I spent most of the summer building this complicated "altar,"  "Strawberry Fields Forever (Avocados and Citrus Too). It's currently on view in the "Art About Agriculture" exhibit at the Santa Paula Museum.  

It's always interesting what triggers a piece -- or even a whole series. I love altars - especially in tiny, ancient chapels out in the middle of nowhere. I've been building my version of altars for awhile, but they have been mostly one sided.  With this new piece, I got to build a more 3D altar with the cooler coastal strawberry fields on one side and inland citrus groves on the other. 

But the initial trigger for this piece is Howlite.  Howlite is the stone the clouds are made of.  It's a white stone with dark veins running through it, most famous for being the stone used to make fake Turquoise (it dyes very easily. Fun Fact: It comes from Tick Canyon).  After seeing some cut slabbed howlite, I realized it made beautiful clouds...And the whole altar evolved from that one idea!  I've got some other Cloud Altars in the works... Stay tuned....