I had a wonderful afternoon yesterday visiting my dear friend Donna Rizzo, she use to be my neighbor but she and her husband bought land out in the country so now it is a hike to get out there. A real needed adventure!

Donna is a fabulous clay artist that has a very unique style. She has a fascinating way of looking at the figure (she was once a modern dancer from Atlanta), she creates all kinds of figures, specially women and animals sometimes with a dance or a twist. I love seeing what she comes up with and the use of all kinds of textures, patterns and the subtle stories in her work.
Here is a mood-board for you to get a glimpse of what I mean. She is someone I have always wanted to do a collaboration with, maybe create some sort of a Riz & Riv collection!

Upon my visit I took my graphite-carbon disc by ArtGraf (the best) and a Sumi-E Paper to tryout once again the creation of textures using lace taught by @noa-ambar-regev  At first I had a hard time making an effective rubbing or “a frottage” when I tried it a few days ago in my studio, but now at Donna’s place things were happening very well! …I was puzzled as to why? And then I realized that I was working on one of “Donna’s solid, stiff, hard table” versus “My softer, cutting board, vinyl covered table”, which I use. I found that it is essential to have a hard surface for this method to work well.
In the end I did a total of 18 sheets of paper, and it was so easy. Donna did have the box of old textured lace, textured paper, rubber mats with designs, her wonderful clay stamps, and then the fabulous stash of vintage cloths, plastic doillies, crochet pieces from Mrs. Lawrence, her mother-in-law.
What a treasure trove!

From one of the “frontages” this pattern came about, with a sense of camouflage having the flowers hidden in the sand. Soon more to come.
Love what is happening, maybe the Riz-Riv Collection will happen after all!

“Truth is like a silhouette, it keeps appearing along with light, it can’t be camouflaged for ever.”
~Chandrababu V.S.

Memorial Day is a day we pause to give thanks
to those people
who gave their tomorrows so I could have today.
.    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .

THANK YOU