one week until kickoff!!

in one week, i will be sitting in my booth at the cherry creek arts festival, hoping that the attendees will stop and have a look at my work.  it's both scary and exciting.  i really can't believe the time has come to make the final preparations!!

(click here for a link to the cherry creek arts festival site)

i finished these two prints early this week.  they are both about 10x18 inches, and will be for sale at the festival.  my goal is to get one more done in the series before the event...but it has to be today and tomorrow so that the print has time to dry before being matted and framed.

in my last post, i talked about the inspiration for the first print, which you can read below.  it has been reworked a bit.  i have added a purplish element, and have drawn into the lace to make it seem "lacier".

the second print is also inspired by a memory from childhood.  i remember being fascinated by anything that had to do with being a mature female.  at an early age, it had not really occurred to me that i would one day have womanly body parts that needed cinching in and holding up.  my mother's underwear drawer was a big mystery to me.  there were all kinds of things in there that made me feel uncomfortable, yet curious.  i would sneak in my parent's bedroom, and go through my mom's carefully folded stash of underthings.  i can smell that drawer as i am typing.  the sweet smell of cotton, the perfume of the paper drawer liner, and the unmistakeable scent of the wood surrounding it all.  

i would take out the contents, one at a time, and study them.  lace, elastic, metal hooks, those rubbery nodules that were attached at the end of her girdle to hold on her hosiery.  i always wanted to try that stuff on, but never dared.  it seemed like something i shouldn't do.  then i would put everything back, trying to make sure that things looked untouched.  if she ever knew, i would be so horrified and embarrassed.

it's strange to me now that underwear evoked such feelings.  lingerie doesn't make me feel uneasy in the slightest bit now.  it's a fact of life, one that is with me every day.  in a way it is liberating to see undergarments as subject matter.  my hope is that i can connect my childhood memory to yours, somehow, or at the least, make you smile!

first try! more to come...

not sure about the black and blue background.  would love your comments!!

working on several more underwear ideas, and will post them as i finish them!

brassiere!

when i was a small girl, my mother took me to get my first bra at a really swanky teenager shop.  it almost put me over the edge to have to try it on. i was so embarrassed by things of this nature.  underwear was a very private matter in my book, and having your mother look on was horrifying. with the purchase made, i reluctantly wore my new underthing in the neighborhood that day, beneath a shirt i was sure was not see-through.

i was wrong.  timmy and phillip jablonski noticed immediately, and teased me unmercifully.  they snapped the back over and over as they laughed and laughed.  "ruth is wearing a BRA-ZEEERRRE!", they exclaimed!  i thought i was going to die.  bright red, i ran humiliated back in the house.  no "kick the can" that summer night with the neighborhood kids for me.

for some reason it made it worse that they called it a "brassiere".  it was twice as embarrassing to me.  ever since, i have had trouble saying that word without those memories coming back.  but luckily now it's kinda funny instead of petrifying.  so here is the start of a new print, done to once and for all make a bad situation into a humorous one (i hope).  my bra was not as mature as this one, in fact mine was actually pretty non-supportive.  i didn't have much to support at the time.

this is also a bit of a memory of my mom.  i remember her wearing this type of bra.  it seemed so strange and uncomfortable-looking to me back then.  it was made of some sort of lacy netting with lots and lots of support.  i think it had about a hundred hooks in the back.  all for a tiny woman who always joked her chest was "like a young boy".  

just the drawing, done on sheer paper.  i'll post the print when it emerges.

a much needed break

john and i headed down to taos this weekend.  it seemed that the tree full of cherries might need some attention.  

it's a good thing we made the drive, as the magpies had discovered our crop, and were eagerly chomping cherries, leaving a scattering of pits under the tree.  they scolded us whenever we were in the yard, and at times we saw up to four of them noshing happily. i didn't get a picture of them in the tree, but here is a shot of one waiting patiently for me to leave the yard.  you have to look a bit closely, he's sitting on the far fence a bit right of center.

this is only part of the harvest:

we had to leave almost half of them on the tree.  we think we brought home at least 50 pounds.  it was certainly a good year for cherries.  we also let anyone we knew that there were more cherries for the taking.  and we suppose that the magpies will also have a nice feast in the coming days!!

it was a bit smoky in the valley this weekend.  there are still several fires burning, the newest in ruidoso, which is south of santa fe.  our thoughts are going out to those affected by the fires in new mexico and colorado.  we are sending our most powerful positive thoughts into the universe, wishing they will help those who are fighting and those who have lost.

busy, busy!!

john has been busy out in the garage, taping off a section of the floor to create the outline of my booth for CCAF.  he is painting away on the display panels he has in the works.  as he works diligently, i am spending time back in the house stressing out!  questions are running through my brain.  they run from "do i have enough work????" to "will anybody buy anything???" to "i think i should have never even applied to this show!!"  then, in moments of calm in between the freaking out, i think "this is no big deal." and "all i gotta do is sell a few works to break even."

agh.

in between the stressing and calm thoughts, i am making more birds.

here is the print from yesterday.

a couple of new characters

i'm still playing around with the colors i saw at the fabric store a few weeks ago.  not my usual grayed-down tones that make me comfortable, but some bright, more pure hues.  ok, so i did go with some olive green and dark gray.  but i couldn't help myself.

this one is about 10x17 inches.