Art Blocks for Ghana: My Panel

A month or so back I decided to participate in the "Art Blocks For Ghana" project.Everyone participating were given a square wood block to work with the theme of "Home". There will be an exhibition of all the wood blocks at Gallery Nucleus in L.A, in March 2011.

You can check out more information about the project and see what others have done by going here.

When I first started thinking about what I should do for my project I had a mental block. What does home mean to me? Does it mean the memories I had as a young child playing out in the country in my Grandparent's fields with my cousins? The times I remember cooking with my Grandmother? My mother and father tucking me into bed?

no....i didn't want to do something too literal....and then my husband said why don't you draw Bella? I though okay, why not she's cute! Right away I took some pictures of her and once I was done doing the pictures....I started to wonder.....how does Bella translate to the theme home?

then...it struck me! To let some of you that don't know this, Bella is a rescue dog. We found her at the humane society in Pasadena. Apparently the owner she had before was a homeless man and he wasn't able feed her anymore so he brought her in so she could find a safe home. One night just a few weeks after we brought her home from the pound I was sitting on the bed ( watching tv and doing some fun sketches) she curled up next to my legs with her favorite hedge hog toy ( which we call it her "baby" ) and fell sound asleep. She looked so peaceful I had to do a few quick sketches of her.

Well, as I was struck by this memory, I searched for my sketchbook of the few sketches i did of her that night and the one below really struck me.....in the sketch she looked at home. home....a place that is warm, safe and full of love. Bella was rescued and found her home.


here are a few of the sketches I had:




below is the the sketch I picked and the final outcome of my board which I titled "Rescued".



10x10 wood board, ballpoint pen, paint brush markers


I decided to not fill the whole panel and did the drawing on the lower right corner to show that in this large space, Bella is not concerned with anything else in the world but her "baby" and her new home. I wanted people to feel as though she is being cuddled and hugged by the corner of the panel.