Rohling Studios

Happy Easter/Whateverings/Paula J Becker

Happy Easter Everyone!  It's a good thing to see that the bunnies are hard at work UNDER the ground because we just got socked with the biggest snow storm we have had all year!!! This cute little illustration is the work of Illustrator Paula J. Becker.  Paula is a fellow Ilustration Friday participant.  She has been freelancing as an illustrator For over 15 years.  Born and raised in South Texas, she moved to Montreal, Quebec in 2000, though she retains a studio space in Texas so she "can escape the insufferable Canadian winters!" (Apparently no one has told her about Wisconsin!!)  Her blog enables her to "be in contact with others in our field, to post her creative endevors, and work on her writing skills".  I am glad to have met her and to be one of the fortunate ones to have gotten in contact with her.  Thanks, Paula, for letting me post your Illustration.  I hope you take time to visit her blog HERE and her website HERE.

Illustration Friday~Blanket

This week's assignment is "Blanket".  This is an illustration I did for a greeting card.  Bankets are so great to snugge up beneath to get warm under this time of year.  I just made my first quilt this year thanks to my daughter's help (help and then help!)   

Illustration Friday ~ Juggle

I know, I know, it is early for Santa but, this week's topic for Illustration Friday is "Juggle".  I went to my archives for this one.  One of our best sellers was this Santa with the little juggling  toy in his pack.  Sorry it is an old one but it was one of my favorites.

Illustration Friday~Momentum

                        

This is my entry for this week's Illustration Friday topic...MOMENTUM!  It was the image that popped into my mind the minute I read the assignment...All I could think of was a drop or two of paint gathering momentum until it hit the paper.  I have also been trying to gather up my own momentum to post an entry...much has been happening.  Last Thursday my old neighborhood friends and I met for Stitch and Bitch.  As always, there was much to catch up on.  Four of us had painted toes...four of us did not....I don't have a clue why I noticed that much less counted!  I borrowed some tables from my friend, Jean for the rummage sale we had over the weekend.  After Stitch and Bitch there was much to do to get ready!  Move the boat...carry out things and cover them with tarps...try to go to sleep because I am sooooooo excited!  (Maybe it was nervous about getting up so soon.)  I sold lots of old frames, my friend Faye sold lots of antiques and Ang sold just tons of stuff!  It was a huge rummage sale!  It took up the whole front yard!  I met neighbors I didn't know I had!  I always love that part of a rummage sale.  It brings  all ages together from blocks and blocks away. People talk and laugh with each other.  And sometimes in the middle of it all the heavens open up and pour down all over it all.  Just such a thing happened on Friday one half hour before the sale was to end for the day.  Everyone scampered to help cover things up and afterwards I went into the house...dripping and soaking wet down to the insides of my CROCS.  I took a nap.  I hadn't allowed myself time for a nap all summer long!  Saturday....more rummage sale!  It was warm and it would have been beautiful had the mosquitoes not descended on us in swarms!  They were the size of sparrows!!!!  We could have made more money if we had charged 50 cents to spray each shopper with our super strong bug spray...everyone was swatting and jumping around.  It was quite comical until we mercifully offered to share the spray and bombed the yard several times.  The sale ended without further welts.  We cleaned up and called Saint Vincent DePaul to schedule a pickup date for the rest of our rummage.

   Sunday was a totally different day. When we moved into this house ten years ago David was a young boy from the neighborhood who would come over to chat and play with the dogs.  Now he is a grown and a grown up married man.  He, his wife and baby joined Paul, Laura and I out on the boat for the afternoon.  We had a great time watching the kites imposed on the skyline for the Milwaukee Kite Festival. 

 

See IKE Jeff's Photostream HERE for more pictures.  These are huge kites!  Next year I'd love to see them as the string starts to unravel and they take flight! (Do they still use string?)  Before we called it a day, Paul and David dropped us off for a little bit at a restaurant on the river so that they could pound the waves for a thrill or two we didn't want to experience.  Autumn was in the air.  It was a very different lake front.  There was a bite to the air and the water was choppy.  There were no cigarette boats...no wait to put the boat in or out of the water.  Now the weatherman is predicting frost later this week.  I can't say I will be sad to see the mosquitoes bite the dust....but....winter is gathering MOMENTUM....hmmmm I will have to get out my markers again!

Illustration Friday~Alphabet

F is for Flower.  This week's Illustration Friday is "Alphabet".  I played around with  few designs.  There are so many unlimited possibilites.  Be sure to check out the site and see all the great ideas everyone has!

Illustration Friday ~ Visitor

This week's topic for Illustration Friday is "Visitor".  These children are visitor's to the children's petting area in the zoo.  I loved taking the kids to pet and feed the goats.  Sometimes they (the goats) got a little too pushy and I had to lift them (the human kids) out of harms way...but, it was always something we all looked forward to!  I love going places with children!  I love children!!!!  I have several more child clients at work.  They are so great!!!  We played with Play Doh and made everything to dinosaures to cakes!  Little kids can use clay to express themselves so well! 

Illustration Friday~Missing (To Homeland Security

Are you ready for a story????  I don't know quite what to make of it myself!  Last summer I made a series of collage/assemblages.  You can see three people in this one.  I named it X,Y, and Z for the three people in it...my sister, my brother and I...back in the early sixties.  My mother made us wear these stupid hats in the summer when it was really hot and sunny.  We have our bathing suits on and my brother and I are sporting sunglasses.  On the left are three antique typewriter keys..X, Y, and Z.  On the lower right hand side is a music box that plays John Lennon's "Imagine"....one of my favorite songs.  Above and to the side of the music box is an old watch casing and a piece from an old camera.  It is signed by me, Claudia Rohling.  I used acrylic paint and you can turn it around and see the blank back of the canvas.  I tell you all this because it is now MISSING!  My brother came to visit me...his first visit in two years from California.  I gave it to him.  He put it in his carry on luggage.  Homeland security confiscated it from him.  I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!  They pulled it out of his bag and asked him what it was.  He was shocked and answered, "It is a piece of art work my sister made for me.  They told him it looked like a bomb.  He asked how it looked like that!  They pointed to the music box and said, "This". He showed them it was a music box but they stopped him and told him he would have to leave it behind.  He asked them how he could get it back when they were done with it.  They said he couldn't.  They said they would be disposing it!  So......my innocent little piece of art is MISSING!  I'm very upset that something so obviously not malicious was taken.  With all the technology we have, I can't believe homeland security can't tell the difference between a music box and a bomb???!!!!  Do you think they always confiscate music boxes????  Is there a dumpster full of them somewhere in the middle of the dessert being blown up by the government with our tax dollars?  LOL!  If it wasn't so laughable I might have to cry.

Illustration Friday~TWIST

  Has anyone else out there discovered how relaxing it is to play with Doodle Tops?  I had to show you this because  I was using them in my office this week with children adults.  I have been twisting tops all week to illustrate lots of things...like spiraling into a busy life or for kids I use it to talk about angry outbursts. I have special 3-D glasses that would make this illustration pop out at you as though there was depth to the spirals.  When clients finish their pictures I give them the glasses so that they may experience how there is always a new way to see things...if only we try. 

Illustration Friday~Camouflage

This week's challenge for Illustration Friday is "Camouflage".  I decided to enter my Forest Fairy since she is dressed in nature's finest camouflage.  Sorry it's an old ilustration from the files but I couldn't resist!

Illustration Friday ~ Rejection

This week's topic for Illustration Friday is "Reject".  This illustration is from my book, We Can Get Along.  The book deals with ways for children to make healthy choices.  The roots of "rejection" of our ideas or of ourselves, comes in early childhood.  Fortunately we can learn to deal with rejection.  Today most schools have great programs about Bullying and how to deal with it so that there is a sense of belonging for all students.  Free Spirit Publishing offers many good books that offer ways to deal with Bullying.  It is important that we teach our children the difference between leadership and bullying.  It is increasingly critical that we provide our children tools to learn how to take responsiblility for themselves and for their actions.  They also need to be given an example of how to react calmly, confidently and effectively.  Remember the old, " think before you speak or act and treat others the way you want to be treated"?