holiday art fair

Whew! I have been working like crazy to get things ready for this weekend's Holiday Art Fair in Cedarburg. I've got a few new paintings and prints ready- but really I've been focusing on papergoods that feel more marketable at this sort of show. I love making this stuff...I love using the vintage materials I collect that don't make it into my paintings, and the cutting and assembling of everything really appeals to the meticulous designer in me. Here's a sneak peek:

There's a lot more ~ some really great wine bottle hang-tags, and super cure non-holiday gift tags and cards. There are also over 40 other artists setting up what is sure to be a fantastic array of work. Come check it out if you're in the area!

productivity!

WooHoo! Can you believe it? Two posts in the same month...incredible. This is a quick one though- to say thanks to all the wonderful people who stopped by while I was working in Cedarburg throughout October. The Artist in Residency program was a blast- I met loads of lovely and encouraging people and I actually came away with a few new finished pieces:

This is a not great, last minute shot of six new minis I pulled together to add to the collection I needed to drop off for an upcoming show at Art Bar in Milwaukee's cool Riverwest neighborhood. The show is all minis- 8x8 max- and all very resonably priced (nothing over $100!), so I highly encourage you to check it out. The opening is November 4th and it runs through January 2nd. (If you make it to the opening- please let me know how it is- as I'll be out of town that weekend!) I sent a total of 14 over...you can see the whole set here. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Now- I'm off to finish up those Halloween costumes I mentioned in my last post, as well as food for my son's birthday brunch tomorrow, and cupcakes for school the next day. I'm in the home-stretch: I'm looking forward to a slightly less manic November.

Thanks for checking in!

uprooted

Woah. This has been such a busy several weeks. I won't go into the fact that I've been making some fairly complicated halloween costumes for the boys, volunteering at the Museum of Wisconsin Art more and more and trying to cultivate a fragile relationship with the gym...What I can't believe is that I'm now already 3/4 of the way through my artist in residence month at the Cedarburg Cultural Center, and have yet to post about it! So many really lovely people have stopped by to chat with me- and they're all great about taking my business card...which leads them here- and until now, to a month old post about my last art fair. (That event was small but great, by the way!)

Time to remedy that with a few shots of how I've set up my workspace for the month:

Having schlepped out all of my bits and pieces of books and papers, patterns and ephemera, paints, pencils, glues and everything else- I set it up the first day and have just left it there all month- even on the days I'm not there working. I'm getting some fun stuff done, and am letting myself just play around. I've been feeling for a while like I'd like to change direction somehow, though I don't know where I'll go or how I'll decide to get there. This month has given me some nice time to just see what develops.

My most immediate next stop is the miniature show at Milwaukee's Art Bar, opening November 4th. I won't be able to make the opening, but my work will be there- with many other local artists'- through December, so if you're local I'd love for you to check out the show. Then there's the Holiday Art Fair in Cedarburg, the first weekend of December...I'll have lots of paper-goods on hand, as well as my larger paintings and some archival prints. The fair is a good one- and Cedarburg is a great place to start your holiday browsing!

I keep feeling sort of guilty for how infrequently I post...but I guess not guilty enough to really change things. Sorry! The truth is, I've never been good about recording things. I never kept a diary or a journal, never carried a skethcbook around with me to sketch every day, never kept up with taking pictures of people, places or things (we just had my son's 9th birthday and found that the memory was full on the camera because there were still pictures on there of his 8th birthday!). I can tell it's the same sort of  thing with blogging: I love reading the blogs of people that document the day-to-day, and truly do feel that my day-to-day could be totally blog-worthy...but it's just not in my nature to jot it all down. I will always try to get a new post up when I've got some new work I'm excited to show you. I'm sorry if it takes a while in between posts...but I hope it's still worth your while to stop by once in a while anyway, because I really appreciate that you do.

getting ready

Getting ready for a little art show this weekend. It's a new addition to a local festival, so it will be interesting to see if anyone comes with a mind to actually buy art. Whether they do or not, I'm looking forward to hanging out and hopefully having some nice conversations. Here's the plan for the walls of the booth:

I love having a chance to see everything hanging nicely in one place. I haven't done this very many times, but I like the feel of 'gallery walls' and tend to arrange with that in mind. I'll have prints and unframed originals available too, as well as a whole table of notecards and stuff. I have a few more pieces to finish up- but should be in good shape by Saturday. Be sure to come check it out if you're a local!

september-ness

Hi! September's here, and we're all loving the beautiful weather and are adjusting to new routines. So far so good...boys are happy at school and I'm enjoying the structure I've put together for my own days. So far I've got a good balance of household and gardening chores fitting in, a few good workouts per week and some studio time every day.

I just finished this piece for a friend who is making an exciting move:

taking charge

I was thinking about how it feels to just know it's time to do something- to take charge and get going.

In the next few weeks I'll be finishing up a few more small birds for the art fair I'm participating in in early October. I also hit the jackpot several times over at the antique shops last weekend, and have lots of fun material for new notecards and wine tags for the same show. Sounds like I may have enough to pull together more than one post this month- amazing!

looking forward

Hello! I am still in the throes of a busy summer here...but there's no denying that autumn is really just around the corner: school lists are checked off, new clothes & shoes stocked in the closet and teacher assignments are being posted on Tuesday. This all means that it's time for me to give some thought to how I'll structure my days when the boys are off at school.

I'll be honest- I didn't love my first year of being home without kids...but I've thought a lot about why that might be, done some soul-searching and recognized some strengths and weaknesses. I've come up with the basic outlines of a plan to help my self flourish (or at least not wither) during the next nine months while the boys tackle the 3rd and 1st grades. The key elements of this plan are to balance my love of making art with my lack-of-love of being home alone for long stretches each day. I'm a social being- a true extrovert. Despite how happy art-making makes me, hanging out in my studio all day is just too lonely.

So In order to balance the two side of me, I'm making art-show commitments that will require me to discipline myself in the studio for a few days a week: I need to have ehough stuff ready to fill a booth for an October 1 show, and then again for a December 2-3rd show. This is a piece I just finished in preparation for the October show:



april promise

However, to make sure I don't turn into a hermit, I'm also diving into volunteering at the Museum of Wisconsin Art. This is a wonderful museum which is within walking distance and has been able to find enough things for me to help with to fill one afternoon a week, and through which I'm training to be a docent. This is my plan for being social and staying connected to great people in an environment I absolutely love hanging out in.

The final piece of the autumn puzzle is that I've been invited to be the Artist in Residence at the Cedarburg Cultural Center for the month of October! I'll be trucking all of my supplies over and making art on-site from 10 am til 3 pm on Thursdays and Fridays all month- so come visit! What a perfect solution for the extroverted studio artist, no? At the end of the month I'll be giving a mixed media workshop for 6-12 year-olds, and hopefully will have built up a good supply of work for that early December show.

So, it feels like I've mapped out a pretty good autumn...after that, it's the mad slide into holiday busy-ness. In the new year, we'll just see what unfolds.

july check-in

midsummer days

Hello! just a quick post- so that I can say that I posted at least once each month this summer! Here's a little July painting I did...I'm having fun grabbing little bits of time in the studio here and there, so have a few more pieces on cradeled boards wrapping up. Then I think I'll get back to working on paper- I've got the urge to do more layering and stitching and fastening and stuff.

Other than that- we've been: vactioning at family farms, swimming at cousins' pools, splashing in Wisconsin lakes and rivers, biking, scootering, tree-forting, taking flying lessons, catching bugs (one of which is a praying mantis- who's living happily in a habitat on the kitchen counter- which is requiring lots and lots more bug-catching on our part, so we can feed him!), going to camps, squirting squirt-guns, picking strawberries, harvesting carrots, going to farmer's market, grilling out, lighting sparklers, drinking summery cocktails, getting sunburns, reading books, staying up late and sleeping in late. In general- we've been cavorting through the month. I wish I had more pictures to share- you'll have to use your imagination!

And now- on to August!