Skip to main content

All my shows for 2020 have been cancelled, so I am taking an unplanned and unexpected break til next year.

     I totally miss being at shows, meeting my customers, making connections with other artists, selling jewelry pieces I had made over the winter, staying in budget hotels and Airbnb’s, listening to books on CD on the road, eating Reese’s peanut butter cups on the way home, finding hidden neighborhoods in towns all over the Midwest, and telling my story of Parts of Art to anyone who came in the booth. 

What I don’t miss is getting lost on the way to a show in spite of Google maps, holding down my tent with both hands during a sudden windstorm, arriving at my Airbnb the night before the show and realizing it’s in the roughest side of town, getting my tent all set up and realizing I forgot all my display fixtures, having to have homeless people vacate the spot where my booth goes, having a reaction from eating undercooked or overcooked food truck food, not having enough sales to  cover basic expenses, and having a neighboring artist with no weights on their tent. 

That being said, after this unplanned and unexpected break I am very much looking forward to the 2021 show season! See you there!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Paint and Palettes

          I’ve always been a lover of paint and paint palettes. I vividly remember the excitement I felt opening that rectangular tin filled with round cakes of watercolor paint in elementary school. I was hooked! From that point on, I have wanted to explore and express within the inviting purity of paint.          In 1988 I had a beach side shop where I hand painted women's clothing. I was using acrylic paint in abundance. One morning I had cleaned my palette off, and had peeled a large colorful piece of variegated and textured acrylic paint from it.  Some friends of mine came into the shop (actually it was my minister and his wife). During our brief conversation, I showed them the peeled up paint and said, “This is too pretty to throw away, but I don’t know what to do with it.” The husband said, “Oh, you should cut it up and make it into jewelry!” We all laughed about it. It was like "Yeah right, I should try it!”   After they left I thought "Wow, that could have been
Post a Comment
Read more

Winter Work

        Now that my show season is over, it's time for what I lovingly call winter work. Winter work is studio time. It's when I light the fire in the wood stove and sit down at the drawing table and/or easel, both of which are pulled close to the wood stove. It's winter work because when the weather cools off and the leaves fall, the studio is the most inviting place in my life. The warmth of the fire and the smell of the wood and the blank slate on the easel are what inspire and motivate me to work.        At one of my shows I bought this glorious coffee mug from Paige @rockbottomceramics. It sits on top of the woodstove and keeps the coffee warm for hours.  It's a studio staple.     There is purposely a blank canvas on the easel, or in this case, a smooth panel which will eventually be gessoed and painted with an expression of light through leaves. The blank canvas is self care. It's a sign of hope for my future. What will go on that canvas in my future?  It'
Post a Comment
Read more

The Clearing, Revisited

     I've been talking a lot about the importance of having a muted palette, meaning very little color.  But lately, I've wanted to add color to some of the paintings that I did over the last few years. So that's what I've been doing. I just added color to this piece. It was called The Clearing, and it was a very monotone palette. It was actually one of the favorite paintings at my shows. But you know, it just didn't sell. So I decided to take a breath, (a couple of breaths actually), and re-work this painting, add color, and actually change the path of light in the painting.        So what do you think now? I kind of like it! I like the new light coming through, and I like the blues that are in here now, that didn't used to be, and the light browns and yellows. And I like this little trunk, that gives you a place to sit when you're at the clearing of the woods. A limited edition print of the original Clearing is   available here.   As a reminder, if you dec
Post a Comment
Read more