My art "Great Pyrenees" made the cover of the JAVMA!!!!  If you would like to order a copy you many do so from my Etsy store.  Below is the link to copy and paste.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/simplesubtleties

http://bit.ly/1CqTeY9

PLEASE CLICK THE LINK ABOVE TO VOTE FOR MY WATERCOLOR PORTRAIT.  It should take you to Jerry's Artarama 2015 art contest.  Thank you, thank you!

Back to painting

My latest watercolor painting.

Image of Jesus in 1942 photograph

This is a photograph of a bird in a tree that my grandmother took in 1942.  She kept it in her bible because of the image of Jesus that came out of it.  My father has the original. 

I wanted to share it with the world.  I thought it was spectacular when I when I first seen it 40 years ago, and it still makes me feel so happy to look at it today.  

Creepy faces caught on camera

As Halloween approaches I decided to re-post this picture I took in 2007 of my great niece.  She was just learning to walk and still crawling up the steps of my parents home.  I thought it was cute so I shot this of her backside and immediately saw this face on the screen of my digital camera.  It is very CREEPY!~   I also see one on the back of her right arm.  

Any explanations?  The ONLY photo alteration I have done is to adjust the contrast so you can see the details even better.  I'd love to hear your comments.

Repurposed Tree Stump into a beautiful Gnome Home

Sometimes you just can't let a tree stump by just a tree stump! 

At night the attic light comes on!

The Gnomes have moved in right after these photos were taken!

Here you can see the solar lights beside the door which light up at dusk.  The owl door bell is a nice touch also, and the black bear Welcome sign, fitting for Missouri!

A balcony.

The back door. Just too cute! 

Created & built in Warsaw, MO by Sonny Halterman

Decoupaged silverware for memorials

My sister had to put her 16 year old cat to sleep during a time when she was doing a kitchen remodel.  She was heartbroken by it all and I wanted to make her something to remember him by.  I decided to decoupage his photograph onto some old spoons I had gotten at auction.  

First I had a tiny spoon with praying hands.  I thought this one would be perfect for a memorial.  I measured the space for the picture then I cropped the photo in Photoshop.  I  printed it out on plain typing paper and then modge podge or decoupage the photo to the spoon.  Very simple.  I did the same thing with a bigger table spoon only I did it on the back side of the spoon and I stamped LOVE at the top.  To the larger spoon I also applied a crackle surface and wiped in some distress ink to the cracks.  To finish out the project I took a silver fork and heated it so I could bend it and make it more decorative.  I also stamped it to say "our Stormy" (which was her kitty's name) however, I did mess up my O (in the "our") a little bit as during my stamping the fork shifted and I had double stamped. :(   I used a Sharpie and turned the lettering black and this helped to hide that  mess up a bit.  

I thought she could use the fork either to hang in the kitchen or use as a grave marker.  I was going to give her some heavy duty magnets in case she wanted to display any of these as refrigerator magnets but she chose to hang them beside her new kitchen window.  She did have her husband drill a hole in the top of the larger spoon in order to hang it.  Overall I think they turned out really nice.  You could add some background paper or book text if you wanted something other than the silverware showing.  

This would be good for people memorials, especially people that liked to cook.  I could see doing it with cookbook pages as a background and then have a photo of my grandma, who loved to cook.  Just a thought.  Hope this inspires you!