Art Girls...

Last night I hosted our monthly Art Girls get together...it was "Pot Leuck" I made my Mother's great Seafood Lasagna.  As usual..I forgot to get out the camera until everyone was on their way out. We had a great time and shared lots of good information. It's inspiring to trade leads and resources and hear eachother's news, big commissions & sales, new venues etc. On resource we'll all be checking out soon from  Kathy Frey is the Women's Business Development Center, they offer seminars with business counseling included in the fee. I also shared about my favorite art/client/exhibit database management software Eartist - from Artscope.net. As usual the food contributed by all made for an amazing meal from the appetizer to the desserts....and yes there is still plenty of talk about doing our own cookbook! Girls in the photos Match, Kathy, Mimi, Kate & Eva sporting their flower child candy bracelet head bands! And Sharon & Match...

Folk Art HEAVEN...

Returned from Alabama last week - the Kentuck Art Fair was a gem, like no other show I've ever done. My first thought upon entering the park was "I'VE DIED AND GONE TO FOLK ART HEAVEN". I was very inspired and moved by all the visionary art work and wonderful artists that I met (first photo William Scrip's amazing sculptures, Robert Seven's art and booth, and one of my wonderful neighbors).

Gabriel Shaffer has a wonderful photo album on his flickr site capturing some the most memorable artists from this show. I had the honor of meeting his mother, Cher Shaffer (a highly collected visionary artist) from whom I purchased this fabulous painting of her cat, Yoda...also got some other nice treasures from Mark Orr (the perfect art fair neighbor), Jim Shores and Kim Young.

My dear husband did all the driving so I was free to read and look out the window and dream, I also did a lot of drawing in my sketchbook. I have some great new images for future road trip / map paintings...scroll down to see them:

Trades...lovely benefits of being an artist!

Kass Copeland is a Chicago artist and illustrator who creates wonderful witty assemblage/collage pieces. She also does a lot of design work for Red Moon Theater. I got this beauty as a trade at a recent art fair we did together...

LUCKY ME ! It looks fabulous on my peacock blue walls. Title: "The Bad Fairies". She assured me they were not evil just mischievous. I asked her to name them, they are Prudence and Cornelia...she said the dog's name is up to me...hmmm..any suggestions?

My Creative Friends...living their dreams

Today I visited the lovely shop of Chicago jeweler Sara Lenart (1924 W. Byron) with another wonderful copper enamel artist and friend Mary Laskey. We all belong to "Art Girls" a group of women that has grown to an evite list of almost 20 over the last few years. Most of us met doing art fairs and decided it would be fun to get together outside of the shows and more often than once a year at the annual Bucktown Art Fest's Patron's Party. We started out meeting once a month at restaurants and have moved more towards rotating potlucks at eachother's homes which is great because there is nothing more interesting than seeing the living space of other artists. On Thursday we met at the home of amazing jeweler Kathy Frey - she just had her first book published! Our talk on thursday was of blogs...and art business and a cook book that we'd like to put together. These art girls are some fabulous cooks...we have quite the tasty pot lucks and you will often find a spouse or partner sticking around to fill a plate - in spite of the sometimes deafening sound of a dozen women joyously conversing around a few bottles of wine...!

So back to my field trip to Sara's store...I am dreaming of getting a store front in Chicago, one where I can be more accessible to my customers and have more space and ceiling height(!) to work in. It's  a very big move to make so it was great to hear nothing but positives from Sara who has had her space for over 2 years...very inspiring.

Ladies Who Lunch...

A gorgeous day and a lovely lunch spent with some wonderful gals (not to mention amazing artists) to say good bye to my good friend Erica Jane Huntzinger...who is moving to rural Wisconsin in August. Corinne Peterson & Cathi Bouzide joined us...on the menu: Crab Quiche, a Blueberry, Blue Cheese & Pine Nut Salad, Veggies, Ice Tea, Candy Necklaces and Brownies (with an 'E' for Erica)!

Erica brought each of us a sweet little hand made felt and yarn heart necklace with our initials on them.

I'm getting better at this entertaining thing but I still get in a tizzy beforehand, I figure the more I do it the more comfortable I'll become...so come on over! Oh, but you do have to deal with Alice. You have to give her a little time to calm down, she is a lot to take when you first come in the door. I feel like a bad mother who cannot control her child.

Other bonus of entertaining: THE HOUSE IS CLEAN!

Artropolis

Last weekend I made the short trek downtown to visit Artropolis -the annual mega art event here in Chicago, stemming from the originalArt Chicago. I made the mistake of trying to see everything. As a result, I cannot recall what Isaw in the last hour, as it was just too much stimulus for the eyes, brainand soul to handle. But my first 2 hours were a treat. My favorite show was the Bridge Art Fair where the highlight wasseeing the works of Beverly Ashein person and then getting to meet her and having her tell me she knows my work!Wow. I have admired her paintings for years via the internet - a chancefind early on of the gazillion or so hours of surfing I've done. She was exhibiting with her gallery Strange Weeds. I discovered a few new favorites: the painter, Scott Redden with Dillon Gallery and from the the Intuit Show, the works of Franz Kernbeis from Galerie St. Etienne and Theresa Disney of Checkered House Gallery. I just don't do the gallery thing often enough, I am so inspired and happy when I do - this was a big reminder...note to self.

Memoirs of the break-up

Last summer I had the good fortune to get a gig in the movie "the break-up" (coming out in June). There was an art fair scene, so I set up my booth and my friend Eva & I worked as extras for two days of shooting. We had a running joke about Vince Vaughn ... so in my first attempt at collage I made this for Eva for her birthday. I think I'm hooked...too much hgtv!