Is anyone watching Design Star? I am addicted to all things HGTV and especially home decorating related. I can watch it for hours on end, one show after another.

But I digress.

This week's competition was to design 2 rooms in the guest house of Wayne Newton; he and his wife were "the clients."

OMG, did you see him!?!?!??!?!? It looked like he was wearing a rubber mask of his own face. His face from 20 years ago perhaps. You could barely detect lip motion when he talked.

I am convinced that every show is a gift of learning. For instance, during this show I learned that you should always check to see if ants have crawled into your Kettle Korn overnight.
Yes, I really did munch on it for a couple minutes before I noticed the presence of these teeny tiny little ants.

Lots of them, crawling all over all of it. Ugh. I thought I was going to barf.

Rhonda said people on reality shows eat ants all the time and it apparently doesn't hurt them.

Great.

And, in other news, I believe I am psychic, as all the artists I mentioned in my last post won awards at the show. Hmmmmm.......

Midwest Salute

If you are in the greater St. Louis area, come over to see me this weekend at the Midwest Salute to the Arts. It's a high quality show with work by lots of amazing artists, such as Steve Nowatzki, Ronnie Phillips, and Marcia Engeltjies (ok, I will confess they are my friends, but they are also stellar artists!). I will be situated in Tent B, next to my best art pal and buddy Rhonda Cearlock. It's so rare for us to be next to one another at a show; we are looking forward to it, Plus we will be happy because the volunteers and staff at this show take such good care of all the artists. It's a class act.
And.......we have lots of new work to show.

Rain or shine (there are "mall" like tents to keep you dry), the show will go on. The staff also sets up huge fans all around that make the heat manageable although it us supposed to break tonight. We can only hope, huh?

Here's a link to their website.

This little birdie came home with me

One of the fun parts of the art fair world is meeting other artists and making new friends. Now that we've been "on the circuit" for a few years we run into some of the same people over and over; there are couples we meet for dinner, folks I keep up with via email and others that I recognize their face or art but can't remember their name.

And then there are like minded souls such as Ann Marie Cianciolo. She is an uber talented jeweler. We have this mutual admiration thing going on as I love her jewelry and she loves my collages.

I met her in Madison my first year, that must have been 2005. She was buying a collage from me and I didn't even know she was also in the show. She wore the most amazing earrings, long silver columns tapering to a gold point. They were classy and made a statement but were also delicate. As she turned her head I realized they weren't just columns but perfectly formed female legs wearing tiny gold stilettos. I squealed with delight and asked her where she had gotten them which is when I found out she was a jeweler and had made them. Naturally I followed her back to her booth to get a pair for myself.

I ran into her at Morning Glory a couple weeks ago. She had lots of new work that I hadn't seen before, some was bird themed which is so popular right now - I can't seem to get enough of birds! Anyway, to make a long story short, I ended up with this fantastic necklace which fit me perfectly. I love it so much.

Check our Ann Marie's website (the photos don't do the jewelry justice) to see more of her items and her show schedule. She's a doll and you will love everything. Especially her signature leg pieces which are a total kick, sorry for the pun, I couldn't help myself.

The big get bigger

For the past year folks have been telling me they love my abstracts and want BBBBB-I-G ones. Like gargantuan. For homes with really tall ceilings, for lofts, etc. Of a size that would barely fit in our little ol' truck if it was empty, not to mention when it is filled with all the stuff we need to do a show.

So.......I have pondered this at length. How to satisfy collectors who want over-sized art?

It came to me like a flash.

Paint a triptych of 30x40's. Duh. Slams self in forehead.

So that's what I'm doing. In case you were wondering.

It feels so good to be home. Yes, I know we got back nearly a week ago but I am still basking in the glorious-ness of my space. Enjoying my studio as I work feverishly to satisfy needs for an upcoming gallery show that I deliver in a week or so (when did I suddenly get so busy!?!?!).

I'm painting on Ampersand claybord again, more of my newest series, the ones I showed at the Contemporary, in the style I am teaching at Artfest. This claybord is just so much fun and forgiving to work with. You can actually erase the stuff believe it or not. I love the fact you can not only apply texture on the piece (with papers, mediums, etc.) but you can also create texture within the piece (as in carving out). The versatility allows tremendous layering capability.

I am thrilled to be sharing all these techniques in my Artfest class. Just a reminder that time nears for registration, hint, hint. Since I am taking 2 classes myself, I have been laboring over the selections. I think I want deMeng on Thursday and Bagby on Friday as first choices. If you want to got to Artfest, just click on any of these links or you can also check my website for more details.

Vacation recap

We are home now. Twelve days away from home. I am such a baby, I missed my kitties something awful, to the point I nearly embarrassed myself petting every animal that came near my booth at the shows.

We drove home after Milwaukee last night which was brutal, more for John than for me because, well, he was driving. I did manage to stay awake the entire time and did my best to entertain him.

There was supposed to be a meteor shower during the drive but we didn't see anything and I was totally bummed out. Once when we lived in California we stayed up to see a meteor show that was supposed to peak at some crazy hour in the middle of the night. We knew we would have to drive miles away to see without the interference of lights, so we concocted a plan. We drove down the peninsula to the high road up near Woodside, the name escapes me at the moment. Anyway, we thought we were so clever and had the perfect spot. Imagine our surprise when we got down there and struggled to find a parking space there were so many people star gazing....at 2 in the morning. That was something I loved about northern California - people were just as crazy as me about stuff like meteor showers.

But I digress. Both shows were good. Uptown fell into the mind-blowing category with sales of big abstracts. Morning Glory was good too and there were a few things that will be turn into more business down the road, such as a large commission, the possibility of a few smaller ones and a probable wholesale deal. All good stuff.

Our vacation was also fun. Door County, WI is adorable and quaint. I enjoyed Milwaukee too, we saw the Pissaro exhibit at the museum and also visited the Public Market. The Milwaukee downtown is energetic and vibrant. I so wish St. Louis could be this vital.

The picture collage above shows some scenes from the trip. I have so many stories, but such little time as I realize all the looming deadlines for upcoming art fairs, a gallery show and other events.

Until the cows come home

We saw a cow parade today. About 18 of them, trudging single file along an imaginary line in the middle of the field. Dairy cows, black and white ones. John said they were ready to be milked and this is what they do. I don't know how John knows all this stuff except he grew up in the country. It was something to see though, all these cows methodically walking toward the barn with such intent - no farmer, dogs or anyone else encouraging them. The cows just know what to do. We speculated there is a lead cow and she apparently calls the shots to get them all moving.

This city girl found it quite intriguing.

Sunsets are so miraculous yet we rarely notice them when we are immersed in our regular lives. But here we are in Door County, WI, John and me, enjoying our vacation tradition of photographing the sunset. And as we stood on our balcony tonite, I saw people all around - it was amazing really, families with children, folks with dogs, romantic couples - all waiting and watching. I love that.

I am so thankful for this opportunity to rest, just me and my sweetie. To watch the sun, to feel the breeze, to hear the water lap against the shore. To think and dream and talk and laugh, no worries about appointments or deadlines. I have put them to rest for the moment.