Here are some of our most recent items. We are enjoying finding lots of wood in the streets (left out as garbage) and unique items to work on as our surface for our art. Here Blake worked on a series of floor slats and I worked on a small wood scrap.
Blake and I both enjoy working in series with our artwork. These are 2 of our most recent series of works. Blake painted 9 faces of people from Argentina and I painted as well as combined photographs of the Recoleta Cemetary.
Blake finished the 3rd of his large panels of wood with illustrative images of people from Argentina. He has also oil painted a tree image on four strips of wood collaged with book pages.
These images are more experiments with new techniques. The copper leaf looks very much like the gold one I did a few weeks ago. The black and white images are photos of wires (telephone, cable, etc) on little canvases mounted on wood. The last thing (3 diagonal canvases) is an experiment with paint, vellum, and varnish.
Blake has taken advantage of many found objects including 3 large wood pieces that were the lids for wooden crates at a car dealership--he has done 2 large, very detailed paintings of people in Argentina. Here are some detail photos as well as a drawing on handmade paper.
We have been spending all of the month of January working on new artwork in our apartment. We have been able to find several wood pieces on the street (discarded from stores and buildings) that have worked well for creating interesting compositions. The gold leaf piece shown here is a piece of wood from an old bakery--it was an orangeish/red shelf that I covered in gold leaf and added the black silhouette of ironwork. 2 other pieces are wax encaustic over book pages and photos. The drip paintings are 2 examples of a series of 8 that I have finished.
Saturday we moved ourselves across the city to another neighborhood called Palermo Viejo. This area has tree-lined streets, lots of boutique shops, and restaurants. It does not feel as "urban" as San Telmo where we had our first apartment. We will be in this location for the next 4 months and then one more move to another apartment for the last 2 months. It is a very unique apartment because it is split off into 3 small levels. On the 1st level we have a combined kitchen, dining room, and living room plus a terrace with an umbrella table and chairs. On the 2nd level we have a bathroom and a bedroom and another small terrace off our bedroom. The 3rd level is entirely outside, with a brick, charcoal grill, a table and chairs on an open terrace. There is a covered section with an outdoor sink and some storage too. We are really enjoying the outdoor space since it is the middle of summer here. One of our favorite aspects is the ivy covered walls on all of our patio/terraces.
This neighborhood of Buenos Aires is known mostly for its brightly painted buildings and the beginnings of Tango (as it is danced, sung, and played in Argentina). There is often a very busy market there on the weekends filled with artisans and dancers. La Boca, means "the mouth", because it is located at the mouth of the Rio La Plata. Early and mid-20th century it used to be a very busy and working port. It has since fallen into disrepair, but remains an area where people visit to see Tango and to get a little h
istory of BA. 
We returned to Buenos Aires, Argentina on December 28th. We celebrated New Year's with some American friends, Robert and Susannah, whom we met right before returning to the U.S. for a month. We made dinner and watched fireworks displays around the city from our balcony. It has been really hot here, ranging from about 95-100+ degrees everyday and high humidity. It was quite different being in such a hot location for New Year's--but we really enjoyed it.
