I've been racing on sailboats for almost 20 years. I've hesitated to make art of sailboats because I feel like everyone does it...and they all sort of feel the same to me. I guess I've been waiting for a way to represent the sport of racing sailboats justly in art form. I've decided to just jump in with images of sailing that a person would only see on the race coarse. I know this has probably been done before, but hopefully my knowledge of the boats will come through. (Any sailors out there reading this will agree, there is nothing worse than looking at a piece of art of a sailboat doing something that isn't even remotely possible...like back winded sails...ugh.) There is a fine balance of parts of a boat that are as light and airy as possible (like a spinnaker) right next to a spreader or sheet (a rope) that's pulled with a tremendous amount of pressure. So look for more sailing paintings to follow...it will be interesting to see how they progress around the boat!

Malie_Kai - I'm so glad you like the painting. I absolutely love it too. So often the art is way better in person. Thanks for giving it a good home. -- JJ

I've been spending time at our local homeless shelter working to set up an art center. We cleaned out, reorganized and now stocked up the art room so residents and their children can get to work making art. I've also started teaching a monthly art lesson for the kids living in the shelter. I believe it's so important to introduce these kids to art as a hobby, a passion and perhaps one day a career. Art is one of the few professions where the name of your college, your degree and your GPA aren't as important as your ability. Art could be someones ticket up and out! What can you do? Donate art supplies to your local homeless shelters.

Thank you!

I like basketball (especially watching my kids play) but you will never find me sitting on the coach watching an NBA game (college basketball – yes, but only in March). However, this blog post is inspired by a basketball coach – the famous John Wooden. On the first day of practice he walked into the UCLA locker room and told the players to take off their shoes and socks. He was going to show them the proper way to put them back on, which he did in great detail! He said if there are wrinkles in your socks or your shoes aren’t tied properly, you’ll get blisters. With blisters, you’ll miss practice. If you miss practice, you don’t play. And if you don’t play, we can’t win. If you want to win, you need to take care of the smallest details. He wanted the players to be the best players they could personally be, thinking less about the competition and what everybody else is doing and focusing on every detail of their personal success. What a great coach!!! As an artist, this

Life at the Shelter ----- You never know where you will find inspiration. I just read a great quote from Wayne Thiebaud, “If you sit around and wait for inspiration, all you get is a sore (___).” I love that guy. I recently started working on an art center at our local shelter. The room was already there, except it looked more like a storage room when we first went in. So we cleaned it out and started setting up supply boxes. I got a lot of supplies donated from art teachers at the end of last school year. The plan is to set up a box of supplies with a lesson inside each week or so for residents to try their hand at some art or learn a new skill. This week we’re setting up a box of fleece for “no sew fleece scarves.” This isn’t what I originally imagined I would be putting in the art room however, something one of the residents said to me the last time I was there really struck home. I asked her what she wanted to learn. She said she wanted to learn to sew so she could ma

Back at the Smithsonian If you haven’t been to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington – GO! Currently on display are portraits done by the 48 finalist of the most recent portrait competition. These are lucky artists! I work for the Smithsonian at the National Portrait Gallery every Friday. In the morning I teach in the galleries and in the afternoon I hold an open studio where I teach art. This week I get to spend time teaching in the competitions galleries! Each year I get a tour of each gallery space by one of the curators. The competition tour was fascinating to say the least. I couldn’t stop asking myself, why this portrait, why is this one considered better than the rest? In a nutshell, “what is good art”? I can at least tell you how the jurors of the competition sorted through over 3,000 portrait entries and narrowed it down to the 48 that are now hanging in the gallery. Criteria: 1. How well does the art represent the subject? 2. Does the arti