My sister has great parking karma. She deeply believes there will always be a parking place for her, and there is. She gave me this little wind-up “parking karma angel” that I keep on my dashboard, along with my Boy Scout “Finding My Way” badge (that I bought at a Boy Scout store I happened upon) since I’m notorious for getting lost. The angel has a knob on the back and if you wind it up, her wings flap and she grants you a parking space.
Perhaps she can also grant New Years or Christmas wishes. Send me your wishes and I’ll wind her up for you. Be sure and let me know if they come true!
About the painting:
I placed a turquoise cloth beneath her and draped a red one to her side, making her silvery gown and wings reflect all that color back. I wanted to paint her in oils but decided to do watercolor first. Since I still haven’t gotten around to replacing my masking fluid (which had turned into a solid lump), I tried preserving the whites but didn’t completely succeed. So I tried recapturing them with gouache (came out greyish), then acrylic (too cool, too bright white) and finally used some latex interior house paint that I’d previously had matched to the color of my Arches watercolor paper. It worked well and matched the preserved whites.
I took photos of Angel Baby (what I call her) with different colored cloths and some of them were quite dramatic. I’m going to try painting her again with some of those other colored cloths.
Happy Holidays!
Jana Bouc, Artist 