found art thursday?

I look forward all month to posting something new in reaction to the theme Cathy Nichols picks out for her Found Art Friday challenge. It's just a great no-pressure goal to create and post something over on her site on the last Friday of the month. I find that it's a helpful motivator to have that little deadline, and it's a great chance to connect with people that stop by her blog regularly, but maybe haven't 'met' me yet.

So, this month, I was feeling pretty proud that I felt I had a piece that responded nicely to her September theme of "Change", and was just holding off on posting it here until it was time for FAF.

Well, hello...tomorrow's Friday- but it's also October! So I totally missed the last Friday of September! Check out the response Cathy had to FAF- for sure. In the meantime- I'm posting my own piece today under the sheepish heading of Found Art Thursday:

harvest days

remember these?

I am so excited...the above are images you may recognize- they're are all pieces I did over the past year.  And though (lucky, lucky, lucky me) they all sold in my summer show, I'm able to post them again because I've ventured into the confusing world of having high-end prints made! So yep- the above are prints- which I'll be selling framed and unframed versions of at that Cedarburg Arts Weekend I keep going on and on about. They really turned out so nicely- check out the detail: (I think my camera's a little out of focus- but really, the scan and the print picked up so much detail- all of the layers and textures look so real!)

And now for something new, sort of:  Here's the final version of one of the images I posted in progress a few weeks ago...I love it, it feels friendly and sweet and easy to be around:

full circle

I'll be back with another one on Friday - my submission to Cathy Nichols' Found Art Friday. Imagine that- I'll have put up 5 posts in September then- whew!

shameless self promotion

Just taking a moment to do a little admin work:

I'll be taking part in my first ever weekend art fair in a few weeks. I'm participating in the Cedarburg Arts Weekend, by exhibiting at a booth at the Cedarburg Cultural Center. I'll have a wide range of original pieces, new archival quality prints and a selection of Sincerely Handmade products. Many area artists will be opening up shop for studio tours that run all weekend, so it's definitely worth a trip. Maps to participating studios are available at the Cultural Center, so if you're in the area- come on up, say hi, and then grab a map and go tour!

my not-favorite

Most nights, at dinner, we all take turns sharing our "Favorites" of the day. I love how this gets conversation going and lets us in on what's important to 5 and 7-year old boys these days. (It also gives such boys a subtle lesson in the fact that the grown-ups have exciting things going on during the day beyond searching for legos, packing school lunches and cleaning blue toothpaste off the sink, counter and sometimes bathroom door.) Sometimes, the Favorties discussion segues into the Not-Favorites discussion. Not-Favorites are also very important to be able to express and sympathize over.

Sewing is my Not-Favorite. It just is. I don't like the specific-ness of it, and it makes me crabby. I also snipped my index finger with the scissors while trimming all the annoying, dangling ends of thread this morning. So many people sew so well, and take such joy from it- I think I'll just leave it to them from here on out.

Because of this, I believe the above celebration buntings are what is now a very limited-edition of six from sincerely handmade. They will be test-marketed at Tuesday's Child in Wauwatosa on Saturday the 25th, and any that do not sell will be with me at the Cedarburg Arts Weekend, October 8-10. After that- the etsy shop I'm planning to launch on October 11th. They are about 10 feet long, and are very nicely (one might be tempted to say tediously- but I'm not sure that's good marketing) made. They are multi-colored on one side for any and all occasions worth celebrating, all reds and pinks on the reverse for a ready-made Valentine decoration.

And now, I'm going to get back to my Favorites- which are pretty much everything except sewing.

nothing final

Hi there! Just a quick post to show you a few in-progress pieces. I'm working hard to make the days productive now that both boys are in school 'all day'. That said, it's time to go pick 'em up and change roles back to being mommy! I hope you're enjoying the change of seasons...I find my pallette shifting to warmer hues- darker, earthier colors. Interesting.

it's over already?

How can it be that summer is nearly over? I hardly felt like I knew it had started...and here we are: the end of August.

Oh well, I have to say- despite some sadness, we had a really lovely summer. I'm a strong believer in slow, unstructured days in the summer. I like to let everyone sleep in, stay in pj's all day, and wander through palydates and fort-building, book-reading and backyard exploring at will. I allow the kids to experience boredom- I think that it's when we're not quite sure what we want to do that we take the time to come up with a creative solution to our boredom. Creative solutions to anything are a winner in my book. We did sprinkle in a few tennis and soccer lessons. Some swim lessons too- though more was learned, in my opinion, during the lazy days at the beaches of the little lakes around here- and at the two day cousin-swim-extravaganza down at my sister-in-law's pool. Mostly, though, we floated through each day as it came.

lazy days

In that vein,  here's my piece for Cathy Nichols' Found Art Friday. The theme was Back to the Beach. Personally, I wasn't too drawn to the theme at first: I sunburn terribly, don't love to be hot or sweaty and am not super comfortable in the ocean: big aquatic creatures scare me, so I'm not the type to just drift along in the ocean for an afternoon. I also found myself remembering jellyfish infestations ruining days meant to be spent in the surf when we would visit the beaches of southern New Jersey where I grew up. But I didn't want to do a piece about scary fish or ouchy-peeling sunburns, so I took a little time to let this theme percolate.

Gradually the memory of a summer month spent at a house on Long Beach Island came to me. It was truly a month of nothing but walking down to the beach with a book and a towel, lazing around in the sun and the sand, then heading back to our temporary beach home for a nap, a big, hungry meal and time hanging out with whichever combination of friends or family were camping out with us at the house that week. If I remember correctly, the only sure thing on our 'schedule' each day was a walk to the ice-cream shop. That was a perfect, lazy summer- even when the jellyfish were floating by.

Sincerely getting some work done

A great shop in a neighboring town has offered to help test market the line of notecards, gift tags etc. that I'm slowly beginning to develop under the name Sincerely Handmade. I whipped up a bunch of petite gift tags, larger wine bottle hang-tags and notecard sets using all sorts of vintage epehmera, and I'm super happy with the results.

So, if you're in the Wauwatosa area, check them out at Tuesday's Child on Harwood. I'll be making more for my booth at Cedarburg's Arts Weekend in October, but in the meantime if you're dying to hang a great tag on a wine bottle you're giving as a  hostess gift, or to write someone an actual old-fashioned letter that you mail with a stamp- shoot me an email and I'll hook you up.

I haven't been painting much this summer, but I did run one children's collage workshop- also at Tuesday's Child - which was a lot of fun- kids are soooo creative.

Other than that, I've been busy in terms of summer stuff: hanging out at little lake-beaches with the boys, working in the garden, painting rooms, wrapping up some unfinished projects (hemming curtains) and planning new projects (an upholstered headboard). We've had a good deal of family time too...much of it generated by the loss of my grandmother- but despite the sadness that brought us together- we were together, and that was wonderful.

Now we're into August, and I'm really going to try to fit in more time in the studio. I'm excited to get some work done. Also, with a September deadline to talk to a shop in the Chicago suburbs about carrying my work, and an October deadline for my first booth at a weekend art fair, I'm motivated to replenish my 'stock'. So with any luck, I'll be back with a few more posts this month.