Heartbreak

My work is exhibited in 3 Central Alberta galleries/gift shops, as many of you know.  I've had pieces in the Bonavista Fine Art Gallery in Sylvan Lake for a good year or so now and was absolutely thrilled to show there, as the owner, Denise Milne, gave me beautiful wall space...

So you can imagine my emotions this morning when I opened my e-mail to find this, written last night:

Good evening artists,

I am writing today to regretfully inform you that Bonavista Fine Art Inc. will be closing it's doors September 30th, 2017. It is not financially feasible for us to continue operating.

I'm very sorry for any inconvenience I have caused anyone and to those of you whom I have set classes up with.

Thank you so much to each and every one of you for giving us the opportunity to showcase your unique and stunning pieces of artwork. I wish you all the best in your future endeavours! 

Please contact me to set an appointment for when you can come in to sign out your pieces before September 30th, or if you would like to leave your pieces up to the last day I can schedule your pick up appointments for the first  week in October, just let me know.

I will be discounting my pieces by quite a bit because I don't really want to take them all home ;) So if any of you would like to do the same please reply to this email with your desired percentage discount and I will change the prices in the gallery asap. 

Sincerely,Denise MilneArtist/Owner

It's a letter you hope never to get, signalling not so much a reflection of the still-wobbly economy in these parts but (and this is only my opinion) the challenges of trying to create a viable venue for artists in a part of the province where there are many practitioners, but not that many consumers or appreciators of art.  This is not the Big City.  Sylvan Lake is a large town that bursts at the seams in the summer, with cottagers and vacationers...a town that fosters (perhaps) a more casual lifestyle.  It has a Jazz Festival that has struggled in recent years to provide entertainment for all ages, for families as well as jazz afficionados and connoisseurs -- again (perhaps) because of lack of appreciation for the artistry involved.

I know I'm rambling here, Gentle Readers, so I will draw this to a close...but welcome your thoughts.

P.S. I offered to allow a modest discount to see if some of my pieces will sell before she closes the doors.  Her commission has always been very reasonable, so this wouldn't impact too much.  We shall see.

Weekly

I'm having a tough time these days keeping up with life in Blog Land -- whether it be reading the blogs I follow or writing about what's up in the Sewdio.

This week, I blame it mainly on the heat -- and the insects!

Last Monday it was wasps, which I found when I tried to open an old shed with unpredictable sliding doors and was greeted with a couple of stings for my efforts.

By Wednesday a.m. I knew the nest was thoroughly dealt with -- and my neighbour had pointed out a second (old, also dead) nest in the same shed -- on the ceiling!  I've shut the doors on that building, and will return in the fall (after the first frost) to remove all traces!

Friday it was ants!  This is my own fault, I guess.  Sigh.  I love my peonies, but will have to resist bringing any into the house in future.  I've always shaken off the blossoms to rid them of ants before bringing them in, but this year I included buds...and I guess there were critters in there...

Anyway, they are now dealt with too, thanks to ant powder and floor scrubbing and the judicious placement of ant traps for any malingerers!

In between, I did manage to pick a crop of Saskatoons from a nearby farmer's berry patch (over a dozen cups -- some now in muffins and some shared with my next-door neighbour) and some of my own raspberries (4 1/2 cups now in the freezer) and to discover (with that neighbour's help) that yes, indeed, I needed new bathroom taps, as the current ones -- leaking badly -- cannot be repaired.  A new set has been purchased...but remains to be installed.

Sew what happened in the Sewdio?!

Not much... but I managed to get very close to finishing a x-stitch Christmas Stocking (only the details left now, and then construction), to finish a simple shawl (a commission)...

And to quilt and bind "Wall":

Wall (C) 2017
Hand-stamped and marked cotton and linen;
commercial cotton; cotton floss.
Machine quilted and hand-stitched.
12" square

Wall - Detail

I decided to quilt it 'in the ditch' with "invisible" thread (I used a clear mono-polyester from Superior Thread on the top and Superior's "Bottom Line" in black on the back)...and then added a few lines of running stitch (which go through to the back) using 3 strands of cotton floss, picking up the red in the 'wall'.  I finished it with a very narrow red binding.

Next week when I go into Red Deer, I'll take the piece with me and see how it might look mounted on a 12" square canvas.  If I like the effect and if I can find it, I'll also audition it then dropped into a black shadow box frame.

Thinking about "Wall" and my recent tree rubbings, I've come up with an idea for a second piece...so stay tuned!

To finish off the week, I went to Sylvan Lake yesterday after church, and finalized the new selection of my work Denise wanted for her Bonavista Fine Art Gallery.  (The above link will take you to "my" gallery on the website.)

I love the way she takes such care to show off the work of each of her artists!  This is how mine looked when I saw it yesterday afternoon:

You might recognize some of those pieces as I've posted about them over the years.  The ones with large 'statements' posted next to them toured overseas when I was part of the 15 x 15 International Group.  Both of us agreed that it was great for viewers to see those stories along with the pieces.

And now, because I still can, I'm linking up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday, and going back into the Sewdio to work on that new idea.  Have a great week, everyone!

Typos are Humbling

As I write, rain is teeming down, and there is thunder -- which is distinctly odd for an October morning in Central Alberta.  In the Dog Days of summer, perhaps -- but on an early morning in the autumn?

With my Jewish friends and family celebrating their New Year, and Canadian Thanksgiving only a week away...I am thankful for them (friends and family, that is), for my cozy wee house on the rolling prairie, for the "Goats on the Roof" coffee that is brewing in the kitchen...and for a bit of time to pause for reflection and a blog post!

Around the sewdio, installation prep continues for Mark on the Body, which goes up in a little over 2 weeks.  I finally took some time last week to read the trade paper version of the book I've written about it (there's a box of 'em in my kitchen)...and sure enough...two typos stared out at me.

Sigh.

But...there's hope for me (us!) yet...

I've been been dipping into a library book recommended by my friend and colleague, Judy Warner: Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon.  I say 'dipping' because it's not the kind of book you need to read from front to back; you can simply find a section that intrigues you and drop in there.

This morning I opened it to #8: "Be Nice (The World is a Small Town)".  I grew up in a small town, I live in a smaller town...and as a female brought up in the fifties in a church-going household, "Be nice" was a cardinal rule.

Being nice requires a certain humility.  (There I go again; back to Tim McGraw's "Always Stay Humble and Kind".)

Nowadays, having devalued 'niceness' for the past forty-or-so years, with women being criticized for being "too nice" or "not nice enough" (right, Mrs. Clinton?), and a certain fellow being admired (!) for being distinctly not "nice", to the point where some of us are trying to resurrect "nice" in a desperate move to keep said fellow out of public office...

It was refreshing to read these words in Kleon's book:

The golden rule is even more golden in our hyper-connected world...The best way to vanquish your enemies...? Ignore them.  The best way to make friends...? Say nice things about them.

Now he was talking about the Internet, but I'd say this is reasonable advice in the real world too.

He goes on to say that in our creative journey, more than ever before we will need:

• Curiosity;
• Kindness;
• Stamina; [and]
• A willingness to look stupid.   ;-)

There you go.  I just had 100 books printed -- and several bought online -- with glaring spelling errors in them.  But, like "design features" or "Amish moments" in quilting, clearly those typos are there to keep me  "humble and kind".  And so...time to swallow my pride and move on!

Two pieces of better news -- for which I needed those humbling typos -- also arrived this week.

Yesterday, the latest "Reveal" for 15 x 15 was posted.  The theme this time is "Botanicals", and you can see it HERE.

Canola (C) 2016

Once again I experimented with InkTense (R) pencils and machine-stitched hand-written script; I remain uncertain about the quality of the results but know that over time, with practice, I'll produce better.  I toyed with stitching the script in black or writing it in fabric pen, but then decided I just wanted it to blend in with the rest of the foreground -- the bright canola field -- so left it at that.

I also quilted this piece far more densely than I usually do, which was a test for my fussy-pants Husqvarna.  Even after its annual tune-up, it refuses to enjoy stitching free-motion spirals...

In other news, Denise Milne, the owner of the Bonavista Fine Art Gallery in Sylvan Lake, whose taken a large number of my pieces into her beautiful space and hung them with paintings, has also posted my very own "Artist's Page" on the Gallery's website!  And...she sent me these photos of my work now on display:

As for the battle between Mrs. C. and Mr. T...if all the "stupid stuff", the sturm und drang, threatens to make your blood pressure rise, best take Kleon's wife's advice: "Quit picking fights and go make something."

I'm off to do just that -- but before I go, I'll link in to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday .  She too has pretty good advice this week: seize the day; life's too short to sit around watching green bananas ripen!  Catcha later, eh?

Process to Production

Prologue: I've been thinking about this post for several days.  I wrote a bit, saved it as a draft, and thought some more.  I originally titled it, "To Market, to Market"...but as you can see, I've changed that. What follows is an up-dated version of the original...

For the past few weeks I've been spending a great deal of time -- or so it seems to me -- doing something that makes me and many -- if not all -- of my artist colleagues queasy.

That something?  "Shameless self-promotion" -- also known as "marketing".

It's tough doing it even if one is an extrovert, and I'm not; rather, I'm somewhere on the introvert spectrum: capable of speaking and singing in public, capable of "schmoozing" at an art opening, capable of enjoying a retreat or conference with friends, capable of enjoying time with family...but requiring a day or two or three in solitude thereafter simply to recharge my batteries.

So going out into the community with posters and postcards to advertise the forthcoming opening of my first installation is pretty tiring.  Blessedly Maureen, the person at the City who is coordinating the event, has no trouble with such things, and is doing a stellar job for me in Lacombe and Red Deer and beyond...leaving me with far less of it to do than I expected -- much to my relief.

But Maureen's not my art agent (grin).  I don't have one of those.  So...when I discovered a new gallery in Sylvan Lake -- a town about an hour from here -- on a visit in late August...I had to speak up, to engage the gallery owner in a chat about my work, to arrange to show it to her...and then to prepare it for exhibit there.

Though still on a consignment basis, for the first time my work will be hanging in a gallery that features predominately paintings.  There is work in other media there -- glass, sculpture, metal -- and fine craft such as pottery and jewellry -- but mostly paintings.  Mostly what people in this part of the world think of when they hear the word "art".  I am thrilled at the prospect of being shown on the same walls...and hoping that will give people a different way to define 'art'.

This means that this week I was attaching wires to the backs of my pieces mounted on stretched canvas...

And writing up a 'descriptive inventory' that included the sort of things I generally put on a label on the back of my quilts: materials and techniques.

I couldn't help but notice that my materials list was much more than "acrylic on canvas" or "water colour on canvas" or "mixed media".   Hmmmm.

The pieces have now been delivered, and the consignment agreement signed, with an official start date of September 24.  Once Denise, the gallery owner, figures out how many she has room for, and hangs them, I'll go and pick up the rest.    Then...we shall see.

Meanwhile, I continue to work on assembling MOB for hanging (a month from today!) , as well as my latest piece for the 15 x 15 Group...

Sneak Peek at a Detail...

And several projects for gifts; first, for the two new babies in my life....

Christmas Stocking Under Construction

Soon to be a "Blankie"

A terrible "selfie" of me in a cloche recently finished, a commission...

When did my neck get old?!

There's another hat (commission) on the needles as we speak, and plans are underway for the Annual Christmas Boxer Shorts, as well as a variety of knitted gifts for friends and family...

What am I doing sitting here typing?!  Time for breakfast and the sewdio!

P.S. I'm linking late into Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  Thanks for reading!