365/2013 - Day 346

cool stuff

Several things happened all around the same time today.   I went to the Northville Art House to meet up with one of the "[small] Works Exhibit" artists and talk to Joan.

And speaking of "[small] Works Exhibit" -- tomorrow is the final day of the show -- there are still many wonderful small format artworks that would be a really wonderful/thoughtful/unique holiday gift for your hard-to-surprise loved ones.  Art is also a fabulous and special gift for yourself -- you deserve it!  This is a cash-and-carry show, so you get to take your new art home with you right then.

The hours tomorrow are 1:00 - 5:00 and the phone number for more information is (248) 344-0497.   The Northville Art House is located at 215 W. Cady, Northville, MI, 48167.

Carla came by to say hello!  It was good to see Carla, and to chat about "[small] Works Exhibit" because Carla was in charge of the exhibit last year...it was great to hear her comments on this year's show.

Brenda Beene Shackleford came in to pick up her two pieces.

There has been a good amount of sales at this show -- hopefully we will get a few more tomorrow -- the final day of the exhibit.  These small works would make a really wonderful gift -- or be a super gift to yourself!

On the way home I had a couple of errands to do, including stopping at Hiller's Market.  Oh boy, Channel 4 News was in the parking lot.

I was very happy to see that the crew was there to do stories about the Salvation Army -- there is a kettle in the lobby and the band was there in uniforms.

On the way out of the store they were still there.  It looked like maybe they were also talking to groups who are involved with volunteering.

And tonight I finally got around to gathering up all of the various animal and people magazine images I have.  I want to sort them better.  I might have enough images to match up to do the 100 blocks for Art-o-mat without needing to go through more magazines.  I still have all kinds of cutting to do and then the collages need to be constructed and phrases need to be selected for each collage.  Yeah...I am still in the early early early stages of this process.

And I changed my mind about those shelves I had cut and that I painted...the ones I was going to put my vinyl toy collections on.  I am still going to do that, but now I am going to put them up in the wet studio rather than in my studio bathroom...because I started to put my ceramic tiles collection up in there instead.

And Joan gave me a small box of the new Winter/Spring classes to stuff and bring back tomorrow.  I am very happy to do this sort of volunteer job -- I like the repetition and rhythm...I really, really do.  And I especially like that I was able to bring these home to work on tonight -- I can get comfortable in my chair in front of tv and they will be done in no time.

365/2013 - Day 302

hanging the show -- and finishing Tooklets

Today Peggy and Liz helped me hang the show in the upper gallery at the Northville Art House.  I am super happy with the way it turned out -- and I could not have done it without their help...and a few pointers from Joan...and a quick hand from Patti.  Thank You, everybody!

Mike Sivak arrived early on to disassemble his wonderful "Parcae" game...we all hate to see it go.

Peggy starts on the big wall.

Liz starts on the areas next to the windows...we needed to leave the area behind the bar for the wreaths.

Kate Paul came by to drop off her three pieces for the show (that needed some adjustments) and got a chance to meet Liz, who purchased one of Kate's paintings from the last show.

Almost done -- last adjustments before Peggy and Liz left.  I started putting up the labels and I needed to make a run back home for a little saw and to retype a few labels.

I took a peek in the lower gallery/classroom where the Camera Club's "Through the Lens" will be on display -- it looks great!

ALL DONE -- now the lights just need to be directed and the raffle baskets need to be set in place on the tables.

I'm really happy with the way this show turned out.

We have a lot of really great small format art in quite a variety of media and styles.

I'm anxious to see it the gallery full of people on Friday!

Tonight (so far) I have completed 2 of the 6 Tooklets.

Tomorrow I need to go into the NAH for a quick sanding of the spackled areas and to touch up the paint.  Tonight I will keep working on Tooklets until I go to bed. 

365/2013 - Day 283

nearly done with the busy work

The jury notification letters for "[small] Works Exhibit" have been printed, rechecked, signed, stuffed in envelopes, stamped and mailed!

I chose to send hard copies of the juror results because I wanted to include specific notes about the art drop off and I wanted to try to make sure people actually read it.  The cost of postage was a donation on my part and I chose a stamp that I thought looked nice on the cream color envelope.

I know it sounds goofy, but this was another first for me computer-wise.  I have never printed envelopes before.  I was going to hand address all of the envelopes, but this is so much nicer and the post office doesn't have to decipher my handwriting.

Whew -- only a few more busy tasks to go for this exhibit -- I'm nearly done!

365/2013 - Day 277

felting and logging in submissions

Today Juana, Terri, and I went to Jan Waller's felting workshop at the Plymouth Community Arts Council.  We made felt fish with Jan as part of "Water", Felt United's international felting event.  Some of the fish were flat and some were 3D and all will be displayed together soon at the center.

It was a delightful group of kids and adults, females and males.  We all had great fun and it was one of those "I-can't-believe-I-just-made-THIS" adventures.

Here are some pics I snapped throughout the session.

yes...I worked with my fish in this upside down position to make myself concentrate more on the laying down of two even layers of felty fiber stuff (one going vertical and one going horizontal)...then I added the color details

Jan checking my progress and giving me a "felting slave" to help with part of the rubbing stage...later I remembered it is the ROLLING stage that I absolutely can't do on my own.

Andrew graciously worked on that end of my fish while I worked on the other...sometimes we overlapped.

This was the next step in the 3D felting process -- flip the fish over and do it again on the other side.

My other side -- dry

My still quite damp 3D fish!

He has a sort of nose and a snaggletooth.

Terri & her fishy.

My guy -- side view.

My guy with some stuffing in him.

Add caption

The group's fishes -- left to dry.

Juana's fish is the red-looking guy in the center bottom row (but he is actually more magenta).

Terri's guy is drying with a support to try to keep his shape -- felt has memory.

Another 3D fish I really loved.

I LOVE his face/eyes/mouth!

Today at 5pm was the deadline for the call for entries I am working on...after the workshop Juana and Terri and I needed to kill a little time before I needed to stop by the NAH to pick up the last of the submissions for the "[small] Works Exhibit".  I am doing the organizing (not the jurying) of this exhibit.  We tried to go to Parmenter's Cider Mill but the line was waaay too long.  We went to Tuscan for coffee and a bite...then went to pick up the entries.

21 entries from Friday and Saturday!

Holy Hannah -- after logging in all of the entry forms it turns out we received 102 entries from 38 artists -- GREAT turn out!  For the rest of the night I will be adding the artwork to the file folder and then tweaking the file names and assigning them numbers to make a slide show for the jury.  I also need to notify the entrants that I received their submissions and that the 3-juror panel will meet on Wednesday...but the initial notifications won't happen until Wednesday afternoon because I feel that they should come from the NAH instead of my personal email.  I will send out the juror results via regular mail on Thursday.  I really LOVE doing this sort of organizing and filing and stuff!

I gave the CDs that arrived in envelopes a jewel case so that I could handle them without getting them scratched, etc.  It is much easier to stack them like this.

The number of entries we received is far beyond what I had anticipated...the jury will really need to be selective...good luck everybody!

365/2013 - Day 262

things are starting to fall into place

I had work accepted into two upcoming shows and I am working on two projects for the Northville Art House.  Today things have been falling into place really nicely for all of them.

This afternoon I had an idea for a potential sponsor for the show I am curating at the NAH.  I was very lucky to be able to speak with one of the people I would have needed to speak with and they were very receptive.  They also had other ideas they would like to explore with the NAH.  Fingers crossed!

And the Ferndale Public Library sent out the poster for the upcoming "Power of Myth" exhibition.  It is so exciting to see my name there.  And I love the artwork on the poster.

click on the image to see the Facebook event page.

The collage that I needed to have framed for the "21st Annual Canton Fine Arts Exhibition" was ready to be picked up this afternoon -- Charles was there this evening to give it to me.  I am always so pleased with everything I take to this Frames Unlimited store.  The staff there is so patient and so helpful.  A great combination of "getting it" that you don't want to/can't afford to put too much money into the framing because either it is for a show and if someone purchases it they may very well reframe the piece and/or you just don't have the spendable funds at that time.  There are so many gorgeous choices there...it is just so difficult but those guys really make it painless and it always makes me extremely glad that I went to this particular Frames Unlimited.  THANKS!

The Novi Frames Unlimited.

I like the little illustration of my collage that Shelly added to the order form.

Charles, revealing my framed collage...it looks so "finished"...I love it!

I am getting things more and more organized for the show I am curating.  I am getting more focused on how I think I want to display the work and how I want to label it, etc.  I am making my lists, getting forms together, keeping in contact with "my" artists...it is all going really well.

Same goes for the "[small] Works Exhibit" at the Northville Art House for November/December.   This will be a juried "cash and carry" exhibit of smaller format artwork, with no one dimension being over 12" (including frame for 2D pieces).  I am overseeing the coordination of this Call for Entries, but I am not on the jury.  We are getting the word around pretty well.  I know that we won't get a lot of submissions until it is closer to the October 5th deadline.  We all know how that goes.  I am getting excited about people talking about entering and I can't wait to see what is submitted.  I love organizing and I am eager to get into gear.  And at the same time for November/December the NAH will also have incredible gift baskets to be raffled, gorgeous wreaths, and the NAH Store will be all holiday'd up with wonderful arty offerings that are great for gift giving.

click on the image to get the downloadable entry form