First post of 2016

...can we just ignore the fact that it's coming in MARCH?

Well, the holidays came and went in normal fashion.  And 2016 is well under way.

I first wanted to post about my niece, Alahana.  Anyone who knows me personally knows I have a very special relationship with my niece.  I feel more like a big sister to her than an aunt sometimes because we grew up together.  And if you know me and my family, you also know she has been going through some hardships with drug addiction.  

When I went home for Christmas I wasn't sure what to expect.  I knew Alahana was planning to stay with us for the time I was there, which would be more time than I have spent with her in the past three years.  It went surprisingly well.  I cherish the time I have with her and the times I can truly make her laugh.  Whenever anyone has ever asked me what my favourite sound is, I will always answer that it is the sound of my niece laughing.  And I take it as a compliment that she says I am the only one who can make her laugh that hard.

On Christmas Eve our family usually opens 1 or 2 (or 5 in the case of my great-nephew because he has so many) presents and Alahana said she wanted my sister and I to open our presents from her at the same time.  It turned out to be something she made herself and was partly inspired by the artwork I have been making.  I was so touched.

It is in a black shadowbox and she glued all of the crystals in the design by hand.  It took her hours.  She chose the semicolon as it has become a symbol for those of us who suffer from depression and as she explained, instead of ending her life with a period as she could have done, she is choosing to use a semicolon and to keep her life and its story going.  She isn't out of the woods yet and there are bound to be some missteps, but as I have always told her, as long as she makes the decision to try to better herself and be healthier, I will be and am still proud of her.

(Alahana and I together Christmas morning.)

Christmas was also a somber time for my mom last year.  She found out that her sister has cancer.  My mother is the oldest of the 4 girls and 1 boy in her family.  My maternal grandmother was disabled in a way that forced my mother to step up and take the head of her family role at a young age and I believe that makes her relationship to her siblings that much deeper.  When she found out the news that her sister has cancer my mother was devastated.  She is usually very upbeat, but for the first time, I saw her suffering and it was hard to watch.  I tried to be as supportive as I could though and urged her to plan a trip to Taiwan to see her brother and sisters as soon as she could.  I felt she would feel better if she could actually see her sister face to face.

She booked a flight for the end of January and she planned to stay for 3 weeks.  I haven't been doing my artwork as much as I was a couple of years ago, but I felt inspired to make something for my mom and my auntie, something that they could each look at and feel closer to each other despite the miles between them.  And this is what I came up with.

On the left it says "jiejie" ("big sister") and on the right it says, "mèimei" ("little sister").  I asked my mom to take the one on the right to my auntie when she went to visit her to let her know that my mom and all of our family here are thinking of her.  She took it and said that my aunt loves it.  She made sure to put it in a prominent place where she will always be able to see it.  And it's kind of cool to think that a piece of my artwork has a home all the way around the world in Taiwan!

I was asked to make a custom piece for a family member soon, so hopefully I won't let another 3-4 months slip by before posting again.  Until then!

<3

LH

One last post before the New Year!

Umm...where did the time go?  Seriously!!  I haven't posted here since May??

I will admit I lost a little motivation for Little Hibachi this year, but don't worry.  It's coming back.  I plan to do lots more LH in 2016, more original ideas and designs, so look forward to that.

For now I wanted to make one last post for this year about a piece I made for my friend Dillon and his bride, Bailey's wedding (And might I add it was one of the most adorable weddings I have been to ever).

For weeks leading up to their wedding I was racking my brain trying to think what would be a good piece to give them.  I knew I wanted to make a custom piece, but I wasn't sure exactly what it would be yet.  A week or so before the wedding, the bride and groom sent an email reminding everyone to bring a book for a book swap they were planning to have at the wedding.  I knew then I wanted to make something book-related.  At first I thought I would have an open-faced book that read on one page: "Bailey and Dillon with the date of the wedding" and on the next page it would say: "And they lived happily ever after."

As I looked online for clip art matching what I envisioned in my mind I realized it was a little more complicated with so much writing and not a lot of space in the frame I had to work with.

So I scratched that idea.  And I'm glad that I did because what I ended up with was better than anything I could have pictured in my mind.

The wedding was wonderful and it was absolutely heartwarming to see two people so in synch and in love.  One thing I love about going to friends' weddings are the little details they add that show their personalities.  Bailey and Dillon's wedding was chock-full of them!  Here are a few pics from the wedding just to reiterate how freaking adorable they are.  I couldn't be more happy for my friend Dillon and his new wife, Bailey.

I wish all of you out there the best this holiday season.  And if, by chance, you are someone who doesn't get into the holiday spirit, that you are still able to find a spark of warmth and peace to carry you into the New Year.  Until then...

<3
LH

Love is in the air.

I spent last week watching my friends' (Meghan and Charlie's) two bunnies while they were off on the east coast getting married <3

Meghan and Charlie have been amazing friends and huge supporters of the LH art line.  They came to my very first art showing and bought two of my paintings!  So, I wanted to make sure I made something extra special for them for this special occasion.  

(This was their wedding invitation)

And so I went to work...

(This was the finished piece and they love it!)

Mother's Day was also just last weekend and I wanted to make something extra special for the two Mom's in my life that I see work and sacrifice the most for their family.  My mom and my sister.  I had made a piece with orchids for my Great Aunt.  You might remember the story I told about her and my Great Uncle in a previous post.  Here is the picture I made for her.  It's on the right.

And so I went to work...

They arrived on time and I was so happy to hear how much they like them.  I am really happy with how these pieces turned out, so I plan to make more to sell.

And that is the update for now!  Thanks for stopping by : )

~LH <3

P & B - May 2015

The show was a success!!

I am always so pleased and impressed with how the curators hang our pieces.  They really pay attention to colour, style, and make sure that each piece is well-placed.

I saw lots of people checking out my pieces and taking pics of them, which always gives me a thrill!

Here are a couple highlights of artists I liked:

("I Am Love" by: Carissa Weber - 

IG: +artLAB23 by Carissa Weber )

("Nintendo Controller 1985" by: Charles Lushear - 

www.bohemianworkbench.com )

And this piece by the amazing Noah Sturm 

(IG - @noahsturm ) that I HAD TO HAVE!!

 If you're a die-hard Simpsons fan, 

you know why.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXQR-cPXlmY

I feel like these shows keep betting busier and busier every time they happen.  Friday night was PACKED.  Saturday night less so, but still a great turn-out.  The next one will be in the fall.  I need to start thinking up what pieces I'll want to show then!  I'm also considering getting a vendor table instead of hanging my pieces on the wall.  That way I can show more pieces at once and maybe attract more sales that way.  What do you guys think?

One last thing.  I went to see the new Avengers: Age of Ultron last Sunday.  It was AWESOME!!  If you see it, see it in 3D.  In the lobby at the Arclight, they usually have artwork hanging on the walls.  Maybe I'll be up there one day!  Anyway, I saw this piece and it made me laugh.  If you know me then you'll know why. Ha ha!

TTFN ;)

LH

It's that time again!

Little Hibachi is participating in the Pancakes and Booze Art Show for the third time this Friday and Saturday night in downtown L.A.  It feels like I'm coming full circle since this is the very first art show I ever participated in a year ago. And it is always so much fun!  

For this show I had the idea to make pieces inspired by one of my all-time favourite movies, "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World".  Here was the process for one of the pieces.  I found this new frame at IKEA that I know is going to be a permanent tool in the LH line.  It has depth to it like a shadow box, which allows me to use tin foil in a way that I haven't been able to in the past.  It's hard to capture in pictures though, so that's why it's best to come see it in person!

And here are the rest of the pieces:

I'm really happy with the way they all turned out!  Can't wait to show them this weekend!

Thanks for checking in : )  Now I have to go and start working on Mother's Day gifts <3

~LH

Springing Forward

Hello,

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post!  I am taking a much-needed hiatus from Facebook, so hopefully that will redirect some of my energy to making more art and posting more lovely little things on this blog : )

Let's see...what's been going on since the last post?  Well, I completed this custom piece for my best friend Cascade's newborn niece:

Cascade is a world traveler.  Currently she is living and teaching in Yangon, Myanmar.  But this year alone she will have traveled to Thailand, Manila, Mandilay, Guatemala, Taiwan, and many other incredible places I can't keep track of ; )  I am so much of a homebody that craves familiarity and routine that her courage to go out and explore new and interesting countries inspires me everyday.

When she asked me to make this piece for her I asked her to think about a quote or a theme she would want to put in for her baby niece.  She came back with this perfect quote from Dr. Seuss and the idea of incorporating the globe to help inspire her niece to discover the new world she has just entered.  I was able to find the frame at Michael's craft store and I love the way it turned out.  She said her sister and her husband love it too!

Also since my last post in JANUARY, I participated in another art showing downtown.  This one was at Groundworks Coffee on Main St. and 2nd.  It was curated by a wonderful artist named Eza B. who does beautiful paintings herself.  These were the pieces I ended up showing:

(Since the showing was at a coffee shop, I decided

 my coffee cup pieces would fit right in!)

(Mine is the teal "Look Up and Carry On piece)

And my hunch about showing the coffee cups was right because...

 All three of them sold!  To the same person!  Nothing is more satisfying to me than knowing I made something that someone liked enough to buy and take home.  My next showing is scheduled to be in May at the Pancakes & Booze Art Show in downtown at Lot 613.  Time to get to work and make some new pieces for you.  Stay tuned because I'm only getting started!

~LH

Taking Requests.

HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM LITTLE HIBACHI!!

I don't know where the last few months of 2014 went, but they flew away before I even had a chance to say a proper goodbye.

My deep apologies for not posting anything since the beginning of November.  It's a double-edge sword because I like keeping my blog and all of its readers up-to-date on everything LH, but the fact that I was busy making some very special custom pieces was a lot of fun too and that's a lot of what kept me away. 

Let me catch you up...

One of my very good friends and biggest LH supporters, Ms. Dana Varon (http://www.livingdolldv.blogspot.com) asked me to make a custom piece for one of her best friend's birthdays.  She wanted this lyric from the popular Guns N' Roses song "Sweet Child O' Mine":

"She's got a smile that it seems to me reminds me of

childhood memories where everything was as

fresh as the bright blue sky"

 Here is the finished piece:

(Dana said her friend loved it and nearly cried when she opened it.) 

Notice anything different about this piece?  Introducing...GLITTER PAPER, my new favourite thing to put in my LH pieces!!  It gives just the right amount of depth and sparkle to certain pieces.  Side note:  When I worked at Buffalo Exchange in Tucson, AZ over ten years ago, one of my managers called me a raccoon because I loved any piece of jewelry we bought for the store that was big and sparkly : )

Next came another request for a custom piece for another dear friend (also named Dana.  I love my Dana's ;).  It was for her parents' wedding anniversary at the end of November.  They are both lovers of dogs (corgis) and they live in Las Vegas, so Dana wanted to incorporate the desert somehow.  This is the design I came up with:

 

And here it is finished:

(I used the tinfoil under glass stain effect for the 

blue sky and the pink of the dog's ears.) 

I went home to visit my family in Tucson for 8 days around Christmas.  While I was there I was able to see a number of good friends, one of them being a beautiful woman named Ariane (whom I will always know as "Allie" :)  She had asked me a while back to make her a custom piece with words from a poem I had written that will be included in my upcoming book.  It is a long poem, so I asked her to choose a few of her favourite lines and I would make something special for her.  These are the lines she chose:

"Somebody is dreaming of your touch.  

Somebody wants you to be happy.

Somebody smiles every time they think of you.

Somebody treasures your spirit.

Somebody needs to hear this from you."

Here is Allie's finished piece:

 (She loves it!)

Lastly, while I was away in Tucson, the first Dana I mentioned in this post was here in L.A. looking after my cats and facing the hardest decision of her life.  Her beloved dog Jelly, whom she had rescued over ten years ago was getting older and sicker by the day.  There is a bumper sticker I often see that perfectly sums up a relationship like Dana had with Jelly that has a paw print and simply says:  "Who rescued who?"

Yes, when Dana met Jelly he was close to death, having been tattooed (yes, tattooed) by his former owners and the hair on his hind legs was so long that they were basically tied together).  Dana nursed Jelly back to health and gave him the kind of life he could have only dreamed of.  

But Jelly rescued Dana too.  He had been with her through her mother's battle with and ultimate loss to lung cancer 7 years ago as well as escorted her on her cross-country move from New York City to Los Angeles in the middle of 2014.  He went with her everywhere and taught her all there is to know about true love, compassion, patience, and forgiveness.

Dana told me that any time she sees the letter "S" it reminds her of her mom because that is the first letter of her mother's name Shelly.  She says it is a sign to her that she is on the right path.  I was with Dana at the park with Jelly one afternoon and when we got up from the cement table we had been sitting talking at for hours we looked down and there was a gold "S" embedded in the cement.  It gave me delightful chills to be witness to her mother's energy still reaching out to her.

I wanted to make something special for Dana because even though I haven't even known her for a year, I have learned so much about her and her kind spirit.  I also wanted to thank her for taking care of my apartment and my cats while I was away, so the first thing I thought to make her was her own personal "S" LH piece that she could display in her new apartment, a reminder that she is on the right path and her mom is still with her.  The idea for the piece was mine, but the timing of the delivery of the gift can only be described as "Divine".  Here is the piece through various stages of my process:

Dana opened this gift December 24th right after having put her beloved Jelly to sleep that morning.  I would like to say I planned for this to happen, but how could I possibly have done that?  There was something larger at work that day because I believe this was her sign.  The sign that she had done the right thing for her and for Jelly.  It gives me more chills to think about, but it also is a sign to me as well, a sign that the work I am doing is more than just making pretty things.  It's reaching to the very heart of people and touching something only art can touch.  

I thank God for this gift and I thank all of you for continuing on this artful journey with me.

All the best to you in 2015.  Namaste.

<3,

LH