Wine and Art...

...on a Saturday afternoon, sounds like fun to me!

We would like to invite you to our opening reception of Wine & Art at the Bonacquisti Wine Company. Rob will be showing his new collection of Primitive folk art paintings and Santero art work and I will be showing my newest mixed media jewelry pieces featuring Frida Kahlo and Dia de los Muertos art.

We would like to thank Paul & Judy Bonacquisti for inviting us to show in their fabuloso urban winery right here in Denver.

We look forward to seeing all our friends and family and enjoying some great wine!

SALUD!!!

La Cultura and Tattoos...

What is it about the latino cultura that makes us want to go out and put ink our bodies? Well, I've thought about that a lot lately and after hosting a tattoo party at our casa, I understand a little more why we do it...

This is me with my new Jesus in the cross tattoo. I chose this because I love Jesus and I'm not afraid to say or show that. My heart belongs to Jesus, Rob, and my sons Randy and Devin. This is not quite finished, still going to add my favorite book/chapter of the bible~Isaiah 53 down the side of the cross and maybe some flames around the top part of the cross.

This is Besina's Rose~She is getting married next month and had tatted some intials when she was much younger, mira no more reminders of the past just a beautiful rosa and a wonderful fiance!

Cousin Tone like skulls and he's old school! Our tattoo artist and good friend Brian drew this design freehand.
Tres Primas! Mona is my baby cousin and Isaias is married to my cousin Ray. There just wasn't enough time for everyone to get their ink! Isaias is going to get a beautiful Dia de los Muertos lady on her upper shoulder blade soon!

Cousin Cardo getting his first tat, he chose the "Smile now, Cry later" theater masks. I told him he should fit in with all the other vato loco gangstas!

I believe if you are going ink up your body you should really put a lot of thought into your design and where you're going to put it. Rob and I have day jobs in a professional atmosphere and we put our tattoos in places that don't holler "Look at me"! Some get them to cover up mistakes from the past, and still some get them just because they want to and don't care where they put them. Remember folks, this is forever! Be tasteful, create something beautiful and then yeah go for it if that's what you really want to do. Our tattoo artist and friend is Brian Ulibarri and you can check out more of his work here. Brian is also a very talented artist as well as a member with us at Chicano Humanities and Arts Council gallery here in Denver.

I love this!!!

Can you believe how generous Sharon of LiveWire Jewelry is to be having such a wonderful giveaway over at her blog?!

Sharon's necklace titled "Always Faithful" was published in the Bead Trends Magazine/Book and to show her appreciation and her gratefulness she is offering up this beautiful necklace to one lucky winner! To find out how you can be entered into this giveaway head over to Sharon's blog now, you can find it here .

Be sure to check out her Etsy shop too, you will find so many different wonderful pieces, some rustic, some devotional, all of them beautiful! She is also a wonderful inspiration to all of us here in blogland ;)

La Familia!

Rob and I dashed off to New Mexico for the weekend, spending a little time with mi familia, but mostly just enjoying our weekend hunting down tesoros!

Our first stop was the Albuquerque flea market where we found a guy who buys estates and then takes the goods to the flea market to sell off, we purchased a very old statue of Santo Nino de Praga and some old trinkets for me to add into some jewelry pieces. The next stop was the Old Town plaza where we always stop into the church gift shop to purchase devotional art from the local artists and a shop called Santisma to check out some Dia de los Muertos art, didn't buy anything there, but the art was amazing! Next stop was My Tio Paul and Tia Ruth's 50th wedding anniversary party at my cousin Katie's hacienda. It was nice to see all the cousins and be able to spend a few hours with the rest of la familia.

Sunday morning was spent in Madrid checking out some of the galleries, then on to Chimayo at the Santuario, where Rob added a few more pieces of art to the gallery. I was also able to check out the newly remodeled Santo Nino chapel, it is gorgeous!!! We bought some biscochitos and played in the river that is right beside the stations of the cross and took more pictures. Then it was off to Taos to find our friend Pablo who makes crosses out of found objects, the best part of this visit was that he blessed us with a cross that is titled Halo, I'll post a pic of it soon. The last stop heading back to Colorado was the Rio Grande Gorge, Rob talked me into getting out and exploring a little, yep I'm afraid of heights, so this was a brave new step for me!

Well that was our weekend fun, what do you all have planned for the remainder of the summer?! Can you believe it's already the middle of July, I really never want summer to end!

Stay tuned, I'm going to post about a very special person who is having a very special giveaway on her blog...