Art Sales

I sold a painting! High Plains Aerial #3 is now in the collection of newlyweds Beau & Mandi. It's one of my favorites. Now I'll get busy and do another aerial landscape to hang with #1 and #2. They look so much better as a tryptich! Beau actually grew up near where the photo for this painting was taken. I am thrilled to have them enjoy it.

It's been a busy month with graduation of number two child. Number one got engaged to a fabulous man. Number three is on his way to Africa with his Dad for a 10 day safari hunt. I am left to babysit the dog! Hopefully she will let me paint a bit too. Happy Summer!

Before and After

Updating inventory, I came across this before picture (on the left) of the Ancient Sunflower painting (finished work in right photo). I wish I had taken a photo of it even before this. It started as an aerial view of circle irrigation...fields and roads, but something wasn't working for me. This painting has a lot of texture, with plaster built up on masonite. The top right sprinkler became a sunflower and still has lots of that texture surrounding it. Rice papers, and painted orange tissue papers were added, as well as many layers of acrylic "stain" (painted on, and wiped off). I thought you would enjoy seeing a little of how my works evolve. I like this painting more each day...it seems to glow, and that makes me smile!

Susan Hart's Walkway Gallery Show

Was it already two weeks ago that I went to Kearney for Susan Hart's reception? It was a great day...guess I need to slow down, so I can reflect and share what is important. I know Susan from art camp at Halsey. The Association of Nebraska Art Clubs (ANAC) organizes an amazing painting fest every September at the state 4-H camp in the Nebraska National Forest near Halsey. Susan has been very successful in the last few years with her wonderful collages, mostly with painted tissues, using a lot of quinacridone gold, turquoisish colors, and her signature swirl motif. She has 22 paintings in a one-woman show currently in the Walkway Gallery of Kearney's Good Samaritan Hospital. One is shown on the left. (With permission from Sue Hart.) The reception was so nice--Lorie Line music was played live, the staff had even created very tasty cookies painted with frosting to match the artwork! My trip was so worth the effort. Not only because of getting to see Susan and her great art, but I ran into my UNK art professor, Larry Peterson, who told me about the third Thursday lecture at MONA which was happening later that night, and the Kearney Art Guild opening reception for their juried ANAC competition entries on display at Elements. I was able to take in all three events. I also met John Allen, CEO of the Kearney hospital, whose insightful photography graces the walls of that facility. Seeing his art helps explain why the hospital is so supportive and believes in the healing qualities of art. There are definitely some fine artistic spirits in Kearney. I am inspired.

Great Photo Display

>Last week I was in Lincoln, Nebraska for the state FFA convention. All three kids were involved. I sponsored the local chapter, and was so proud. During a break in activities, number one daughter and I spent about half an hour at the Sheldon Art Museum on the University of Nebraska campus. I don't usually get very excited over photography displays, but part of the current exhibit, Evolving Eden: Three Photographic Perspectives, has stuck in my mind...partly because of the insightful commentary inherent in the photos, and I'm sure in part due to the appreciative response from my daughter, who's journalism degree gives her some expertise in the medium. The installation by Hans Eijkelboom, a Dutch photographer, is titled Paris-NewYork-Shanghai. It includes large-format cityscapes with the identifying quirks of each city and snapshot-style grids of their inhabitants to reveal how similar one city is to another today. It is a satirical commentary about the globalization of our interests, habits, fashions, and problems. The exhibit has been seen in Aperture Gallery in New York, and is available in book form. Check it out!

The Custom Prom Dress

The prom dress was fabulous! Yes, I'm slacking on my goals...it's been 21 days without a blog post. No excuses. Just, some great pictures! ...only one concern: the boning in the top piece turns up in front when she sits...requiring a reminder to pop it back down when she returns to standing! I wonder if attatching the skirt directly instead of making it two pieces would prevent this...?? She looked and felt beautiful. And, more importantly for me, she really appreciates my creative, sewing skills. It was fun. The first song played at the prom was Taylor Swift's "Love Story"!!! Now it's on to graduation reception scrapbooking, track meeting, FFA conventioning and hopefully some collaging....

Distractions

My senior has requested this dress for prom. It's from Taylor Swift's music video of Love Story, and I think it's on the cover of the album. So, I've been busy designing, beading and sewing. Prom is in two weeks, and I have a long way to go. It's fun and creative, but sure distracting me from painting and art goals. I'm also substitute teaching quite a bit and I'm doing the ELDA testing for our school's ELL program for the fourth year now. I took a short break tonight to catch up on some blogs and was excited to see the post on EmptyEasel.com about Google Analytics. I am all signed up, and anxious to see how many readers I actually have. Hopefully this will help me improve my posts, see some art sales, and make some interesting contacts...that's the plan! Let's keep on board with all this technology...thanks to Google for making it all free and easy. I feel so capable, but then can't figure out how to get our old desktop to connect to the wireless network...always more to learn! Happy persevering!

Web Hosting

This week I almost jumped into a webhosting site to get myself going with a real website. I've been looking at inmotionhosting.com, and artspan.com. I emailed a techie friend for his opinion and he's suggested being part of some education and rural business grants that would provide free technological assistance, free server, domain and hosting for a year. Of course he wrote the grants and needs participants! I am trying to decide whether I'm ready to go ahead on my own, or wait for all the red tape and get the FREE assistance. It would probably mean at least a year wait while students are trained, participants screened, and paperwork completed. In a lot of areas, I'm currently more technology savvy than the students who would be helping me! But, my participation would help out the students, too.

Meanwhile, my weekly blogposting has fallen behind due to a big weekend trip to Kearney/Lincoln and a pretty nasty virus that has me dripping and moving slowly. I spent 3 hours in Lincoln's Hobby Lobby and got some really great frames in their 80% off clearance aisle. I worked on 2 miniature collages while in the hotel, watching PBS's birthday tribute to Ella Fitzgerald. They are not done, but showing potential...one is shown here (4"x 6"). My mother did the scherenschnitte for some Christmas packaging several years ago!