The Rocking Dino

When my friend Jess told me she was pregnant with her first child I was ecstatic as she was my first friend to become a mom. I wanted to do something special and create a unique, one-of-a-kind, present for her future little ones.

Back when we lived in North Carolina, I had a small, but functioning, wood shop in the garage where I was able to recreate plant stands and candle lanterns that I couldn’t afford from West Elm. My grandfather, who is a fabulous carpenter, built my sister and I a rocking horse when we were little - and a little lightbulb went off. Jess loves Dinos, Dino…rocker.

Somehow, some other brilliant mind out there, had already decided this was an amazing idea and created a pattern for creation. Bless that soul. This thing was baptism by fire for me. I started, and restarted, this dino at least three times. Scrapped a lot of progress, and learned a lot of what not to do.

I would be out in the garage for hours, to the point my spouse would have to come do a “did you drink water today?” check. This was one of my first large projects and I am still, so incredibly proud of it 4 years later. It can hold a grown 200lb person, and so far my godchild has not destroyed it….to my knowledge.

UWS #3

The painting that (kind of) started it all.

When we first moved to New York City, we had a pre-war apartment on the Upper West Side. Across the street from Central Park, surrounded by amazing Delis, and never in short supply of amazing people watching. We moved in during the height of the pandemic which meant that we spent a lot of time at Central Park. The Park was the best escape and always had something new to look at. One of my favorite regulars was the woman who walked her parrots around the reservoir and the “goldendoodle man”, he walked 8 standard doodles at the same time.

On one of our evening walks to escape the one-bedroom apartment, I took a photo of the evening sky. We were graced with a cotton-candy evening but hovering right above our apartment building was this dark, purple, ominous cloud. It was beautiful.

I knew as soon as I snapped that iPhone photo, I had to recreate it on canvas. I’ve always loved night skies; it is one of the things I missed most about North Carolina evenings and why I love New Mexico. This painting started on canvas paper, then it upgraded to an 8”x10” canvas that I custom built an oak frame for (that one is just for me!). The larger, more in charge(er) version is what I present to you now.

This painting and I have gone through months of not speaking, tears, repaints, and finally acceptance. It’s not perfect. How cliche, but it’s true. It’s not what my brain had hoped for, but it’s everything that it needed to be. It allows for room to create #4, #5….maybe only #5. She is the painting that forced me to say “screw it, why not finally share my art”. Audg Art LLC was opened because of UWS #3 and I’m so glad that it did.

Do one thing a day that scares you, right? Well, UWS #3 terrified me, and I’m so grateful.