ArtWorks: May 2013

Friday, May 31, 2013

Lots going on!

Summers at our house are punctuated at the beginning and the end by Scottish festivals. Memorial Day weekend we always attend Scotsfest in Costa Mesa, CA, and Labor Day weekend we always attend the Caledonian Club Highland Games in Pleasanton, CA. Over the years we have collected costumes and rituals to our summer celebrations. After our challenging winter and spring, we were very happy to be back in Costa mesa for both days of this year's festival.

The work on my house is almost complete! My studio is back in business and I even get to work there some days. That makes me happy, too.

Our local Artists' Association opened a new gallery show tonight, and I participated for the first time. I am not sure why I never thought to join the local guild before now.

Monday, May 13, 2013

It has been challenging to say the least to make art with all the construction goings on. The parts of my studio that are temperature-sensitive are all in a heap in the middle of the living room. Everything else is in boxes in the garage, in no particular order.

I managed to find my way over to the library to teach the last two weeks anyway, and the children made beautiful birds from tinfoil and plaster-infused gauze bandages. (The idea was in this month's Cloth Paper Scissors magazine, which I love.) The children each made two birds, one for the library and one to take home, and they had so much fun! Here is a picture of a few of the library birds perched next to the spring baskets we made in March.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

What an eventful New Year! Heart surgery for my husband, 10 days in ICU, and recovery from all that. Then achilles tendon repair for me, with 6 weeks in a cast, and now a boot! That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Oh, yes, we had a "little" water incident in our home that has resulted in much unplanned-for reconstruction, the second time in two years this has happened. We are almost through that, but it resulted in a "little studio pack-out. I'm hoping to put it back together within a couple of weeks, when all the work on the house is done.

So, sporting a cast, I entered a few local art thingies, and that was fun! To get ready, I needed to take some pictures of my latest work. I had some visitors to my photo booth:

Ahh! I look good in white.

Wait! Move over! Hiss! Growl!

I may be little, but I won. And I look good in white, too.

Hey! I like it in here!

Without further ado, I here are some of my new pieces. I have only made it to 40 so far this year, but considering all that has gone on, I think I still have a good chance of making it to 200 by the end of the year.