AMBASSADOR (am bas′ə dər, -dôr′) noun

Ambassadors of goodwill are activists, celebrities, artists, environmentalists;

Ambassador-at-large is one accredited to no particular country;

Ambassador extraordinary has a special diplomatic mission;

Unofficial ambassador is one with all;

& unofficial am I!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

here kitty, kitty...........................here kitty, kitty..........................


Francesca's gold leaf and watercolor painting


 WWF & WCS Siberian tiger in custody of Dr. John Goodrich


This is a different angle of my big kitty!


Dr. John Goodrich at work with a tranquilized tiger in Russia

This gold leaf watercolor painting was probably the hardest painting I have ever created. What makes this so unique is the shadowing technique with numerous shades and materials to create the tones of his face.


O.k., for example, instead of just layering different hues of one color of paint to get the rust and golden tones, I needed to think ahead very carefully. I worked with the few limited shades of gold leaf I had ranging from copper, yellow gold, brass tones with gold leaf powders, paints, paper sheets and flakes. 


The planning went very slow testing whether the tone differential was enough to create dept he needed. In the end, I was very pleased as I knew how hard this challenge was that I placed in front of me.


I hope to exhibit my BEAUTY OF THE BEAST - TIGERS FACING EXTINCTION fine art traveling show here in Spoleto when the frames arrive from an American friend and sponsor.


My guess is it will be before the spring of 2012 as we both have issues to work out in our lives. I'll keep you all informed!

I Lived the Life of a Street Performing Musician!



Nia in the pink here on left and I am in back below the golden light glowing.

The Percussion Instruments Nia and I played  this night:

Egg Shaker Maracas        Latin Torpedo 


Egg Shaker Maracas Percussion Instrument -FAIR TRADELatin Percussion LP306B

A few nights ago was another amazing night in my village. Nia and I went out to hear our city's bands play for this 2 day Spoleto festival. I ran into my American friend and his street band. 


They were was pushing their hippie musical street cart from location to location stopping to jam for a while before pushing on. A few gals were belly dancing with the band. Some guys carried bongo drums and others shook their tambourines, while 2 saxes played.


So what does every good artist do when they are with fellow artists.... even if they are not musicians... they pick up an instrument and join the band. It took a while to get the rhythm down but it arrived shortly. All though years of the clarinet paid off!


Nia and I jumped in and walked and played with them all night in front of numerous mixed audiences.


Sporting my knee high chocolate leather Prada boots, I was transformed into a Latin torpedo percussion shaking musician and Nia transformed into a Maracus egg shaker musician! Its harder then you think as you need to control different sounds from something that has a low range of scope.