Postcard Friday

I sent this postcard to Tessa Hulls, another artist who is currently working in Antarctica. My husband and I are applying to work there ourselves for the next austral summer, so its been fun to see the ice through her creative eyes.

You can follow her blog here: Grow Me a Boat

In the light of friends

I went to visit a local friend and artist today. (Patience) It was so nice to just sit and chat about our lives, to catch up on our art careers, and to talk about the world at large. We travel in several of the same art circles online - so its easy to talk, without having to explain everything. What a joy.

I love having my online communities, but boy, I sure do wish I could sit, have some coffee, and really relate face to face. You just can't replace the energy that goes on in person.

One of the things I was able to share with Patience was my success with my brand-spanking-new lightbox! I had been saving for a professional light tent for a while, when I stumbled across some instructions online for a stupidly cheap DIY version! I made it yesterday, in time to photograph my matchboxes, and BOY what a difference it made.

I had fun playing around with the box, arranging little still lifes with some of my favorite collection. I just love teeny boxes and pottery!!



So in the near future, I'll be heading over to help take pictures of her wonderful papier mache creations, that really need good lighting to fully appreciate. I'll be sure to share some of them when we get them done!

Art opening

One of my husband's colleagues is an artist and we attended the opening of the show he was in.

Sven - his website

An excerpt from his artist statement:
"I believe that abstraction is an image or concept that does not have current recognition. In my current works, I am trying to move abstraction towards recognition. Most viewers are focused on the “hard line” images that define an object, but let's say that perhaps we look at images with unfocused eyes. The image becomes a blurry object of line, shape, and color, leaving our imagination to fill in the blurry image to the point of recognition."


Thom and Sven in front of one of his favorite pieces.

Here were two of my favorite:

Study of Landscapes: Landscape II


Chicago: Lemhurst

Two other artists were represented at the show:

Brian J Sullivan


Validimir Putin

Jacob Foran


Rattling Figure


This was a really interesting piece. From what we can gather, the artist took an actual deer head, covered it with ceramic glaze, and threw it in the kiln! It was very striking.


Here's a detail shot. You can see the muscle fibers.

I really enjoyed the show, with the variety of art that inspired a wide range of conversation.

Art spree

My good friend, Jennybean, is a talented bookbinder who sells a lot at art fairs. Shes often complimented on her books, but people complain that they aren't writers and wouldn't know what to do with them. Shes asked a number of us to put our talents to her pages, to be bound in a couple of different books to use as examples for her potential customers. I'm so glad to be a part of this project.

I have two signatures, consisting of 8 pages and these are my first two. I wish you could see the first page in person! I used Interference Violet over the top, and the page just shimmers with purple. Thom thinks I should to a square with a bird sketch on the above bird page, like I did in my journal - Im starting to agree. What do you think?


I also made another Etsy sale!! Tomorrow, my hand collage is going to its new home! I'm just thrilled!