I MADONNARI 2013

The I Madonnari were the devoted artists in Italy who would show their love and devotion to the Madonna by creating portraits of her in chalk, on the pavement outside of churches in Italy. This became a tradition in Santa Barbara 27 years ago in front of the Old Mission. Street painters created replicas of the old masters' Madonnas in front of the Mission steps. Today, we have Madonnas and we have beautiful expressions of family and nature and love. 

Our family has been creating for those 27 years. 

This year, Tom, my husband crated his 16th original portrait of our children.

Our daughter, Kieran, created her 7th square.

Kieran Meaney of KCMCOMIX

Kieran's original painting

I have compiled a book that contains 15 years worth of his I Madonnari works. Order  here:

Tom Meaney Originals from I Madonnari

Dear Kieran

Dear Kieran,

I knew your name while I was pregnant. It came to me in a dream.

You came out looking like a doll, eyes wide open, ready to take in the world and get to the work of creating and FUN.

You have always loved animals

Your sisters and brother adore you.

You were always telling stories and creating 

Your gifts are huge and you use them so well to create JOY in the world

I love your sense of humor. How did I get to be the lucky soul who gets to be YOUR mom? 

Your kindness and generosity are huge!

I LOVE YOU!!

keep up the great work of growing into YOU. This will be a fantastic year of fun, friends, creativity, accomplishments, travel, adventure and lots of surprises.

Happy 13th birthday my sweet dragon daughter!

Vertebrate Fossil Discovery 5/5/13

Today's beach walk/fossil hunt revealed this treasure: a single rock full of beautiful bones. Because I am not an expert in vertebrate zoology, all I can really identify for certain is that these ARE bones. If you have information or an expert opinion, please comment.

The rocks really call to me.

This one was screaming!

The pinkish bones are so intriguing

I tried to find a tape measure, without luck.
I made one using a ruler and
 marks on a piece of paper.

The rock was about 24 inches long,
 8-16 inches thick

I was able to turn it over and photograph
 every edge and aspect of its surface.
Each face revealed more bones.

This treasure is readily available for discovery
 but I doubt that anyone sees as much of it as I do.

This aspect is most interesting.
Is it a pelvis, scapulae, skull? 

Isn't she beautiful?

The geology at this beach (Arroyo Burro, Santa Barbara, CA, USA) is so interesting. The fossils I find are in the very hard sedimentry layers that are below the level of the sand. The fossils only reveal themselves when the tides wash away enough sand to expose them.