Art in the Gardens at pARTicipation 2009

I had such a great time being a part of pARTicipation this year for the Maitland Art Center! The pictures above are:

1. My patron Julie Young (right) with the piece I did for her with a photo of herself and her brother at their grandparent's house. The woman with her is Kim Mathis.
2. Detail of the piece for Julie Young

3. Detail of the piece that I did for Pat Fusco of her parents on their wedding day.

Maitland Art Center is such a lovely gem of a place-- It was a beautiful day to be out in the garden and I had a prime spot between the fountain and the bar!

I'm looking forward to many more opportunities like this...

Think way back to March...

Top photo is my side of the booth, 2nd photo is of Julias teacup candles, bottom is Julia's side of the booth. She was selling aprons, kids hairtie holders and candles.

I wanted to post some photos from the booth that I shared w/ my friend Julia Arana at the Spring for Handmade event at Cottage Industries in College Park last March. We had a good time, met a lot of great people and got great feedback. Thanks to everyone who came out to see us!

One of these days I'll get my act together and get photos of the people involved in the photo as well-- what a concept!

New work-- and lots of it!

I've been very busy getting lots of goodies ready for the craft show coming up-- I have about 8 canvasses in progress or done and about 28 magnets waiting for the last bit to be glued. I still have a bunch of canvasses to go, but am making good progress. Here's a sampling of what I've got...

Kitchen table Tuesday

This is in direct response to my friend Michelle's blog (Shoozles-- Wear your art). She has started posting a picture of her studio every Tues to show what she's working on and where she is. I am in the midst of production on a multitude of projects-- getting everything ready for the Spring for Handmade Show at Cottage Industry in College Park on Sat March 14th. I have two weekends left to work before the big day. So my family gets to put up with my clutter on and around the kitchen table for a couple more weeks. Nevermind that I have studio space semi set up in the dining room. Unfortunately, the light is not so great in there and the kitchen table is much closer to access to the patio and backyard-- where a lot of these canvasses get dried in the Florida sun. Nobody complains, though, and they just take it in stride. (And I do clear things away for mealtime.)

Happy Valentines Day!

I saw the idea for these collage magnets in Cloth Paper Scissors magazine and thought they'd be just the thing for my friends. I'm planning to make a lot more for that craft booth coming up. Hope everybody likes them-- I do!

Time for more work and creativity!

I've been on hiatus with creating things and putting out new work-- but the break is OVER. I have committed to sharing a craft booth in March at Cottage Industry (check them out on the web at www.cottageindustryco-op.blogspot.com) with my friend Julia from work so there is much to do! I will be offering my custom collage paintings and she makes soy candles in teacups and lots of other pretty creative things. I must come up with more samples and produce some smaller items hoping that people might buy on the spot. We'll see how this turns out, but I am very excited. I've gotten great feedback on my work, so I'm hopeful that people will actually want to buy something. As I get things ready, I'll be sure to post pictures. But, writing this post is part of my way of committing myself to getting this work done and putting myself out there...  More excitement to come!

Another non-hurricane

So far so good w/ Tropical Storm Fay. Yesterday she looked like a direct descendant of Hurricane Charlie, but overnight she just continued to grind along and didnʻt blossom into something more powerful, thank goodness.  The tv weather people are continuing the hysteria of course, and granted, we could get some pretty hairy weather yet to come, but as long as the winds stay below 60 -70 mph, Iʻm not going to get too excited. 

Weʻll probably get a heavy load of rain, but thatʻs manageable. Our backyard is already squishy. The cats still insist on going outside, but are sorry once theyʻre out there. (Ewww, this is WET.) If we get the predicted rain, theyʻll have to swim across to the flower bed where the lizards are.

Iʻm at work today. If the weather deteriorates, Iʻll head home early-- but thereʻs a lot to be said for these days when most people stay home. Light traffic and a quiet work day-- not so bad.