gradually. The dough will stiffen, so you may need to finish mixing by hand. Note that the dough should be just dry enough to roll into little balls. Don't add all of the flour at once. Put in enough to get it to a fluffy, soft texture that is more on the wet side than the dry.
   If you want to make more than one variety of cookie, divide the dough into portions and add the optional ingredients or plan for them depending upon the cookie you want.
   
   Drop by small spoonfuls on greased baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake for 6 - 8 minutes and remove onto a rack to cool.

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Color Consulting and Interior Lighting

Color and light are part of any interior design or home remodel project. Here are some of my recent blog entries from my blog ColorConversations.com
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Nature's Lovers - Green and Purple in Your Home Landscape artists often refer to the color combination of violet/purple and green as “Nature’s Lovers”. Not only do purple and green look good together on an artist’s canvas, they can look amazing together in your home. From soft gray violet to deep amethyst purples, painting your walls your favorite shade of purple will go with more colors than you might think. Here’s why . . . .READ MORE

Are Color Trends a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy? According to Ford Motor Co., and PPG Industries (Pittsburgh Paint), car buyers in the U.S. still vote with their wallets for the color silver as the most popular car color in the U.S. for the 9th year in a row. Colors trailing behind silver are white, then black. The rest of the automobile color line-up varies by city and region.. . . READ MORE

Painting Your Garage Door Trim When color consulting with clients who are choosing exterior paint colors I often suggest they don’t call attention to their garage. This advice doesn’t work for every house or every client, but it’s worth considering. Here’s why. . . READ MORE

Interior Lighting and Your Eyesight - Do you need stronger glasses or more light? Even though you’ve gotten a bit older, it’s not necessarily true that you need stronger glasses (though a doctor has the last word). Sometimes, the lighting in your home is the problem. Though a room may seem well lit to one person, another person may perceive the same room as poorly lit. . . . READ MORE

www.CristinaAcosta.com

Back to My Roots: Mexican-American Style Clay Ornaments

One of the strange things about life is that things from my earliest years of life come back into my life in different ways. This seems to happen more lately. Maybe it's an artistic cycle of some sort.

How it happens is interesting. I get "stuck" in one aspect of my artistic work, so I do something that is very easy for me. Which is why I buy 100 pounds of clay now and then so I can play with making terracotta tiles or tile-like ornaments.

I've been a little stuck lately so out came the clay. I ended up making clay crosses, clay Jewish stars, and clay birds. Just in time for holiday gifts. It's fun. Making decorative clay pieces like this reminds me of some of the Mexican-American or Chicano crafts I would see growing up in Southern California. It's comforting to me as well as somehow seems to open the gates of creative flow within me.

So if you're stuck in some aspect of art (or life) maybe this approach will work for you. Not that you have to make terracotta ornaments. Sometimes I'll make hand-patterned fabrics to wear as sarongs or paint ties for my husband. Whatever it is, it's something I can completely relax with. Opening the kiln is always fun. Kind of like baking bread, but with a more permanent result.

www.CristinaAcosta.com

Helvetica - How a Letterform Became Part of All of our Lives

The movie Helvetica is a documentary about a type-face. Before you yawn-off (or click-out), wait a minute. Helvetica is a good movie. Really. At least for anybody interested in any of the arts, design, architecture and fashion fields.

Back in the mists of time when signs were actually hand-painted, I used to paint Helvetica as a letterform (type-form) on advertising billboards. (I was a billboard painter.) Helvetica was always a bit awkward to paint as it's roots were not from the brush and chisel roots of all of western languages letterforms, but from the machine age.

For more of an explanation about the roots of letterforms you must see the movie. Besides setting up the history of typography well, Helvetica the film has interviews with a variety of graphic designers who have completely opposite or divergent opinions about design from each other along with examples of their work so the viewer can make their own judgments.

Listening to contradictory opinions and design theories warms my heart. Strange -- but it does. I love that artists and critics do have strong opinions. And that they change those opinions. Been there, done that, over it is a credo that sits side-by-side with the purity of obsession over one thing for the rest of one's life.

About a week after seeing the movie Helvetica I was working with a designer on a logo I recently did for our family business, www.StandUpPaddleFlatwater.com. She was going through her list of fonts when I saw a name that intrigued me. "Let me see the font Switzerland," I asked her, wondering if what I thought I might see would be something funny.

I did see something funny. Switzerland looked almost exactly liked Helvetica. I don't know the history behind the Switzerland font, but I get the joke. Helvetica is a German made (and owned) type font that was originally supposed to be named after Switzerland. They changed the spelling slightly for the times. It was a marketing ploy of some type (see the movie). In response, somebody made a competing type form they titled Switzerland. A subtle joke tucked into a list of fonts. That's the kind of meaning in an everyday object that keeps the art world inspiring.

www.CristinaAcosta.com

I'm Teaching an Art Workshop October 24th and 25th in Bend, Oregon

A6 - Atelier 6000 in Bend, Oregon near the Old Mill District is a wonderful printmaking studio with a bright and light energy. It's a wonderful place to practice your art form.
Here's the class info:

When: October 23rd (evening artist talk); October 24th and 25th
Where: 389 SW Scalehouse Ct., Suite 120, Bend, OR 97702
Call: 541.728.8527 for cost and additional details.
Cost: $115.00

Class Info:
Bring flowing creativity into your artwork. Cristina is teaching a art workshop at Atelelier 6000 focusing on using painting and optionally mono-printing to work with the concepts. Invite freedom and flow into your art and jump-start your creativity in this exciting class that breaks down the barriers between the artistic practices of painting and printmaking. Veteran artists Pat Clark and Cristina Acosta will demonstrate their process and techniques for you. You’ll learn to combine painting and printmaking techniques to create something new and different. Not only will you be inspired, informed and empowered, you’ll have accumulated class techniques and processes to inform a portfolio of unique drawing and painting outcomes.

Cristina Acosta is teaching a residency Oct 24 & 25 from 10 a..m. - 3:30 pm entitled Printmaking as a Vehicle to Painting. Registration is underway. Cost of the workshop is $115. For a description of the workshop check out the website at www.atelier6000.com


www.CristinaAcosta.com

University of Oregon Board of Visitors for the School of Architecture and Allied Arts

Attending the University of Oregon and graduating with a BFA degree in Painting was a wonderful time of my life. I put myself through school working as a window and sign painter along with some generous scholarships that enabled me to finish a studio degree in painting. Frank Okada, Ron Graf, Morales and others were professors that made a deep and lasting impact on me and the art I've gone on to create.

I'm proud and honored to have been invited to serve on the Board of Visitors for the University of Oregon's School of Architecture and Allied Arts. I encourage readers with the funds to donate to consider this college as a worthy cause. Here's some of the info about the BOV from the U O:

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University of Oregon Board of Visitors

What is the Board of Visitors?

The Board of Visitors was established in 1987 as an advisory group of distinguished University of Oregon alumni and friends representing the departments and programs of the School of Architecture and Allied Arts. Our goal is to support the school in developing the highest quality of its educational programs by establishing strong connections between the school and the professional community.

Who are the Board of Visitors?

Members of the board are accomplished professionals with a shared commitment to make themselves available as professional resources for students and faculty; to increase professional and alumni outreach and communications; and to assist the school in attracting investment in research, instruction, and service.

(I'm the woman second from the top on the right side in the tiger stripe sweater)

www.CristinaAcosta.com

Thinking About Color Changes

The changing colors of the season inspire me to write about color. Here is a list of my most recent articles about color from my blog ColorConversations.com:

Blanca, The Color White - I was looking at the color white last week and realized that for me, white had became a symbol of global interconnection. How did a color I see every day suddenly have a new meaning? Here’s what happened. . . . .

Color and Design Concepts - Repetition and Variation (and a Snake) - Good design snakes our attention. Here’s why. Looking at too much of the same thing can turn a good thing into a nothing. That is, nothing you’d notice or want to look at. Too much of the same thing sends our brain to sleep. Maybe not literally, but our attention drifts and we’re on to the next thing. Our human brains are on the alert for differences. That alertness informs us when. . . .

Color Meanings, Color Symbology and Color Psychology - You may not know this, but you were covered in color symbolism, meanings and psychology from the day you saw your first pink or blue baby blanket. Scientists, religions, governments, mystics and artists have always assigned meaning to colors over the centuries of human kind and there’s no way to get away from those meanings. . . . .

www.CristinaAcosta.com

Gracias to Latina Magazine for the Article!

Angie Romero, a writer for Latina magazine wrote this piece, Madonna Mia about my art exhibit, Reshaping the Divine. Thanks Angie for supporting my work. Here's an excerpt from Latina:

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My older sister was named Maria Auxiliadora, after the Virgin Mary. Maria is a very predictable name for a Latina, but my mom named her that because she was in a near-fatal car accident when she was pregnant with her firstborn, so she promised la virgen that if she and her baby survived, she’d be forever grateful. To this day, she is a devout Catholic. Me, I’m more spiritual, but that’s another story for another day.

I recently received an email from an artist who did a whole collection of Madonnas (as in the mother of Christ, not the queen of pop). Cristina Acosta was born in L.A. to an Anglo American mom and Mexican American dad. Her paternal roots date back to New Mexico in the late 1500s. Growing up, she says she was always fascinated by that side of her family tree.

Her Madonnas (my favorite of which is “La Sirena Verde,” which Acosta painted for her sister to celebrate her recovery from cancer) are painted with oil, sterling silver, copper, gold metal leaf, and inlays of antique, gold-glazed ceramic tiles. They often delve past the dawn of Christianity and also represent the earth religions of the Native Americans. . . . READ MORE at Latina
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www.CristinaAcosta.com

Scam Artists on the Internet Target Real Artists

Con artists spend their creativity and intelligence tricking people so that they can steal their money. Even if you get away from a scam artist with your bank balance intact, you've still had your time stolen. Either way, it's a loss of potentially positive energy on both sides of the relationship.

Yesterday, a woman called me to get my bank information. She claimed to be a kindergarten administrator from Australia who wanted an illustration of mine for a cookbook she was putting together for a worthy cause. She had sent me an email introducing herself and her project and we'd entered a amicable email conversation of about 3 or 4 letters. The money she offered me was fair for her type of project. She called and had a lovely Australian accent and acted very friendly when she asked me for my bank account number and routing information. I told her I'd send her the information the next morning.

I did my due diligence and checked out the school she mentioned. There was no school by that name at that address. If there had been, I would have contacted them directly to confirm her position and project. That, along with a few other complications to the transaction were big red flags. She didn't get the financial information she requested from me. I'd wasted time I could have spent more positively.

Having an internet site for over a decade, I've been the target of quite a few of these scammers. It's always a sad waste of time. I've been written to and called by so many of these people over the years that I am very careful about doing business with anyone who insists on discussing money with me without being transparent as to who they are.

Scammers often target visual artists, probably because we have the reputation of being a bit naive to business practices and we usually have items to sell that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. Considering how many astute people were taken advantage of by Bernard Madoff, I can't guarantee that my advice is fail-safe, but it's a start. Here are some red flags I want to share with you so that you can recognize these thieves:

• HASTE: They are in a hurry. Some sort of time urgency is making it necessary for them to hurry the process and they need your help.
• MOBILITY: They are often moving around between foreign countries or cities which causes some sort of extenuating circumstance.
  
• PAYMENT: They have excuses about how they need to pay you. Maybe their Visa doesn't work, or they claim to live in a town without a proper bank or Western Union office. (This often segues with the mobility theme.)
  
• KICKBACKS: They want you to send them back the "extra" money that they insert into the transaction to "cover fees".
• OPACITY: They aren't upfront with who they are, their phone number, where they live, what their project is, etc. Double checking their phone numbers often leads to dead-ends. If they claim to be somebody, check out their claim thoroughly and be sure to call the person.
• COST OF YOUR ART OR ART SERVICE: They insist on "talking" to you through email and want your pricing information without giving any information of their own. They often offer to pay more than your price.
  

So what do you do if you have a legitimate international art customer or art collector interested in your art work? You can't always tell if an art customer is honest. The best you can do is put in place some financial safeguards.

• BANKING: Work with your bank to set up an account that you use ONLY for these type of transactions. Explain your business to the bank officer and they will help you put safeguards into place that minimize the risk you undertake when handing out your bank account and routing information. One of the dangers my banker explained is that with the account number the thieves will create bogus checks to withdraw money from the account.
  
• VISA AND OTHER CREDIT CARDS: Call the company to additionally verify the legitimacy of the card number and info you receive.
• WESTERN UNION: Don't give ANYBODY a kickback for fees. If they want to use Western Union to transfer money to you, they will absorb the fee. Western Union will wire the money to the Western Union office you designate. You DO NOT NEED TO GIVE ANYBODY YOUR BANK INFO TO GET A WESTERN UNION PAYMENT!! Be sure to check out the Western Union website and to call for more information.
• SHIPPING YOUR ART: Regardless of the delivery system you use - whether you are shipping original art or sending electronic files, do not send anything until the money has cleared the bank. Again, talk to your banker and rely on their advice.
  

www.CristinaAcosta.com

Why Should You Paint Your Ceiling White?

During a color consulting appointment clients will often remark that they are nervous choosing a paint color for their ceiling. There are far more reasons to not paint a ceiling white than you'd think. In situations where white is the perfect color to use, it is successful only because it is used very consciously as a color -- not a knee-jerk reaction to getting out of the paint store sooner than later. I posted a piece about the color white on my color blog. Here's the lead.
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Painting your ceiling white is not necessary or even always a good idea. White paint will not always make your room look larger, cleaner and more fashionable. Sometimes white will seem to expand the size of a room, but sometimes it’s a big mistake. Mostly, people paint their ceilings white because they don’t know what else to do.

I’m not exactly sure when white ceilings became fashionable, though I suspect the country’s fascination with white paint began in 1893 at the Chicago World’s Fair. The famed White City at the World’s Fair included a complex of buildings and streets over an area of hundreds of acres. Buildings were finished with white stucco and brightly lit with the new-fangled street lights. Acres of radiant whiteness must have been an entrancing alternative to the dark countryside and dimly lit city streets filled with dark tenement buildings.

Then, about thirty-five years later, the Great Depression. . . READ MORE at Color Conversations with Cristina.

Color Consulting Architectural Project Portfolio

Creating color plans for residential, commercial and institutional buildings is a fascinating way to put color theory into practice. Color is a language that exists in the spoken and written word as symbol and metaphor. I love the challenge of translating the subconscious and conscious reactions of my clients to color into a color plan that they love.

Read more about my color advice at Color Conversations with Cristina
Hire me as your color expert:
Cristina Acosta Art & Design llc, Certified Minority Contractor

www.CristinaAcosta.com

Change a Few Colors Instead of Repainting Your Entire House

I posted a new entry on Color Conversations with Cristina. I wrote about how to fix an exterior house paint project that didn't turn out quite like you'd expected. Here's the lead:

Are you ready for a home makeover but you don’t want to break the bank? Have you ever painted your house and when it was done, wondered why the paint job didn’t look as good as you thought it would? Changing paint colors doesn’t have to be a complete re-do. With a few strategic changes of color you can get the look and pizzaz you want by changing only the colors or areas that make the most difference, rather than repaint the entire exterior of your home. . . . .READ MORE

www.CristinaAcosta.com

Bragging About My Kid's Artwork

Isabella Acosta Barna's paintings

Please forgive me, but I'm a mom and I am so proud of my daughter, Isabella Acosta Barna, that I just have to brag a bit. Isabella's greeting cards are for sale at the Clinton Presidential Library Gift Shop!!

And, a portion of every sale funds The Alliance for a Healthier Generation.

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation Youth Advisory Board and Empower Me 2 Be (of which Isabella is a board member) is on task to halt the increase in childhood obesity. Last year the Alliance asked Isabella to make some images using their color scheme that convey health. They would then choose one or more to use in their outreach.

The slide show of Isabella's art work has a photo of her at work in her respirator, carefully layering stencils and other collage materials on her piece as she paints. This was a great opportunity for her to work within the client's design and concept parameters as she explored how to creatively fulfill those guidelines.

Isabella is a strong and independent artist -- which means that I had nothing to do with the outcome of these images beyond explaining to her the mental/artistic process of how to approach this type of project. I love her final images -- they are beautiful!

And as a mom and an artist, I'm glad my child likes to make art. Presenting art to a kid and knowing when to slip in a little teaching now and then is a very fluid experience over their lifetime. There is no one right way to encourage creativity. My approach is to have the tools and time available and then to be a good example of working my own creative process.

www.CristinaAcosta.com