all packed up

the booth!

we. are. so. tired.

i think it's gonna take us a week to recuperate.  who knew how exhausting it would be to sit in a tent and peddle our wares for 3 full days?

we met a lot of wonderful people at the festival this weekend.  everyone was so nice!  a big thank you to the festival staff, the volunteers, and the attendees!

dry run

well, here it is.  the booth.  in our garage, ready to be outfitted like the real thing, so we can make sure it all works.  then it will all be loaded tomorrow in the truck, and taken to cherry creek north to be assembled in place.  hopefully the monsoon rains we are expecting will cooperate with our set-up.  we are also hoping that the tent company will have our tent ready for us in our space!

wish us luck!  and please stop by and see us!  we are in booth 128, which is located at 2nd ave. between milwaukee and filmore.  we are open:

Friday, July 6       10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, July 7  10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. 


Sunday, July 8    10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.



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!

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.

CCAF auction donation

Martha 1

this is the piece that i will be donating to the cherry creek arts festival auction.  each year the festival asks participating artists to donate a piece for the purpose of fundraising.  the money from the auction goes to outreach programs promoting art access and art education.  i am extremely happy to contribute to this very important cause.  

Martha 1 is a one-of-a-kind monoprint, and the image measures 9x12 inches.  i will be bringing the piece to the framer in the very near future.  with professional matting and framing, the piece will measure about 16x20 inches.

i will be posting more information about the auction as it becomes available.  

dress, finished!

i couldn't wait.  i had to do the overprint, even though the ink was still tacky.  i just could not let that print sit on the table unfinished.

so here it is.  the dots (from the last post) went by the wayside.  i am not happy with the shadow color on the bow.  i think it's too dark.  but i guess i'm stuck with it.

it's a bit out of focus, as i took it with my iphone.

12x19 inches.

pink man

this is the print i have been working on for the past two days.  i started with a retro background, and then overprinted the male figure with white ink.  what i didn't expect was the white in to turn magenta-tinged wherever i used magenta ink in the background.  i wasn't sure if it looked too girly at first, but now that i've had a day to digest, i'm liking the effect.

what was most satisfying though, was how the arm and back leg worked.  i cut a different stencil for each, and like the dimensionality it created.

this guy is 9x30 inches or so.  oh crap.  i gotta get it custom framed.  

diagram m

emerging from the plexiglass

i worked on some prints this week.  for every one that i kept, one went in the trash.  but it's nice to be back in the swing of things.  

here is the one i posted the other day, now finished.  for some reason i can't get it to photograph very well.  the colors are a lot richer and a lot more blue in real life, and the camera can't catch the patina of the ink layers.  anyway, here it is:

it's another image in the diagram series i had started over a year ago.

here is another.  this one photographed pretty well!

drawers!

this cabinet is the coolest thing on the planet.  it was painted green by some person very long ago who happened to know just the shade of green i love.  this piece was found at a street fair, and i bought it for storage at the shop.  when we closed, i had the right of first refusal.  so it came home with me, and now lives down the hallway from my studio.  i really wish it could fit in the studio, but i will say that it looks pretty terrific where it is.

i spent the other day cutting up some old cards from a "flinch" game to make the numbered tags.

then i decided to put all of my printmaking stuff in the drawers.  i figured since the drawers come out, i can carry what i need down the hall to work in the studio.  the drawers are kinda small, but perfect for carrying.  one drawer is about the size of a ream of computer printer paper. 

here's some of my printing stuff:

warm colored inks,

brayers,

masking tape.

there are 27 drawers, so i won't bore you any longer. 

funny that i decided to make a printmaking station, and now i have lots of prints to make for the cherry creek arts festival!  i think tomorrow is the day i begin.  i'm still terrified, but i think making work will help.  i also started reading "art & fear" again, and that always makes me feel better.  if you are the creative type, it's a wonderful book to read.  it always makes me feel like i'm not so crazy.

the adventure begins!!  

cherry creek arts festival

posture

i woke up about 5 times last night, thinking that it HAD to be morning.  why all of the restlessness from an ordinarily heavy sleeper?  because today is the day that the selected artists for the cherry creek arts festival are announced.

at 5:10 i just had to get up and find my phone.  and there it was.  the email.  saying i got in!!  (for printmaking and graphics).  i really was stunned.  i really didn't expect it.  i was ready for the letdown, but instead i got a great big rush of happiness.

ok.  so now i'm scared.

if you want to check out their website, click the link below.

http://cherryarts.org/

waiting...

ok.  i am officially waiting with bated breath.

i hear if i am in the cherry creek arts festival in 7 more days.  

i'm not really thinking it will happen.  they had  2000 1983
applicants for only 280 230
 spots.

i've never done a festival.

it's kinda overwhelming.

i'll let you know when i hear the news.

if you are reading this, and it's not january 9th yet, would you please cross your fingers?  and toes?

thanks!

Signe and Genna Grushovenko

buff beachgoers

today i went to the cherry creek arts festival with friends tom, linda, teresa, and taylor.  we saw some wonderful art.  i bought a few pieces, one of which is pictured above, by signe and genna grushovenko.  i think it's amazing.  genna paints the backgrounds, and the signe paints on top, letting some of the background show through.  

true story.  a few weeks ago i was at the studio, and was playing around with the notion of using old photos along with the push/pull of an abstracted background.  you have seen some of this work on my blog in recent history.  anyway, i come home from the studio after working on these prints, and start looking at my various bookmarked blogs.  i stumble upon these incredible artists the very next morning, and voila!!!  i find someone experimenting with the same idea!  of course, our work is very different.  i am working in ink with the monoprint technique, and genna and signe are working in oil on masonite, but the push/pull idea is the same.

crazy.

anyway, i saw them at the festival today, and was literally shaking because the work is so beautiful.  i am so very lucky to now own a piece of my own.  my neighbor jane came by this evening and asked me why their painting spoke to me.  i didn't even understand that they couldn't speak to everyone who saw them.  but i told jane that the drawing skills are amazing, that the immediacy and confidence in the brushstroke is remarkable, and the understanding of value is incredibly sophisticated.  

how serendipitous that this would all come together today.  life is always full of happy coincidence, isn't it?  yay!!!