Wake Up, Sleepyhead

So the blog has been quiet for a year now.  I've been lazy about writing.  I'm still making stuff, though!

Fast highlights I will elaborate on soon:

I've had many companies ask me to hang my work for the Now Showing program at ArtsKC.

I was in a group show at the KC Artists' Coalition.

I participated in Art Westport, the Plaza, and some smaller ceramics sales through the KC Clay Guild.

I've had some home projects, the biggest being completely gutting and remodeling my bathroom.

I've replaced my manic Dumpster diving with flower collecting (dubbed by a friend the Urban Flower Rescue Mission) both around empty lots in town and along country roads.

I've been making planters and larger vessels, and some cats!

Stay caught up on INSTAGRAM because that's my main show-off place right now...

And stay tuned.  Thanks for sticking by me.

Uplands and Lowlands

This piece was all about layering.  I painted the background several times before even attempting to add (and subtract) vinyl pieces.

Warning, these photos are not great.  My bad.

First layer of vinyl orzos.

I painted over the first layer of orzos, peeled them off, and sanded.

I flipped it for easier application, but you get it.

I added the orzos up to about a third where I had them before, painted, peeled, and sanded.

Already looks pretty complicated.

Closer shot.

 Layer three: repeat above steps.

This is before I sanded for the last time but after I painted and peeled.

I sanded and decided I was done.

I had a little bit of an issue deciding where to add the vinyl orzos I wanted to keep because I didn't want to cover up any of the cool design of the overlapping layers.  I ended up frosting the top, basically.

Uplands and Lowlands, 36 x 24 inches, 2018

Detailzz!

I like the little bit of metal peeping out on the edges here.

The title comes from a poem by William Herbert Carruth called "Each in His Own Tongue"

(second stanza)
"A haze on the far horizon,
  The infinite, tender sky,
The ripe, rich tints of the cornfields,
  And the wild geese sailing high;
And all over upland and lowland,
  The harm of the goldenrod--
Some of us call it Autumn,
  And others call it God."

Kind of pagen-esque--I like it even better after revisiting!

Hey, thanks for reading!  More on Instagram!

Gifts of Art

Hey, there.  Been awhile.  I've been hibernating.

But I'd like to share a cool thing!

The University of Michigan Med Center has a program called Gifts of Art where they install art, rotating four times in nine galleries, throughout the hospital. There are also musical performances and lunchtime concerts.  It's free to apply (YOU SHOULD IF YOU'RE AN ARTIST!) and I thought, why not?  Let's try it.  

So I was selected to have my work up from mid-December to mid-March.  I made a ton of work (see most recent blog posts) to fill a corridor that is 100 feet long.

panorama

It was a very long and narrow hallway, but said to be the largest gallery space.

photos by Adrian Wylie

And, of course, these works were all for sale, and I SOLD A FEW!  Hot Brazen Heavens, Spring's Promise, Crooning Cottonwoods, and Crickets' Din are all going to live at another hospital--Henry Ford West Bloomfield, in the maternity ward!  Isn't that cool?  A portion of the sale goes back to the GoA program to help sustain and find more great artists looking for opportunities to show their work.  

Bring Treasure, Crooning Cottonwoods, Sweet Sons/Sturdy Daughters

Crickets' Din, Hot Brazen Heavens, Miles and Miles and Miles

Spring's Promise, Gardenlands, Make No Peace With Trouble

I was also asked if I would donate an image to help promote the program, and I was happy to do so. (This image is from work that was at the Kemper show, which spring-boarded this whole endeavor in the first place.)

Seriously, apply!

The only down part was that Ann arbor is an 11-hour drive from KC, and if you follow me on Instagram you might have seen a few posts about this...there's a lot of dirt between here and there and a few ice cream places, but I didn't love the trip.  I just wanted to get home and wasn't able to enjoy myself or see much culture.  I'm not a born-road tripper, so this part of the job is always hard for me.  Oh, well!  It's a better job for me than most other things!

I'm so glad I did this and hope to keep pushing myself in this way--making bigger work and trying to show in new places.  Happy Spring!

Art Westport report

For my only show of the year, it was just like getting back on a bike...the only thing I forgot Friday night was chapstick.

I noticed this year I got far fewer obvious questions, like, "You make ALL THIS STUFF?"  More likely, I had conversations with visitors about the meaning behind my work, my process, my inspirations, how certain pieces connected to the viewer and new perspectives on my collection.  Many friends and long-time festival-goers stopped in and I was happy to share my good news about my spot in the Kemper right now, as well as the new direction I'm taking my work.

The anatomical hearts are always my best seller, not only because they are the least expensive pieces, but because of our general connection to this organ as both our literal center and poetic touchstone.  I heard stories of dads who are pace maker distributors, new med school grads, cardiac nurses, and open heart surgery survivors.  People feel comfortable showing me their scars and telling me tales of their near-death experiences and what steps brought them to my booth today, often because a friend happened to stop by when they were having a heart attack or someone they didn't know came to their rescue.

(Check out my post about the making of these hearts here.)

front view

night view from my desk...I don't like that blank spot in the bottom left, but
I didn't want to cram in anything else

outside wall

I was cross-promoting my Orzo series but had them tucked away
because, although they are clearly cousins to my other work,
they don't exactly mesh visually for this small space.

This was my third year at ArtWestport, and being able to know home is a mile and a half away is a great comfort, along with seeing many great local artist friends and making new ones from the area.  Check out these cool people:

Justin Marable

Bailey Marable--Dulces Jewelry

Charley Forsythe--SeeForce

Louise Carroll--Delicate Hammer Studios

Jen Unekis

Melanie Harvey

So now I'm going to spend some time organizing--OMG it's necessary--looking at opportunities to show my work, dabble in some ceramics, and write more...here!  

As always, follow me on Instagram to get up to date info on my art makings and the occasional cat or flower pics.

Fall Shows!

This weekend I head to Sioux City, Iowa, for ArtSplash.  This show kicks off my Fall Time Art Show Whirlwind when I will have five shows over six weekends.  Yikes!

5 x 5 black with blue heart

Like ArtSplash, I will be going to ArtSarBen in Omaha for the second year in a row.

5 x 5 cream with orange and turquoise orzos

For the first time Art Westport has accepted me--a show that only takes artists from a 40 mile radius of the show's zip code.  I live 1.6 miles from there but I might as well have lived on Mars for the last decade because the judges passed me up year after year when I applied with my clocks.  For a few years I boycotted the show (both going and applying) because of hurt feelings and general WTF-ness.  This year I applied with mixed media ladies and they asked me to show.  So it better be good!

funky legs

There are two other shows I've never been in--CRAFT and Barstow Arts Festival are first-year shows, but they're in Kansas City proper, so I thought I'd give them a shot.  If things don't go well, at least I will be sleeping in my own bed!

8 x 8 turquoise with white dino

Later in November I'll be selling at the Lake Quivira Holiday Bazaar for the second time and then gearing up for our big Studio Sale at Meya Ceramic Studio through the KC Clay Guild the first Friday weekend of December.  It's our fourth year!  

I'm excited that my shows are relatively close and packed together, because then I'll be able to see just what many of my friends go through when they're showing every weekend.  I might hate it!  But what if I love it?  I don't have to drive more than 4.5 hours to any location, which I can definitely handle.  I'm looking forward to meeting new people and finding new ice cream joints along the way!

pink barn

Back to Art

After a few weeks of working on clocks and padding my inventory for the first show of the season (Oklahoma City--one of my favorites!!), I'm back to working on "non-functional" art.  The lumber here is salvaged from a home in my neighborhood.  I put out a call on our 'hood's Facebook page for wood from the old homes around here.  A neighbor said I could come and get his staircase...I literally took almost all the 100+ year old wood that the contractor left, plus some new lumber the guy was just going to burn to get out of the way.  MAJOR SCORE!

Add some paint, take away some paint with a sander, and here's what I have to work with today.  I've been cutting my orzo slices (I don't know what to call them...crescents? fronds?) and we'll see what the muses whisper in my ear.