Original art is even better when you collaborate with a close friend.

A long time ago, when I was still in art school and Indigo was just a baby, I was introduced to one of my closest friends, Alisha.  We were in a couple of the same art classes together, and we were fast friends.  We were both smokers at the time, and we would drive all the way to Vancouver, WA so we could sit at Shari's (kind of like Denny's, for those of you who live in different part of the States) and smoke while we drank coffee (or half root beer, half diet Pepsi if I remember correctly...right Alisha?) and talked for hours hours on end.

I graduated from PSU and started my long haul to being a working artist while Alisha got her Master's in Art Education.  When she graduated, she found a great job teaching high school art in Baltimore and moved away.  Of course I miss her like crazy, with all of these years and miles between us.  And she is an INSANELY good artist, I admire her work incredibly and hope that those kids she teaches have some inkling of how lucky they are to have her! (You can take a look at her blog to see some of her work).

So, you can imagine how excited I was when she suggested we make some collaborative paintings!  We decided to make them on mat board so that they were light weight and cheap to ship back and forth.  We each started one, and mailed them to each other several times before deciding they were finished. 

This one is the one I started with a watercolor wash, some decorative paper glued to the corners and a really rough painting of the lady in the center.  It was so cool to see the changes Alisha made to it and to add my own.  It was her idea to put the lady on the little stand--I love that!  The clouds and sun in the background, and the details on the figure are all hers, too. 

I don't have a copy of the other one yet, but as soon as I get it I'll share!  Our lives are both very busy, but I am looking forward to doing more of these as we have the time.