New art

It strikes me that I haven't posted very many pictures lately, boo on me, bad artist!

Here is a pic of a piece I made for a friend who went through her Bat Mitzvah last week (as an adult, geez, that would be soooo hard, the Hebrew and all!!!). Thought you might enjoy seeing it. She is a dancer - hence the image - which is her(!) by the way.

I went wild with some doodling on the piece, as the spirit moved me and I felt like dancing with my pen.

John bought me amazing flowers at TJ's and I added lilacs from the yard to make this lush arrangement. For some reason I've been a little blue - borderline tearful, that sort of thing, like a sappy commercial could set me off. But seeing these flowers and my one-eyed boy (Gilligan) cheered me up immensely. I am hopeful I will make some art this week, but I just couldn't summon the energy these past few days. We did manage to restore the house to its pre-rehab condition, so that is nice. Pics soon....

In the meantime, check out my contest below.

Contest news

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

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

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

Bonanza

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

Anyhoo.

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

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

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

A new record

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are the rules:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nuff said

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

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

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

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

Zoned in

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

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

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

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

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

13 Squared

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

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

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

The most amazing students

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Artfest Vendor Preview

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

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

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

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

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

Artsmiths

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

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

Artist Deduction

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

Remember this face?

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

Hello studio

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

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

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

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

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

Daylight what?

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

But I digress.

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

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

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

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

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

Hey Ho, Daddio

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

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

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

John and I play a little game with our Tivo. It's really easy. Wait till someone on TV is talking and their full face is shown. All you do is randomly pause the Tivo and see who can lock in the funniest expression on the person's face. It is a weird sort of amusement because then we try to imitate the face (yes, I know, we are misbehaving children. But we are living in our basement, so cut us some slack). I dearly love Brian Williams, but he apparently glances down while he's doing the news because we can almost always catch him with his eyes closed, or at least it looks that way. Oprah is another one because she shows a lot of drama on her face. As overly dramatic as I am, I can only imagine the crazed looks people could get if they could Tivo my face. You could also do this during political commercials, but hey, if you've got Tivo, you aren't watching them anyway, huh?

I am heading to Cincinnati today for Dad's surgery. Your good thoughts would be appreciated.

Dream Fancies

I haven't been painting much lately unless you count all the work I've done on my kitchen cabinets. It's been insane around here, just full on craziness 24/7. Oh my goodness, I know people warned me about the disruption of a remodel, but I had no clue. Really.

It is all good though, looking beautiful and I am thrilled about that.

But, in the midst, life intervenes as my Dad has been diagnosed with a malignant lesion on one of his kidneys. He is scheduled for surgery later this week so naturally I am heading to Cincinnati to be with him and my Mom. I feel very positive about the situation because the lesion was found quite early, actually an accidental finding of sorts. So it is sort of a weird blessing if they can remove it without any further issues.

My planned Florida trip is up in the air once again. You may recall last year, at this exact time, I was nursing my s-i-l from surgery and had to cancel my trip. The beach beckons and all I want to do is bask in the sun and listen to the waves crash around me.

I know my relaxation time will come one day. I am not complaining.

Life is so full and so good. I feel blessed to have options and to be able to respond when my family needs me.

It's the time of year when I am knee deep in submissions. Yep, Art Fair submissions. Forms and slides and jpgs. I have talked(whined) about this before, the diversity in the applications, how it takes so darn much time to complete them and how it would be cool if there was an easier system that was consistent across the boards.

Of course Zapplication has done just that, at least for the shows that chose to subscribe to their service. It is way easy - Zapp gives each artist a file where they can upload and manage their images. When it's time to enter a show, you just clickclickclick and you are done. As you might guess, entries to Zapp shows are on the rise simply because it is so easy. Consequently, the competition for any show (not to mention the high end shows) is absolutely fierce with hundreds more artists entering any give show. The odds of most the good shows are around 10% or less that you will even get in.

So I was thrilled to learn that I was accepted into the 4 Bridges Arts Festival in Chattanooga. Woo hoo. Two years ago this was my "show of the year" which almost always means I never get in again because the Art Fair Gods have a very strange sense of humor. Imagine my delight when the director called me last week to say that a spot had opened up (I was on the wait list). Yippee!!! My positive mojo must have worked because I booked a hotel months ago in hopes I could go.

Chattanooga is one sweet lil town, offering all sorts of incentives to artists such as inexpensive industrial studio space, no interest loans to fund relocation, etc, etc. They really want to make the town an artist's haven. There are funky coffee shops, good eats, and a fair amount of culture, all set within a lovely mountainous environment. If family ties were not so important to me, I would consider moving there myself. Doing the show is surely the next best thing.

Make my Day

Sweet Deryn tagged me as an artist who makes her day. That was a lovely surprise cause I never get picked for this kind of stuff, geez, blushblush. So, welcome to any new readers who have stopped by because of Deryn's post. I thought it would be fun for me to ID some different blogs that I read. Maybe you know them, maybe not.

First up, Susan Tuttle.....I feel sure many of you already know her as she has been in tons of publications (and is kind of famous), but I just "met" her recently. We are working on a project together(I could tell you but I'd have to kill you) and low and behold we have tons of stuff in common, both coming from a background of music before we turned visual, tee, hee. Anyhoo, her blog is delightful, Ilkas's Attic.

Next up, Dolan Geiman, his blog most likely written by Ali (I am guessing?) because Dolan is such a busy guy I htink he must work 24/7 producing tons of art. They are Art Fair buds of mine, wildly talented and inventive. Here's the link to Daily Dolan Geiman.

Amie King, she's Heather Haymart's cousin, is a doll! She makes funky and faboo jewelry; I am yet to own a piece but hopefully some day soon. Her blog is a reflection of her cute, bubbly personality, you can check out The Daily Fluff here.

Heather Bennett is a graphic designer and mixed media artist. I "met" her when she inquired about one of my workshops. Her blog is a mix of art and family, really sweet. I love her new Miss Hattie series. The blog, H is for Heather can be found here.

And last, but not least, Doña Bumgarner, a friend from my SF days. I saw her last year at Artfest and hopefully she'll be there again this year. She's crazy talented in many different areas, fine art, beading, knitting, photography. Plus she works full time at Apple. I don't know how she does it. And we are twins, ha! Always sort of thinking the same thing at the same time; I will sometimes read her blog and swear that she plucked that language out of my head. You can read Aubergine here.


Hope this post introduces you to someone new. Enjoy.

Charmed days

Yesterday I spent some time with my friend Pat Owoc. She is a fiber artist extraordinaire, I think I have talked about her work before. At any rate, I have never been to her house and was pleased to be able to see her studio - both the "clean" space where she sews and the dirty space where she dyes fabric. Very neat. It is all such a magical world to me as I know very little about fabric other than the fact I like it a lot.

Pat and I are collaborating on a piece for a Woman's Caucus show that will open early in April. We got together to discuss our ideas (neither of us had any, tee, hee) and it was fun just brainstorming together. We ended up with a kick butt idea that I will share later as I want to see how it all develops first.

Pat also shared some techniques with me, such as disperse dyeing using photos (b+w copies). Oh it just totally rocks and I am going to try some tomorrow then she is coming over on Friday to see my studio and we'll work on the piece some more.

I've been roaming (or stumbling) around on this Stumble site that my sometime friend Denise turned me on to......I call her a sometime friend because this is basically like crack and I don't know whether to thank her or not. Tee, hee, so now I share with others.

Anyhoo, click here to see some good lookin' bacon. Seriously. Nancy, this one is for you, I don't even know if you eat bacon, but you'll appreciate the pics for sure.

And this reminds me, it's almost time for Grape Arts, a fantabulous fundraiser for Art Saint Louis. You'll have heard me talk about it before. I donate art. I bid on art. And I eat the carmelized bacon. It's embarrassing how much of it I can eat.

When I was young I remember thinking it was so weird that people (like my Dad) would wake up at exactly the same time every day. To the point they didn't even require an alarm.
Well, I am one of those people now. I wake up every single day at a couple minutes before 7am. This does not include my 3-4am awakening, but that's another subject.
Sometimes I am lucky enough to fall back to sleep, but most days I simply get up. Even if I have a specific appointment or somewhere to be, I find I don't need to set an alarm. This feels like some strange right of passage into another age zone.

And, in other thrilling news, I got an orbital sander over the weekend. Woo hoo, I have wanted one forever. I used 'painting the kitchen cabinets' as my excuse. And it is fantastic, sands just beautifully with virtually no effort. It has a handle on the side, so I can operate it several different ways, holding it by the handle or putting my hand over the top of it, or both. With it, I can easily replicate that distressed look on our cabinets - that same distressed look that costs a bundle of money at the kitchen stores, yippee!
Who would have thought I'd get so revved up over a power tool?

Happy Valentine's Day

Remember how I have been on such a "recycle" binge lately? Well, you guessed it, my Valentine's Day cards are all recycled, having lived a previous life as Christmas cards.
I knew there was some reason I had been saving all these cards folks have given us. It was a lot of fun to paint and layer up scraps of paper to make new designs.
I used craft grade paints since they have decent coverage plus leave a nice "dry" chalky finish. I even used old calendar pages for envelopes. This was a lot of fun and I am excited about making some more of them some day.
Sorry for the mediocre scans; I just noticed I actually cropped off part of a couple of the cards but they have obviously already been mailed.

This is my life

We are on Day 3 of the Remodel. I sure don't want my lil ol' blog to turn into Remodel Central but it is kind of monopolizing my life right now. To say the least, geez.

We have temporarily located the cats downstairs in my studio and they are not (I repeat NOT) happy campers. Demolition is loud for one thing and it scares them. Plus we don't allow them to explore each night as there is just too much scary stuff, vents they could fall into, etc. You know how nosy cats are, I think it's driving them crazy not knowing what is going on. Cats hate change. I am also convinced they miss sleeping with us.

One might assume Merlyn would be fearless because he is so large, but that is simply not the case. He is the biggest baby of them all and hides in the most unbelievable spots, usually in some previously invisible corner, somehow wedging his furry body into the tiniest and most secluded spot he can find. He ignores my attempts to offer him a blanket or afghan, instead prefers to sleep among a mass of electrical cords or a folded plastic tarp. Yesterday I had to belly crawl under two tables to find him.

The contractor and his crew are good workers. Respectful, intelligent, very diligent. They assure me they site will be secure enough so we can let the cats out this weekend. Because it is all about the cats. When it's not about me of course.

Our house is a complete wreck. All of the furniture from our family room and kitchen is piled up in the living and dining room. Every single item from the kitchen cabinets and pantries has been boxed up, the art is stored away. Tomorrow AM (bright and early) our remodel will start and 6-8 weeks from now we will hopefully have wood floors along with a newly open floor plan, rehabbed kitchen and relocated powder room.

Like the house, I too am a wreck as I re-think this grandiose scheme of mine. Yikes, I have never done anything like this before and I continue to wonder if we are doing the right thing. I mean what if it doesn't look good once we tear the walls down; what if the floors are the wrong color, what if I mess up distressing our cabinets, what if we hate it all, what if, what if, what if?????Perhaps John will sneak a sedative into my coffee tomorrow so I don't flip out when the contractor and his crew arrive.

That big lump of quilts is actually my piano. Hopefully it is sufficiently protected from damage and dust. The cats have never been up on it before (duh). They are thrilled with the current layout of the living room; it's like one big cat playroom - they can walk up, over, across, under all of our stuff. And you can tell they think they are hot shit sleeping on top of the piano.

Who on earth was the advertising genius with the idea to animate mucus? I mean seriously......Like we're actually going to relate to the idea of our phlegm as chubby green people?!?!?
Enough already.

In more interesting news, click on this link to see a terrific Improv Everywhere gig. It is very very interesting and way way cool. Enjoy!

Free Rice

My wildly talented Art Pub Studios buddy Sarah Fishburn turned me on to a cool site. If you like word games, just click on the Free Rice link to play. For every word you get right, a donation of 20 grains of rice will be made to help end World Hunger. It adds up quickly especially if you are word obsessed like me.

So, give it a try. It's fun and it's a good cause.

February Background Paper

It is February already which is darn hard to believe because time is absolutely flying.

I posted a new background paper over at Artpub Studios. Just click the link to read my post and download the paper. You will also want to check out the home page to enter our contest. And click around to read the interesting posts and claim freebies from many of our members. There's a lot going on!

Enjoy!

Studio Claybord Class

Last week I held my 1st Studio Claybord class; a group of 4 people, here in my studio. It was a dream come true teaching in my own space where I have all my materials at hand. I know I am one very lucky artist to have adequate square footage for such an endeavor. In fact, space is sooooo incredibly important to me that I limited attendance to 4 people just so each person could have their own 6 foot long table. Mainly because that is the way I would want it (as a student). There is nothing worse than being cramped.
The pictures pretty much tell the story and you can see what terrific pieces these ladies made. I do believe I turned them on to the magic that is Claybord because they had great energy and excitement over the process. Wowza, what wonderful work!

And was Merlyn cute or what???
I am looking forward to my upcoming classes. If you're in the St. Louis area, feel free to contact me about your interests. I am teaching several different process oriented/technique classes in my studio. You will find the information on my web page. I am also willing to travel for teaching gigs. If you have a location and a group of interested people, just let me know and we'll figure out if it's do-able.

I loves my aminals

Only 4 more days to go! Boogie on over to Bernie's place and pleasepleaseplease make a donation to help her out. Bernie is one bizzy gal and devotes amazing endless energy to help our furry buddies. Just look at the pictures. But be careful (ha) because every time I look I want to run down there and adopt a bunch of the critters. Then I remind myself, oh yeah, I have 3 of my own. But donations help and all she needs is a $10 for it to "count" in the contest. You can read all the details at the link. I am soooo hopeful she's going to win.
I tried to put the donation badge here on my blog, but I'm apparently too technologically impaired. So click here and you will get where you need to be.
Woof woof, meow, meow.....

And, oh yeah.
I popped into the library book sale yesterday and got an entire BOX of maps. Not just any maps, these are geological/topography maps.
swoon.......be still my heart......this little collage girly loves her maps....

It's all about poultry

When all is said and done, a lot more is said than done.

Lou Holtz

What a great quote.

And exactly the one I needed to hear today because I have spent this last week working "internally", pondering my future - trying to count my chickens, get my ducks in a row, re-organizing my biz (just a wee bit) without putting all my eggs in one basket.

With the woes of the economy, gas prices, recession discussion (blahblahblah), I want to spend more time around home, not on the road doing shows. At the same time, I obviously can't afford to sacrifice my income. Duh. So this is the year of more Custom artworks. Of all types - my custom collage paintings with family photos , the custom abstracts, and custom word collages like the ones shown that I made for my grandsons (don't tell them yet, ok?).

It feels good to have a direction. I've been off to a slow start this year and floundering around a bit, ruh-roh, sorry about the fish image in this all poultry post.

Ok, 'nuff about that. In other news, we saw a really good movie this week The Lives of Others (on dvd). It is just excellent, one that stays with you, like Juno (still at the theatre). Two must-sees in my book.

Celebrate!

This is for a Charity event called 13 Squared. It's a fund raiser for Viva Vox, an organization which offers arts mentoring to at risk teens. I am part of a large group of artists who were all asked to create an 8x8 piece around the theme "Celebrate."

I named the piece Font Dance. It is more trash - dirty and paint stained paper towels primarily. Plus some map scraps and ledger pages. I am kind of obsessed now. But you knew that. It's fun and challenging to make trash look interesting. I loved the way this turned out.

Hope it earns lots of dough for Viva Vox. I am not quite sure when the show opens, but keep checking here for details. It will be at RAC.

Gallery hoppin'

Last weekend was full of Gallery fun. On Friday night, we went to the opening of Iain Fraser: Protoplaces at the Millstone Gallery at COCA. Check out this link to see a virtual tour of the show and you can learn more about Iain at his website. If you are in St. Louis, you should really find time to see this show. The forms and spaces Iain has created are fascinating, from the physical construction of each piece to it's stature within the gallery to the shadows created. I just loved it. I think I have some architectural longings in my head.......this coming from a person who actually drew floor plans as a child (ha, it's true!).

And, I was thrilled to find that COCA has St. Louis' very first ArtOMat. I had never seen one "live" before, have only heard about this for years and years. Woo hoo was I excited, so naturally I had to buy a piece (since Iain's faboo work wasn't exactly in my budget) and this is what I got, a gorgeous little abstract by Hulin Pascale. I lovelovelove the piece; it is tiny (size of a cigarette box) but it sure packs a punch. Very lovely, raw and loose, looks to be acrylic and collage on wood. It is absolutely perfect! Thank you so much wherever you are!

Ok, then on Saturday night I headed to Columbia (about 90 miles?) with Rhonda and a friend for her opening at PS Gallery. The opening was a real scene, absolutely jammed with people and outstanding work - a real feast for the eyes. Rhonda's work was great as usual and I love the new evocative work by Joel Sager the uber talented associate curator of the gallery. He is so young and so talented and so energetic with a continual flow of fabulous work. And Jo Stealey, fiber artist extraordinaire. She has constructed these amazing standing books out of hand made paper - woven, painted, with sculptural niches containing paper fruit. My description is an embarrassment because they are truly so amazing I stood in front of them with my mouth hanging open. Just divine.

And so that is that. A lovely inspiring artsy weekend. We are sort of doing it all over this weekend, with a different show of course, one at Art Saint Louis. My piece wasn't accepted at the show but I am excited to see the juror's picks as the shows are always outstanding.

Trashtrashtrashtrashtrash

Lately I am obsessed with trash - I find myself thinking about it; picking it up(I've always done that); making art with it; even talking about it with passion. Which can be just a wee bit embarrassing as some people think I am freakish.

You may recall that last year I made my first piece of art with the contents of my studio garbage pail. The piece was donated to The Missouri Coalition for the Environment and was auctioned off at their fund raiser. I loved the experience and challenge of making something beautiful out of trash.

And I am back at it. Dumped my garbage a couple weeks ago and foraged around like an art-making raccoon, to find the perfect ingredients for my latest painting. It's about recycling. Duh. About caps through the ages and why our local recycling company doesn't accept caps or lids. Weird, huh? The things that inspire me I mean.

The piece is 10" x 30" on claybord. It was collaged with paper towels that were retrieved from my garbage. None of these were painted for the purpose of this piece. I did a bit of touch up painting on top, but the piece is largely collage.

Board Game Class

Between Christmas and New Years, I taught a board game class at Chesterfield Arts to a group of children, ages 1st-4th grade. I swear my presence wasn't needed in the classroom; kids that age are so darn creative. I simply showed them the supplies, let them look at my sample, and poof! they were off and running. Within about 90 minutes, they all had playable games and were fighting as to which one to start first.

And this is one of the reasons I love teaching kids. They are so uninhibited with their art. Their brains have not yet been infiltrated with the so called "rules." They remember how to Play with abandon and the big ole fear issue is never an issue (yes, I got the lesson). With adults, it's always - how are we supposed to do this - am I doing it the right way - what do I do next - etc, etc, etc. Don't get me wrong, I do believe in step by step guidance when appropriate, but I just totally dig it when students (of any age) bust out and do their own thing.

I am teaching another version of this class for older teens and adults. It starts on Feb 14th (I'll bring some candy!) and runs for 4 weeks from 6-8:30. The extra sessions will allow us to explore more in depth collage techniques plus we will have time to paint sections and develop the concept further. Should be a lot of fun. See the link at the side of my blog for more information.

News and Classes

It's a new month and you know what that means, or perhaps you have forgotten since this is only the 2nd month. BUT........it means I posted another free background paper at
ArtPub Studios. So click on over there and steal it for your own use. And while you're there, I am artist of the month if you care to read more about me plus see some new art that hasn't been posted here or on my website.

And in other news, I will teach my Abstracts on Claybord class at Jacoby Art Center on March 29th from 10-4. The cost is $120 and any level of painter would enjoy the class. We will explore creation of a body of work with specific focus on Claybord as a substrate. I will demo all the glorious options for mixed media on this absolutely forgiving surface (you can erase this stuff, it is that cool!!!). Plus I will bring tons of media for everyone to play with, like inks, airbrush paints, oil pastels and pigment powders.

Email me if you think you might be interested and I will get some more info for you cause I don't know how they are going to handle enrollment. They have a hee-yuge space though and this will be a great class - the same one I am teaching at Artfest incidentally, but it will be fun to do it close to home for the local crowd.

And lest any of you St. Louisans worry about the drive to Alton, they finally completed that road (367) and you can just buzz right over there with no issues whatsoever.

Beautiful Memories

I finished this commission right before Christmas. Don't you love the picture of the couple on the boat dock? I had to do a little altering/drawing to make the composition work. The five boys are the children of this couple, all grown up now with children of their own. Dad is gone and the boys commissioned me to make this piece for their Mom. I had a lot of photos to choose from. I sometimes feel like I can glean the "essence" of people by reviewing their life in photos. Lots of love here, that's for sure.