Summer days

Summer always gives me wanderlust.  These days, I don't really have the luxury of much free time, but I used Rhonda's puppies as an excuse to get away for a day.  I finished up the new batch of commissions (yippee!!), threw some stuff in the car, grabbed the big cooler and hit the road.  

Rhonda just lives an hour and a half away, but it seems further because she's in the country and has 16 acres on a lake.  We romped with the puppies, played with her older dog, even lured the cat out of hiding.  I saw all the work in her studio, things in process, prototypes of new ideas, etc.  I would love to show you a picture of her place, but I stupidly failed to charge my camera and the battery died.Luckily, I did get a few good shots before it pooped out.  

She fixed me a lovely grilled salmon dinner with fresh corn on the cob from the Mennonite farmer's market.  I got tons of veggies to bring home (hence the cooler)  and I stopped at the "mile high" place to get some carryout pie which is such a treat for me and John.  Yumyumyum!!!!

Aren't the puppies adorable?  They have tons of energy as you might imagine.  Sooooo very cute.

I drove home via every antique store I could find and that was fun.  Got lots of new material for the upcoming Schlafly show.  I need to pull some all nighters as I don't have much time left.  

We continue to have amazing weather here and more predicted for the weekend.  It feels good to be home (no show this weekend).  We are invited to 2 parties, plus a dinner date.   I will be in the studio during the days.  Don't feel sorry for me, there isn't anything I'd rather be doing.  I feel invigorated after my 18 hour vacation, tee, hee.  

 

Helloooooooo?????

I feel a little boring lately with my blog entries, makes me wonder if anyone is reading or if anyone cares, I mean if I am boring myself (!!!), goodness only knows what anyone else might think?  

My big news is that a very dear friend took me to the Bruce Springsteen concert Saturday night; and yes, I was a "virgin" Bruce fan.  Always liked his music, but didn't think too much about it.  Until this concert.  It was life changing.  I kid you not.  

The lyrics, the passion, the joy, the love.  He is a poet for our time.  The concert was a revival.  Absolutely amazing.  I need awhile to process it, but I am so grateful to have had the experience.  It has moved me in many ways.  I'm thinking and thinking......about many things in my life....and our society, about family and home and friends. 

I wonder if I could be a groupie.  Or perhaps I already am?

 

I was a lady of leisure yesterday as I was treated to a facial (my friend Claire got me a certificate).  Divine, geez, I could get used to that!  I spent half the time hovering in that glorious blissed out state, the one where you are in and out of sleep.  Just lovely.  Not to mention my skin looks really nice and feels oh so soft. 

Then I took my car in to the dealer because there is a vibration/rattle that is driving me bonkers (very short drive I might add).  Anyhoo, one of the mechanic guys took a ride with me and he finally (!) heard the sound too.  Then he popped out the entire center console part.  While I was driving!!!  The sound stopped.  Hmmmm, interesting.  Back to the dealer where this brilliant guy put a little strip of felt along the leading edge of the console and then popped it back in.  We went for another drive and it was perfectly silent.  Yippee!

In other news, I accidentally paid $13 for a bunch of basil.  The guy at Whole Foods was unloading this incredible fresh basil - small basil bushes, they were.  And the smell was so fantastic all I could think about was a tomato and mozzarella salad, how delish it was going to be.  I grabbed one up, the largest one of course, stupidly assuming the price was per bunch, not per pound.  Duh.  Luckily I froze a bunch of it. But I still feel like an idiot.

2 Wholesale or not 2 Wholesale, that is the question

Yikes, I had 2 galleries approach me at the Lexington show, one from Louisville, one from Lexington.  They both wanted to wholesale my products, specifically my reproductions, Sound Bites and greeting cards.  This is one of those, "be careful what you wish for" things, as I have been tossing this around for the past months (in my head of course).  And now it literally falls into my lap.  

Wonderful you might say and yes, of course I am thrilled.  But this means I also need to log some big-time computer hours designing a line of cards and figuring out which pieces to reproduce, etc.  Because my past efforts have been a little casual to say the least.  

I mean my usual greeting card approach is to simply reproduce which ever images amuse me at the time I am making them.  Seriously.  It varies wildly from show to show.  My reproductions have been limited to the four pieces that "define" me, the autobiographical ones, "Don't Play Dumb", Don't Fence me in", "Crack yourself up" and "Wear it like you mean it."  Clearly I need to expand this.  

And Y-E-S, I do want to wholesale my work.  I've always wanted this, it's just new and big and scary and I'm feeling way out of my comfort zone at the moment.  I need to find a printer for greeting cards because I will no longer be able to make them up by hand - we're talking way too big of quantity.  Anyone who would be willing to share a source let me know!

In other show news, I used part of last week's prize money to treat myself to a pair of Piper Sandals.   Here is a picture - I stole this from Dave's website but I don't think he would care since I am talking about how great they are.  Geez Louise, these are great shoes.  I know sooooo many artists who have these shoes, I see them everywhere and now I know why!  Dave was my next door neighbor at the Lexington show and what a fun time we had.  I laughed my butt off cause he is so funny he could be a stand up comic.  That is, if he had any spare time......his sandal biz is booming, they are being sought for, not one, but two upcoming Hollywood movies.    

You all have heard me talk about my delicate little feet before.  I mean they are so darn sensitive that I get blisters with nearly every shoe purchase.  Plus my foot is on the skinny side and I have trouble finding a good fit.  So imagine my surprise when Dave put these on me and I wore them for about 10 hours straight the first day with not one blister.  They felt amazing.  Comfy yet supportive, like I could walk around in them for a long time.  The straps run under the sole and you can adjust them to perfectly fit any foot.  This is a shoe to keep forever, just get them re-soled  as needed (which includes new straps!).  What a quality product.  Click here to see Dave's website, read his story and perhaps even order a pair for yourself.

Artfest is coming....

I will be teaching 2 classes at Artfest in 2009.  The site is live, so you can click here to see all the amazing workshops that Teesha has lined up.  If you are new to AF, make sure you go over all the registration details - you need to postmark your entry by a certain date, I think it's 9/02?  Anyhoo, all the details are on the site.    

I attended Artfest for the first time in 2007 and instantly felt like I had found "my people."  It was a welcome get-away for me - a perfect adult art camp where I could play to my heart's content.  I came away invigorated and filled with ideas and new techniques for my work.  In 2008 I taught one class and was filled with joy to witness my students produce the most amazing work I could ever imagine.  You can click here to see the post of  the work from my students.  Needless to say, I am thrilled to return for 2 classes on my very fave topic in the world which is Claybord.  I've divided my techniques into 2 sessions because I just have too much to share in one day and I don't want anyone's head to explode (joke). 

So now I just need to figure out what class I want to take on my free day!  

Hey little Birdie

There were three baby birds in this knothole nest a short distance from my booth at the Lake Geneva show.  I could have watched them all day, but alas, I had an art fair to work, tee, hee.  They were so adorable and oh-so-needy as they cheeped incessantly for Mama's attention.   

Everything about the show was idyllic, right on the water, it just doesn't get much prettier.  And the weather -oh my - 70 degrees and sunny?!?!?!?  What a treat it was!  

I hung a bunch of abstracts in the booth to take a new booth photo, here is one of my set-ups.  I didn't leave the booth this way for the show, I kept moving stuff around (I had a corner!), but it gives you an idea of how an all abstract booth would look.  

See the big red one?  It's 44" across, 34" tall.  Gone, sold within the last half hour of the show to some fun and funny folks.  I so enjoyed talking with them and am happy they have the piece.  

And how about this dragonfly?  Isn't its coloring interesting - I had never seen one like that.  It hung out in my booth a lot (I swear it was the same one!?!?!).  Maybe brought me good luck because I won an award, yippee, that even included money.  I was also invited to come back to teach a workshop for the Art League.  I feel honored and blessed.  Life is indeed good.

The Big Boys are here

Since I am working with a gallery now (yeah, yeah, I need to share more details on that, announcements coming soon....) I need to start getting pieces framed.  Thankfully, a friend of mine has recently opened a framing biz, woohoo.  He has been trying to persuade me to frame my large pieces for a few months and I finally took the plunge.  Oh my----even I was impressed to see my work presented this way. I sat the paintings in my family room so you could get some perspective on how large they are.  Forty four inches tall with frame. 

 

They are all traveling to WI with me for the Lake Geneva Art in the Park show this weekend.  If you're in the greater Chicago area or in WI, come on over!!!  The weather is going to be divine!!

The second picture shows my recent work that has returned home from the Art Saint Louis show.  It is wonderful in our house, so perfect above John's chair that I don't think I can sell it.  This bottom piece is on Claybord.  The ones in the top picture are on canvas.  All are mixed media - acrylic, pastel, ink, collage, marker.

Message for the day

Signs of Progress