Year of Inspiration 155

Artwork #155

I am director of the next ACTS retreat at St. Gabriel parish in St. Louis. We start our team formation meetings tonight. Our theme is "Shout with JOY to the Lord", and we are going to focus on joy. I thought that this saying might help me to focus on the joy in my life too:)

A Year of Inspiration 1 & 2

I know it is a little late...and long overdue....but you never know when inspiration will strike. Like today at the hair salon, in the Ladies Home Journal. I read an article about choosing an activity and doing it everyday for a year. Some took photos, some knitted, etc. In the past, while on an ACTS retreat team, I have hand-lettered one small 4 x 5 piece of artwork based on a different bible verse each day. I sit down and letter, without planning or lines, on painted paper that I have trimmed to size in advance. Then, I give one to each retreatant and team member on the retreat weekend. So, using that formula of creating art and giving it away...

I intend to create one small piece of artwork per day, based on wherever I find inspiration..song lyrics, bible verses, even Pinterest. I will then post that art on my blog and/or Facebook each day for 365 days (hopefully!). The first person to request that day's artwork will receive it in the mail (snail mail so you can hold it in your hand), free of charge.

I am starting this endeavor yesterday, with 2 pieces of art.  I know that doesn't make sense, but February 5th was my mom's birthday. She would have been 87. It just seems appropriate to start a year of inspiration and giving on that day. Plus, I figure I'll be able to remember when I started!

I know that I haven't written in over 2 years! And that there is probably no one out there reading this, but here goes anyway...and if you are there and want one of these pieces, let me know! I will just number them 1 to 365 (for today, the blue is #1 and the orange one is #2), so just state the number you want. You can e-mail me with your address. One per person, please. Or you can have me mail one to someone you know that could really use a tiny bit of inspiration.

#1 is available in notecards

Chocolate is therapy

Had votes for the Chocolate is therapy mug as well so decided to make one of those. I'll let you know if any of these sell at my show this weekend! It is listed in the sidebar to the right...Artstravaganza at the St. Louis Artists' Guild. It is a three day show, and I am a little nervous about Friday night. We had another engagement so I am having my son and his girlfriend take care of my booth for 3 hours. I hope that they can handle it. I won't be taking credit cards or personalized orders that night, so I think they will be okay.....

Coffee is therapy

Another new image for the travel coffee mugs. I like the colors and the lettering--wonder if the saying will sell. A few years ago, I did a "Chocolate--it's cheaper than therapy" card and T-shirt (on my etsy site) and while the cards sold okay, the T-shirts didn't. Still have a bunch of those...guess people don't want to admit to eating a lot of chocolate, or needing therapy! I'm figuring coffee drinkers are proud of it! Who knows?

The letters are: C, from a plant stand in St. Louis Hills; O, the Chinese symbol of heaven and earth at STL Art Museum; F, from a painting at STL Art Museum; F, the railing at the Contemporary Art Museum in STL; E, from a painting at STL Art Museum; E, from a house in St. Louis Hills.

Let me know what you think. If you comment, I will post your first name in letters on my blog!

Pray always

Another example of my letter frames. This one is in a stand and I painted "always" on the front---after I took this picture. I will take another picture of the "finished" version this afternoon, because I want to post it on my etsy shop. These letters are in ivory "frames" and set in a brown base. They are: P, from a gate at the City Museum in St. Louis; R, from a lamp in Palm Springs, CA; A, from a painting at the STL Art Museum; Y, from City Museum.

I like the sentiment and try to remember to pray always throughout my day. I remember a saying that says something like: "If you only say thank you, that is prayer enough." I think that is probably the most important part of prayer, but not sure it's enough for me! But right now I'm thankful that it is finally a beautiful, sunny, seasonably warm day here in St. Louis! I'm also thankful I'm inside right now because tons of acorns have been falling outside my window and they sound like they would hurt!

Hot Stuff

This is an insert for a travel coffee mug. I've been successful with a line of mugs that ask the question: "Where'd you go to high school?" That's a big thing in St. Louis and I have a lot of mugs with different school names--mostly the Catholic schools--SLUH, Cor Jesu, Rosati, DeSmet etc. But I haven't had a lot of luck with other mug designs. So the other day, I thought maybe I need something cute and colorful (some of my other mugs used the graffiti letters and were darker). So here is my attempt at cute and colorful. I need more ideas of what sayings to use, so I'd welcome any suggestions.

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!

Show Me Etsy Street Team

Went to my first meeting and joined the Show Me Etsy street team last night! This is a group of St. Louis artists who are all currently selling on Etsy . I found a great group of energetic ladies with a ton of ideas to promote Etsy and Etsy shopping. Everyone seems to pitch in and help out with the planning and I look forward to being part of such a forward thinking group! Just from one meeting, I will have some of my work in a booth that they are having at CoolArt/Hot Jazz at Queeny Park the weekend of August 15th. Then the Show Me Etsy team is planning a trunk show at Sqwire's Restaurant in Lafayette Square on October 16th from 5 to 9pm. I am going to be there as well. Any St. Louis artists interested in doing the trunk show or being part of this team can contact me (see sidebar for e-mail). This is an exciting group with alot going on. Check out the ShowMe Etsy team webpage and you can find the links to all of these St. Louis Artists' Etsy shops. And my shop is at www.kathyorf.etsy.com

And as always, if you post a comment here, I will post your name in Sign Language letters.....

Best of Missouri Hands

Just found out that I am now a juried member of Best of Missouri Hands! That's pretty exciting. And it gives me more of a network, more great people to learn from, a chance to exhibit in "Juried members only" shows, I can hang a banner in my booth that says I am a juried member, which hopefully will be helpful! And I will have a page on the BOMH website that will link to my website. Can't hurt, right?

The BOMH letters above are more from the graffiti wall in St. Louis. I found a ton of them! Thinking now of other ways to use the graffiti.....more on that to come. But if you want to see your name in graffiti letters, post a comment and I will post your name--like Stephanie did below!

Graffiti

Just spent all afternoon cropping my pictures from my trip to the graffiti wall in St. Louis. I went with the calligraphy guild in mid-May, but haven't had the time to go through the pictures. I knew I could find letters in all of the designs. I avoided any actual writing and just photographed the design images like the one below.


I looked through all of the images picking out the alphabet and even got a few of each letter! They will be made into a new set of Sign Language letters soon.... I just love the look of them and think they will be fun for scrapbooks and cards!

If you want your name in graffiti letters, just post a comment and I will post your name here.