My Mother

A quick note on my way out the door. My mother just won a contest where an image of her artwork will be placed on an outdoor banner. Im very excited for her. This is the image they chose.

Trunk Shows

I just participated in my third trunk show of the year and so far its been rather slow. We haven't really sold anything successfully in a long time but I still feel hopeful because of how encouraging people have been towards our work and us in general. Each show has benefited me in one way or another, be it kind words, inspiring work of others, or just exercise its hard to haul stuff around :-).
Being an artist is extremely hard, but I'm just not ready to give up just yet!

4th fun

I just wanted to wish everyone a wonderful holiday weekend. I have to go to sleep so I can get ready for my showing at Urban Arts and Crafts tomorrow. May many things inspire you, and good night!

Funny... I do that too!

Working at my local craft store Urban Arts and Crafts I get many opportunities to talk to other crafers. Most people agree that there is nothing more aggravating than running out of yarn before you've finished your project. The funny part of this story is how people tend to deal with the situation when they first get the hint that they may be running out.
When this situation happens to me I notice that I start knitting faster and faster... like somehow if I can just go quick enough I will beat the yarn in this race to the finish. The sensation is similar to when you were a kid and you started running down a hill that's just a bit too steep. Your somehow falling and running and being amazed that something terrible hasn't happened yet. People always seem to laugh when I tell this story but its always followed up with a yeah its hilarious but I guess I do that too now that you mention it!
ha ha ha.

Where I find inspiration

I love materials and lately the most inspirational thing to me are items that are not usually thought of as craft or art items. I've been using silk straight pins in my pieces for 2 + years now and my latest obsessions are washers and rubber seals. Whenever I find something that I can get hundreds of I'm imediatly inspired. I always figure if I have enough of something I'll be able to figure out some kind of use for it.

Being an Art Grad

I get asked often what was it like going to the Kansas City Art Institute, or why get a an art degree. Sometimes I find it hard to answer these questions. An Art Degree isnt somthing as easily defined as other degrees. I can use it to get some jobs but it dosent hold a much weight a say a business degree. I do believe that the most benificial things that I gained from my experince was self examination (how to look at my pieces and see how I could make them better), and just different tools for dealing with difficult people while keeping my inspiration. If you can make it through art school and not break thats really saying something!

The Bead Class

I've been up in the air about what it is that I want to be doing so I have been experimenting with several different processes. Making glass bead was fun but I think that my further exploration of the I finally did it and signed up for a glass bead making class. It was fun, interesting and scary. Latelymedium will be selfish in manor. I'm keeping this one to myself and not going to pursue it as a way to make money.