Inspiration from other artists and varying venues

Is it just my imagination, or does time move faster as we age?

Here we are already in August, although after the almost golf 

ball hail ice storm day before yesterday,  I wonder what season

this is.  I've been  busy leading workshops and updating my

website,but didn't want to ignore sharing some images from 

Spring shows as promised in my last blog. So in another attempt

to catch up - Here's a quick summary of artists and their work and

settings that inspired me April to June.

In  April I participated in the new Art of American Craft in 

Hartford,  CT  linked to the Hartford Wadsworth Museum. I hadn't 

been in a CT show in a while, so why not see what can happen.

Attendance was low, but sales reasonable for me and lots of customers

asking us to hang in  there since Hartford needs a high quality fine craft

show.  It was worth  it for me to meet Gerard Ferrari and see his series 

of orphaned teapots and other work.  Definitely cool, edgy, and inspiring. 

I was pleased to see that Gerard will be in Northampton at the 

Paradise City shows in October.  I look forward to reconnecting 

with  him there. Come on out Columbus Day weekend to see for 

yourself! He's being chosen as a featured artist. 

Speaking of Paradise City Shows -  I returned to Northampton for 

their May Memorial Day show.  I was curious to see if May brought

a different customer base from October.  Although there is overlap,

I connected with folks I hadn't seen in a long time and new customers

as well.  Sold lots of small work which was a wake up call for the

volume of inventory I will need for the December  One of

a Kind Show in Chicago that I have decided to do.  OAAK/ Chicago

gets 40,000+ folks in attendance!!!

In Northampton, I was drawn in by the smooth, restful lines of

David Talley's furniture His business name: Dharma Design 

Furniture shows his orientation. 

Although Chris Williams sculpture  -  avian rather than dragon 

this year, is always a draw for me.  (This eagle flew off to a client by

the end of the show.) 

And I returned home with a new creature - thanks to Dale Rogers.

I've loved watching Dale grow and evolve into the amazing sculptor

he is.  It's fun to have a mini Rogers creature in our garden. 

In June - a new venue for three of my winged sculptures. I participated
in the"Inspired Art" show at Boston Symphony Hall - a collaboration of

Discover Roxbury with the Boston Pops Gospel night performance
including the legendary Blind Boys of Alabama.  Three of my winged 

sculptures were included. 

(The dressed up young lady in the photo is the daughter of one of

 the other artist and one of the children who attended the after

school program where I worked this year. Multi-generational 

cultural events are wonderful!) 

Speaking of multi-generational - my next post will be about the

workshops I helped lead in July for Families Creating Together.

Have a great summer everyone....Adventure on!     Wendy   

Resurfacing after a long winter and neglect of blog

Last weekend I participated in the Paradise City Arts Festival in
Northampton.  A young woman came by to make sure I was still
alive and well...She'd been  checking my blog and saw it had been
a very long time since I posted -Dec. 2014!!!  I apologized to her
and now to everyone else who has been wondering just where Wendy
was wandering...and in what universe.

I'm happy to relate that I didn't disappear under the 100+ inches of
snow we had in Boston this winter, nor fall to some dreadful disease.
My life just became complicated by an extra job. Sam, the long time
director of Hawthorne Youth and Community Center  where I was
teaching art workshops once a week went into the hospital in January
and died in  early February.  She had led the organization for over 40
years, working  often 80-90 hours a week up to the day she entered
the hospital. Needless to  say the sense of loss to the organization
and community at large was significant.  Processing  loss and grief
on the part of the children and adults was difficult. Someone who
knew the after school children was needed to fill in every afternoon
from 2-6. Since I live only a couple blocks away, I was the logical
choice...especially considering the conditions which prevailed in this
record  breaking Boston winter.  There certainly have been snowy
winters before, but usually the snow melted between storms.

It has been good to be there for kids and adults, but has impacted the
time I've  been able to spend on some  aspects of my art business like
my blog.  For the next few weeks I'm going to try to catch up  on that
front....reflect on some of  my art making, the art of others, and some
of the projects I've done with the after school children.

Now that it is actually warm in Boston,perhaps I can look back with
a smile  at  this winter... and what emerged from under the snow.
I created the traveling  librarian pictured above during the February
blizzard names "Juno" - thus their title "Juno and Julz".  It seemed a
bit like we were living in Alaska. Juno's snout was one of the stones
I picked up in the caves of the Bruce Peninsula - see my blog post
from last September 19

I continued my series of traveling librarians this year and printed up
a small 8"x8" book with images of  them, a couple poems and
description of our daughter and son-in-law's library and literacy
non profit From Words to Wings. I sell the book  on behalf of their
program in Ecuador. ($25 paperback,, $30 hardback).

In February, I participated  in the Baltimore American Craft Council
show.As always I was inspired  by the creativity of exhibitors...
including their creativity of finding ways to actually make it to the
show.   An example of the extraordinary work at the this show is this
sculpture by  Jeffrey Raasch, title "Brick Treehouse". It stretched
my concept of tree houses.

I've been in awe of Jeffrey's work for many years.  Be sure to check
out his website: jefraasch.net to see photos of his spectacular work
and his story.
    One of my favorite puppeteers, Don Becker was also there:

Don was going to participate in the New Orleans Jazz Fest this
spring.  Have to check in with him and hear reports.  I'm sure
his sales were spectacular.
    Sometimes connections are made at shows via folks who see
your work and are sure who else will like it.  That happened for
me this year at Baltimore.  A couple came by and immediately
thought of a friend of theirs who is a dragon collector and gave
me his contact info.  Turns out he has more than 20,000 dragons
in his collection - but only two leather ones.  I said we had to do
something about that....This spring I made him up one of my
Dragon Names books - with now 465 different names of dragons
in it:

Understandably he doesn't have room for my 4 foot or 10 foot dragons,
but has ordered a 12" leather dragon sculpture.  It's still in the hatching
stage.

    I'm continuing to work with children after school until the school
year ends, but don't have any more spring shows so hope to be able
to post on a regular basis...catching up for this year.

   See you back here soon...and thank you for your patience.

   Adventure on.    Wendy
 

Wiskune and Hocus Pocus in Northampton

Wiskune, the mystic carried his mystery and fun to
the Hocus Pocus exhibit at the Paradise City Arts
Festival in Northampton as promised in the last
post..and yes, he posed for a good photo before
leaving for his permanent home.

This Hocus Pocus exhibit was a good mixture of
mayhem and magic.

  

 I was intrigued by the magical ships of Rafaela McCormack.
Into what worlds of magic might the paper sculptures in
the exhibit and her booth be sailing?

Of course what would hocus pocus be without a few rabbits,

pigs and frogs?  Alan and Rosemary Bennett provided these

Since magic, mystery and fun is embedded in much of
my work, I offered this large sketchbook/journal to
the exhibit to encourage a spell or story or two.



In Northampton, I also experimented with
a new backdrop for my booth.  I discovered
Bossbackdrops.com had the perfect wrinkle free
washable backdrop to give a clean look.  Since so
much of my work involves black leather, the
white really helps.(I'm not sure why the black
cloth looks so funky in this photo...it is plain
black - not textured gray as it looks here.

After the Paradise City Arts Festival, I was off to
NYC for the American Fine Craft Show NYC.  Next
post about that experience Oct. 24-27.

Adventure on!   Wendy