more birds!

memorial day weekend is our traditional "plant the garden" holiday in new mexico.  this year, my husband john couldn't make the trip.  he stayed home getting our son ready for finals.  without them, it was girl's weekend this year.   my sister-in-law, her partner, and i shoveled, hoed, and hauled our way to a fully planted plot of veggies and flowers!  our fruit trees are also brimming with peaches, plums, cherries, apples, and pears!  it is the first year in almost a decade that all of the fruit trees are bearing.  i think taos may not be the fruit capital of the world...we inherited the trees from the former owners, who were from the east coast.  the warm spring was good to us this year.  we are looking forward to this season's yield!!

we also tackled a long overdue project out front.  we finally replaced the old, ugly, and faded address post.  the former indicator of our house number was a simple steel fence post stuck in the ground.  wired to it was a piece of plexiglass bearing digits on mismatched stickers.  not a great sight.  so the ladies went shopping for a replacement.  we ended up with a 4x4 wooden fence post, iron numbers, and a handmade iron crow to mark our space.  we had to drill, dig, and mix/pour concrete for the job.  and we are very proud of our results:

birds are definitely on my mind these days.  so upon my arrival home after a glorious long weekend in sunny NM, i made this print.  it's a variation on my last post.  i think i like it better.

sorry.  a bit out of focus.  it's still wet, so i took the image with my phone.  

bird day.

working on some birds for the cherry creek arts festival.  i think i will mount these on plywood, and frame them with a simple strip frame.  that way i can give people a break on the price of framing!

the bottom is actually orange, and looks red in this photo!

interesting color scheme for me...not one i usually try!

re-do of a previous try.  striped the wing this time, and like it way better!

sk3tchbook! website

i know that many of my readers access my blog from the sk3tchbook! website.  on june 6th, the site will be closing down, and it will no longer appear on the web.  therefore the links to tom's, teresa's, any my blog will no longer be of service.  so if you have a second, please bookmark our blog addresses!  we would hate to lose your readership!!

thanks!!

tomsarmo.blogspot.com

teresaabrooks.blogspot.com

ruthfiege.blogspot.com

fancy tiger crafts

for those of you in denver who have been living under a rock (ha!), fancy tiger crafts has moved up the street.  the old space, which used to look like this:

photo from jamie j on yelp

now looks like this!!

right next door, is their clothing and accessory store conveniently named "fancy tiger clothing".  if you continue one door south, you will wander into buffalo exchange where the coolest bunch of vintage and "gently used" clothing is up for perusal.  oh, and there is a print show in the very very back room up until the end of the month that includes some really amazing work from the printmakers at metro state.  (two of these incredible printmakers are former students of mine, taylor and jazzmyn barbosa.  they are blowing me away with their prints!!!)

anyway, the reason for all of this lead in is that i have been to the new fancy tiger crafts (and of course the rest of the shops along this strip of south broadway) twice in the last two weeks.  this is a picture of just a snippet of the fabric they carry.  and they also have every kind of thing for a person who loves this type of crafty paraphernalia.  

photo from fancy tiger craft 

my point is that the fabric colors are amazing.  looking at the these modern fabrics makes me:

1)  want to go back to school to be a fabric designer 

and

2) want to go home and play with color combinations until the wee hours.

so i did (play, not re-enroll in school).  and this is one of the prints i made:

after the first round of play, i kept playing.  and this is my first shot at a series of birds...or animals...or something i haven't thought of yet!

it's got some issues, i know.  so when i figure it all out, i will post the results.

ysl at dam

link here to DAM website

the yves saint laurent retrospective show is currently in denver, at the denver art museum.  i had the great opportunity to go to the show last week.  it was incredible.  believe it or not, the show will only be in denver, madrid, and paris!  i am not the biggest fashionista on the planet, but i do love clothing, fabric, and sewing.  this show got me all pumped up to include some of what i saw into new projects.

there were two parts of the show that had the greatest impression on me.  first was the room in which the had a floor to ceiling rainbow of fabric swatches from yves saint laurent's notebooks.  they had the pages taken out of the notebooks, and mounted on the wall behind glass.  i loved the fact that the pages had bent edges, and holes from the notebook.  there were also some of his solid colored dresses in the room, set into niches.  what an amazing way of displaying some of his more personal items.

the second thing that blew me away was an entire room, 3 mannequins high, displaying ysl's tuxedos, or "le smoking".  i didn't know that ysl was prolific at tuxedos, and had new versions for each of his collection.  i was going to download a picture, but i think that a picture cannot do them justice.  in the "le smoking" room, there is a bench, and i just sat there mesmerized for at least a half hour.

how will these images in my mind from the show end up in my work?  right now, i do not know.  but i do know that what i saw and took in will wind it's way into what i will be doing in the very near future!

if you are in denver (or madrid or paris), please take the time to go see the retrospective.  it runs until july 8th in denver.  you will not regret your decision!!  please click on the link below the image at the top of this entry for more info, and more pictures!

i know that i am changing the subject, but i wanted to add a few pictures of my garden yesterday.  every spring, i am once again taken with the beauty of mother nature as it unfolds in the garden.   she is quite the artist, isn't she?

and i couldn't resist adding one more image of my gardening helper yesterday.  he's great at lying a few feet away, enjoying the damp grass and the occasional ray of sunshine!

sunday

today is sunday, and the first poppy of spring exploded in the garden.  it's gorgeous, and about the size of my hand.  every year the first poppy gives me a swelling heart.  they are so beautiful with their wispy paper-like petals, eye-popping color, and furry leaves.  i have been told that if you cut them to bring them inside that you have to burn the stem to make them last.  but i can never bring myself to remove them from the garden.  i don't think a vase could possibly do them justice.

in the same bed with the poppies, the iris are also in full glory.  behind the iris you can see the pink dianthus and the yellow ice plant putting on their springtime show.  

a bit further on, the shrub rose is also blooming.  this one is called "morden sunrise", a great one to grow in colorado.  it blooms from spring to summer, and always looks happy despite the harsh mile high sun and the dry climate.  

i am having a super great sunday, because of the flowers, but also because i was so fortunate to see so many friends at our opening last night.  it was also nice to meet the new faces in attendance.  a big thank you to everyone who came, and also to jo cole at the curtis center for making the show possible.  

i hope your sunday is filled with beautiful things!

our names are on the sign!!

i have spent the last couple of days dropping off work and placing my pieces in good spots for hanging at the curtis arts and humanities center.  here are a couple of shots of the curtis center, which is a renovated circa 1914 schoolhouse.  In 1931 it was expanded to a two-room schoolhouse, then the structure was moved to its current site on the northwest corner of orchard rd. and university blvd. in 1990. The building re-opened its doors to the community in 1992.  it is truly a beautiful space, and the grounds are also really stunning.  teresa and i are very lucky to have the opportunity to show our work in this gorgeous venue.

we hope you can come by for the reception on saturday evening fro 5:30-7:00pm!!

i will say that it's pretty cool to drive by and see our names in print!