365/2013 - Day 273

sneaky peeks

Tonight was the second night of art drop off for the show I am curating at the Northville Art House.

Oh. Man.

Five artists brought their work in tonight -- I am speechless.

Here are some snapshots from tonight...what a good time!  (And plenty of wacky photo bombing.)

Diane Hawkey was first to arrive, photo bombed by husband Doug Spalding and daughter Maura.

Doug watches Anita Andersons unpack her pieces...with Maura cracking me up.

This is blurry because of the fast and furious picking up of Diane's fabulous beads...with Juana Moore and Patti Witte.

Hi, Doug!

You-know-who with Anita and Renee Dooley (who was arriving).

Renee and Anita

Renee with one of her Vulture Women.

Two of Renee's pieces.

Anita and Juana inspect one of Juana's incredible pieces, a tribute to Henry Darger.

Mike Sivak photo bombs Juana.

Mike assembling his amazing "Parcae" game.

Even if I do say so myself...this is going to be magical!

365/2013 - Day 223

and now, a few Tookies

Today I have been making a few Tookies to be sold at the Northville Art House Store along with the Tooklets.  I am making these on spec for now, we'll see how many/which ones Patti will want for the store. 

Patti found a ceramic hand and was thinking she might put the hand in a basket and display the Tookies on it (and around the hand IN the basket), but the fingers are too bent over.  I remembered I have one of those wooden articulated artist's hands, but they have sharp little poke-y pegs on the hand part that people could nick themselves on...also the articulated knuckles catch on the inside of the finger puppets...and I have see firsthand that people tend to try them on repeatedly and that is just not going to work.  Oh -- also the wooden hand's fingers only go back and forth, not sideways and they are too close together for the puppets.

I also remembered this wire holder -- I think it is meant for xmas cards or photographs to be displayed -- but it holds the Tookies pretty well.  Again, the problem will be that the spiral-y wire will catch on the inside of the puppets.  The Tookies could hang by teensy safety pins or those teensy clothes pins off of the wire branches...that might also discourage people from trying them on.  We'll think of something.

I like these Tookies a lot...they can be slightly more elaborate and/or larger than the ones for Art-o-mat because they don't have to fit inside of a box for vending.  I can let the horns get really wacky on these.

Tonight I am going to try to get more Tookies packaged for Art-o-mat.  I would love to ship them tomorrow while Sue and I are together and out and about.

365/2013 - Day 220

sewing again

Patti (the new manager of the Northville Art House Store) asked me if I would make some Tookies to sell in the Store.  Today we had a meeting and I showed her the sorts of things I had available to work with.  I also showed Patti an early version of a Tooklet with a pocket on his back.  Patti told me the date she'd ideally like to have them by and I told her I'd go ahead and make some and see if she likes any of them.

When I started going through my materials tonight I found that I have a couple of Tooklets in progress.  Tonight I fooled around with one and I like how it is going so far.

An in-progress Tooklet and a spike that will serve as a tail.

Adding an arm (after smooshing the head down a bit).

Not done yet, but I like him so far.

I like his tail!

365/2013 - Day 179

gallery sitting day one

This is the weekend of Arts & Acts in Northville!  There is so much to do at the festival -- fine art, live music, children's activities, theater, poetry & short stories event, film festival, beer tent, food, and...and... 

A Summer Carnival is going on at Northville Downs at the same time as Arts and Acts.

It is also the final weekend to view the 2013 West of Center All-Media Contemporary Art Exhibit at the Northville Art House.  As an Art House volunteer (and Exhibit Committee member) I signed up to take a couple of shifts at the festival and I chose to do the gallery sitting on Friday and Saturday. 

I brought my sewing case with me and worked on Tookies finger puppets.  I had the privilege of talking with some folks who came to see the show.  One group was a couple of adults and two kids.  They were all very into the artwork but the kids really enjoyed looking at my Tookies.  And the littlest girl stayed in front of my table watching me...I mean right at the table.  I ended up offering the two kids a finger puppet each -- they seemed to really enjoy them.

This is my view of the gallery from my spot in the far corner...working on Tookies.

I completed the ears/horns on 5 camouflage print finger puppets -- and these are the 2 completed colorful Tookies I have left (of the 4 I had ready).

But I saved the best part for last...

Today I met the new manager of the Art House Store.  Her name is Patti Witte (pronounced "witty") and she is just great!  I was semi-concerned about who could fill Carla's shoes...Carla is such a major part of the Northville Art House and the Art House Store.  Patti is totally different from Carla -- and no one can replace Carla -- but I think Patti is the perfect choice to take on this multi-tasking/combination jobs position.

Introducing our new Art House Store Manager -- Patti Witte!