Arfest Vendor Night!

So we leave Monday for Mecca, AKA Port Townsend, WA! I just love Washington State and Artfest! I thought for fun I'd post photos of work in progress that I am making to sell Vendor Night at Arfest'09. I have been frantically, frenziedly etching and enameling into the wee hours. These are some copper sheets I etched with my drawings. I sawed them up into smaller pieces and then die pressed some of them in my hydraulic press. I then enameled them to make necklaces. I am very excited. They are turning out very nicely indeed. I had experimented with ways of enameling them last year, with sporadic success. But Eureka! I have discovered a new, much better way of making the designs stand out under the transparent enamel! So you Arfesters check me out Friday night!

When I am not....

...its why I love her.





When I am not teaching I am driving somewhere; home, to the studio, to get Meredith. When I am not making handouts, or powerpoints or grading, or uploading grades for students I am catching up on 50+ emails. When I am not doing that I am working on a collage for a collaborative, or coming up with a prototype for teaching proposals to retreats, or I am packing-n-mailing something for a collaborative, a teaching proposal or with luck an Etsy sale. When I am not doing that I have Wolfgang every other Friday, a riveting workshop for 8 in my studio Saturday, and when I am not doing that sometimes a random person wants help in my studio with a project for an hour, two last week, then there was Dad's birthday, art openings of friends, random social engagements-a friend I have not seen in three years came by my studio and spent two hours. Then I took an encaustic workshop from my buddy Colleen in her studio Sunday! When I am not doing things like that there phone calls to return, teenage dramas, planning for Artfest, who will feed the cat? Or I am trying to submit to Lark books, planning all the other trips this year....
...and now when I am not doing all that, I must make brilliant stuff to sell at Artfest! oh, and I have a meeting with the Museum gift shop AGH! I need something to show her! and two other galleries that need new work. Oh and then there's dear Robert who needs an occasional watering and fertilizing or he wilts completely! Oh and there's Robert's website and logo and business cards that need designing, tweeking and ordering. Needless to say the house is a wreck! I never cook anymore and when I am not doing all that I am worrying about not exercising and how I will pay for Meredith's college, and various other family dramas. So each night I am trying to sleep and watching the red digital numbers click by on the ceiling all night. Thank goodness Artfest is in two weeks! PT here I come!

Studio Time!

Long days in the studio lately... Artfest 2009 is coming! All during Spring Break last week I locked myself away trying to build a head of artistic steam. It was DELICIOUS! Studio time has become so precious to me as it is scarce. It'd been weeks since I spent more than a couple of hours there, and at that I am usually teaching someone else when I am there. So its nice to use ones own tools! It is hard for me to get an end product quickly when I haven't been making anything for weeks. Once I carve out time, drive down there, unlock, get everything out and on, turn on some music, I feel mental pressure to accomplish something immediately. I mean hey, the clock's ticking! But I have slowly realized that I have to spend two full days in the studio puttering, sweeping, getting acclimated, breaking sawblades, dropping things and basically creating disasters before something clicks. Tonight clicked! I am really excited about my new enamel pieces for Artfest vendor night! I wanted to post photos, but am just too lazy tonight. So I'll leave you with a Clarissa Pinkola Estes quote, as she is my newest obsession:

"The craft of questions, the craft of stories, the craft of the hands - all these are the making of something, and that something is soul. Anytime we feed soul, it guarantees increase."

......can't WAIT til I am in Port Townsend again!!!!!!! Food for the soul...... wheeeeeee!

"Its okay to use the Ocean...

Its NOT okay to use it up" the slogan of Carl Safina. If you have 20 minutes you will be enlightened. Did you know much of the sea life we eat require 30+ years to mature and breed. If orange roughy take 30 years to reach breading age and we catch them by the thousands, have all of them had a chance to make babies? Oh wait are their babies in the net? I found his Pop!cast fascinating!
He talks about the grim picture but he also talks about solutions to the problems. We as consumers and citizens of the world need to be informed. Mr. Safina says yes "the Ocean is sick, but not necessarily dying."
Here's his blog Hope and Inspiration for the Ocean
And his foundation Blue Ocean Institute
Here's Blue Ocean Institute's seafood guide so you can choose more sustainable seafood for dinner!