The poster is a simple design - only 4 main images - and the fire - which is a bunch of little bits and pieces of fire from another photo.

We had to be careful of the flag and the fire so it didn't look as if I was "burning the flag" a definite no-no. Actually, my original idea was to have the flag look as if it was torn in half and burning - symbolic of the split of the Union - but my argument went down in flames and the flag remained whole and visible behind the fire.

My first Christmas in Barstow I put together the "Santa Fe over the Mojave" fantasy illustration, but the paper chose not to use it - so I do for Christmas cards and such! It is still a work in progress as I am not content with some of the edges and shadings. As I learn more about manipulating elements I keep working on this piece.

Each ornament on the tree was shot separately or made with clip art and then carefully placed on the Joshua Tree. The piece had so many layers I had a hard time keeping track of them all.

The crying tomatoes piece is a little ditty that came from a PhotoShop workshop where the instructor was showing me how to do certain effects to the tomatoes. I came home and played with it some more - adding the eyes and tears - tweaking this and that - creating the tears from scratch. The small shadows under the bee's knees were also drawn from scratch.

I am not sure of the symbolism here or where this idea came from - it is just weird