Artstravaganza

This is my booth at the ARTstravaganza show this past weekend. It was a fun show, had good neighbors to talk to and people seemed to appreciate my work (which I don't always get).
But unfortunately the weather was so nice in St. Louis over the weekend--and believe it or not for all of the October weekends!---that the crowd was really thin. I did pretty well for the crowd though and it was the first time I've done this show. I will give it a try again next year! There was a lot of nice artwork, and as usual alot of jewelry and my work was definitely different! I'll just keep pluggin along. Did get an idea to contact alumni associations of St. Louis high schools for my "Where'd you go to high school?" mugs. I have one on my etsy shop and will post more soon. If you area not from St. Louis you wouldn't know that for some reason, that is the question everyone asks when meeting someone new...."Where'd you go to high school?" One man bought the CBC mug and said if he had known about them before his reunion 2 weeks earlier, they would have bought one for everybody! It is worth a shot!

Army of Women for Breast Cancer Research

A few weeks ago I heard Dr. Susan Love speak about trying to form an "army of women" to fight breast cancer. The idea being that if they can get a million women to volunteer for research, they can beat breast cancer. I am all for that, as my mom died of breast cancer almost 6 years ago, and I too am at high risk. If they can learn something from me now, while I am well, maybe I can avoid it altogether. So today, I finally signed up and I hope you will too at www.armyofwomen.org

I think they will send me e-mails when they are looking for certain groups and then I can volunteer and show up at my local hospital or wherever they need me and give blood samples etc. Sounds easy enough and hopefully will have an impact. Go to the website and read more about it even if you are just curious....

Thinking ahead

I am already making plans for what I need to do after ARTstravaganza this weekend. I should be working on a few things for the show, but am already thinking what I need to do next week--when I won't have a show for a few weeks..... I need to start some serious artwork for a calligraphy exhibit that the STL Calligraphy Guild is putting on in February. We are holding a members exhibit at the Creative Gallery in STL. We want all members to submit a bunch of work and I need to get started! I have a couple of small things that I can put in, but I would love to do a good sized piece of calligraphy, a small piece of furniture, and a layered glass piece as well as a window frame. Big plans but will I have the time? I also put on my list---Christmas shopping, adding 2 items a day to etsy, shopping for living room furniture and catching up on my photo albums and my sons's scrapbook. All this before Thanksgiving! Can I do it????

ARTstravaganza

Click on the image so you can actually read it!

My next show is October 24 - 26 at the St. Louis Artists' Guild in Oak Knoll Park, hosted by the Best of Missouri Hands. It is a show of juried BOMH artists and has a variety of art! I will be on the second floor in the children's gallery so don't pass us by! I am going to list the other artists that will be on the second floor as well: Mary Barge Hoar-jewelry; BlackPurl fiber;Rita Seif & Lori Fish, pottery; Catherine Mahoney, painting; Shari Walton, jewelry and collage;Matt Keim,wood; Cecilia Labora-jewelry; Shirley Nachtreib, painting; Gail Kelley,fiber; Linda Green/Metzler, painting; Mary Mosblech, watercolor; and Vivian Gaston, jewelry. We hope to see you there!

Five from Four

The following photos are details of artwork from 5 calligraphers from four countries who put on an exhibit in Louisville Kentucky.
Steve Skaggs from Louisville, KY: Yves Leterme from Belgium:
Monica Dengo from Italy:
Laurie Doctor from Louisville, KY:
Maya Huber from Germany:

Luckily, I received an e-mail about this exhibit Five from Four 2 weeks before I was driving to Louisville for a retreat. I knew I just had to stop and see it! The exhibit was created from artwork by Five calligraphers from Four countries--hence the name....It was at the Cressman Center for Visual Art in downtown Louisville, part of the University of Louisville. The exhibit was amazing. And inspirational. Made me want to get back to some real lettering, and to try some new media. If you are in the area, you should stop and see it. I have tons of pictures, and may post more, but I also plan to do a presentation about the exhibit for my fellow guild members at the St. Louis Calligraphy Guild November meeting. Because I know they'll love to see it and I want to share it with those who will appreciate it (and that's not necessarily my family!).

Fingerprint Friday

Okay, so it isn't Friday and I am way behind the curve on this. But I just ran across PamperingBeki's blog and she was asking for photos that you feel show the fingerprint of God. This was taken on our vacation this summer as we sat on the shore of Lake Ontario just before dark. We kept hoping that the storm that was brewing wasn't coming our way since we were camping. But it did! And boy did we have rain, and winds and thunder crashes that shook the ground and even hail! It started at midnight and lasted over 2 hours.....pretty scary but it makes a good story--and a beautiful picture.

Finally finished!

I finally finished this table that was ordered last spring! A woman from SLUH had bid on a table similar to this at the school auction a year ago, didn't get it, and then found a smilar table to have me letter on. The saying is a prayer by St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits who founded St. Louis University High. She gave me the table at the end of the school year and I finally got it done! I should never let anyone tell me "No Rush" because this always happens. I put it on the very farthest back burner and it sits there! But I think it turned out pretty good, despite some paint issues..... I am delivering it to school tomorrow so she can pick it up there. And we start painting furniture for this year's auction, so I guess I finished just in time!