looking ahead

no solar gain today. not much point in opening the blinds as only wet cold air can come in through the old cracked glass. thats okay. its cozy and it wont last long. i can't help but to think with a sigh of relief (remind me of this in the summer when its 'dank') that i'm no longer back east. and i'm not in oregon, like we thought we'd be when we left vermont a few months ago. instead its huntsville texas. its chilly right now. its dreary. but its temporary...the sun and warmth will hit us soon.

i like looking out my window and recognizing the landlords worker' truck. a blunt yellow old moving truck. i see them driving all around this area, busy bees working on old and new lofts or businesses that the landlord owns. today i saw it pull into the parking lot across the street to stop for donuts. it makes me smile.

huntsville is small. while stowe has a population of what four thousand something and here a population of thirty six thousand? ...and yet there is a smaller feel here. more intimate. people all seem to know each other and ive yet to hear people speak too harshly about each other. there isn't the gossip that there was in vermont. dont get me wrong, people love talking about each other here but it doesn't get out of control. doesn't sound like fear and judgement as much as interest, admiration or amusement. it does me good.

so. the new year is coming and as i look ahead there are a few things that are large and intimidating to attempt if i so desire. one of the projects dan is going to undertake is to build a new building for the scrap yard that is visible from the only highway, I45. before i got here he had asked two other artists if they would like to design the front wall of this building and he had no takers. he asked me if i wanted the job and i said yes. if i can. i have no idea how to decorate a wall. i have no welding skills and no clue what i'm going to do. i've been spending more time on artpropelled's blog as she showcases so many talented artists and i often feel like i would love to make this wall look like some of the art i see on her blog. i would have full use of most of the scrap in the scrap yard. ironically i'm NOT that into rust right now which is why the artpropelled blog interests me. i'm thinking concrete. i'm thinking large box type things that i mosaic intricate pieces of anything into. i know the owner of the scrap yard wants his last name on the wall. its tricky, i could end up making a really bad messy trashy crazy wall and i want this to have an elegance to it if that is possible.

i haven't wanted to write about this because i want this to just marinate. i'm not really looking to be bombarded with ideas, but you know i'm open to suggestion here. i'm not so sure i can do this and i get one chance, its not like i can make it and tear it down and start over. i dont want to make an eyesore that people point to and make the stinky face and go 'ewe'. i try not to think about it too much.

and the next big thing, which could also be a little disaster is the landlord owns a bunch of uninhabitable buildings in our vicinity downtown. he is an artist himself and wants to get a few artists in these buildings to have a gallery walk one night. he is thinking in february. i have no idea how big of an event this might be, who lives here and will want to walk around and look, let alone buy art. i dont want to take all my art out of storage and unpack everything to haul into a space for one night if its a complete bust. quite frankly that is more effort than i have to expend. if i have the time i'd like to just keep making functional art and keep it simple, small and light. our neighbor jared is going to do this too and we might share a space to make it easier on us both. less space to fill if we are together and i think it will be more fun having someone there. more supportive. if this works out, we will be allowed to use the space (although no ac and no heat means i'm not going to spend much time there) as long as we have occasional shows, either of our own art or allow other artists work to be shown. its still foggy and the details are scattered. he might only do this a few months as he will eventually want to rent out and use the space.

lastly. dan and the phoenix commotion. two of their workers are leaving and as the bone house gets closer to completion there will be more work opportunity. tod and i could be working for min. wage. i'm interested, just not physically sure i have it in me to be somewhere for a chunk of time doing hard work. i can try though. for now its good to keep going there and volunteering time on the floor. the next few days i'm going to work on a cut champagne cork bedroom entryway as well as a bottle cap bedroom floor. next week we will probably grout and resin that wine cork floor i did last week. lots to do and i'm looking forward to it!

floored

famous first words 'ya know, its pretty hard to fuck up a cork floor'. this was what dan said to me as i prepared to work on the cork floor for the first time last week. i did just a little and scuttled home. it was draining physically and mentally as i looked at his perfect curvatures of cork like tiny lifeboats lined up one after the other. perfectly.

then i went back and worked solo and oblivious to what lie ahead. happily nailing with the nail gun piece after piece. dan wanted every now and then for us to put a colored cork as a marker of sorts whereby we then put a clump of 'dated' corks. see a colored cork, go to it and there a small mass of same year corks reside. nice. how hard could that be?

the thing is, when you do something over and over and you aren't that familiar with it you are bound to fuck up. and knowing that its pretty hard to fuck up something makes those fuck ups all the more stressful. the fuck ups can also be culled into the dionysian category as long as it isn't terminal. dionysian meaning it aint perfect but it works. dan loves dionysian when appropriate and leaves the apollonian aspect to plumbing/wiring/foundation and structural aspects. the other stuff....there is room for imperfection. all i can say is thank the god on that one or else its time to move on and not even bother learning anything about home building.

so i had a good day that 2nd day. fingers were numb from pushing in/down on each cork as i nailed it to get it as tight as possible next to the others. you get the feel for it and after awhile a small bit of confidence comes. slather some adhesive stuff on the floor, pick corks, dan likes to call it 'interviewing the cork', and then place it down and nail that puppy in. tod had worked on the cork floor too and by the time our area ran into his area a bottleneck was in full swing. you can see in the first photo on the left that some finesse was called for as corks weren't fitting anymore and needed to be cut and shaped. the lines were not meeting up. dan said this was fine and expected as much, i couldn't help but to hear fuckup fuckup fuckup. i also noticed that some of the nails were sticking up a bit. they were too angled and not really flush. at times nothing was fitting or working and i found myself prying the corks out but the nails couldn't come out as they had no head. it felt like some mini disaster just waiting to explode. i realized i could push a cork over the nail and redo it. it was messy. i had white creamy adhesive junk all over my hands and the hammer. frantically hammering the corks over the nail or pounding the hell out of the nail and laying it flat. its embarrassing to recall. i just kept hoping no one would drop by and see me trying to save the floor.

then the colored corks and same year dates.....guess who put all 1990's in but also a 2000? that would be ME. how hard is it anyhow paula? i mean REALLY???!!!! it scares me some. i know that i never do anything right. ever. EVER. its exhausting. but i keep trying and keep willing to risk utter embarrassment and ruination of anything that i touch.

yesterday dan was there and said he sharpened the pocket knife so dont cut yourself. the minute he said that i knew i would cut myself. and i did. thats why i like to go there on weekends when few people are around. its embarrassing how moronic i can be around the simplest of commands. if you tell me to do something i wont be able to and if you tell me NOT to do something, well its as good as done.

so. i worked my fingers to the bone this weekend almost finishing the floor. i couldn't bring myself to go there today. i was beat up yesterday. dan says he likes the floor. he walks in and takes it all in and makes delightful sounds, saying isn't this wonderful. he loves those floors. he created them. the whole process. its amazing. i look forward to WATCHING next week when it comes time to grout and then finish them with a resin. not sure i should actually partake in that, i might end up permanently embedding myself or something.

foto 4 the day

what are these things called? i love all the strange rectangle/square cover things i see on buildings or sidewalks. how can they all be so different? love the writing on them, texture, color. everything. i like how decorative and tile-like they are.

*thanks andrea for the link to your eye and thereon the link to anothers'....

it was a good day

yesterday tod and i went walkin around the neighborhood. we decided christmas day would be a good day to go over near the university where we have seen a spot of railroad tracks. here in texas we've heard you dont just go walking anywhere you want without possible repercussions so i was actually a little hesitant. the prison is nearby and i also get a little uncomfortable when i walk by the prison towers with guards up there. you know they are watching you. you feel guilty for no reason. i felt like we stuck out like sore thumbs as i was carrying a backpack and we were wearing work boots and our junky clothes. onward. the tracks as you can see were a bust. thats the extent of them. about 50 feet worth. we were hoping to find rr nuts. fat chance.

so we just walked around. looking. talking. getting lost in minutiae like the little ground cover which i found so jewel-like and unusual. across the street from where we live are some downtown buildings with a parking lot that i've passed many times without ever having noticed the bush grafitti. even THAT was strange...didn't everyone in texas vote for him?

it was a nice day. lots of online goodwill from bloggers, facebookers, and esty people. i managed to get a chunk of pine cut for my next project...i had the whole parking lot to myself to make all the noise i could ever wish to make. sawdust flying everywhere with no parked cars to worry about. lots of napping/book reading and getting cozy with tod on our little sofa our neighbor gave us. we feel so grateful for so much right now....we have our challenges here believe me, but we have opportunity here that just didn't exist for us in Vermont. the next four months will be interesting....our lease will be up and if we haven't started bringing an income in things will drastically change. there are some cool things in the queue that i hope to be part of. you'll just have to wait and see with me!

put a cork on it

if you can ignore my big ass ( i know i can't) here you can see i actually am alive and doing something on the job site. i went yesterday and spent a few hours gluing/nailing cork to the upstairs bedroom in the bone house. i posted some new pictures on the phoenix commotion blog, go check it out! lots of work has been done since i was last there, its great to see!

i had plans to go today but my fingers are sore from pushing and squeezing the corks to the floor. my knees and legs are sore. let us not forget i've been an near invalid for two weeks with the invisible bug infestation feeding on me at night. that mysterious scourge appears to be waning, yet my upper body is now displaying a different kind of itchy rash ~ god only knows what that is. if i had a normal paying job i'm sure i would be fired by now. lucky me i'm an artist and work for myself (knock on wood). so today i think i will putter on my own art. i've collected a fair amount of redwood scraps from the bone house and am working on some trays. its fun and a little scary branching away from my normal art and working with just wood. god knows i'm not a craftsman, nor a master with tools....i'm making it up as i go. so off i go..... merry christmas little blog readers if anyone is actually out there sneaking time away from family and friends.

ac grafitti

what i like about huntsville is it challenges me. its minimal. you have to look. and you will find. over and over the same walks, the same area...its a small place and yet there are goodies here and there. i've NEVER seen scratched on graffiti. this isnt a flat surface. this is on the cooling fins. who does this? its pretty damn interesting.

getting back to my walks

i was able to walk around a little today as it was warm and i could wear shorts instead of pants so my legs weren't being all irritated by fabric. how fitting this wall graffiti felt today.

recap of mini horror

above you can see a bed frame that i made for my air mattress and to the left the all but abandoned bedroom. you see, three weeks ago to the day, tod and i went to help jared clear out some property that dan owns. thoughts were, if it got organized and fixed up this area might make a good workshop/headquarters for the phoenix commotion. they wore pants and boots and i tagged along in shorts and tennis shoes knowing that i had errands to run but wanted to help a little.

next day jared (our neighbor see post below) said he got poison oak and went off to get treatment. a day later tod noticed bumps on his arm that itched like crazy as well as a horizontal 'mark' on his leg. the arm stuff stayed the same while the leg stuff scattered more into almost branch like scratchy red welts. i was fine. tod suffered that week with itching and a slight spreading of this 'rash'.

a week and a few days later i woke up with those scratch marks. and they itched. there were also lots of red dots. within 3 days my lower legs were covered and i was going out of my mind. we started researching online and came to a 98% conclusion that it is bed bugs. the 2% left is possibly bat, rat, bird mites, fleas or microscopic ants. or just the universe really fucking with us.

last weekend we spent in an econo lodge. couldn't take another night of being bitten. my legs were oozing pus, throbbing, on fire and itching beyond belief. tod continued to get bit as well but he has more self control than i do and wasn't rubbing/scratching them so they stayed more tolerable. this has been a nightmare really. pest people wont call us back. even the landlords pest guy didn't return his call. after 2 weeks of researching bed bugs we see that they are becoming almost epidemic again and alas, they are resistant to most chemicals. i didn't want to post about this on facebook or the blog until it felt under control because the last thing i want is tons of questions and suggestions. i trust my instincts and feel we have done the best we can do. my bed frame that i made has little bowls underneath each foot with diatomaceous earth. i am using other things for them too and incessantly vacuuming and cleaning what little we have in our bedroom. luckily the landlord is letting us use a vacant loft to sleep in if we want and tod goes there at night. i choose to sleep here and i suppose be the 'test' to see if what we are doing is working. plus i made my bed frame and figure may as well use it.

today i feel i have turned the corner, my swelling is down (the back of my knee was swollen and tight and i couldn't even bend it), it doesn't appear i have new bites and the 'new' ones on my arms i think are just residual bites from a few days ago. my life had all but STOPPED and the online art selling probably saved me from going insane. i found it ironic that during this 'convalescence' the only thing i was able to do was be online, pack up art and painfully go out to mail it off. hence the reason i've not been going to the job site, learning, doing....living.

there is a stigma about bed bugs. its shameful. you feel slovenly. almost like a leper. i took pictures of my legs and when i saw them i couldn't believe how awful they looked. how did this happen we dont know. it might have been the box spring tod bought, it looked clean and had been in a climate controlled storage unit. we tossed it after this started even though we couldn't see any of the tell tale signs. in fact we have yet to find a bug, a body a single THING. this isn't even a normal apartment as its an old industrial building. no carpet. no neighbors other than to the other end of our place and it is unlikely they have them coming over here. i shudder when i think about all the times i've gotten used mattresses and furniture and never gave bed bugs a thought. now feel like i have to hand make any bit of furniture we have. bed bugs can live a year without 'feeding'. i'm surprised the world hasn't been taken over by these bastards.

anyhow. thats what i've been dealing with. doesn't really belong on my 'art blog' but since most of you know me pretty well by now i thought i'd share why i've been 'idle'. i'm sure we still have whatever it is here, but at least we've found a way to cease the deluge.

homes, art, wonderings

it's not new news that many people all over the world are using shipping containers and even RR boxcars for their living spaces. yesterday our neighbor presented to me his latest idea about building a home from some shipping containers he found online in houston. they are affordable, as you can see:

1 x 20' standard: $1,350.00
20' containers are 20' x 8' x 8'6" Exterior Dimensions
1 x 40' standard: $1,650.00
40' containers are 40' x 8' x 8'6" Exterior Dimensions
1 x 40' high cube: $1,750.00
40' containers are 40' x 8' x 9'6" Exterior Dimensions

i have to say, it excites me to think about living in something like this. i'm still in caveman mode, i still haven't learned anything about building. the last few weeks here i have had some personal issues to deal with on the home front that have all but consumed me. not something i want to talk about right now but suffice to say everything has been disrupted and i've not been to the phoenix commotion job site nor done much of anything but pack and ship art i've been selling online. the days still zip by and i feel a little anxious that i've not been learning/doing.

i'm still in touch with dan and the crew and know that they are making huge headway on the bone house: interior work on both the bone house and the adjacent art studio is underway as they have passed inspections and i'm sure in a few months this project will be done! so that is exciting and i hope to be there soon learning SOMETHING and helping get this completed.

but back to the shipping containers and my neighbor. i might have mentioned that he used to volunteer for and then was hired as a paid crew member for the phoenix commotion. prior to that he also had metal working skills. he appears to be fearless in his search for making life happen here in huntsville and its stimulating to hear his ideas and see his enthusiasm. if he gets this going and we wanted to, tod and i could possibly learn/build work on that and have a place to live/work. who knows. it is another opportunity. just as we could possibly get land and in a year build a house under dan's tutelage. possibilities are endless. i'm still waiting for that THING. so far everything seems interesting but deep inside of my core i'm waiting for that YES!!! as i haven't spent time on the job site really working i still don't know if that is where i want most of my energy to go. mostly i am still 'lost' as i know i've ended a chapter of my own work, the mixed media photography, for now at least, it isn't feasible to do here and i'm still trying to hear what is calling to me to work with. still fumbling with new materials and forms.

i dont know what i am doing. i know its best i dont think too much. right now life feels like a buffet. i am starving and i'm in a room full of servers walking by with trays of this and that, offering me an endless choice of new treats to sample. so far i'm still looking at most of it. taking tiny bites. sampling. its frustrating because i want to wolf down a meal and feel satiated. i'm really hungry. i'm looking for a certain taste of something and so far it remains elusive. i have a feeling i have many more samples to try....

small is big

I just sold my last repurposed gutter vase last night and one of my candle holders on etsy! What a boon for me as the last few weeks I have sold 'the small stuff' and it has been huge for me in many ways.

The small stuff. Something my artist brain wasn't quite understanding at first. I thought it all had to be bigger so the gallery would take it. Then almost a year ago to the day I finally shoved my tiny brain aside and put some things on etsy. I sold a few things rather quickly to blogger/artist friends and then nothing. Probably three months later I took the time to make treasuries even though they confused me and I had no idea how to get anything noticed on etsy (its a big sea and i'm a little fish). I lucked out I'd say, as when I made that treasury I put another person in it that got the treasury bug instantly. That someone was Vilte, and over the next 10 months she put me in her treasuries non-stop! I watched her go from having no action on etsy to being more involved (etsy teams etc) and selling her amazing felt (art) wear on a continual basis.

I'm still not fully involved, meaning I have been invited to join an etsy team and I still don't know yet what that really means. I know the more involved you get the more your work gets seen and 'marketed'. I've asked the buyers how they found me and one just searched using keywords (making all the reposting of my clocks with correct keywords worth the time); another found me through gift guides being emailed to them, one saw my work on the front page via a treasury, and others saw via a facebook post. I'm slow about this, but I do still make treasuries every time I have a chance. My etsy blog is a bit of a joke to me, it's not exactly an engrossing blog, mostly I just upload treasuries I or others have made that made Etsy Front Page or were otherwise interesting. I like to occasionally highlight others' etsy stores too. I have befriended some sellers from all over the world, real friends who are caring and interested in helping promote each other, give support, or just check in and connect.

The small stuff is just as big. It adds up. I've managed to make rent for next month (something I didn't need when I was care taking in Vermont). I've been more motivated to make smaller works that I can sell online especially since I've recently moved and am in a smaller space ~ I can't keep making large wall art unless I can get gallery representation here in Texas and even then, I don't want to keep renting storage units and filling them with more boxes of art indefinitely. It's all unknown right now. For as much stuff as I hauled here, most of it seems unusable at the moment. Until I can get more RR Nuts I'm at a loss what to make next. It scares me, sometimes I feel froze up and wonder if I will even make anything ever again. Just have to keep taking one step at a time and have gratitude for what is happening now.

more walking

today i walked a few hours, mostly in the same areas i usually do but i allowed myself to meander. one street over from the more busy street are some tail end businesses to the downtown area and then slowly it turns into a neighborhood. i found one brick building that looked defunct, couldn't tell what it was but a little farther down from it was a small courtyard with a wall of heads. what an unexpected thing to see here. i still never know what exactly i'm going to find as there are so many plots of land with jungles of bamboo trees choking your vision. on first glance you would think this a barren place, devoid of anything unique (except for dan's houses peppered here and there). so i'm always happy when i find something fun and different.

i walked to the mall too, fully expecting it not to be the typical mall. and it wasn't. it was sparse with over half of it sectioned off and used for criminal justice offices, there were vendors in the center of the mall selling their goods, a few semi large stores and a little coffee sand which shop. that was IT. kind of liked knowing it was so simple and innocuous.

just another day

no more nuts

this is the last of my railroad nuts. the last pair of candle holders. i wish i had more, i was just getting into it....i had some sort of epiphany about them, at least it felt like it, how i could play and be more free with them in comparison to my first works. should i put out a call for people sending me some? boxes of heavy rr nuts coming at me in the mail? other than coconut flour, green mountain coffee, books, and dark chocolate, who could ask for more?

Artist Liza Lou

i was surfing last night, looking for some images of chairs made from ____. do you ever do that? sometimes i want to make sure it hasn't been done before, and if it has been done, i want to know to what degree and how well or poorly (in my mighty judgment). in my search, i came across a website called Oddity Central, and saw this work by Liza Lou. when i see work like this i instantly recoil a bit. its obsessive and crazy and not what i typically think of as 'art' but if you read the article you can't help but to admire anyone who would go to such lengths! Liza received the Genius Grant from the The MacArthur Foundation, in 2002.

i googled her and never saw a website but she is on art net. i figure i can either be bothered by this or enjoy it. this last year i've been working on enjoying whatever people make, knowing that i dont have to want to do it, buy it, like it or give any energy to it and sometimes, sometimes i can keep my head open enough to be inspired or see something that might spark my own creative wick. or not.

mostly i'm realizing i should just keep doing whatever it is i'm drawn to. it's all about experience anyways. so that chair idea i had? its been done. and i'm not so sure i have the skills or space to even come close to what i've seen already done. does that mean i nix it? usually. if i'm feeling gutsy and tenacious i might go ahead and try it, let it be my behind the scenes long drawn out project. i have a few of those in the wings. sometimes i let my brain contemplate it in the background while i do other things and perhaps one day another idea will pop out. maybe a chair isn't what i should do. guess time will tell!

life lately

i think i like it here. i like walking around and taking pictures. like being one of the few bike riders out there zooming around like a kid when i run errands. like seeing people i know as i'm out there, like how friendly and unrushed people are here .

just as when i first landed in vermont in 2004 and my whole world changed, so too do i think my whole world is changing. i can remember when i got my studio apartment in waterbury, vt and started lugging railroad plates home and finally starting to make art, how mind boggling my new environment was. having lived the last 20+ years in a big city i was naturally unprepared for the shock of small town living, let alone what it meant to be an artist. but i got used to it and flourished. time ticked on and momentum built up but for whatever reason tapped out after 5 years.

so i moved again. and i had tod with me on this round. and we were mighty fussy the first few weeks here in huntsville,tx. mighty fussy. probably complained more than we should have about the lack of good grocery stores and cool places to hang out. but the important thing, the people, superseded anything we had ever experienced! i guess we were just both ready.

so we've been here almost two months and nothing has gone how we might have thought. so far neither one of us has done much job site work. tod rebuilt the phoenix commotion website and is still working on that behind the scenes. he is going to get a forum up for them so people can have a place to connect and get info about resources and materials. it will be a boon for people who want to learn more and do more in their own community in regards to using reclaimed materials and building homes; it will also be a self sustaining thing that wont eat up hours of man power to operate. it seems things have changed a bit, and we think in a good way. we were kind of under the impression that the phoenix commotion was going to become some huge huntsville thing whereby tons of people would flock here and volunteer /learn. I think all of us had our own agendas in a way of what we thought was happening and we finally got together to find out what's what.

that's another story, and perhaps not mine to tell here. suffice to say there are still plenty of works in motion but huntsville isn't needing scads of people coming here and the goal is more to have people start their own 'phoenix commotions' in their own neighborhoods/cities. tod and i still have a reason to be here. we are still plugged in and oddly busy from early morning to late at night seven days a week. doing what i can't say really but we are occupied and we love it. for the first time in my life i'm living day to day without all the lists and goals and to do's. somehow things come up and i have purpose. not always, but most days i am completely occupied. i usually walk or ride the bike somewhere just to get out and be in life. i've had a burst of making smaller affordable works for the holidays and am making space in my head for some larger functional pieces that i hope will sell in the design store. i like being open to whatever comes up next. it's a good way to live if you can stand the uncertainty.

where & what

It rarely occurs to me to show and tell exactly where I've exhibited. This is the building I had the weekend show in. And, in fact, I still have three wall art pieces up til sometime in mid January. This is a rather large building, they have a nice gift shop, a large exhibition space as well as numerous rooms/basement with who knows what all going on in there.

If I can keep this momentum up I will have more hope I can make it here! This is the 2nd place so far in as many months that I have had art exhibiting. Granted it isn't an art gallery and who knows what kind of traffic wafts in and out of there, but I'm happy to at least have some art out there in the world again.

And, has I said below, I was in such a last minute hurry with getting ready for saturdays show, I failed to take pictures of my candle holders, two of which sold. Today I uploaded the remaining two on etsy which are here and here. I have two more holders in process, and then I'm out of nuts for the time being!

Saturday's Show

Yesterday's Christmas Art Sale was quite the unexpected, fun day. It's been a few years since I've participated in a show like this, I guess I was happy being in some galleries in Vermont and stopped exhibiting in weekend shows; not that i ever even did many in the first place as it was just too cumbersome for my work, small car and lack of funds. Well, now that I've moved and am having to start over in many ways (exhibiting, owing rent, being part of a new community) lets just say I'm more open when an opportunity comes my way.

This was easy. EASY. In the past these types of events left me drained, were a hassle both with parking, setting up and deconstructing at the end of the day. Not so this time. And the space was WONDERFUL! We all made food to bring and three tables were filled with every imaginable treat and lots of hot coffee and cider. We were given pin on name tags, tables were provided and we all had ample wall space to hang up works which will remain on the wall until some time in january. Quite the bang for the buck.

I enjoyed that most of the other artists all walked around and chatted. Six hours is a long time to be tethered to your table if no one talks to you and I found myself rarely left alone. I sold some of my new candle holders (and i didn't even think to take pictures of them so they are secret little souls out there), sold half of my steel gutter vases and had a fair amount of interest in the clocks and one of my mixed media pieces on the wall.

I could go on and on about the people. I am still surprised by how open and friendly people have been here. I stated in the post below that I was next to Cynthia (we spent thanksgiving with her family), and Cynthia introduced me to people all day long. Through her I met someone who works for the Railroad in Houston and can possibly get me more railroad nuts (I'm out and want to make more candle holders) What a boon because as far I know there aren't any tracks around here and I'm still being frugal when it comes to spending $$ driving long distances for anything. I met Bobbe, who makes the potholders below by using knox gelatin and fabric paint ~ when she told me about how she did this my eyes popped out of my head. Fun stuff and wild patterns on one side with quilt like fabric sewn on the other. I love too that they are not perfectly shaped and she is going to make round ones next. They also aren't filled with polyester like most so they do a better job of keeping the heat from pouring through to your hands.


I met Marsha who just started making scarves this year (top photo), this was her first time showing/selling and she had what I would call a big day when it comes to moving product! While sales were down compared to last year, it appeared that everyone had some action going on and no one was complaining or negative. I met Lonnie who makes beautiful wood bowls (photo below). I loved his unusual choices in shape and handles, look at that bowl on the left with the branch thing on the top, that is a banana stem! Very elegant pieces and I was glad to see sold tags on his work.

So. I came home with a pocketful of money and business cards. I felt energized at the end of the day. Tod and Jared popped in unexpectedly to help me take down my table and within five minutes we were out of there. They had spent the day working at Dan's workshop/storage space, clearing things up/organizing...getting it ready to be useful as a functional space for us all. It's nice to know my art doesn't stick out like a sore thumb here. Nice to know there are plenty of artists here too. I still have no idea what is next, what I'm doing, but at least there is a community here that so far, feels alive and looking to grow!

Angel Show in Huntsville

Above: Cynthia's work. I met her a few weeks ago and have already made an instant connection with her, so I'm thrilled I get to sit next to her table. She will have cards, paintings and giclee prints. The Angel Show is a once a year art sale at the Sam Houston Museum Education Center. On exhibit will be high quality art and crafts for sale from approx 35 artists whose work includes paintings, jewelry, fused glass, watercolors, cards, fibers, prints, soap, wood turning, porcelain, gourds, collage, mosaic and more. I doubt I have any Huntsville readers....if so, here is the address: 1402 19th street/ 10am-4pm saturday (tomorrow)

It was an affordable entry fee so I decided to jump in and participate to get myself OUT THERE. When Tod and I went there this morning to set up for tomorrow, we couldn't help but to feel happy....its nice in there and as you can see below there is ample space in a well lit, cozy space.

I plan on exhibiting five of my clock multiples, my new rain gutter containers (below posts), some misc. laminated photography and whatever else I can find in my wall of boxes. Decided not to put big mixed media up as it doesn't seem appropriate there. I do get wall space too for three things and might put a smaller mixed media up. Still trying to fill up my table space with small, affordable things. Its snowing, its sticking to the ground...class is dismissed...the college kids are all going nuts out there. Fun day in huntsville!

a strong recap of a good week

Fun stuff in the last seven days. A recap: we were invited to thanksgiving day at three places and managed to eat our way through two of the three. the morning started with breakfast and a hike with dan, his wife and a forest full of friends. this was a 30 year tradition so being a part of it was special. the evening was dinner at what i dare to call a 'new friends' house just out of town. we supped on homemade food that had us swooning, laughed, looked at wonderful art (they are collectors and artists themselves), and capped off the evening with a huge bonfire and homemade pie! (we were in an online free press thing and no one bothered to ask about our names/spelling...according to this tod (d) is married to me and has my last name)

in preparation for a local christmas art show this saturday i began making small, affordable art a.k.a as my new steel gutter vases. i posted them online yesterday and sold half of them! also sold one of my favorite little clock multiples on etsy (another thing i'm taking to this show as they are small and lightweight) i think i was more excited selling these small items than selling one of my big pieces at the gallery in vermont! it is empowering when e-commerce works!

tod and i spent a few hours talking with dan yesterday and it helped me greatly to understand more of what i'm doing here right now. i've been feeling guilty and lost as i've not been going to the job site and learning/doing anything there. was getting harder and harder to pop in and get supplies or ask how to do something. aside from making my own art to survive, i've been concentrating on making art for the phoenix commotion design store. even that felt tricky as for now i know i need to make small, less expensive things until the design store gets exposure and filled with functional art. the thought of 'what am i doing' was swirling around my head like a mad dervish. so that dan spent a big chunk of time just talking to us when god knows he has a laundry list of to do's that are longer than the mississippi, was reassuring.

i see that i am learning. not as fast as i thought i would, but i am being influenced and picking up things here and there that are simple but necessary. learning more about wood, tools, and more of what i want. i have a chance with my behind the scene involvement on the blog and website (for phoenix commotion) to give input that actually helps create change. i'm not sure i've ever met someone other than tod who is so open to change/possibility/suggestions. Dan continues to amaze me each and every time i get to spent more than a second with him. for someone with no job, no responsibility and no set schedule, i still can't get over how completely filled up my days are. time is flying and i don't plan on letting go anytime soon.