Adding, subtracting, & manipulating as I put away Studio Tour displays!
After PT Studio Tour
Studio Tour was a fine weekend for me; I was proud of my work, proud of my (intensive!) preparation, and totally enjoyed meeting and engaging with visitors to my studio. I was never busy, so I had time to answer questions, share my enjoyment, and really have a nice time!
A few artworks now have new homes: four more significant sales, several prints, digitally patterned water bottles & tote bags, and a few trinkets. Selling with interested & engaged visitors is very pleasing, an affirmation of my weird vision perhaps… and the enthusiastic feedback was great, purchase or not. My prices barely cover materials most of the time, or there would be no sales at all, I think.
There were no negative experiences, though one was close … a bit odd!
I hope all artists on the Tour had as much fun. I put in a lot of work preparing my studio and yard; I essentially put on my own solo show, and most visitors recognized and enjoyed this. And I had wonderful help & support from my partner and friends!
I put out lots of signs, and cleared & prepared far more parking spaces than were needed. I never had more than three cars at a time. But my other efforts were rewarded by the enthusiastic comments I received, with most visitors really enjoying my Yard Art.
Studio #59 Port Townsend Studio Tour
Check out the long list of fine artists opening their studios for the 21st annual Port Townsend Studio Tour!
Studio Tour Soon
Draw, sculpt, play!
I started with a drawing, thinking it would be a very minimal sketched outline for a bas relief paper clay figure. But … things change! I liked the head I started with, and somehow got my figure into a most awkward angle and position. Then the drapery appeared, and I found myself looking a worker in ancient China. So strange!
Then I started in with the paper clay, but created the Michelin Tire Man only in white… darn it! So while he is drying, I photographed a couple of arrangements.
Getting Ready 1
Cleaning up my studio in preparation for Studio Tour 2019 (August 17-18) means finishing up unfinished projects, finessing less satisfactory projects, shuffling & categorizing work, etc. Some pieces go outdoors, becoming slowly disintegrating Yard Art, others are completed, improved & better presented, and a few just filed away out of sight.
Many of my assemblage & collage works come together slowly, and I accumulate found objects that claim me; really, I don’t claim them! Many of these items do find a place in a finished work, but that may take years. Meanwhile I arrange & re-arrange the most interesting finds along with my most experimental creations. These get photographed and enjoyed, but also take up a lot of space and collect a lot of dust. Some of these just need to be abandoned, they will never “fit”.
The piece shown here evolved from working with wax a few years ago. The center part is made from mat board, dried grasses, thread and cheesecloth saturated with wax. It has been mounted into an old wooden desk in-box, painted black. For a long time it featured a folded paper sad dog, but that bit of paper finally lost its charm, and the mountainous rock and a cast resin figure took its place.
I cleaned it up today, making a few alterations, and mounting the polymer clay bones (on the top) and the sleeping resin figure permanently. This should probably get a glass or clear acrylic facing to keep out dust and protect it, but … it is, of course, an odd size. I am not going to order glass, or carefully cut and bevel acrylic unless someone wants to buy this piece. And that is not too likely to happen!
Trees Grow Wild
Findings Drawn
Colt as Angel
I certainly enjoy mythological beasts, and this includes horses: Pegasus may well be an influence here. And Bucephalus, Alexander the Great’s stallion, is legendary. I once christened a rather wonderful local horse Bucephalus, but only in my own mind: I never met this horse or its owner.
This little winged colt is really another angel in my Angels series, and I am sure my Angel Colt owes it’s existence to the horses in my friends’ lives: the horses that appear in their art.
