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.