I am headed to Peoria. You know the drill; if you're in the area, come see me!

It has been a wild week, exhilarating in many ways since I have my painting mojo back. Consequently I have been working literally non-stop in some insane fit of energy that I cannot even begin to explain. Can you say 16 hour days? All because I have to deliver a gallery show on 10/05 which is right around the corner. I do believe I finally have the pieces done though and I am happy with them.

But inventory for the art fairs is not good. I tried my best to make some more work this week but I was really focused on the gallery stuff. I did manage to make some 6x6's but that was about it. I desperately need to make some 12x12's. This one sold already at Plaza and I had to ship it to the new owner. I left it hanging on the wall with a sold sign which instantly puts a magic spell on any piece because the minute I mark it "sold" everyone wants to buy it. I could have sold this one probably 5 times last weekend, it was pretty funny. Like when I got engaged and guys who never knew I existed suddenly started hitting on me. As if the presence of a ring was some endorsement or validation. Same thing with the sold signs. Yeesh.

Be what you wish to seem copyright MB Shaw 2006

At least I brushed my teeth

I have been working so hard and furious that I didn't even bathe today. Yeesh. I worked quite late last night and majorly screwed up a painting, one that is supposed to be in the gallery show I am due to deliver next week. That being the same show that is now two paintings short since I sold another one this past weekend. Yikes! I suddenly have so much to do.

This painting at hand, a 30x24, was supposedly finished a couple weeks ago. I say supposedly because it has continued to taunt me in that way paintings sometimes do. It would whisper everytime I walked by and I kept staring at it day after day with disappointment because in my heart I knew it wasn't really finished and it needed something, but what, I was not quite sure.

I now know it didn't need what I did to it last night. Ugh. After struggling into the wee hours, I finally gave in and gessoed over the damn thing.

Luckily I was more successful with some of my other work today, specifically a couple abstracts I am working on. Despite my late hour last night, I couldn't sleep and popped out of bed early this morning to hit the studio with a vengeance. I worked solidly all day long and even gave up my tickets to Garrison Keillor tonight! I think I put in about 15 hours today.

My hands are arthritic little claws; they are stiff and sore from painting so long. So no more typing for me. I am waiting for the Advil to kick in and I'm off to bed.

Best Comment from the show

I was talking to a potential customer about one of my large abstracts and said, "This piece can go either vertical or horizontal and I have wired it both ways."

He didn't miss a beat, "That's not legal in the state of Missouri. "

Whew, it's over. Long hours, but it was worth it as I logged my best show of the year.

I sold a big abstract yesterday to a super nice guy. He was from NY, visiting family in KC, when he & his wife found my painting, Silence must be heard, inspired by the Enigma song. Lots of talking back and forth, husband, wife & kids, in and out of the booth several times. They finally returned, with extended family including brothers, more kids, and their mom. The gathering filled my booth. Mom was in a wheelchair, jaunty cowboy hat hiding her bald head. Her voice was weakened and soft; her face glowed with inner beauty as she watched the scene with obvious pride while each and every person passed approval on my painting. The tenderness was palpable.

The brother was standing beside me and I naively asked, "so, are you guys having a family reunion or something?" Which was when he explained how Mom was dying of some ugly variety of incurable cancer. The family had all flown in to spend time together and were hanging out at the Plaza Art Fair for the day.

I pretty much didn't know what to say. We just stared at each other and I know my eyes did the talking as they started to fill up with tears and I struggled to hold it together. After the transaction was complete and the painting packaged, the new owner hugged me which was so unusual yet felt so right. It was a privilege to cross paths with all of them.

And Polly wants to eat it too!

I have been a busy little artist. Playing with some different techniques, using more of the heavy body acrylics along with my fluids, adding accents with pen and pencil, blending oil pastel, just having the best ol' time imaginable. And before I knew it, I had a batch of new work. Which is a good thing because we are heading off to another show tomorrow.

Kansas City here I come. My favorite city in the Midwest, not only because it's cool, but also because the city straddles 2 states and I amuse myself by saying, "we're not in Kansas anymore" every time we cross the line back into Missouri. I doubt John finds this nearly as funny as I do.

The Plaza Art Fair. I love this show. It's in such a gorgeous setting and the people are all so nice; attendees, director, staff, volunteers - all are nice, nice, nice. The show is a pleasure to do because these folks wrote the book on how to treat artists. Plus it's such an honor to be in the show, yeesh it's hard to get into this one, with something like 1500 applicants and only about 200 available spots. I am absolutely thrilled to be attending for the second year.

The piece above is one of my new ones, a 20x20 completed in the nick of time. I have tons of new works ready! So, if you're in the Kansas City area, come on out and see the show. I'll be in booth #315, just a few booths away from Starbuck's. Also across from one of the many many fountains.

(Cake, copyright Mary Beth Shaw 2006)

We have had an ongoing phone issue in our household.

You see, John works on the second floor and I work in the basement. If the phone rings, we have a system - I look at the Caller ID to see if it's for me. I then either pick up within 2 rings or let it keep ringing which signals John to pick up and take a message. Cause sometimes I simply can't talk or don't want to like if I'm in an art zone, have paint all over myself or something like that.

The problem arises after I finish a call because John can't tell when I am off the phone. His job requires him to be on the phone a lot. Which means one of us is always running up and down the steps to see if the other person is on or off the phone. I have tried to yell up from the basement but that is not terribly successful and Lord only knows I have given it a good effort but it's just too far plus my sweetie is half deaf. Only within the range of my voice of course.

We sometimes call each other in the house using our cell phones and we also briefly considered walkie talkies which seemed equally ridiculous. So we basically rationalized the purchase of new phones. The thing is we needed new ones anyway because it seems the life expectancy of a cordless phone has plummeted in recent years. Like many other products, the quality is so poor that our existing phones don't work that well and get horrible reception. Honestly, I don't know what we expected when we bought little $10 phones anyway.

John went out and bought this really slick looking phone system that we will be able to add on to with additional handsets. It has like a million Ghz whatever that is, way more than any of our other phones and is apparently smart enough to search for the best reception so you get the clearest call every time. There are cool ring tones to pick from. The phones also have a color display which is totally unnecessary (but pretty)and you can pick a "wallpaper" for your phone. I chose a beach picture. I don't know what John chose for his. The phones have all sorts of additional functionality that I doubt we will be able to operate.

But the intercom rocks. Around 5:50pm I paged John from the Studio phone up to Base (which is his phone).

"Hi," he says.

"Hey, it's me. I'm starving. You want to eat early?"

"Yeah, sure, let me finish up something and I'll meet you in the kitchen.

About 2 minutes later I saw something cute on the NBC nightly news, out-take footage of Pandas. It was so funny, these adorable Pandas wrestling with the NBC reporter and cameraman. I paged John again.

"Hi," he says.

"It's me again. You might was to go downstairs to replay the end of the nightly news, it is really cute."

"Ok," he says. "And honey.........I already know it's you. Who else would it be?"

Not that I am counting

I have been in an obsessive cleaning mode. First the studio, which I ransacked on Monday. Then Friday, when I should have been working in my clean studio, I decided to tackle the house. Now mind you, it hasn't been cleaned in awhile. Sure we pick up stuff; John runs the vacuum to get cat hair up; I make sure the kitchen is somewhat sanitized. But our bathroom, well, it seems our cleaning efforts seldom move up to the second floor.

I was talking to Karyl on the phone the other day when I admitted just how grungy our bathroom had gotten. I lamented I wasn't sure how we even came out of it clean. Then I confessed something so ignorant I can't even believe it popped out of my mouth, "I'm not going to clean it yet because my Mom & Dad are coming in October and I would just have to do it again."

Huh?

So I got to work. And I diligently scrubbed and polished for over 5 hours on Friday. My efforts were not limited to the bathroom, I hit other rooms as well. But the bathroom got the special treatment which included wiping the wood blinds, each section of each blind individually, an endeavor that apparently cannot be short-cut because trust me I tried. Oh my gosh, what a task this is. I am pretty certain I have never done this before because it is a major league pain in the ass which I certainly would have remembered. Imagine about a year's worth of dust petrified by hairspray. Need I say more?

So now, post obsessive cleaning, I am obsessively trying to maintain the clean. We have always squeegeed (not a real word by the way as squeegee is apparently not a verb) the shower, but I added a wipe-down program for the counter. And I am putting things back in their places so stuff doesn't accumulate. Plus I am trying to make the bed every day.

Fifty four hours later and everything still looks good.

Two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl

My biggest thrill lately has been downloading special ringtones to my cell phone. I must certainly be one of the last people on earth to figure this out. But, after much deliberation, the deed is done and I am delighted with my choices.

I have 2 Ditty Bops songs for my friends Rhonda & Robin - Angel with an Attitude and You're Head's Too Big. No judgment here, I just love these songs. Claire got a Dead Can Dance song since we saw that concert together. I wanted a Springsteen song for Marian but Sprint doesn't offer any which really sucks as I cannot think of other music which would define Marian as much as Bruce. I mean it has to be Bruce. I also have a couple friends left and am still thinking of what songs would best remind me of them.

And John. Well, it had to be something special. A song that defined either him or our relationship together. At first I thought of Bonnie Raitt because her song Something to Talk About is darn near autobiographical. It was "our" song back in the day; meeting John was without question the best thing to come out of my employment at Safeco Insurance. But I digress. Alas, Bonnie Raitt is also not on Sprint. So John picked his own song, Pink Floyd, Wish you were here. Most people would never guess my hubby as a Pink Floyd fan, but yes, that is his favorite group. This is the part of the song that comes up as my ringtone

How I wish, how I wish you were here.We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year

It is so perfect. As usual, he knew exactly the right choice.

So now I smile whenever the phone rings. The only problem is I like hearing the songs so much I wait too long to answer.

Exchange: giving & receiving?

There should probably be some sort of a "blog rule" about writing when you are mad. And yeah, I know I should be able to self edit and prevent myself from doing this but what can I say. So, that being said, proceed reading at your own risk.

When I was a young fledgling artist out in San Francisco, I was lucky enough to share studio space in a big Sausalito warehouse shared by about 150 artists. It was a terrific building, one of those cool places that was "known" locally. The building maintained a website with information about all of us so I had an internet presence before I had my own website up. I only mention this because I am sure that is how this whole thing started.

One day back in 2000 or 2001 I got a phone call from an organization in Arkansas called Art Exchange. The caller was pretty congenial and explained that their organization markets to designers and art collectors. He wanted to place my art on their website.

I was so naive in those days, actually I still am, but I was really really naive back then. I mean I hadn't even really shown my work at that point. So I simply could not believe my "luck" that this company would want lil ol' me and my art. I listened to his pitch and discussed with my husband (who had a real job back then meaning I had more financial backing than most struggling artists) and we decided to pay the $475 (I think that was the amount?) to post images of some of my art on this website. It was a very labor intensive process with tons of paperwork where I had to pick words to describe each and every piece of my art. Abstract. Red. Earthy. Collage. Painting. Etc. Etc. Took me forever to wade through their requirements, get slides made and send the package off to Arkansas. But I did it. And several weeks later I was up and running on their site.

I did some searches using the words I had chosen and my work didn't really pop up like I had hoped. You see, it was all alphabetical and my last name begins with an "S." So anyone searching for an earthy red abstract would have to be patient enough to wade through all the earthy red abstract art by artists with last names A-R before they happened upon my piece. Honestly I kind of lost hope at that point. I called the company to discuss and the congenial guy was not nearly so congenial. I felt as though I had been "had." I was a chump.

Flash forward five years.

I have sold probably 500 pieces of original art, none through Art Exchange. I earn a living through my art. I jury into some of the best art fairs in the country; I sometimes win prizes; I am at work preparing for a gallery show later this year. Sure I face my fair share of rejection, but generally I feel pretty good about my path.

One day several months ago I got a call from Art Exchange. They wanted to "feature" me in an online show. I didn't think it sounded like a match for me and it cost too much money (like I would give them more money!?!) but it did prompt me to look at their site again. And I saw my work on there. It was old work, stuff long sold. I contacted them to see if I could trade out my images for newer work. Naturally that would cost me additional money so I asked to sever ties with their company and to be removed from the site. I sent a written request confirming my intention.

I then lost track as I have been kind of busy. Forgot to check back with them. When I finally did I saw I was still on the site. I sent another email. Nothing happened. I was still on the site. Ugh.

Early August 2006 - phone rings. It is Art Exchange. Another congenial guy which is the only reason I let him talk. He tells me about an opportunity to exhibit at a New York show, some sort of hospitality convention where Art Exchange will have a booth marketing art to hotels. They are seeking artists to provide slides that will be part of a slide show. Based on the succcess of past events, he anticipates I would make a minimum of $38,000 if I participate. Hmmm, interesting. I was polite, I listened. I actually had John listen to him too. This "once in a lifetime" opportunity normally cost $3500 but was being offered to me for $1750 (can you say red flag?). They had one last spot to fill to complete their show. We were walking out the door at the time, on our way to a show. I told him I would call him back by Monday if I wanted to do it.

John and I talked in the car. We decided there was no way, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. I mean I have a gallery working with me who does not require any upfront payment. They believe in me enough to market me at their own cost, preparing and mailing postcards, sponsoring an opening, etc. It just sort of rubs me the wrong way that I would pay a company $1750 to show 6 slides of my art to a convention audience. And honestly, the idea I might make $38,000????? I would have to significantly increase my prices to make that much money off 6 pieces of art, ha! Not to mention the odds of selling all 6 of my pieces during the show. The whole thing didn't even make sense.

Needless to say, we did not call Art Exchange back.

So just a few minutes ago, this guy calls back. I tried to cut him off at the pass and say I was not interested. He persisted with some fast talk. I got angry and raised my voice. I told him I wished to sever all ties with Art Exchange. He asked why. I told him I didn't have to tell him why, I wanted out and that was it. He got kind of nasty and raised his voice. I said I was selling my art quite successfully on my own and that I had others working with me who didn't require money up front. He said he couldn't believe I was walking away from the opportunity to make $50,000. I told him I was confident of my ability. He said, "good luck with that" as he laughed. And that is when I really got angry. I said, "I WANT OFF YOUR SITE." He said, "Good, we want you off too."

I'm not sure what the moral is. Don't do business with snakes (joke)? I don't know, you can draw your own conclusions. All I know is Art Exchange didn't work for me. It probably does work for some people, who knows. It just didn't for me and I honestly feel had. I hope to heck I'm off their website very soon. Any affiliation at all just troubles me at this point.

Art Outside and I celebrate our 3rd year!

Ok, this is it! My last St. Louis outdoor art fair for 2006.

Tonite and tomorrow, be there or be square (I have always wanted to say that). Seriously, it is so much fun - great beer; terrific and affordable art from all local folk; great beer; energetic and sometimes raucous entertainment; good food & did I mention there is great beer? What more could you want?

You all know the back story, don'tcha? This is the show that put me on my path. I had made some art. We bought a tent, got the credit card machine, I made some more art. Make it and they will come, I was thinking, wonder if this works with art? And whoa boy did they ever. I was blown out of my shoes by the whole scene and instantly knew I had found my calling. Thirty shows, 7 states later, and I am still loving this gypsy life just as much as ever!!

Here are the details:

Art Outside 2006
Friday (that's today!) from 5-10pm
Saturday from 10-10
Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood (Click the link for lists of artists and entertainment)

On Sunday you can go to that other art fair, you know the one I mean. I'll be going there myself.

Truly Golden

I am in a painting frenzy. A painting, collaging, varnishing frenzy. It is ugly and the studio looks like a pig sty; I am down to perhaps an 8 inch square work space, having covered every visible surface (and there are a lot of them) with some work in progress. It is scary.

A varnishing mad woman, that's me, doing all the pieces I finished last week. And hoping to heck I can get them to dry down to travel to the show tomorrow. That's what waxed paper is for, right?

Anyway, my varnish is acting funky again. The polymer gloss varnish looks kind of chalky, definitely very matte looking, ugh, ugh, ugh, not what I wanted and not consistent with the rest of my work. It has happened before and I have been puzzled about the cause.

So I spontaneously picked up the phone yesterday and called Golden. I explained my issue and was instantly connected to a wonderful tech support guy who is my new best friend. Lucky for me, he is into over-analysis of art products (my male twin) so together we carefully discussed every single angle of my isolation coat and varnish process. I confessed that we have a water softener which was my prime suspect. In fact, I had previously switched to bottled water because I was worried about the water softener.

Here's the skinny for anyone who might be using a similar product - water based varnish that requires diluting - the water softener is a deal killer. It puts salt in the varnish and can look yucky and chalky. I've gotten mixed results though because if you pre-mix a batch and don't use it for awhile, the salt settles to the bottom and the varnish could work ok(or at least it seems like it does) if you don't stir it. If you do stir it, the salt might kick up and dull your piece. Or not. Depends on how much is in there, etc, etc, etc. Which is why I have had such inconsistent results. Which makes sense, EXCEPT I had already switched to bottled water awhile back.

Well, Golden Guy says I probably have minerals in my bottled water that are doing the same thing.

Duh. Never thought of that.

The answer: distilled water. This is not found in the drinking water section of the grocery as I just discovered. In our store, it's by the ironing stuff, by spray starch, detergent and such.

Problem solved. I mixed up a new batch and everything looks great. I am going to keep this water on hand and use it in any diluted or mixed product. For instance, when I am making paste paper and mixing up my paste.

And Golden..........well what can I say, they truly are. The attention to customer service is amazing.

Stay in your skin

(copyright Mary Beth Shaw 2006)

Stay in your Skin

12x12

Acrylic, ink, collage on stretched canvas

Wake up

(copyright Mary Beth Shaw 2006)
Wake up
20x20
Acrylic, pastel, ink & collage on stretched canvas

He's not a cat, he's a snake

I had a horrible headache that started Wed. night, lasted on and off through Thurs. and nagged its way into Friday. I went to lunch with some friends yesterday, these are my Artfest buddies, the crew that has finally cajoled me into joining them at Artfest this year. It will be my first time ever and I am so very very excited. We had lunch yesterday to compare applications and put them all together for mailing. I'll tell ya, I changed my mind so many times about the classes. My conclusion: they are all great and I am going to love whatever I end up with!

Anyway, after lunch I had a few errands. I was pretty over-stimulated by then, headache fully kicking into gear. I finished up and hurried home because I wanted to listen to the Healing Hypnosis/Meditation that is on my iPod. It felt weird to have a headache and I was bummed because I've been going to an acupuncturist and have been headache-free for several months now.

I took a couple pain pills, suited up with comfy clothes and my iPod then got into bed. Merlyn assumed a position next to me and that is when he saw the iPod wires. He thought it was a game and grabbed for them. He is fast and he is good, so naturally he had the wires in his mouth before I even knew what was happening. The earbuds popped out of my ears and he nearly had control of the iPod which you know is one of my prize possessions. I smacked him on the nose and told him "NO." He knew I meant business but of course he had to try one more time. He finally got the hint and settled down next to me.

Which is when he must have hatched his plan.

I was trying to meditate at that point, as much as I could with a 20 pound cat laying on my arm and nuzzling me. I felt him inch his way up my left side, first kneading my ribs, then my armpit, then my collarbone. Then he casually draped his big furry paw across my upper chest. And I'll be damn if he didn't grab for the iPod wire again.

Oddities

I continue to be amazed by the amount of Spam that is sent to my website (what do the spammers get out of this!?!?). Good grief, as if I could ever find real mail in and amongst all the crap. What humors me is the "subject" entered by the spammers. I suppose they are trying to avoid filters but seriously, do they think an email with a subject of Better future, whip snake is going to simply sneak in and appear like normal mail!?!?!

Crazy dreams last night. In real life, I am down to the last 5 shows of the season and have been working on biz ideas, thinking about how to end the season with a bang, contemplating shows for next year, considering options for the booth. I pretty much think about it 24 hours a day because, regrettably, my mind does not rest while I am asleep. In the midst of all this, our dishwasher went out last week so I did research on options and bought a new one which was installed on Tuesday.

So on to last night's dream. The new French wall was in the booth, my work hung pretty much like I normally do. I was considering display options, possible purchase of another French wall for the back of the booth or a bigger counter/table, this all happening in my dream. And suddenly there it was........a dishwasher installed front and center in my booth, somehow embedded within a mesh wall panel.

Clearly, I need a break.

I've found my clan

We are home from the show. It was successful in a number of ways; the money was good which is always nice. But better than that, I had a wonderful time, probably the most fun I have ever had at a show. The weather even turned out ok which was pretty amazing considering it rained a ton yet somehow managed to stop during the exact hours of the show each day. That was truly miraculous.

I was next to my friend Rhonda and a booth away from my friend Marcia. Rhonda's friend Miky (who is also my new friend) was behind her. I cannot begin to convey how much fun it is to do a show when surrounded by people you like. We had an absolutely blast.

Miky is a potter extraordinaire who also goes to culinary school. She lives in Des Moines and traveled to the show with a cooler full of fabulous food she had prepared. On Saturday she had a rice cooker behind her booth! That was the day she brought us a wonderfully healthy lunch selection; sesame spinach, braised tofu, thinly sliced beef, seaweed wrappers, kimchee(did I mention she is Korean?) and rice. All artfully arranged on a plate along with a napkin and chopsticks. Oh my gosh, what a wonderful treat!!

I also had a chance to see Rick and Sally Martin again, having met them at Laumeier earlier this year. Also friends of Rhonda's, these folks know how to have a good time. Rick is just too much fun; what a total cut up he is, doing his Ricky Martin moves, cracking jokes, making up nicknames for everyone, and leaving funny gifts which is a story for another time. His wife Sally is smart and beautiful in addition to being funny. They furnished me with Margaritas each evening and Ricky hooked Rhonda and me up with personal fans clipped to our chairs (powered by a battery source he also furnished). This after he determined it was too hot on our side of the tent.

On Saturday night John and I were invited to join a group of about 20 artists for dinner at a Japanese restaurant, one of those places where you sit around a grill and a chef cooks/performs your meal in front of you. We were at 2 tables with the chefs in the center, trying their best to out-do one another. Ours set the entire grill ablaze which was pretty spectacular. Also made an onion into a flaming volcano which was very cool and it was obvious from the hooting and hollering that we are all a bunch of pyros at heart.

It was when I was sitting at that table, laughing so hard my face hurt, that I looked around at my old and new friends, my fellow gypsy artists, and it struck me. For once in my life, after years and years of not really fitting in and always feeling like the odd girl out, I was finally at home.

Can I be in 2 places at one time?

AIR Small Works Invitational
"diminutive works
with a powerful presence"
Aug 26 - Sept 16
Artist in Residence
LaGrange, GA





What a great lineup of artists the amazing Signe Grushovenko has curated. Wowza, just to be chosen as part of this group is such an honor for me. Signe saw my work on the 4 Bridges website and chose me "blind," apparently the only person in the show chosen that way. When I met her at Uptown, she seemed possibly nervous (or maybe that was me, ha, ha) since she had never viewed my originals. Thank goodness she liked my work in person. I made 2 tiny pieces especially for her show and once she saw them she wanted more (!) so I let her pick from my inventory. I just wish I could see the show and attend the opening. But alas, here is where I will be instead:


19th Annual Midwest Salute to the Arts
Longacre Park
Fairview Heights, IL
August 26, Sat 10 - 6
August 27, Sun 11 - 5

This is my second year at the show; last year I was recognized with a prize in the Mixed Media category and what a rush that was, getting a ribbon and a cash prize, woo hoo for me. This is just such a lovely show held by wonderful folks who really believe in taking care of their artists (they have selected some amazing talent too). There is also a very fun Prevue Party on Friday night; more details on the party and exhibiting artists are available on the show's website. So, if you are in the greater St. Louis area, come on out and see me!

What were they thinking?

Snakes on Planes. I can not imagine anything worse. In fact, I can't even watch the previews or read an article about this movie. The idea of snakes slithering around on a plane and dropping from the overhead bin makes my skin crawl. Literally.

A neighbor boy threw his pet snake on me when I was perhaps 12 years old. Tossed it across the yard and it landed it's snakey ass on my neck and shoulder before I flailed about and it fell to the ground. I nearly peed my pants. Needless to say, this incident pretty much terrorized me for life.

So, Snakes on Planes? I think not.

Restoring my soul

Painting painting painting.
Taking walks.
Writing in my journal.
Going to a used book sale.
Doing Yoga.
Painting painting painting.

 

What has life come to?

Longtime readers know of our cat woes from about a year ago. One of our animals (ok, it was probably Gilligan) was pooping in the dining room. That is when we first blocked the dining room from cat access.

For basically a year now (could that really be true?) we have been living with a child gate at one of the dining room entries and an entire door screen across the other, that being the wide entry off our foyer. During the blockade period, the dining room has somehow migrated into a staging area for my shows, with art leaning against all the walls, the table utilized as a work surface, boxes and other supplies stacked on the floor. Since we have so many shows going on (and generally only a week in between) it makes sense to store things in the dining room rather than carry everything downstairs then upstairs again between shows.

It is such a blight though, I mean total eyesore. We are like that crazy cat lady who lived down the street from me when I was growing up, the one who had newspapers stacked from floor to ceiling. Who ever imagined it would come to this? But I can't think of a better solution at least until the shows are over. And the thing is, I can block the room from my vision. I walk by day after day and don't even see the mess. It isn't within my frame of reference; I think I have simply rationalized that it just IS at least until the shows are over.

It's only when we have a visitor that I come to my senses, smack myself in the head, oh yeah, I have a bunch of crap piled up in the room previously known as our dining room. And oh yeah, we are using a screen door as a barrier. The guest is typically too polite to say anything, but you can see the wheels turning. At that point I usually make some joke about it, suggesting I took the whole "decorating with room screens" thing too literally.

Now the upside of this situation........no more cat poop, at least outside of the litter box and certainly not in the dining room. Whoever was doing the pooping (Gilligan) seems to have resumed use of the litter boxes. Thus I concluded he was better, "over" whatever had upset him, reconciled to Mom & Dad's gypsy lifestyle, hopefully contented with his catsitter Karyl.

Until Saturday that is......I was in the studio where we have an auxiliary litter box because God forbid the cats would have to walk back upstairs to go potty. Yes, they have a litter box in my studio bathroom right next to the toilet. And yes, there is simultaneous use on occasion.

So it was on Saturday afternoon when I heard a mournful cry from one of the cats; I knew instantly it was Gilligan because a good cat mom, like any mom, recognizes the cry of her young. It wasn't a whine, but a true mournful sound. I jumped up like a rocket and found Gilligan standing in the middle of the litter box. Doing nothing, just crying.

Oh my gosh. I was so sad for him because this is a sign of cat constipation. And I can so relate although that is a story for another day (or not). Anyway, I waited till he was finished doing nothing and picked him up to massage his abdomen and see if he had specific pain. He was fine with my examination. I checked Google, found some vet-sites and decided to try this petroleum remedy that we happened to have on hand, salmon flavored no less. This online vet said to give a dose 3 days in a row to get the system back to normal. I checked him again yesterday and his belly did not feel so tight as it did before although truly it is hard to tell because it's like doing an exam on a frozen turkey. But I think he may be better.

In the meantime I have asked John, master of the litter boxes, to keep an eye on the cat poop and alert me to any change. We discussed the usual quantity, size and consistency of turds at length yesterday afternoon. We (that being the "royal we") are looking for small dry turds as a sign of cat constipation. We were in John's office, me lying on the floor, John in his chair, seriously evaluating and analyzing the pooping patterns of our animals. Truly.

Our neighborhood is pretty far out from St. Louis proper. We are in the county, way out west as some say, ha! and near lots of narrow winding roads. Like the road I travel to "The Valley," a strip mall extravaganza of a shopping area that has brand spankin' new box stores, chain restaurants, an enormous movie cinema, our fave local coffee shop and a gourmet ice cream parlor. This is all about 7 minutes from my house, an area of excessive commercialism with which I am in a love/hate relationship; probably more love because it is darn handy to have it all so close to home.

The roads that lead to The Valley are fun to drive. Twisting, turning, up and down and all around. Trees overhang in many spots, there is a creek (regrettably dry since we have had little rain) which runs next to the road and a nearly one lane bridge with a hairpin turn, no issue for my little Saab, but the Hummers and other numerous SUV's take it slow and even wait their turn for a solitary pass. Plus there are clearings where I know I will always see deer and wild turkey. I love this road and hope the land is never sold for development. Driving this path once a week allows me the most brief imaginary existence away from suburbia.

There is just one house that is visible; there are others I know, but they are discreetly hidden up hills, behind trees, to the point you can't even see them in the winter. But I am talking about this old white farm house right next to the road. A farmer I am guessing as the owner sells bales of hay in the fall and sometimes has a table with vegetables for sale. The yard is strewn with decorative ornaments, whirligigs mainly, that catch your eye as you drive. And signage. Oh lordy do they have signage. These folks are baseball fans in a big way. They have perhaps 8 or more signs cheering the St. Louis Cardinals, signs which cite specific players to the team in general, "Honk if you love the Cardinals."

I can just imagine the scene. The husband and wife are lying in bed asleep. HonkHonk HonkHonk. HonkHonkHonk. Beer bottles flying out the window as unruly teens careen by the house. Husband wakes up and smiles.........."Cardinal fans......."

I have had the most amazing couple of days. I scheduled a "retreat" of sorts with myself. This means I get to mess around in the studio, look at books, play with my art supplies, and ignore the ringing phone. Because here's the best part.......John fields calls for me. He tells people that I don't want to be disturbed or some such thing. I don't know exactly what he is saying; I am guessing my friends know me well enough to understand my artistic temperament. And I am sure most of them know I need to re-charge. All I want to do is playplayplay with paint.

I am having so much fun. He(that being John) doesn't even call me up for meals like he normally does. I nearly forgot about lunch yesterday until I realized I was starving to death about 2:30.

Today I left the house late afternoon because I want to get some art books at the library, pick up a gift for my aunt and grab a new brush. John asked me to get some light bulbs too. Which meant I needed to stop at Lowe's. Oh my gosh that turned into a stimulating visit. Naturally I decided to look at paint swatches and was mesmerized by the selection. I am thinking of painting the studio and picked up the first round of contenders. Also got a terrific book at the library which has tons of pictures of the SBC art collection.

All my playing has jump started new abstracts. I am very excited about this work; it feels so organic to me, different yet similarly rooted if that makes any sense. I decided to start out on paper which deviates from my usual method. The studio, as you might imagine, is a mess. And I couldn't be happier.

I will share some of the new works shortly, so stay tuned.

My friends are good to me

I was having kind of a bad day today. First of all, I received a show rejection that set me back a bit and made me grumpy. Plus I haven't really found my groove since we arrived home from Minneapolis. I feel like I am spinning my wheels with too many phone calls, errands, meetings, and other catch up activities. When all I really want to do is sequester myself in the studio and paint like a wild woman.

But I digress. Because 2 of my friends were so wonderful to me today.

Shown at the top is a gift from my friend Missy and I have no idea what I did to deserve this treat! Missy made this tiny framed collage for a swap called Artvent that I participated in last year. Regrettably, I had to face the music this year and admit there was no way it would work with my nutso schedule; making 34 hand crafted and wrapped items just wasn't gonna happen. So I dropped out. But they are all swapping now and unwrapping their new treasures which I am following like a deranged voyeur on Denise's blog. And consequently I have had some regrets. So it was super sweet of Missy to share an "extra" that she had made. What a lovely surprise.

And then there was a package from my friend Shari Beaubien that contained this incredible painting called Inspire. Shari and I became friends over the internet. She is on a Yahoo group I am part of which is how I met her. She has been picking my brain (what's left of it) about the art show biz. Through all our emails we have discovered we are kind of twins/soul sisters/like minded princesses or something like that. Anyway, Shari sent this painting as a thank you gift for all the time I have spent "mentoring" her. How sweet! Truly, all I really want is her to freely mentor someone else when the time comes. And, as I told her in an email, I should say, "oh, you shouldn't have" but of course I can't say that because I just love this painting and the sentiment behind it. I wish my picture did it better justice. If you want to see more of Shari's art, check out her website and blog. She not only makes lots of cool stuff but she writes interesting accounts of her path as an artist. I am so happy we have become friends.

Thanks Daily Sauce! Double Woo hoo to them for featuring my signature piece, Real Deal, in today's Entertainment section. To see the article, just go to their link above and click on Entertainment. They called me a "collage extraordinaire" and my friend Greg a "gifted photographer." I suspect they meant my art, not me personally although I suppose I am a collage of sorts myself, I mean, aren't we all?

The good, the bad and the sleepy

The Good: Check out my new French Wall! Isn't it adorable? That's the 30" wall over at the front left of my booth. When we were in Madison, I got the idea that I wanted an extra wall up front so that people could look at some of my work without actually entering the booth. See, I noticed a lot of people simply walking by and I wanted a little something up front that could be easily viewed without making a commitment to actually come IN to the booth. And the Frenchwall rocks. It worked beautifully!

The Bad: Yeesh, check out the view behind the tents! Looks like we are camping!?!! And God only knows, this little Princess does.not. camp. We put up an awning behind our booth and our back door neighbors, the delightful and fun(!) Mary and Spence Watson, clipped on to it with a back flap. Before you knew it, we had our own private fort. Except for all the confused customers who thought the sidewalk was actually for walking and mistook the backs of the booths for the fronts. Seemed obvious to us, but not so to many people who actually stooped under our awnings, crawled around our chairs, etc. It got to be a joke after awhile.

And the Sleepy: This 8 week old puppy, Layla, actually took a nap in my booth. She was so adorable. But the fact a small puppy was able to sleep in my booth says a lot about the show. 350,000 people???? Hmmm, I guess I must have missed some of them. Like a couple hundred thousand maybe?

Show of the week

We are here in Minneapolis. The weather is gorgeous. We did our set up today; the show opens at noon tomorrow. We have a lovely spot (corner space!) with a lake view. We are kind of off the beaten path in booth #3420, but I am hoping it will be ok. My neighbor said she had this spot last year and preferred it to the hustle/bustle of the rest of the show. She said customers seemed to like it better down our way. I am holding the faith because my expenses are insane to be up here - the most expensive show ever when you figure booth fee, plus gas, plus hotel, plus food. Yikes!

So, if you are in the Minneapolis area, come visit me at the Uptown Art Fair. I've been busy as a bee creating lots of kitschy and fun new works for this show. Plus I will have my line of reproductions including the collaborative pieces I have done with St. Louis poet Bud Hirsch. Bud recently won top prizes (literally, woo hoo!) from St. Louis Writer's Guild for his poetry and I can hardly believe he has chosen to collaborate with lil ol' me. I am so happy with how all the repros have turned out if I do say so myself. You can preview them now on my website by clicking on Repro's. Hope to see you at Uptown!

My art ministry and a case of mistaken identity

I haven't published any scam letters for awhile. My email (as usual) has been simply inundated with ads, specifically for mortgage refinancing, weight loss and erectile dysfunction, not in that order. My website seems to spawn a crazy amount of junk mail.

Anyway, I was humored to see the Nigerians have a new angle - appeal to my gentle side.........

Dear Beloved In Christ,
I greet you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. My name is Mrs Mercy Aguma a widow to Late Major Frank Aguma, I am 60years old and I have just met with Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Saviour. I have been suffering from a long time cancer of the blood and it is so severe at the moment. My personal physician doctor has told me that with the stage of the illness, I am likely not to live long and I am worried about this development. My husband Major Frank Aguma was a military major who was killed in the Bakasi-Penisulla war and while our only son was killed by a stray bullet during a religious crisis in part of Lagos in 2001.
Upon the untimely death of my husband and my only son, I have been mentally disturbed and devastated. Actually, I inherited my late husband's wealth but, with the state of my illness, I am somewhat scared and I do not want the inherited wealth to go down the drain hence, I have decided to contribute it to the improvement of Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ outside my country Nigeria where I strongly believe it would be used for the purpose other than diverting to personal usage.
With God's directions and fervent prayers, I want to donate a sum of US$3.000,000.00Million to your ministry in order to enhance God's work.
Meanwhile, I wish to inform you that the funds is in a safe custody with our bank where my late husband deposited it but, never mind, my family attorney would make immediate arrangements for the transfer of the funds to your ministry without delay. I have equally informed my family attorney of my intention to your ministry therefore you, can contact him immediately upon the receipt of this message in order for him to process the transfer of the funds to your ministry. His contact information are; Company Name: F.A.Williams & Co. Principal Partner:
Barrister Frank U Williams Direct Telephone: +234 8056918933 . However, I am at your disposal by return mail should you want to reach me.
God bless you and your ministry.
Yours in the Vineyard,
Sister Mercy.

Hummingbird madness

We have a hummingbird feeder hanging outside our kitchen window. The tiny birds perch in an evergreen tree across the yard and zip in and out whenever they need food, which seems to be about once a minute at times. That feeder is frequently busy. There is one very large male hummingbird who acts like he owns our yard. Let's call him Carlos.

Carlos dominates the situation at our feeder. He seems to have no problem allowing all the lady hummingbirds to eat, but he won't allow any other males around. He is extremely aggressive and carefully watches the feeder traffic from his tree perch. If another male bird even gets near the feeder, Carlos swoops down with a buzz and the two boys fly back and forth bombing each other like miniature fighter jets. Carlos always prevails.

There is one especially cute and delicate lady, I will call her Emily. I accused John of somehow having trained her because last night our grandson Ian (age 2) was here and John wanted to show him the hummingbirds. John picked up Ian and held him near the window. I was thinking to myself, yeesh, what are the chances of a bird showing up while we are standing here. And wouldn't you know it Emily appeared out of nowhere, literally on John's command, and hovered over the feeder, dipping her long beak in and out for nectar or "juice" as Ian called it. She then perched and ate for awhile even though there were four faces peering out the window at her. Ian got so excited seeing the birds up close; he especially loved it when they would speed away fast. He would yell out, "hummybird fly, Papa!!"

Tonight I saw a new little male who I have named Fred. He looks as though he isn't getting enough to eat, probably because Carlos keeps running him off. The red feathers around his neck are drab and he is ruffled around the edges as though he's frazzled. He has a very absent minded look for a hummingbird with a tuft of hair sprouting from the top of his head. He is one scrappy bird, actually skinny and smaller than the females. I feel so badly for him and somehow want to give him the opportunity to feed as long as he likes without being beat up by bully Carlos. Obviously I can't run interference at the feeder, but it just bums me out that poor little Fred isn't getting enough to eat.

I actually slept till nearly 9 am which is something of a small miracle but totally necessary because I was out partying with the girls last night. Claire, Robin and I went to see the Ditty Bops, a group that has been a favorite of mine for awhile. I honestly can't remember how I first learned of this group. I am thinking they were on one of the Kfog Live at the Archives CD's.

Anyway, I just lovelovelove their funky sound - their voices blend so beautifully that you simply cannot tell who is singing at any given moment and some of the most wonderful harmonies result. They did not disappoint last night despite an acoustically challenged location and a sometimes rude talkative audience(what's up with that people, did you not just pay to attend a concert? Why the heck would you talk all the way through it?!?). But wow, they are terrific entertainers - quirky and adorable - they tell stories, they play-act, they engage the audience, and they sing, oh can they sing.

The duo, Amanda, and Abby, are in the midst of a bike tour across the US. They are doing a very fun blog about their travels which can be found on the Ditty Bops website. You can also order their CD's and other products including the pink t-shirt(love it!) that I got last night.

My friend Heidi was also at the show and she and her hilarious husband Kelly sat with us. We were lucky to get seats and this only happened because I tend to be so anal(yeah, I know I'm a dork) about arriving early to these things. But last night my efforts paid off as the place really filled up and a lot of people were standing (the standers were the talkers by the way, I have noticed a trend here in St. Louis audiences, somehow if you are standing to watch the show, you are somehow exempt from normal etiquette. Huh?).

I swear I am going to sign Heidi up as my stylist (when I become famous hahahaha) because she always looks totally cool and hip in the most inspired outfits that somehow successfully combine vintage and contemporary pieces......such as last night's sheer red and white dress worn on top of very skinny jeans, accessorized with a red patent leather vintage purse and little strappy sandals. She is fashion model tall and lean and gorgeous and she and Kelly are a striking couple.

But it's back to the studio for me today. I've been getting a lot done lately which is good. Gearing up for Minneapolis next weekend. It is a BIG show, as in huge attendance numbers(350,000, yikes!), probably will be the biggest I have ever done. Not to mention we are spending a lot of money to do this show, the booth fee is high, travel costs will be very high as it is FAR from home and we will need 5 nights hotel plus the idiotic gas prices. So I am a little nervous. OK. Make that A LOT nervous.

I just finished reading a really good book, Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. The story is part memoir, part travelogue, part love story - the subtitle is One Woman's Search for Everything across Italy, India and Indonesia and that tells you a little bit right there. This book turned out to be much more than I imagined; it even made me laugh out loud.

I was initially pulled in because the author starts her trek after a divorce when she discovers that she really doesn't want the life she has crafted for herself. Since that has happened to me a couple of times (divorce, life changing events, etc) I could totally relate. Gilbert's path of discovery/recovery however, is more interesting than most in that she takes a year off to kind of figure out who she is and what she really wants from life. Plus she does it through travel to exotic places. There is a secret little part of me that always dreamed of doing something crazy like this but I am too much of a wuss, as are most of us. Which is why we read I suppose.

The writing was a pleasant surprise for me as I had never heard of this author although I have since learned of her impressive credentials and awards. I found myself reading slower than normal so I could savor the words and her turn of phrase. She is really a brilliant writer, but it's more than that. Her self deprecating humor cracked me up; she is so neurotic it is hilarious. Plus she describes many situations she encounters with a terrific dry wit. I so wish I could tell stories in a similar manner.

All in all, the book made me want to write more. And travel more. And read more books by Elizabeth Gilbert.

When I got home from Madison on July 10th I was exhausted. And slightly disappointed. I had sold a decent amount of work and I made money, but it wasn't like last year and that kind of bummed me out because I had great expectations and had set some lofty goals. As with most situations though, there was an upside.........that being I didn't have to make much new stuff for Geneva. In fact, I did a count and I didn't have to make any new pieces for Geneva, I had plenty of inventory already on hand.

So I decided to give myself a break. I wouldn't push myself with inventory requirements; I would just play, make art if I wanted, or not, just do whatever. Whew, what a relief. I had been moving pretty fast and this just freed me up like you cannot imagine, as though a burden had been lifted from my shoulders.

The first day I sort of putzed around the house, messed on the computer, read a book, caught up on magazines, simply relaxed. Naturally, by day 2 I was champing at the bit and missed the studio so I spent some delightful time working with no particular goal in mind. I started a 30x40. I worked on a 20x20, reworked an older failed piece, prepped some 12x12's. But no pressure, I was truly playing around.

As the week progressed I did a little bit more work, but it was interspersed with lots of other fun activities - I did some Yoga, I saw a movie, hung out with the grandkids, meditated a couple times, watched a little TV, pulled some older art books off the bookcase - many things I don't normally find time to do.

And wouldn't you know it, by the time we were packing for Geneva, I found I had somehow created several new works that I really liked a lot. In the midst of my "play" some real art snuck up on me.

I think there is a lesson in this somewhere.

Geneva here I come!

If you are in the Chicagoland area, come see me at the Geneva Arts Fair on Saturday and Sunday, 10-5 each day. I am looking forward to the show; the organizers have juried quite an impressive group of artists and I am honored to have been selected. I will be showing some new pieces that I just finished this week.

Plus I am hoping the weather will be a bit cooler.......it couldn't be much hotter than it is here......

Boys on Chairs

I went to a flea market this past weekend and found tons of cool things. Unexpected though were these school chairs that I was compelled to buy for my adorable grandsons.

I think they like them!

The front of my house. Charming, isn't it?

I was returning from my morning walk (earlier this year when I still pursued regular exercise) and I noticed one of the decorative thingies was gone from above the window. It had fallen behind the bushes; apparently rotted. One of those weirdo maintenance things you never imagine. I mean certain things you know going in. Aging roof needs to be replaced. Check. Old furnace due to be upgraded. Check. Oven won't hold its temperature. Check. Moldings will fall right off the front of the house. What the F*$K!?!?!

We considered having just that one replaced, but couldn't find exactly the size, style, etc. to match the rest. After John explored the matter more closely, like from the top of a ladder, he determined the others were pretty decayed too including the wood around our front door. It made more sense to have everything done.

And that's when the real fun started. Because this is a small job. Not something the big contractors want to do. Although personally, I think $2000+ should be enough to make someone sit up and take notice. But I digress.

Have you ever tried to find a reliable handyman?

It's harder than you might imagine. John talked to several people before finally getting a recommendation for Ballwin Handyman LLC. The guy came out quickly and gave us an estimate. We gave him $1000. That was May 2nd. Eleven weeks ago. The estimate says, "Approx 3 weeks."

We are still waiting. Making phone calls every day or so, maybe getting a call back, maybe not, sometimes hearing promises that get us excited for a few days, but then are ultimately never kept. We were told the job would be done while we were in Cincinnati. Then Des Moines then Madison. We are beyond aggravated. And our house still looks like shit.

This is a donation for a fundraiser for Slow Food St. Louis.

What's a girl to do

Between clothes with paint on them and clothes that don't fit for one reason or another, I have hardly anything to wear. I know some may find this hard to believe, but it is true. I actually have allocated a section of my closet to my art clothes - meaning stuff so stained it shouldn't be worn in public - and this is now the majority of my wardrobe. All this despite the fact I have one of John's old shirts that I wear on top of my clothing. I am clearly a painting pig.

Working Flat

After viewing my studio shots, Dona asked whether I work flat all the time. What an excellent question.

I own an easel and I have tried to use it. But it just doesn't work for me. I am way too active. I pick my pieces up all the time and move them around the studio. Sometimes I stand, sometimes I sit in a tall drafting chair. I move around to try different light. I paint from all four sides. I'll hang the piece from a nail at the bottom of the stairs and I will go upstairs to clear my head then come back down to view it "fresh." Sometimes I sit on the floor with my legs straight in front of me and the piece propped against my feet. I am up, down, all around. Seriously. I will lean a painting against a table or perch it on top of a paint can. I put paintings in the shower and direct paint with a shower massage. When I drip ink and paint, I hold the canvas in one hand, a brush in my mouth, a spray bottle in my other hand and the hairdryer under my arm. The piece itself is in perpetual motion. I fear an easel would simply hold me back.

Yeah I know it's weird. What can I say?

"Not my God"

This is a new 12x12, made especially for a juried
exhibit at Art Saint Louis, "Three Things You Should Never Talk About." Luckily, the jurors picked my piece to be in the show, woo hoo!

The Opening is this Saturday and I am anxious to see what other pieces were selected........religion, politics, sex.......what's not to love about the topics, huh?

I'm pleased I managed to hit all 3 of them. This reminded me of when I studied at UC Berkeley; we were always encouraged to push the limits of thought and process. I'm afraid it's been way too long since I have done that and I enjoyed the experience immensely.

Whew, Madison is over and we are back home. We took the slow, lazy route which means I got to duck into a few antique stores and pick up treasures. This also means we didn't get home till late which sort of sucks. But we also had a quick visit with our new friends Randy and David. They were our neighbors at Des Moines and they live about an hour out of Madison in Mineral Point. It was great to catch up with them and have a chance to see their absolutely faboo home. Which they designed themselves and Randy has decorated in the most amazingly perfect way. They are hilarious guys and we enjoy their company. Luckily we will also get to see them at Uptown in about a month.

Madison was good. I didn't sell quite as well as last year which was a disappointment, but we were profitable and the weather was exquisite, sunny and warm with little humidity. Plus we saw my friend Beth and her husband John. Check out her blog for a picture. We had a lovely dinner with them on Saturday night which was an amazing treat in and of itself; oh how wonderful to sit down to engaging conversation paired up with good food and wine. Oooh la la. Life is good. Beth is such a doll (she and her husband are one of the most adorable couples I have ever known). Seeing her made me sad that she had moved but I feel lucky I can catch up with her from time to time.

I caught John napping on Sunday. He caught a pesky little cold and was resting in this shot. The show is set up around the Capitol building, a really nice location, everything is so landscaped and pretty. And this was the lawn right behind our amazing shaded (!!!) booth.

Madison is a terrific town. I truly think I could live there. Yeah, I hear the winters are bad, but I even think I could manage that (you can always so south if you are wigging out!). I like the walkability of the town. The diversity. The good restaurants. And all the water, oh how I love the lakes. Just amazing!

Madison Bound

On my birthday we will spend most of the day in the truck traveling to Madison. We are leaving early tomorrow. I have heard there is a top notch ice cream place and, well, it's my birthday, I think I deserve ice cream!

John gave me my gift already. Some gorgeous Tahitian Black Pearl earrings made by a jeweler we met at the 4 Bridges Show. If you look at the site under portfolio you will see some earrings similar to mine - the pearl hangs from a yellow gold squiggle/spiral. They are tres chic if I do say so myself, just masterfully crafted and the pearls are stunning. My baby did good.

This weekend I am at Art on the Square in Madison, WI. It you are in the area, come on out, I'll be in Booth #751. I already know I am going to see my buddy Beth, woo hoo, I am looking forward to that.

The New Studio

Ok, here are some photos. The first one, with the Futon, is when you walk down the stairs; this is pretty much the first thing you see. Then you walk past the table (shown in the largest picture) into the actual working part of the studio. You can see the 2 tables where I do most of my work. And the Flat Files of course. Empty at the moment because I haven't had a chance to figure all of that out yet. But I love having those 2 director chairs there as I can finally accommodate people!
















These bottom 2 pictures show the guts of the place. The chair on the right is mine, with my work shirt on back of it. The chair on the left is Merlyn's although the two big black floor cushions(if you look close you can see a part of one of them) are really for the cats.

This is actually a lot fewer tables than I used to have. I have tried to streamline somewhat because I was feeling really overwhelmed by too many tables if you can imagine. I want the top part of the Flat Files to remain a mostly clean surface if possible so I can move to that space to do some layout. The surface is about counter top high for me which is nice because I can stand and work or sit in one of the taller chairs.

At the moment the cream colored table is housing prepped canvasses. The brown table at the back is another standing table space. Finished pieces "rest" there for their Isolation and Varnish coats. That is also where I do my Paste Paper painting and all those supplies are stored underneath the table. The black bookcases contain the bulk of my collage materials.

You might have noticed all the white thingies on top of the tables and there is also a large one on top of the flat files. They are THE BEST!!!! I have no idea what they are called, but it's like a huge hunk of Masonite covered with some waterproof (almost like melamine) substance. John gets them for me at Lowe's or Home Depot. They come in a gigantic size that he has cut into 3rds (or bigger in the case of the flat files) and I use them as portable/disposable work spaces. They are CHEAP, perhaps $12 for the whole sheet; I have probably about 6 of them right now that I am using. They are super easy to clean too.

The space is amazing and just instantly felt better to me. It used to be so much different and I can't imagine why I didn't think of this layout earlier. I want to add some color to the walls, but will need to wait until after my show season is over. Also still need to clean my closet, pull all my large papers from my "file" under the stairs, etc, etc. One of these days I will photograph the "gallery" room, but it is a horrific mess right now and not fit to be seen.

I am part of an Altered Book Round Robin. It's the only exchange(swap) I am doing these days as I just don't have enough time. Duh. Anyway, it's an activity of the Collage Club group of which I am a member.........a bunch of incredibly uplifting and creative souls who meet monthly here in St. Louis.

This time I got Julie's book, Favorite Quotes. I was kind of blank on what to do but had this uncontrollable urge to do some weaving. Of course I have never done a weaving before but I tried to channel my friend Nancy, tee, hee, hee. I got some paste paper scraps and cut strips and just started. I wove some burlap stuff and a wild looking yarn in. And then was lucky enough to find a very cool quote about weaving.

I have been doing so much painting and collage lately this felt incredibly therapeutic. So thanks Julie for the opportunity! Hope you enjoy it.

I am in the midst of tearing my studio apart. It isn't pretty. I have stuff absolutely everywhere. Naturally I am trying to do it myself for the most part and a table collapsed on me yesterday. I have bruises everywhere and look like a battered woman (no, not really, I am over-dramatizing the bruising situation).

I have completely flipped the way I use the space. I am optimistic this will be better. I have felt a little "out of sorts" lately with my entire organization. It just wasn't working for me anymore. And arrival of the Flat Files more or less necessitated a change anyway.

So, back at it I am. Pictures later.

Score!

We were driving home from Des Moines the other day when I received a call from a friend of a friend. She was cleaning out a warehouse in St. Louis and had some items that needed a home. Including..........drumroll please.........2 sets of flat files. They are old, she cautioned, and dirty, and ugly and.........who the heck cares!?!?!? They are flat files and I have lusted after them for years.

Tuesday we went down and got the first set and John picked up the second set today. They are all sitting in the garage so we can clean them up. That being the royal "we" since I think John is going to do it this weekend.

They are ugly indeed, but extremely sturdy and measure 41" x 53" which is enormous. Stacked on top of one another, they will make a wonderful base for the enormous table top I envision. I want them in the center of the room for "walk-around" work space. Once I get this together I will take some pictures.

And the bonus......an old Royal typewriter! Woo hoo, the tape is dried out, but I have devised a way to ink it up before typing which works pretty well.

In other news, I was accepted into the Plaza show again which is wonderful and I am very pleased. I was also invited to be part of a group gallery show in GA this August. I just found out that the Whipples, John and Lynn will be in that show along with some other terrific artists. Plus another gallery show in October here in MO, Columbia to be specific. More details on these shows once I have specifics.

Memorable moments

Des Moines was a great show - it was just the highest caliber show you could imagine with great attention to every detail. The customers are all so nice and appreciative. Plus I sold a lot of work. Yeesh, what more could you want!?!?!

Well, NO RAIN would have been good.

We were set up on 13th street (concrete rather than grass) on a downward sloping stretch of road. The area in back of our tent, our storage space, was a natural drainage area where water from the parking lots behind us plus the road in front of us would all drain in the event of rain. But it wouldn't rain, now would it?

But it did of course, a hellatious downpour that lasted for an unbearable period of time, wiping out the crowd for nearly 2 hours on Saturday afternoon. And for about 30-40 minutes, it was raining at such a fast speed that storm sewers could not possibly accommodate. We knew what would happen and just watched it unfold.

First we moved all our "stuff" - that would be 2 chairs, my table, the cooler, a ladder, a fan, a dolly full of more inventory (conveniently tarped) - inside the tent to the highest ground possible. Which was the 2 foot span at the opening of our tent. We had the front flap of the tent zipped tight since it was raining so hard. I had changed out of my "princess shoes" into sneakers.

Then John and I watched in horror as the water level crept up from behind our tent. I think we were both optimistic at first, thinking, oh, this won't be bad, it will stop any minute and the water will recede. But no, it just kept raining, rain that Des Moines needed badly, I just wished it would have waited till after our show.

It was absolutely amazing how the water accumulated so quickly. At first it was a trickle then a small stream running behind the tent. But as the rain continued, the level changed dramatically to a baby flood of sorts. Until we had about 6 inches of standing water at the back of the tent, tapering to perhaps an inch or two at the front.

I was perched on a dry slice near the very front of the tent. John had taken his shoes off and was wading barefoot. Truly a sight I had never envisioned.

Then suddenly it stopped as quickly as it had begun. Artists poked their heads out of their tents. The water started to recede. A group of staff/volunteers circulated with boxes of dry towels. More staff with brooms and huge oversize squeegees quickly worked to move the water toward the drains so the street rivers would dissipate faster.

It was simply unbelievable. But we were safe and the art was dry, no damage whatsoever. And the show must go on. Which it did. People came back out and I ended up with my best one day sales experience ever.

I am totally hooked on a new series from Animal Planet........Meerkat Manor. This is a true story of a colony of Meerkats that live in the Kalahari desert. It is a fascinating glimpse into their lives; all sorts of drama and intrigue make this worthy (and better!) competition to any soap opera. I am especially in love with the character "Shakespeare," a plucky little Meerkat who defies all odds with his strong disposition.

Animal Planet seems to play reruns quite frequently, so you can easily catch up. I programmed for a season pass on Tivo and am up to date already. Here is a website that will help you watch the shows in proper order - http://mymovies.imdb.com/title/tt0765725/episodes .

Off to see the Wizard

Well, we are off again. To Des Moines, so if you are in the area, stop by and see me.

The truck is packed to the gills (whatever that means). We could probably squeeze in a little bit more, but not much. Tons of inventory, as much as I carried to Florida for 2 shows. But I have Madison in early July and since I know I will need a lot for that show, I figured I would work ahead.

I love road trips especially in the Midwest. Some people find it boring to see mile after mile of flat farmland, but it comforts me. I truly enjoy it. Probably the best part is the forced downtime. I normally have a hard time sitting still. At home, I can't seem to just sit and read without feeling taunted by dirty laundry, decorating projects, cat hair that needs vacuumed, closets that should be cleaned - I could go on and on about neglected household tasks. The car travel forces me to chill because I can't really DO anything except play computer games (Scrabble!!), read a book, or knit. After weeks of exhilarating preparation, it is such a treat to sort of brain out. Thank goodness John doesn't mind driving.

I have literally been working like a maniac for this Des Moines show. I keep pinching myself because I can't even believe I am in the show. To say I am excited is an understatement. Bouncing off the walls, yeah, that is more like it.

Anyway, I have completed a tremendous amount of work this week. I was talking to a friend yesterday and told her that........she says, "you do know it's just Tuesday, right?" Which sort of stopped me in my tracks. Yeah, I guess I did know that yesterday was Tuesday. But the fact is, I still completed a bunch of work. I am not quite sure how it happened. Lots of things were partially done, backgrounds down, layouts ready.......but it all popped for me this week. And that's a good thing.

So, this is one of my new 20x20's. I am loving these colors.

This is the first Tryptich I have ever done. You probably can't tell what the text says........they are pages from a child's composition book.

1st canvas says, "what makes you think"

2nd canvas says, "I believe"

3rd canvas doesn't have any text, just fish. Why? Well, I was in the mood for fish.

Aaaack, I am usually pretty decent with my spelling, but keen-eyed Beth has caught me.

Tic = habitual spasmodic motion of particular muscles especially of the face

Tick = bloodsucking arachnids

They are both great words. Merlyn had the second one. I suppose you all figured that out by now.

I found a tic on Merlyn yesterday. Yes, that would be Merlyn who sleeps with me every night. Needless to say this did not make me happy. I have no idea where he got it since he is an indoor cat. I am guessing John or I brought it into the house and it jumped on Merlyn. That is what I am telling myself. I cannot imagine that tics are just walking into the house. I did manage to remove it without too much trouble. That cat is so amazing when something like this happens; he seems to sense he is supposed to lay still and let us fix it for him.

He is all better now. I am still slightly wigged out though. Yuck!

We leave for Des Moines on Thursday and I am quite excited. This is a very big show, # 3 in the country per the Art Fair Sourcebook. I am in a last minute frenzy of creativity right now, suddenly making new works like a crazed woman. I have tons of new ideas; luckily John is tolerant of me being in the studio nearly full time.

Sometimes a minute is everything

Last night Marian and I were going to a meeting of the St. Louis Paper Arts Guild. Neither of us had been to a meeting in months and were looking forward to catching up with old friends. We met at our usual spot so we could ride together in my car.

We had been traveling several miles eastbound on the highway when I saw smoke up ahead. I thought, wow, that is weird and then suddenly, in an instant, I saw a tractor trailer veer out of control and jackknife across 2 lanes of traffic (this all happening about 10 car lengths ahead of us). The truck actually went into and over the center concrete median, coming to rest on top of the median with parts of the vehicle on both sides of the highway.

We didn't know it at the time, but this was a fatal accident; one person was killed and many others seriously injured. The truck had fractured the concrete median and sent a hunk of it airborne through the windshield of an oncoming vehicle. Another car burst into flames. It was a horrible scene and the highway was blocked in both directions by strewn cars, debris and emergency vehicles.

A strange camaraderie developed among the occupants of the waiting vehicles. It was a lovely evening so many were out of their cars. The people were patient and generally somber with the occasional nervous laughter sprinkled throughout the crowd. Oddly, there were a ton of onlookers who parked on the outer roads (both sides) simply to watch. It seemed so intrusive to me and I can't imagine myself ever doing that.

Authorities finally allowed us to make U-turns, drive the wrong way on the highway and exit going up the down ramp. They didn't officially re-open Highway 40 in either direction for 4 hours.

Here is the paper's report of the accident.
http://tinyurl.com/n9wna

The entire incident was a reminder of how precious life is. I am grateful to have not been involved except as a reluctant spectator, to have been simply inconvenienced in a very minor way, such an insignificant blip on the radar of my life. I think of all the other people and how their world was shaken by this event and I am saddened. I am grateful to Marian for being with me; she was the picture of calm; it seemed she brought that out in me as well. We shared an apple, talked about life and waited. Later, we headed for a restaurant and had some wine.

Yep, this is my new job title

I was just reviewing an application that says:

"Booth fee includes the city's $20 Peddler Permit."

Top this

In this crazy biz of art fairs, we are always trading stories. Each person trying to top the other with outlandish tales of what was said in your booth, the horrible weather experienced during shows, or any variety of art calamities. Since I am pretty new to this game I seldom have much to say.

The best one I have heard so far was from Joe Orr, a story he shared when we were all hanging out drinking (at Laumeier) on a cold wet evening when there were no customers to speak of. He is a low key yet funny guy and I have run into he and his wife Rita at a number of shows. They are an inspirational couple; truly lovely people.

Anyway, Joe told the story of a show where he hadn't been selling much. It was near the end of the show and he was frustrated. There was a guy who had been in the booth a couple times so Joe knew he was interested in the art. Finally a conversation ensued and the guy complimented Joe's work saying, "would you consider a trade?" Joe, being desperate at that point allowed that maybe he would. The guy explained that he was in the Tire Business and Joe thought to himself, this isn't great but might be ok, I could use a new set of tires for the van, so he sort of hmmm around until the man said, "well, I would trade you a set of retreads for that painting."

No joke. Joe declined of course, but it is a great story, still funny years later.

And now I have a story of my own.

Because on Sunday, at CWE, a dog peed on one of my tent legs. I saw it happen; the dog's owner was oblivious of course and kept walking. Thankfully it was a smallish dog who had apparently not been drinking a lot of liquid in that it wasn't a lot pee. Since the dog was short, it hit pretty low on the tent leg and missed the wall. But it was still.....well......dog piss. I mean what can I say!?!?

Probably the worst part was that all the other dogs who approached my tent made a beeline to that exact spot, starting to lift their legs only to be pulled away by their attentive owners. I became fearful that every dog at the show would eventually try to pee on my tent so I took to standing next to the tent leg, guarding it. There was one little Yorkie who I swear would have peed on my foot had his owner not grabbed him in time.

John (of course!) came to my rescue with a soapy concoction to wash it down. He took one of our empty water bottles into the St. Louis Bread Company and filled it with hand soap and warm water. It wasn't disinfectant, but certainly the best we could do under the circumstances and I do think it helped.

But yeesh, can you believe!?!?

As Luck would have it

We arrived around 6pm Friday night to set up our booth at the CWE show. They let us in early which was nice and everyone was so sweet, thanking us for participating, etc. A nice welcome to the show.

Until I got to my booth, #13, and found a huge pile of dog shit right next to my booth number. Aaaacckkk!!! I am somewhat superstitious anyway, so the #13 was sort of bugging me then I saw the dog shit and all bets were off. Even my dragon earrings didn't stand a chance.

But my friend Heather, ever the sweetie-pie simply announced, "this is the end of your bad luck, you have it all out of the way now." And right she was as I had a stupendous day on Saturday, selling my first piece during set up, hours before the show even opened! It was steady sales all day, more than I've had in the last several shows. I felt the evening developing along the same lines, lots of people with great buying energy.

Until the rumors started......one artist heard we were going to experience 60 mile per hour winds......then a police officer said St. Charles (about 25? miles away) was being hit by a severe storm and we were on the same weather path........on and on it went. The skies darkened and artists started closing their booths. The crowds continued to swell, seemingly oblivious to the threatening situation. John and I weren't sure what to do. This weather in the Midwest is just so strange and many of the "predicted" storms never materialize. Even though some artists closed up, we rode the middle ground and got ready for rain, but didn't totally close our tent. We dropped the sides and zipped up the back. I tarped the dolley and had it ready to pull into the tent at a moment's warning.

All Hell broke loose around 7:45 when we heard loud thunder and the skies went black. So we quickly closed the front and killed the lights. We grabbed all our stuff - one huge tote bag, my purse, 2 coolers, the laptop case - and ran. It was about 3-4 blocks to the car. The wind was gusty, the rain just starting. We are both sadly out of shape but managed to put in a respectable pace.

The drive home was horrible, very heavy rain with water accumulation on the highway. But we made it safe and sound. It stormed all night long and I don't think I slept a wink. I kept imagining all these insane scenarios with my art popping off the walls of the tent and floating down the road into a sewer drain.

The weather was fine today despite continued dire predictions. Being the cautious sort, I wore my Walmart Wellies during the morning. The temperature had dropped a ton so it was a little chilly even, so odd for June. Sales were fine, but Saturday was my big day for sure. Must have been that lucky 13.

Amenities Schmenities

It is always nice when there are artist amenities at the shows. So far this year, 4 Bridges was the best with their amazingly generous Hospitality tent full of food and drink. Not to mention the very cool name tag. And the hotel rate (they blocked out suites at a great bargain price) just walking distance from the show. And the excellent Preview party. And the free parking. And free Wi-Fi on site. And wonderful volunteers for booth sitting. And the Patron dollars. And the Prize money. At Brookside, volunteers cruise regularly offering booth sitting and water. There is a Hospitality room with all sorts of drinks, fruit and snacks. Breakfast is offered every day and they deliver a meal to each artist on Saturday night including a glass of wine. Some shows offer discounted food to artists. Some shows give free t-shirts. It really varies, but you get the drift.

On the other hand, there are shows with few amenities. Like a certain un-named show I am doing on a certain un-named date. Not an inexpensive show; the booth price was mid-range, around $300 including electricity which may or may not materialize.

Basically it's a "Here's your space, don't bother us" kind of show. We are instructed to unload our stuff and leave it unattended on a public street while we then attempt to find parking for our truck.......not provided of course and not free. In an area not known for available parking.

There are no judges, thus no prizes. No party, no meals. No storage behind the booth. No free snacks or drinks, no WATER even......bring money they suggest, Since there are also no booth sitters, they suggest we get to know our neighbors. Hmmm.

I wonder if I'll get a name tag?

Sign of a collage artist

I have gel medium stuck to my left eyebrow. God only knows how it got there. I just peeled it off and am a little afraid to look in the mirror. May have been a free form waxing of sorts.


I have been working on the world's ugliest painting. Not really, but it has gone through some ugly stages. It redefined layering, this one has, oh lordy I couldn't even say how many layers. So many that the collaged parts are mainly obliterated. And I gessoed over it at least once plus it had 3 showers which is a new record. I did some different things and handled my "problems" in new ways. Consequently it was a real learning experience. The painting is 30x24.

I am not totally sure what it's about; I need to live with it a little longer for it to tell me. But I think it's about cycles, changing gears. Venturing forth. Something like that.

It will be pushed into action early as I need to put it in a show this weekend. I just found out I have a corner booth too. Yikes, what a time to be low on inventory. I am going to raid my house of a few abstracts and put them on the outside walls of the booth. I am thinking of doing all 6x6's on the back wall; that would be totally different. Or maybe even hang less work, allow more white space all around. A more spare approach.......hmmm, that would be different too. Need to think on this.

So, if you're in St. Louis, come on out to the CWE. It's a fun show. You gotta love it when people stroll around with martinis.

Earlier this year (in Florida) we met Teresa Hays and her husband. We kept running into them at restuarants and it was clear we were like minded souls. I think Teresa is kind of a princess too.......meaning she likes to stay in a decent hotel, needs her creature comforts and her husband puts up her tent. We instantly liked one another. So imagine my delight when I ran into her at Summerfair!

She told me that a patron at the show had inquired as to whether the artists stayed in their tents each night.

Oh yeah, and we also make a big bonfire each night and sing Kum Ba Yah.

We are back from Summerfair in Cincinnati. It was a good show despite early threatening weather. We got the tent up before the rain hit on Thursday. It continued to rain all that night but lucky for us it tapered off about an hour or two into Friday's opening. Actually turned out to be a darn near perfect 75 degrees and sunny with no humidity.

My tent is so great, no rain leakage at all. It was funny though, the rain made the ground really damp (I was on grass) and each morning so much humidity had built up IN my tent it felt like a terrarium when I opened the flaps.......so bad there was condensation dripping off the inside of the tent.

I ordered a new chair last week and it arrived in time for this show. It is a "real" art show artist chair, not a cheap imitation like my previous director's chair which I have worn out in 2 seasons. The new one is gorgeous and really tall so I can leap out of it. The wood is smooth and sleek and just so new I didn't want the legs of the chair to get damp or muddy (yeah, I know it's inevitable, but just not the 1st time I use it). I ignored John's chuckling and used plastic grocery bags to fashion little "booties" for each leg of the chair in addition to a cover for the foot rest. All right, so maybe it wasn't the best look, but it worked and my chair still looks new.

I won an Honorable mention in the Painting category. In recognition, a trio of trumpeters stood in front of my booth and played a fanfare. Then the show director announced the award and a bunch of the show committee people all clapped. It was organized kind of like those birthday recognitions they do at Mexican chain restaurants, ie very embarrassing. My mom happened to be at my booth when the award was given and I think she got a kick out of it. The downside is she might have memorialized the event on film. Seriously though, I am thrilled by the award, which gives me automatic acceptance into next year's show.