easter

Meet Judy

we've been looking at dogs online for years and decided to finally get the dog we've been wanting now that we live in a space that permits pets. We rescued Judy (named after Judy Chicago) from a shelter in Downey, CA. She's between 1 and 2 years old and appears to be a mix of an italian greyhound and a chihuahua: she arrived sick with kennel cough just a few days ago so she has a runny nose, sneezes, and coughs (we have medications and she should get better in a week or two), exploring her new home, how small Judy can get

moving

we have until the end of the month to transfer our lives to our new studio space: a new place means new keys, a view from the loft down at the studio moving in mess below, one last trip to MVPs on 4th for good measure...

studio move coming up

we are excited to be in the planning stages of moving into a new studio space here in Long Beach later next month. heres a preview of where Joe and I will be making art for the foreseeable future...

P.S mark your calendars: tina's MFA show is scheduled to open Sunday March 17th from 5-7pm and run through Thursday March 21st

Torrance Art Museum opening

In addition to being featured in the most recent New American Paintings, Joe had a painting of his included in a great group painting exhibition at the Torrance Art Museum that opened this past weekend. These images are from the opening reception, which had a crowd of about 400 people. You can see Joe's painting in the first image on the right side, and in the second image just left of Tina's left shoulder. He is also included in another group painting show coming this weekend in Los Angeles. Big congrats to Joe!

holiday food post

some foods we documented during our Seattle vacation- oysters from Pike Place market, a snapshot from our 2nd annual Portland visit to the Deschutes Brewery tasting of some of the newest beers, yummy tacos from Portland taqueria porque no?, the gum alley of Seattle, drinks in the bar at Anthony's waiting for Mom, Jim and Vanessa to arrive for a family meal, a fresh duck that Stephen was getting ready to prepare for Christmas dinner (we left before it was finished...Tina couldn't do it...)

time with family

We didn't have a chance to visit with everyone we wanted too, but we were able to spend time with both of our families before heading back home this week. It was great to catch up with who we could and hopefully we can visit again sometime soon- Tina and her sister Vanessa had time to bond over shopping in the U District at some of Tina's favorite shops (like moksha and goodwill on the ave), Charissa and Malachi in a rare quiet moment, Joe's favorite picture of Christmas morning at the Lloyds, a glimpse of the larger extended Lloyd Family Christmas, Tina's Grandma Linville 

seattle holidayz

we were fortunate to have the opportunity to go home to seattle for the holidays (BIG thanks to Dan & Joanne and Lorrie & Jim for making it happen) and here's some snapshots we thought we'd share from our 2012 christmas adventures- seattle all dressed up for christmas, wandering and feeling nostalgic for the gray cloudy skies, coat weather and pine trees, one of Joanne's nativity scenes, the weather, a place for claremont this christmas, still life of the aftermath of christmas morning

catch up

its been a while and as we are getting ready to head to Seattle for christmas we thought we would do a quick visual recap of some highlights of the past month- as seen on Facebook, we prepared a casual version of a traditional thanksgiving dinner this year making turkey burgers, sweet potato fries and some green beans with goat cheese, joe started a new job in November as a design consultant for a custom closet company (new work shoes pictured), Tina gave her first art lecture at Biola University followed by studio visits with graduating seniors earlier in December, finals are finally over for the Fall 2012 semester and here is an image to remember the semester by, a quick snapshot of a color theory presentation on the color pink

joshua tree anniversary weekend

we knew we would be too busy on our actually anniversary day (November 8th = 4 years of marriage) to do anything special so we decided to go camping at Joshua Tree the weekend before to celebrate: driving through Joshua Tree National Park, looking out from the campsite, shadows and landscape, a portrait of the desert sun as seen blazing past tina's neck, joe the explorer, timer pictures on rocks

fish pumpkin

a 2012 joe + tina halloween- inspiration images for our pumpkin, an action shot of Joe getting into it with the wood carving tools, pumpkin seeds, meet fish pumpkin

next year: shark pumpkin.

orange county fair

some friends introduced us to the orange county fair last weekend: the crowds and the ferris wheel, joe's fried frog legs which tasted like a mixture between chicken and fish, a food booth color scheme and matching garbage can, and finally, pig races (photo lifted from the internet).

building a couch

Tina and I decided to build our own couch. I drew some sketches and was inspired by the simple construction and design of mid century plywood furniture and the unfinished/exposed look of Restoration Hardware's Deconstructed Furniture Line. These qualities seemed simple enough to replicate because  the way real furniture is built and upholstered seemed like a lot of work and skill. I used salvaged plywood leftover from some sculptures I made. I ended up with a sort of plywood bench/love seat. Tina chose raw silk as the upholstery and she mixed several samples of dye, we decided on a bright warm blue.