Artists Found on FLickr

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I just found another wonderful artist..this time on Flickr. This ceramic piece "large head with avocado" is by Kim Murton of Washington state. She also has great illustrations and 2d work on her Flickr site. I found her on a flickr group...yes, I'm finding that all these sites have multi-layered networking capabilities.

It's one thing to know there are many talented artists out there but now with sites like etsy and flickr you suddenlty realize you have no clue...you are just skimming a little corner of an endless, awesome pool of amazing talent, creativity and cleverness. And those are just the sites I'm referencing...there are a gazillion others that I

don't even know about as well as all the amazing illustration artist sites (but that's a whole other post). Here are some I know about and a few I belong to:

AbsoluteArts.com

MyArtSpace.com

Fine Art America

Imagekind.com

Do you have any favorites that you would like to share?

Art Girls Pot Leuck April 2008

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Last Wednesday I hosted the monthly Art Girls Pot Luck or Leuck as I call it when it's at my house. It was a lovely evening with great food and fun conversation. It was also Mary Laskey's birthday which we celebrated with a yummy cake brought by Eva May from the Swedish Bakery! (yes that's silly Eva with her tongue out!)

See more photos from the party on my flickr page.

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Old Izzerloo getting love from art girls Eva & Stephi, my dear friend who owns the delightful and delectable Angel Food Bakery.

Artist Found...

Back in 2005, Rich & I took a magical little 5 day trip to New York City. It was featured in my very first blog entry. What made it magical is that we let the trip take us, not really planning just having fun and unexpected adventures. Among them, renting and riding bicycles through Central Park, going to a Broadway Show with Half Price Tickets, going to see the band Sleepy Time Gorilla Museum ...my first experience in a non-smoking club..it was great! Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge...an awesome experience and my highlight, going to the DUMBO art event in Brooklyn where in addition to seeing and buying some fabulous art I also surprised one of my sculpture pals from college whose studio was listed in the program. We had not seen each other in 15 years. So after all that...the reason for this post and the image above: yesterday while perusing etsy in the shop local arena, I keyed in Brooklyn and came upon Faune Yerby, the artist who I had purchased this wonderful photo collage from. I didn't have any info on her or her full name so I was so really glad to find her...it is a small world. (Image: my kitchen sink/window sill art gallery, piece on the left by my friend Cathi Bouzide, on the right a Marquette I made for one of my clay sculptures).

Sunday...back track

I'm backtracking a bit with this post. On Sunday I had lunch with my friend
Johanna in China Town (dim sum!), got to see her ubercool new loft, then
stopped by her fiancee's studio (master furniture maker Mark Cwik) to get
some reclaimed lumber...if I can call it that? perhaps recycled, re-used?
They were scrap pieces he could not use. I can't wait to paint on them.
Here is a photo of one of his beautiful Bubinga Tables (no this is not the
kind of wood I'm painting on):

After picking up my boards I delivered my print (top image): "Dreaming
Uphill" to Woman Made Gallery for their April 12th Art Auction. Then
came home and got creative in the kitchen with a new recipe. I did a
Butternut Squash / Hazelnut Lasagne. The recipe was passed on to me
from my art pal & jeweler, Sara Lenart. You can find the recipe at
epicurious.com It was pretty tasty,I felt guilty not inviting anyone over
to share it with us!

#10 is my Nemesis...

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I get lots of emails from other artists looking for tips and help. I have collected a great referral list of sites and other inspring artists to check out among them is Keri Smith...she posted the list above on her Wish Jar Journal and I had to laugh when I read it because I happen to be having a miserable artist's week: Numbers 1,3,5,9,10...especially 10. I'm not supposed to feel this way in January, this should be free and easy catch up time but instead I feel like I'm never going to get caught up.

On a positive note here are some very helpful resources to check out:

www.artbizcoach.com

www.artbizblog.com

www.another.girlatplay.com

www.kerismith.com

www.smartist-telesummit.com

www.cherylphelps.com/workshops.html

www.artmarketing.com/books

www.karenrossi.com/faqs-licensing.htm

www.maryengelbreit.com/ForArtists/GettingStarted.aspx

www.porterfieldsfineart.com/howtolicenseyourart.htm

www.surtex.com

licensingshow.com

A River Runs Through It

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On Saturday I delivered my painting, A River Runs Through It, to Prairie Shore Properties on Central Street in Wilmette for display in their lobby. This opportunity came by way of the Wilmette Arts Guild, which I recently joined. Good to get some work up to the North Shore, I'll also be participating in a group show at the Wilmette Public Library in the spring.

After that I headed back into the city to an art opening for my friend Heather Gentile-Collins at a beautiful new venue called Flourish Studios. It's retail, therapy, art gallery & more. Heather painted a beautiful mural in the kid's playroom and her  wonderful paintings and prints are on display through the end of February.

And as long as I'm posting...my dear friend Erica Huntzinger...(who has this great new website!) had a very exciting opening at the Chicago Cultural Center in a group show called People of the Mud 2 - great turnout...and some wonderful artists..all clay. Also included, another friend of mine, Jason Messinger's cool tiles.

One of a Kind Wrap Up...The Goods

Good help is hard to find...I found it! This is Kate...she helped me out for a few days at the show and I needed it, I moved from my location last year and our sales and traffic doubled.Thanks to her wonderful assistance, for the first time I was able to actually go see some of the show without risking missing customers. I also made some great connections with other artists, not to mention brokering some great trades with them! Here are 2 from Minnesota artists (ironically), I'll share the others later this week. Below...from Fiber Artist Susan Hinckley, this beautiful piece is titled "Let it go". It was a hard choice, but this one really spoke to me because I feel like I have made a conscious effort recently to let go of so many things I was trying to control and make happen in my business and suddenly those very opportunities are finding me. I have loved her work since first seeing it a few years back at One Of a Kind.

This painting is by Brian Jensen, a wonderful painter and illustrator whom I met for the first time at the show. This beautiful piece was painted on pine, I love how he allowed the natural wood to become part of the composition. His display was great - like a huge puzzle yet each piece could stand alone. This was one of 4 in a set, I'm regretting that I did not also get the one that goes below it.

Okay...off to bed, I have so much to do  tomorrow!

Neon Matisse - In my Bathroom

 

This is my favorite new piece of art, it's called "Have a Nice Day". I purchased it on Ebay from amazing Canadian folk artist, Helene Lacelle (Neon Matisse is her ebay seller name).  I finally framed it the other day (thank you Target - I just mounted it right on top of the mat that was cut for an 8x10) and hung it in the bathroom, which is all tile from floor to ceiling, not easy to nail into but I worked a few into the grout line. It has transformed the room for me, thank so much Helene! Be sure to check out her auctions and website, just promise not to bid against me!