arts koala image: It Seems 2011 Had A FEW More Surprises In Store For Me...

I was lucky enough to get to spend the last few days of 2011 with friends and family:

visiting, laughing, driving around, having meals and enjoying everyone's company.

One very special event came in the form of a visit to my friends' Pete and Mike's home in Newark.

While there, Mike not only showed me more of the AMAZING retro doll clothing and furniture he creates (much of it inspired by vintage 1950s and 60s textiles and graphics) he also unveiled for me an enormous stash of vintage toys and comic books that he and Pete lugged up to New Jersey from his childhood home in Tennessee. They generously gifted me with enough toys and ephemera for my own collections as well as a motherlode of source material to use for collage and assemblage.

A very small fraction of the massive vintage toy stash is pictured below...

Expect some future photo posts highlighting much of what was given to me this evening.

I'm thinking that the next group of paintings I planned to begin after the new year may need to wait while I pick through, sort and utilize all of this amazing material that they presented me with.

Below are a few shots from Pete and Mike's home, highlighting the studio that Mike creates in...