Contest news

Looking for a good read this morning? Head on over to Artsmiths and read Deb Trotter's Artist of the Month interview with Tiffini Electra X. It is oh so interesting; what a wildly talented gal she is! Her work is so amazing. Being a Photoshop wannabee, I cannot even fathom this level of digital expertise. I applaud Tex's accomplishments.

And keep checking in with Artsmiths over the next 2 weeks as our members post their response to the "One Word" challenge. Lelainia has already posted hers on the Home page. It is not only interesting and informative, but Gorgeous to boot - geez, nothing like really raising the bar, L!?!? I am still working on mine, but will post it soon. Anyone want to make a guess as to what my "One Word" will be???? If you get it right, I will send you a prize (my fellow Smithereens are excluded from this since I already told them). It will be a really good prize too cause it's gonna be tough. You have till May 10th to guess, multiple guesses encouraged.

And, just to keep you interested, if no one guesses right, I will pick my favorite "wish it were my word" word and that person will get a prize. I can't wait to hear what you'll say.....

Bonanza

I don't usually talk about this kind of stuff, but I've been thinking about the law of attraction lately. It's gotten a lot of play with the success of The Secret and, if you've studied this sort of thing, you know it's nothing new. In fact, I have been doing it (largely unintentionally) for years until I finally educated myself about 8-10 years ago.

Anyhoo.

After I sold that diptych that I loved so much (this one) I immediately wanted to paint another, a diptych that is, made up of 2 squares. I wanted to do 24x24 or above, I was thinking big. In fact, on the drive home, I thought about it a lot, trying to remember whether I had any more 24x24's in my storage area, concluded that I didn't and figured I would have to order some more.

So imagine my surprise when the very next morning, my friend Heather emails me about a local artist who is moving and selling a bunch of canvasses. I contacted the artist and wouldn't you know it, squares and more squares. BIG ONES. 54x54; 40x40 and my beloved 24x24. Plus some other assorted sizes. We struck a deal and I picked them up this week; nearly filled the truck there were so many.

I am in canvas heaven.......

A new record

What a fun weekend, I just love Louisville! Such a neat town filled with great restaurant and culture, beautiful landscape, gorgeous horses, and nicenicenice people, the kind where southern hospitality shines through. I think I could live there. Yes, I know I said this about Chattanooga, but both these towns are similar in certain ways, Louisville being more refined and "city" like but retaining that small town flavor that is just GOOD.

The show was good too and we escaped rain for the most part although it was creeping up on us during tear down. Which is when John and I broke a new record and completely tore down the booth, packed all the art and loaded the truck in under 45 minutes. He slammed the door right as the rain started. Whew. There is nothing quite so horrible as packing up a wet tent. Then unpacking a wet tent once you get home so we were playing an unspoken beat the clock game.

My best pal Rhonda was at the show and hit the proverbial artfair jackpot with a wonderful collector who loved her work and bought a hee-yuge amount of it for his Frank Lloyd Wright home. What an incredibly thrilling event for Rhonda as we are, after all, trying to earn our living. The timing couldn't have been better since Rhonda is having a ton of necessary plumbing work done on her home this week.

I had a good show too with great sales to cool people who got my work. Plus, it is extra special to be situated between neighbors you like and this was bonus week because I loved the people on both sides of me. Susan and Matt were on one side - fun(!) and funny people, they own and run Mountain Mist Soap Company, a home spun operation that makes bath and body stuff, mostly products with shea butter, the labels full of ingredients you have heard of - no chemical yuck in anything. Plus, they just happen to make a solid lotion bar, for which I have been searching. It creates a barrier between hands and water, just lasts forever and I didn't know where or how to find it. I couldn't believe it appeared right there next to me. Good grief!!! I stocked up, got all kinds of gifts and, needless to say, the truck smells really really nice now.

On our other side - Cheri Haney, the adorable and talented wiz behind Shadow Charms. She designs faboo metal products, some functional, some fine art. Check out her website and read about her process - it is really cool, plus I absolutely worship her marketing success, wow talk about inspiring!

And finally, last, but certainly not least (this is like the cherry on top) we got to hang out with Marilyn Werst and her hubby John. I met Marilyn through friends, while at Artfest, and was thrilled to find she lives in Louisville and would be in town for our visit. She and John are wonderful people, good doobies we used to call them years ago, but I am dating myself now. Seriously though, they are just really good people - smart, fun, funny, my three favorite things - plus they are KIND and do good stuff for others. I am so glad they have entered my life.

Now I am wallishing about in my own home. Wallowing and Relishing all mixed up together to make a happy experience. I feel especially blessed this morning.

Pamela has tagged me and I am going to play along because she is a newbie blogger and naturally I don't want to let her down :-) Plus just maybe, oh maybe it will be interesting to someone, 7 oddities about me, tee, hee, hee.

Here are the rules:

1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you. 2. Post the RULES on your blog. 3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog. 4. Tag 7 people and link to them. 5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

Well, if you have been reading here very long you surely know I am a rule breaker, so I'm not going to tag anyone else, but here are my 7 weird random facts.

1. I am an occasional golfer (at best) yet won a contest to play in a Pro-Am several years back. In a fit of manic preparation that included daily practice with a coach, I managed to contribute to our team's effort and sink a couple vital puts. I also have a very large crystal trophy because my team WON the match.

2. I was a Junior Archer Champion when I was young....very young, like single digit young. Thus ends my sharing of athletic endeavors.

3. I will go for weeks and months on end eating the same thing every day. In fact, if my husband didn't cook, I would probably eat the exact same meal 3 times a day. Right now it's a yogurt concoction that I mix up from this faboo yogurt I get at Whole Foods plus dried tart cherries, walnuts & Fiber One cereal. Yes, delish you must be saying. Ok, I love it. And I eat it every single day for lunch, except when I am on the road.

4. I consider myself shy. I know, I know, seems crazy doesn't it? But I swear I am. Inside my own head I am shy and I have to push myself to be.out.there. Only my husband seems to understand this.

5. I am oddly superstitious - wear lucky earrings on the 1st day of a show, that sort of thing.

6. I have trouble memorizing stuff. Always have. This was a real big issue when I competed in music - piano competitions and cello stuff. Once I was doing a piano competition at Miami University and completely forgot the music mid performance. I managed to play for a bit without pause, just making stuff up, and finally found my way back into the real piece. It was wildly embarrassing but I got decent marks for an ability to improvise.

7. I have been married 3 times. The third was truly the charm - John and I are perfect together and it will be 15 years this October. I warned him about the 4 year mark, as it has been very rocky for me in the past. Ha!

And........if you happen to be in Louisville, KY this weekend, you can find me at Cherokee Triangle. I have lots of cool art and would love to see you, so come on by.

There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.
-Pablo Picasso

This quote came up today on my iGoogle. It is definitely food for thought and has put me in a contemplative mode.

Nuff said

I love Alyson Stanfield's blog. She covers many topics that are just dead on relevant to an artist's life. Her current post, for instance, links up an article in the Wall Street Journal that talks about art commentary. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, art-speak language that makes you scratch your head and go, HUH? This kind of art talk troubles me because I strive to make my art accessible to all kinds of people. To me, confusing drivel-ish (ok, that's not really a word) explanations do the exact opposite and only serve to exclude. And there's nothing worse (imho) than uppity art.

Anyway, you can click here to read the article for yourself. There are some classic quotes that are absolutely hilarious. My favorite sentence is:
"Bove's 'settings' draw on the style, and substance, of certain time-specific materials to resuscitate their referential possibilities, to pull them out of historical stasis and return them to active symbolic duty, where new adjacencies might reactivate latent meanings."

Wow. That's a lot to ask from a piece of art.

Remember those 2 pieces from the last post? Well, they are gone
:-(
That didn't take long. A lovely lady walked into my booth at 4 Bridges and said she wanted to buy them. I stood there like a total goof because I was so smitten with the "newness" of them that I wasn't really ready to let them go. But she was paying a good price and I do need to earn a living (which is why I was *at* 4 Bridges after all, DUH) so.......she took them. She matched them up with a piece by Gina Cochran. It was ironic really since Gina and I had been talking just an hour or so before all this took place. I am glad they went to a good home.
The show was great by the way, tons of fun folks, unbelievably cool art, plus I sold lots which always makes it nice. Chattanooga is an awesome town and I believe I could live there if it weren't for some very special family members (you'll know who you are!) who live in St. Louis.
We head back home tomorrow and I am wiped out. Need some rest, but also need to paint some more work for the show next week. I want to paint B-I-G.

Zoned in

You know that zone? The painting one I mean, the one where you paint and paint and paint, barely stopping to breathe, certainly not stopping to pee because you are like an impatient child, just so excited about what the paint is doing, how a composition is developing and the actual moment of action, the placing of paint on the canvas and fascination with its texture and movement, especially the drips. Oh I could go on and on.

And I wish I could say life in the studio was always like this. But alas, it is not.

Monday started as ugly painting day. Color combinations turning to mud right before my eyes. Layouts falling apart, plans derailed - all when I really really really needed to crank and get some inventory together for these 2 back to back shows(isn't that how it always works, you fall apart when you are in a hurry). Somebody please tell me what I was thinking when I booked not one, but TWO shows during the same month as Artfest!?!?!?

Anyhoo, I digress. I stayed the course, not that I was at war with my paintings, but I mainly just kept going and going. I painted over. Moved to another. Painted over it. Moved back to the batch of 6x6's on the other table. Worked on them while the others dried. Moved across the room and prepped some 12x12's. Then into the other room, where I had a tarp down on the floor for some really wet stuff. Worked on that for awhile. In silence which is rare for me because I typically play music.

At about midnite, I finally stopped. I had a dyptych that I liked. I carried them upstairs to view in another setting. Yes, I still liked them. Hmmm. Two 24x24's. It was all I could do to not waken John when I finally fell into bed.

13 Squared

Remember a couple of months ago when I did that piece for a local fund raiser? Hmm, which fundraiser you might say? Well, it was for Viva Vox and the piece is one of my "trash" pieces, meaning that it was made from trash, hopefully it does not look like trash. That was during my trash phase awhile back - I was so convinced I wanted to do an entire new series all made from trash - it was going to be called "Talkin' Trash" until I Googled that phrase (and several derivatives) and found lots of porn stuff. Geez, am I naive or what!??!!

Well, anyhoo, the entire show is posted here if you want to check it out. Some extremely cool art including more than a few that I would buy. I have a feeling there is going to be a feeding frenzy at the opening because the pieces are set at one price (it's not an auction) and I seem to recall they are setting a low, affordable amount because they want to sell each and every one and guarantee a nice donation Viva Vox. Hmmm, it will be very embarrassing to have to tackle someone to get the piece I want.
Just joking...

If you want to read my original post, just click here.

The most amazing students

If you have been following along with my blog, you know I am a full time artist livin' the gypsy life schlepping my wares from city to city on the Art Fair circuit. You also know that I occasionally teach classes, mainly in my studio. Now let me tell you - teaching at Artfest is big time. For me, it was like leaping right into the fire and my oh my what a sweet fire it was. There were 600 people there, give or take a few, all simply champing at the bit to play and make art. The energy was palpable.

I had 24 students in my class and we worked on Claybord. As you can see from these photos, they were brilliant. I wanted to show them all, but alas, I'm a painter, not a photographer so some of the pics didn't come out right.

I think my student's work speaks for itself though, I mean just look at these pictures!!! They were all just amazing and I am so proud of the art they made. What a wonderful experience - I feel completely fulfilled on every level.

As a teacher and a student, all I have to say is ARTFEST R-O-C-K-S!!!!

I hopehopehope to teach again next year, so stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed for me. In the meantime, I gotta go make some art cause I have a show coming up in 10 days. Luckily I am a mass of creative artistic energy right now, all inspired and ready to work.

PS.......I am so sorry I didn't get to see much of Show and Tell. I got caught up in town trying to beg the art store (thanks Mark!!) to mail a package for me. By the time I got back, it was winding down. But thanks to those of you who shared your art. I saw some gorgeous stuff.

I am back from Artfest and my first "bigtime" teaching gig was fantabulous. My sweet and talented students applauded at the end of class.
Awe.......shucks.......their works were stunning.
I am coming up for air right now and will report back with more detail and photos very soon.
In the meantime, I would encourage you to hop on over to Artsmiths to read the terrific article by Denise on Holga cameras.

Artfest Vendor Preview

I am possessed trying to get everything ready for Artfest. My class is totally ready, (not to worry if you are one of my students!), but this vending thing is killin' me. Why I wait till the last minute I will never know.........

I make and sell art all year long, you all know that from reading my Art Fair tales, but putting together products that I thought would appeal to the Artfest crowd was another thing. I wanted to keep it simple, fresh and reasonably priced. Because if you're like me, money is tight. Plus, marketing to a crowd of fellow artists and crafters is different than marketing to the general public.

Hence my offering of supplies.......the biggie is my "Favorite Things" packets. They are pretty faboo if I do say so myself, packages of vintage wallpaper, topographical maps and player piano music. Yep, definitely my favorite things. And packages of my hand painted papers and tissues. These are still "in the works" shall we say, basically covering about every surface of studio space.

You can see my "Sound Bites" above - wood plaques I collage, paint and doodle up with sayings I use in my work. Fun to make, fun to collect, fun to give. The original abstracts (the ones I am teaching) are peaking out of the bin. On claybord, they can hang in any orientation from their "floating" handmade cradles. And finally, greeting cards and small reproductions will be available.

Just in case you won't be at Artfest, I will start offering products on Etsy once I get back home. So stay tuned.......

Artsmiths

Remember Art Pub? Well, some of us have re-grouped and organized as Artsmiths. You can find a link here. I think you will enjoy the eye candy; I know I did! Also, you can click on the Artsmiths logo (see it over there?) any ole time and see what we are doing.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate and Happy Day to everyone else.
Easter is a great candy holiday, better than Halloween in my book and that is mainly because of the Reese's eggs. They have a superior chocolate to peanut butter ratio that I find blissful. I love to let it melt in my mouth. Oh yum!
Lately I am also into the Dove milk chocolate eggs. I used to be all about dark chocolate. I don't know what it is (sugar obsession possibly) however, I prefer milk chocolate these days.
And being the candy hound that I am, naturally I made up baskets for the grand kids. I filled them with all the things I love just so I could keep some of the extras for myself, tee, hee. I got the previously mentioned Reese's eggs, Peeps, a chocolate bunny for each boy and Reese's pieces in the shape of a carrot. Plus some non-candy stuff.
And Whopper eggs. Which I suddenly can't eat because, well, this is definitely tmi, but let's just say they effect me in an un-womanly way. OK, they give me gas. Yes, it's true. How sad is that, does this mean I am officially an old person if one of my fave candies no longer agrees with me? I'm sure the boys will enjoy them though.
It was a wild weather day with snow showers, which is snow that comes down so fast it's like rain only it doesn't stick because it's too warm outside. On and off all day, quite heavy at times. How strange it was.
I finished the kitchen cabinets this weekend. Pictures will follow shortly, once the granite is complete, the installers broke part of it on Friday, ugh.

Artist Deduction

I have never mentioned politics on this blog, but here in the US, this is a biggie. And I am talking about fair value tax deductions for donations of art. The way the law currently stands, every time you donate a piece of your art, all you can deduct is the cost of materials. So, for my current 12x12 donation to Art St. Louis (retail value of $195), I can only deduct the cost of my canvas or about $15. Fair? I think not. There is a bill up in the Senate to finally change this so we could deduct the fair value. Mind you I am not a tax expert (lol, just the thought of that humors me), but I have checked this out and talked with my financial wiz hubby and I think I am explaining it right.
So, if you would like to see the law changed, click on the link below. This will take you to a box where you can enter your zip code and an email will be sent to the Congressmen/women for your state. It's pretty easy. And wayyyyy worthy especially if you ever donate your artwork as so many of us do. Here's the link:
Artist Deduction Bill
All you need to do is enter your zip code in the little box and then fill out a quick form. It will be emailed to the Senators from your state.

Remember this face?

This is Merlyn. I haven't talked about him (or any of my other fur babies) for awhile. Today we had a trauma in the Shaw household when Merlyn somehow got a piece of kitty poop stuck to his right front paw. Now this is the cat who sleeps with us, who hugs us around the neck, kisses me on the lips, etc. Poop. On his paw.
UGH.
He was very embarrassed about it and I knew he wanted it gone. I tried to pick it off to no avail. Then I got a rag, dampened it and tried to wash it off. No dice. Merle was exceedingly patient with all this but the shit would.not.budge.
Finally, when I was watching Dancing with the Stars (yeah, my dirty little secret), I called for John to bring a pair of scissors. I was holding Merlyn and had tied down the precise location of the concrete poop.
John came down and literally cut the pieces out of his fur.
YUCK.
Merlyn was grateful.
And so was I.

Hello studio

Isn't my studio great? I'm not trying to brag by saying this, but I just miss being in it. Lately I have been obsessed with these damnable kitchen cabinets, the ones that apparently breed during the night because I swear there are more of them than when I started.
At the rate I am going, my next show will be a display of cabinet doors. God only knows I don't exactly have a lot of new art. Not for the shows anyway, I am getting things done for Vendor night at Artfest. I've done some really sweet little abstracts, in fact, some of them are so cute I don't even want to part with them. I'll scan them tomorrow and post some images.
The show schedule is picking up. Finally. I have gotten into some good shows. I've also been rejected from some good shows, but that is part of it.
Here's the line up so far.
April - Artfest (Port Townsend, WA)
4 Bridges (Chattanooga, TN)
Cherokee Triangle (Louisville, KY)
June - 57th Street (Chicago, IL)
American Artisan (Nashville, TN)
July - Krasl (St. Joseph, MI

There will be more to come, so stay tuned......
Oh! And by the way, if you are thinking of taking my class over at Jacoby (on March 29th) give them a call right away to sign up, OK? It's going to be great, same thing I am teaching at Artfest.

It's incredible to think that I'll be leaving for Artfest in just 3 weeks. Such a long long time ago I entered my class proposal and it is nearly here. I am excited. I've been playing with all kinds of fun techniques on the claybord and really just can't wait to share them.

I'm also getting items ready for Vendor Night. I have "A Few of my Favorite Things" packets which include vintage wallpaper, topography maps and player piano music. And packages of hand painted paper (by moi). And small original paintings. And "Sound bites". And reproductions. And, and, and. Well......you get the idea.

Here's a sneak peak of some hand painted papers.

Daylight what?

Savings time, huh, isn't it a little early?!?!? I hate this time change biz. It is so crazy, I swear, what is wrong with our society that we have the need to actually change the time. Like we could improve on what God has given us. Good grief.

But I digress.

Every time this happens, the time change thingie, I have such trouble adjusting. I feel this compulsive need to know what time it *really* is, you know what I mean? It's 9:20 pm right now, but is that really 8:20 or 10:20, geez, I can't even remember if we moved forward or backward. And why I need to relate the new time to our previous time I couldn't even begin to explain.

My appetite was off all day long. I blamed the time change but I suppose that doesn't make sense either. It probably has more to do with the fact I didn't sit down all day long and was working on the house for 12 hours straight. I think I burned calories for hours on end and simply didn't eat enough to fuel my obsessive work. We ordered a pizza a couple hours ago and I did my best to catch up on my eating. Tee hee.

The weekend was a flash. We mainly worked on the house, painting cabinets, baseboards, walls, toe kicks - you name it. The kitchen and family room are finally beginning to take shape. It looks like a house again and I can see my vision. Finally - I was getting scared. I especially love the wood floors.

There is so much to do though it is freaking me out. And I have lots of "real" work too, as in paying jobs. Commissions, things for Vendor Night at Artfest, items for my gallery in Cincinnati, upcoming shows, you name it. Way too much to do.

And not enough hours in the day no matter how you count them.

Hey Ho, Daddio

My Dad is doing great, thanks so much for all the well wishes. He had a malignant lesion removed from his kidney - no further treatment is necessary because this type of cancer does not respond to chemo or radiation. That being said, they believe the cancer is all gone. So woo hoo for that! He came home from the hospital today and is navigating around quite well. The big challenge is to prevent a cat from jumping on his incision. And of course keeping Dad off the golf course until he is fully released which will likely not be for 8 weeks, pity my poor Mama as she has to tolerate him during this time.

I, on the other hand, am not doing so great. Good grief, I am supposed to be here to help, not hinder, but wouldn't you know it, I got food poisoning (or maybe a short stomach virus?) and was out for the count the last couple of days. Luckily I woke up today mostly back to normal but pretty weak.

It would be way tmi for me to share all the gory details of my illness, but suffice to say I haven't been this sick in probably 20 years. The only upside is I have (temporarily) lost a little weight.