2013 Fields Project Part 6: Cathi's Well

On the 2nd to last day of the

Fields Project

, resident artist

Cathi Shwalbe

orchestrated a water event at a public well located outside

Ashton, IL at Gurler Road and Schnell.

These

photos document her fourth gesture related to water. Her

handmade cups and this public well brought out many folks from the community througout the day. It was a beautiful thing and the water so fresh and cold and and lovely in her earthenware cups.

From Cathi: "Water should be free and clean = that is my the foundation. I was told about this well last year during

The Fields Project

by

Aneda Ebert

and knew what I would be doing during the 8th annual (for me) Fields

Project experience."

Anne, Cathi, fellow artist Carol Luc and Farm Hostess with the Mostest, Aneda Ebert!

These additional photos show the sky at the time I arrived to help Cathi set up at the well: Roll Clouds. I'm sure I've mentioned how much I love weather and storms and clouds. These were extraorinary...but it wasn't good timing for Cathi's event, luckily we were spared. Not even a drop of rain fell. The folks at either ends of this front were not so lucky. There had been pretty torrential rains the night before as well..as can be seen below. Farmers were out all morning anxiously checking the fields.

Aneda and Carol arrived fashionably early in the storm armoured John Deere!

The

Full Fields Project 2013 Blog Series:

Part 1: Bocker Farm/Barnacopia

Part 2: Walks/Drives/Sights

Part 3: Elevator/Horse Ride/Sprayer

Part 4: Process

Part 5: Shoot Out

Part 6: Cathi’s Well

Part 7: Art Fair

There's no business like show business...

Screen shot 2013-08-19 at 1.24.54 PM

You haven't heard from me much this summer...but I've been plenty busy! In lieu of doing a myriad of outdoor artfairs I've been busy developing a Wholesale Line of Gift Items for Stores and Pet Boutiques. I showcased much of this new work at the Chicago Gift Market at the Merchandise Mart in July, and have many new products in the works since then. I love doing these shows, designing my booth, sharing new work with potential clients and meeting so many other lovely designers and makers. It was a blast, here's some before and after shots:

My most colorful booth to date - It's amazing what you can accomplish with a staple gun, a few rolls of colored paper and ikea shelving!

My new 'Holiday' selections!

My lovely girfriends from Green Daffodil, Siouxanne & Anne! 

My new best friend in Canada! Julie, at Julie Sinden Handmade. We did an 'international' trade, I got a super cute new winter hat!

...and the lovely Martha, of The 3 Sisters Design Studio! This gal is nonstop fun and a brilliant designer.

This is your LIFE.

Fabulous illustrator, Holly De Wolf, posted this Holstee Manifesto Poster on her blog along with some other wonderful links, including 20 ways to Get Good Karma, by the Dalai Lama. Hope you find them as inspiring as I did! I hope to read this manifesto every morning before I start my day.

Sharp Art!

 James Sharp and his wife Rosemary have been collecting my work for a few years now...it wasn't until I delivered a painting to their home last year, in Evanston, that I found out James was an artist, as well! They also have a home in the UK where he creates and shows the majority of his work. I love this textile bag he created with a mixed media collage technique. It holds so much and has been my 'go to' bag all summer long. Please visit SharpArt.co.uk to see more of his wonderfully prolific art work. Front and backsides of the bag: http://www.sharpart.co.uk

Bucktown Wrap Up...

Had an awesome corner spot at the Bucktown Arts Fest this year...thanks, Maria! Met some lovely new customers and had a great time next to artists' Danielle Crilly and Christie Chew-Wallace....across the aisle wonderful jewelers' Veronica Riley Martens and Deanna Rose.Did some fabulous art trades trades with Sara Lenart...my Number 3 Pendant made from a pool ball, so cool! 
And these lovelies from Veronica Riley Martens:

And bought this great coffee mug from Ed Brownlee: 

Hope you all have a great Labor Day Weekend!

Map #211

The Hand Drawn Map Association (HDMA) is an ongoing archive of user
submitted maps and other interesting diagrams created by hand. I found out about HDMA on their Facebook Fan Page...it's a great concept and site. I submitted the map below that I made for my Mom and Bill a few years back...it depicts their favorite walking trail in McMullen Park located in rural Warrens, Wisconsin. It's now #211 in the HDMA archives. They now have monthly map making contests ...do you have you would like to submit?

I found this wonderful artist on their site, Dahlia Elsayed. Her map is #173. It says she created this map to represent the month of August. She tells
us that the map represents pretty much everything that was going on in
her life at the time. Check out her other amazing map related art on her site: www.dahliaelsayed.com. I love the abstract yet humorous nature of this!

The trade is finally complete...

Last weekend I had a wonderful surprise visit from my good pal and fabulous artist, Kerry Rolewicz. We did a trade at the 2007 One of a Kind Show, I got the gorgeous piece below from her and in return I agreed to create a painting paying homage to a road trip out west that she took with her husband back in the early days before kids and mortgages (the plan was to give it to him as an anniversary gift). I was glad to finally get this painting to her, and hope he thinks this gift was worth the wait! (She noted the 4 mountains I put in each panel and the irony of now having 4 little boys...then we had to speculate what the number of trees might represent! Any ideas?)
PS I think I talked her into opening an Etsy Store...stay tuned for a link.

Pink on Pink...

My art fair pal Jill Miller of Hooey Batiks tagged me (facebook) in this great photo of her dogs, Emma in the foreground and Fausto...I was confused and then noticed a painting I did MANY years ago up on the shelf behind them. She said it's titled "red trees and pink sky" dated 2000. It's pink on pink on with red...haven't done that in a awhile..I'm inspired! Check out Jill's beautiful batik work on Etsy, here's a sample: