Through A Mothers Eyes

As a professional artist and designer I find myself eying other artists work. I have been astounded by my own children's creativity. I want to share them with you. I'm not a bit proud now am I?

Sean (oldest son) has given me such a hard time as he grew up. Never wanting to take part in anything creative. Wow, look what he does now. Don't ever call him an artist though...

Jared (second son) has become an amazing outdoorsman. His love of nature is captured as he fishes (catch and release) the Pacific Northwest fish. His brother, Sean, and he are determined to catch and release every native fish they can find. You can see their adventures on Youtube at:http://www.youtube.com/user/SKsWhiteOaks#p/a/u/1/XUsDU_BXAg8

He uses his bit of spare time teaching himself to play the guitar and  creating marvelous wood crafts with his Shopsmith. Don't call him an artist either. Hmmmm. This is getting old.

Darcy Kay Sartell Jackson (third child, oldest daughter) OK, OK. So I just want to talk about my kids. I guess I have artists in the family whether they want to be or not.


Darcy is a Chef, a creative paper crafts artist , designer, artist, and who knows what else is yet in store.

She has a blast designing and creating cakes. She can design that amazingly specific cake for just about any occasion. Her home is  fun with creative and inexpensive touches everywhere.

Texas and Lizzie (her little ones) benefit from her creativity as well. When do you find the time? Breathe, just breathe.

You can visit her latest creations at: http://myartisticventures.blogspot.com/

As my children get older I have to catch my breath at what they accomplish. Self-taught or maybe a little inherited talent?

Summer Heather lakey (Second daughter and youngest) Of course being the youngest gets Summer the privilege of being called "spoiled" by her older siblings. I disagree. She is just different. And How!

A sociology major, painter, photographer and all around artist, Summer leaves the cake decorating up to her big sister Darcy. She took four years to design her very own wedding cake, which then all three Sartell girls put their hand too.

Summer designed the cake, we  had her hand drawings silk screened in chocolate onto Mylar. I then transferred the designs onto white chocolate and applied the solid white chocolate to the walls of her cake. I added the fresh flowers and put the cake together. Darcy then topped it off with her fancy frosting bead-work.

I have posted a complete "How in world we did it" at the following address. Feel free to take my ideas and run with them. I hope you have three months to spare.

http://sksartellart.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/a-willamette-valley-summer-cake/

Take a look at some of her photography at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2fcSgDyBLY&feature=player_embedded

and

http://www.sksartell.com/SummerFrontPage.htm

I can honestly say " where in world do they get it?"  Lemme' guess... I simply love creative people, whether they admit to being an artist or not! Poor Ron...

See You Soon!

SK Sartell
sartellart@gmail.com
http://www.sksartell.com/

SKs Tree Of Life

Blank spaces whisper to me...Why? I have no clue. I just can't seem to leave things well enough alone. I want everything around me to make me smile. To interest me and keep me guessing.

This little shower held such promise. What could I do to create a sweet space? Some fun. Sooo...I went through buckets of broken tile, granite and marble and found an idea.

Can we create something new and wonderful from leftovers and scrap? Broken junk others would just throw away? I have found this throughout my life. Creating from leftovers or scrap. Make something beautiful, workable and worthy of a smile.

A small rounded corner shower would be fine with simple tile and grout. But what If??? What if I could make it have a life of it's own? A tree built into the corner of this little shower. How do you do that? Hmmm...

Just do it. Make a simple plan and begin. I started drawing a tree on the blank sub-surface of the tile. A brown trunk emerged. A trunk with dark brown marble and granites. Cut them into different shapes and linear forms. Glueing these tiles to form trunk as tree trunk would grow. I then started to add different greens. My plan started to come together as I glued the lighted greens on the left side and added the darker greens going to the right side. I hoped this would add light as if from the sun going from the left to the shadow to the right.

I hand crafted clear round glass tiles with leaves, bugs and textures attached to the back of each clear tile. I then sealed these tiles to be waterproof. I added sparkly jewels and mother of pearl adornments for interest.

I can get over zealous and must remind myself of correct composition and areas which the eye may rest.

I had fun with this and worked many hours so my creation would make me smile for many years.

Have some fun. Create from nothing. Enjoy the scraps of life.

See You Soon!

SK Sartell
sartellart@gmail.com
http://www.sksartell.com/

This Old House Deserves A New Life

Tiling has become a new treat for me. I have no idea how it is supposed to be done properly, so I just go ahead and try lots of different ideas and styles.

Courtney Jones

We have a wonderful guest who keeps us company often. She sings as she makes cookies for White Oaks Bed and Breakfast.

Not just anyone can do both at the same time. But Courtney can dance as she does it. And makes me laugh at the same time. Dizzying.

Courtney Jones New Living Room

 We had the opportunity to give her a hand on one of her many latest projects.

As her husband is gone, this remarkable woman buys and closes a house. We had such fun picking out her colors from her mothers hand-crafted quilt and arranging this cute little bungalow for her husbands return and birthday.

New granite and green glass tile for the hearth and fireplace. Paint colors picked, master bedroom made beautiful and comfy. All for a specially talented girl.

Courtney's Living Room After Being SK'd. She is currently working on her third CD. Check out her last two CDs at http://www.courtneyjonesmusic.com/

See You Soon!

sartellart@gmail.com
http://www.sksartell.com/

Check out SK’s interior design http://www.sksartell.com

You can follow SK on her Ehow posts and Twitter