Ms. Dana Elizabeth

An art exhibition to benefit students in Western Kenya In 2005 and 2006 Dana lived and volunteered at the Nehemiah Miwani Center, a sustainable community farm supporting orphans and families in Miwani , Kenya .  Afternoons painting watercolors turned into weeks teaching art at the local schools . She returned to Bainbridge, suitcases full, with a promise to show the art of Kenya´s kids . Finally for the first time ever her watercolor memories are going to be displayed up along with the dreams of her students . Come see and support these dreams ! Open house , meet the artist Sunday December 18th 3-5pm Exhibition runs December 1st-31st 2011 at Treehouse Café 4569 Lynwood Center Road NE Bainbridge Island, WA 98110 (206) 842-2814 Thats right, 60 Kenyan students' drawings framed and priced, 8 personal watercolors done signed, matted and framed, paintings scanned and ready for prints, posters up, Facebook page qued and

As a high school student in 2004 I stayed with a family in Nicaragua for two weeks as part of a student exchange for our sister island assoication ( BOSIA ). That trip has opened so many doors in my life not to mention led me half way around the world to study spanish, fall in love, and get married, to mention a few. And the most amazing part is that in three weeks I return full circle. This time around my husband and I will be leading a group of students and staying in a town called Sacramento, only a 15 minutes bike ride from my original town of La Paloma. Students from Bainbridge take two weeks to serve, build community, and make friends disconnecting from the world of ipods and cars. Day in and day out they connect with local, geuine people, spend evenings chatting in Spanish, sit on neighbors porches exchanging culture, and see a life truely beyond what they know and expect. And now the world of Social Media jumps in! I have kept in touch with my family through letters here an

Sometimes I wonder where my hunger for color comes from. There are days where I would like to do nothing more than paint a giant bright orange stripe across the watercolor sheet. Then of course I would have to spend hours layer more orange and red and yellow into various parts. And maybe some bright blue would be thrown in because those two colors together make something inside me jump in delight. Is it the grey winters in the Northwest that drives my color starvation? I am not a colorful dresser by any means. Look into my closet and greyish greens fades into blacks and browns with the occasional orange scarf. I heard something wonderful the other day in the caboose. There shouldn't be greys and blacks in paintings. It just makes them muddy. Take a closer look at a shadow or a dark spot and you will see the brightest colors. Metephor for life? Perhaps. Color for a grey March morning:   (An eye candy that will have to wait until my Kenya show is finished.)

It pedal to the metal time or rather brush to the canvas because I took a giant leap and scheduled an art show for December 2011. That's 10 months away, but in watercolor time its like three seconds. So I am back painting in the caboose, I have a table set up at home and in between my two/threeish jobs I am a painting fool! In 2005 and 2006 when I spent the summer in Miwani, Kenya, I drew every night with the kids and taught art classes at a local school. All these drawings came home with me along with a promise to put on an art show to raise money for the community. Well its finally going to happen! I have until December to frame all their pieces and finish mine. Once the time gets closer I am hoping to run an article in the newspaper and get a little publicity afterall December is the "season of giving" right? The show is going to be at a restaurant on the Island that has ample wall space, maybe too much, but I am determined to finish at least three big pieces this year

I am shooting for one post a year it looks like. In my defense 2010 was full of moving countries, getting married twice and starting a new life. So painting had to be squeezed into spare moments. However, this piece was not rushed. This is a story of passion, passion flowers. They were my cousin's wedding flower and he asked me to do a piece for his wife for their anniversary. Now of course any painting has to come with a story and this painting has a worldy story. We were living in Chile when I got this commission. And right outside out apartment a passion vine was exploding with blooms. Not only did I get to pick the lighting for my models but I got to choose the perfect flowers for Eric and Liz. And of course because they have a budding baby boy, I had to include him in the painting. This painting has survived an 8.8 earthquake, the chaos of moving continents, and customs officials. So Happy Anniversary Liz just in time for Christmas! Passion Watercolor

Past and Present Watercolor While my imagination runs wild with color and images, I usually tend to stick to painting from photographs that I have taken. I wish I could just paint from my mind, but my detailed obsessive brain wants the image right in front of me. That is why, when my cousin sent me various photos to collage and turn into a painting I was nervous to say the least. I love painting people up close, but she didn´t want people to be the main focus. I don´t do landscape, but she wanted wide open spaces with wind and water and color. So this is me stepping out of my comfort bubble. Two of her children help create the story and one very special character from the past is painted in. She is our grandmother who with her family visited this same beach every summer. Grandma, you have the best seat in the house now. Sitting high above the livingroom, a window into our lives from the beach you loved the most. We love you.