as promised

A post tonight - but a quickie one. Stayed home today, printed 3 more scarves (that still need more layers) and stitched this canvas to stretchers and will hang it on the studio wall. I took this one, plus another that I did at the same time several years ago when I treated myself to a workshop with Fran Skiles. I revisited the canvases, which had been rolled up in the corner forever, and liked what I saw. My art crit group liked it too, and I think I will revisit working on canvas with more mixed media to see what happens. My camera was not taking good pictures tonight, but I wanted to share this piece that Rachel Leibman brought with her. It is collage. Sorry for the flash, but the non-flash one came out fuzzy. Susan Lisbin brought her latest sculpture -- a mixed media piece that is very interesting and lyrical. Here, she is explaining how she made the piece, which contains the back of a chair - repurposed. Susan is great at doing that and she is a wonderful painter.

Everybody brought something to show and/or ask advice on but my camera was annoying me, so I don't have pix of the other work. Told you this would be a quickie!

another art day

Today was our Studio Six meeting: Studio Six is our crit group. We met at Judy Langille's house today and I must say, we were more efficient than usual, actually getting through all of our critiques before lunch. Unheard of! Among the luminaries in our group are Diane Savona, whose domestic archaeology pieces are highly original, Joan Dreyer, whose 3-D fiber work is represented by Snyderman-Works in Philadelphia, and Joanie San Chirico, who has a solo exhibition at the J & J world headquarters in New Brunswick, NJ. After the meeting, Joan, Diane, Randy Keenan and I waltzed over to Johnson & Johnson to see Joanie's paintings. The security at this place made Newark Airport look like a piece of cake. Before we could go into the building, they had to see picture IDs, take our photos (which were uniformly ghastly) and then we had to wait for an escort to take us in to see the exhibit (for which we had made an appointment). Joanie had told us we'd have to get a photo permit, but fortunately, we had a substitute escort who didn't know we couldn't take pictures in the gallery. As usual, my photos are not especially good - but I expected to be arrested any minute while I took these. This tree is my favorite. Click on it to enlarge. and this, which is part of a triptich, is the only one I could get a good photo of before it was too late. But you can see Joanie's work on her website.Afterwards, we went across the street to the Hyatt to see more of Joanie's work and then walked through the J&J campus to get back to our car. While we were at it, Randy and I snapped pictures. This Henry Moore sculpture, Draped Reclining Mother and Baby, was sitting on the grass. Wow! Henry Moore! Here is Randy, taking a picture of one end of the sctulpture while I took a photo of the other end.

Gorgeous campus - we just kept snapping as we walked to the car.

These pods were creepy - I don't know what they are. I think we used to call them boxer when we were kids: the remind me of carob pods but probably are not. I picked some up to print with but left them in Joan's car by mistake. On the way out of the parking lot the security guard stopped us and told us it was forbidden to take pictures on the J&J campus and that if he called the New Brunswick Police we'd be arrested. We were waiting for him to confiscate our cameras but he only told us we had to delete the pictures. Fortunately, he did not insist we do it in front of him. I do not expect to see this sign again.

Tonight, I was too tired to go to my printing workshop. I shall have to try and figure out the next assignment on my own. Frankly, I believe this one hour-time change deal has done me in. What a wimp.

getting ready

I decided yesterday that I had better start cleaning up and hanging work for Sunday's Open Studio tour. I had brought in my monotypes and collages weeks ago and now I have brought in some fiber pieces, as well. Spent yesterday hanging the work. I pinned some finished pieces to my design wall and left the piece I'm still working on, just as it is. The place looks pretty nice, if I do say so.

Then, today, I brought in some fabric postcards and scarves. The last time I had some postcards at a craft gallery, I overheard people saying "$30 for a POSTCARD?!!" So I double-matted and framed them in 8 x 10 clip frames; now they look like ART and maybe some civilians will buy them. Right now, they are lying on the table that will hold the wine, cheese,crackers,& fruit on Sunday.The scarves did not make me happy, so I brought them home and will decide whether or not to bring them back with me over the weekend. I don't want to clutter up the place too much.

I spent a good part of the afternoon making a price list - the worst part of the whole deal. Some of my studio mates, most of whom have done this before, insist that people come to studio tours looking for bargains and you have to have $15 things and "studio tour" pricing; i.e. - 20% lower than the would otherwise be. I don't make $15 items and am reluctant to lower prices across the board. My friend Lisa Westheimer, who had an open studio last fall, told me that she had a bunch of $5-15 items she wanted to get rid of. Nobody bought them - they bought the $300 pieces. Is there a lesson here? I continue to struggle.

Got back a little while ago from my artists' crit group - 3 painters,a collage artist, Lisa, a photographer, & moi. A young woman, who is a college student majoring in art, brought two paintings in for crit. She told us she has a university professor who looked at a painting of hers and said "I hate it." Can you IMAGINE? The arrogance! Not only useless, but destructive. We were much more helpful to her tonight.

Tomorrow, back to the pricing thing and I really do have to print some fabric...