North Light Studios

It's finished! Isn't it always nice when you can say something like that? With all the work that went into this relief, Mike is ready for vacation. Even the casting process put him through a physical and emotional ride. The work that goes into creating something, from concept to finished product, is amazingly strenuous and impressive. When I try the process myself I tend to give up, so I have a tremendous respect for artists in general. Last night we went to the opening of the Fall Show at the Springville Museum of Art. There were a LOT of people there. I think they ran out of cups for water. But it was a nice evening, with beautiful art, and great people. Mike has received continuous awards in this show for the last...seven years? Eight, maybe? This is how you know that he works hard and puts a lot of himself into his pieces. Not only is he good, but he uses his talents and knowledge for good. He creates pieces that convey messages about important qualities and eleme...

Ten years ago (okay, maybe eleven) I stepped foot in one of the most extraordinary and fascinating structures every built by mankind. I knew very little about it; in fact, I’d never heard of it until I met my husband. “The Hermitage?” I had said. “What is that?” “Oh, it’s amazing,” my husband replied. And it was. The walls were lined with ornate patterns weaving in and out of each other; trim inlaid with gold adorned the most magnificent architecture I’d ever laid eyes on. Not only that, but it was a museum, filled to the brim with the treasures of Leonardo da Vinci, Rafael, Simone Martini, Peter Paul Reubens, Jean-Honore Fragonard, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Michelangelo, Antonio Canova (my favorite!), Auguste Rodin, and Jean-Antoine Houdon. And these exhibits are just the icing on the cake. We were lucky, while there, to find that the Hermitage was hosting an exhibition of ancient Egypt, including mummy corpses and Egy...

One summer a couple of years ago I was lucky enough to take a trip to San Francisco with my family. We went to the beach, found some excellent places to eat, and drove around the city for a day, looking for fun and interesting things to see. We had our GPS Navigation system with us, so we decided to look up nearby attractions. “Palace of the Legion of Honor? What’s that?” I asked my husband. “It sounds familiar. And cool. Let’s go there,” he replies. So we do. Outside are two fantastic monumental sculptures, and that reminds him. “It’s a museum!” We’ve struck gold, because in our family, art is one of our highest priorities (happens when one of you is a sculptor). So we stop, drag everyone out of the car (including our very happy son, who gets carsick), and start toward the building. It’s amazing. My husband stops to look at the outdoor sculptures before going in; El Cid (Spanish war hero) and Joan of Arc, by Anna Hyatt Huntington. Captivating. Stared for a long time, while kids ran a...

After a long hiatus, I am returning to the blog. This post will be a short, a sort of intro to the year 2012. Here goes. This year I would like to focus on Museums. Each month I will spotlight a museum of art (or at least a museum that showcases some type of art) from somewhere on this earth. I've got a lot of museums in mind, including (but not limited to) The Hermitage, The Louvre, The Met, and some not as well known museums, including the Palace of the Legion of Honor. I'll also include occasional updates from North Light Studio. Suggestions and comments are always welcome. See you in about a week! -Penny Lane