What art I have art still in the prep stage so I will show you my other art which is cooking. I mentioned in a previous post that I was experimenting duplicating PC Chang chicken wrap. Well after two hours of chopping and mincing onions, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, shitake mushrooms, garlic, ginger root and crumbling dry chile plus finally chopping chicken breasts into smaller than bite sized then sauteing them in hoison and soy sauce (I didn’t use sugar but sprinkled healthy cayenne powder), I was plenty happy with my result and was even more delighted that it passed the husband test once he served himself a couple of lettuce wraps and experienced the fresh crunch followed by an explosion of flavors from the ingredients. Pictured here are just the chopped vegetables. I hand chop because I don’t have a food processor and also because I enjoy chopping. It’s like laying my colors on the palette before a painting 🙂
Today I had the pleasure of grating fresh Parmesan block and chopping with my Braun Handblender. To my surprise it worked! I made PESTO! And I stayed true to using only fresh ingredients so the basil leaves were from the garden (my neighbor’s lol!). And OH MY GOD!!!! It is DELICIOUS! Thanks to my dear friend Hillary for her recipe which I cross checked with Martha Stewart’s who also has the recipe! I do believe that next time I make this, I will revert back to hand chopping so the basil will make my hands smell very Italian rather than the container 🙂 Man, it was like watching a kid liking the blender after making cookies – I loved the flavor! Then I saved the majority of it in an egg crate and threw them in the fresher so I can have pesto anytime I want. I picture it on melba toast with chopped sundried tomatoes and maybe some goat cheese, on veggies, on baked chicken breasts and of course on pasta!

Now I was chatting today with yet another nationally known local artist Charles Harrington. I want to congratulate him for being chosen as one as not only one of the artists for Arkansas 2009 calendar but the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion also purchase his piece and made it the cover! Please click on the image to see the beautiful piece of art by Charles. I am a proud owner of a giclee on canvas of this painting. I get such a thrill when my taste in art gets a nod from the art community. I do love to paint and I also love having other artists’ works on my wall to inspire me. Charles has also written a book for Northlight “Acrylics, The Watercolor Alternative” and a couple instructional videos as well.

And it’s not released yet but fellow artists and art enthusiasts, I’m excited about this movie which opens early November called “Local Color” Based on life of artist George Gallo whose love for representational art will simply embrace you. All I can say is, THANK YOU plein air art fever, thank you Richard Schmid and other great artists and supporters of plein air art, and daily painters, you all have kept the fire burning for representational art. I mean I love abstract and other contemporary art that are less representational, but nothing really touches my soul like flesh on flesh like a good piece of discernible (lol) imagery created by a wonderful marriage of inspiration, skill and imagination.