What I did on my summer vacation...

I feel a little like school has started again as I try to organize all I have to do since returning from one of the most memorable summer vacations of my life!'Beehive Barn' - my favorite creation from the Fields Project (see more here), with the exception of my field sculpture. This barn was inspired by a photo I took onDaysville Road between Franklin Grove and Amboy (my daily route to and from the farm I stayed at). I'm going to put together a flickr photo journal of my fields project experience much like this excellent one created by my wonderful and witty friend Laura Nugent... I've got my July Newsletter to write, several pet portrait commissions to finish, the 3 day Magnificent Mile Art Fair this weekend, new paintings to add to my website, Illinois sales taxes to file and some serious design work for a pending licensing deal. I would really love some help but delegation does not come naturally to me...it would really take the right person. How do you find that person? How do you trust that person? I have been dancing around this topic for the last 5 years or so...and with my now divided work space I don't see it happening any time soon; unless, of course, the right person presents his or herself to me. I am officially putting out a request to the universe...

The second half of my vacation was a good old fashioned road trip via I-80to the YMCA of the Rockies in Colorado for Rich's family reunion. We saw all the expected road side attractions, complete with gargantuan gorilla daring people to buy some fireworks.

In addition to the astounding beauty, it was so great to see all of our nieces & nephews and other family as well as participate in a nocturnal hike, archery and a good old fashioned campfire sing along. Thanks to Ruth & Ray for this unique and memorable event!

After all is said and done, it is always wonderful to come home to our beloved pups - we our really lucky to have a great pet sitter from Urban Tailz, thanks Ben!

11 Acres

It can't get much bigger than this...What a week I've had here in rural Illinois at the Fields Project. I will detail more about how we created this field sculpture in a later post, but let me just say this was a community effort, a lot of hard work, 2 full days in the hot sun in the field gridding out this design with flags then mowing the design. I was one of 3 women and a student who did designs, I'll show the others when I have photos and more time to post. I'm running back out to the country to paint, only a day and a half left before our art fair on Sunday and then back to the city...with the most amazing memories and greater appreciation for the land, the farmer, this special community around Oregon, Illinois and art making!

"This 11 acre field sculpture, by Chicago artist Anne Leuck Feldhaus, was created to encourage people to adopt from their local animal shelters and rescue groups."

View my Flickr Photo Journal of the making of this sculpture!

57th Street

I had my first outdoor art fair of the season over the weekend at the 57th Street Community Art Fair.I finished several paintings in a mad rush on Friday prior to packingup the truck. I am a master procrastinator. I love starting new paintings, but the best chance for me to finish them seems tobe a deadline, a commission pick-up or looming show date. The hard part is that it's not just finishing the painting, then it needs to be varnished, titled, labeled, inventoried, hanging hardware attached and packed. On these occasions I dub myself "SuperAnne", as I am able to accomplish a weeks worth of work in a day or two. My studio looks like a disaster area as all of this activity ensues, and usually remain this way until I have a client visit.

It was very hot and humid but sales were very good on Saturday and we actually lucked out with the weather as it rained a lot in some parts of the city. I met some wonderful new customers and heard a lot of great dog and cat stories as I always do at these shows. Two women I spoke with are very involved with Greyhound rescue and told me about GreyhoundsOnly.com - they help find homes for retired and injured racing dogs. These are the kind of groups that I really want to help, I would love to design fund raising posters or tshirts for them to sell. Also met some wonderful artists - check out this great leather and metal jewelry by Molly Bitters. And more press, I was interviewed by the City of Chicago's Streetside Studio, at some point this will video should be viewable online.

Hyde Park is very beautiful as is the drive down on Lakeshore Drive - strange to see it from the truck as only one week ago we were out there on our bicycles during Bike the Drive. We only live about 3 miles west of Lake Michigan yet rarely seem to get over there - it's so beautiful and big sky and water and green space...every time I'm there I vow to visit the lake at least once a week, and of course several usually go by before I find my way back.

I'm now trying to catch up on all the email and paper work that a show brings with it.   

Face Lift...

So I ended up putting my week's painting hours into home improvement projects - a chair and bench that I'm going to spruce up for summer deck use (I built the bench one Christmas many years ago visiting my friend Dawn - it was a family project we made about 4 of them I think.) I had drawn designs on the bench probably 7 or 8 years ago and am now going to finish it with color...I'm sure I'll come up with some fun patterns for the chair. Hopefully can finish by Monday for a little bbq we are having, but we'll have to see see how much energy I have left after Bike the Drive tomorrow morning.

My main project of the last 24 hours was painting Rich's music mixing room for him - it looks GREAT, he does so much for me and is so supportive of my artistic endeavors.I want him to have a room that he loves to work in and a place to keep his equipment - he's building a storage piece to fit in under the slant of the ceiling. It was fun transforming this small space from what I call "masking tape yellow" to this cool "durango blue" - that was the paint chip color. He wears this shade of blue a lot too...I got him some really cool record album frames to showcase a few of his favorites from his enormous collection.

I had a little fun on the walls before I painted over it...I did leave him another little love note painted in the back of his closet.

Free Press

I was thrilled to wake up Sunday morning and find a little article about me on the front page of the Home & Garden section of the Chicago Tribune! I couldn't have asked for better placement...top right hand side corner - wow. It was all a result of my April Newsletter blurb about my postcard being used as a prop in 'The Number 23'. I am a lucky gal...and very grateful.

Be Kind To Animals...

I just biked down to City Hall to see the banners I designed for Chicago Animal Care & Controlfor Be Kind To Animals Week.It's always a wonder to me that a digital file that I never saw largerthan 10 inches on my screen can hang over my head, 8 feet tall. Everytime, I breathe a sigh of relief that it worked! I also donated bannerdesigns for Be Kind to Animals week back in 2005 they featured Alice. Not that you need to be reminded, but be kind to your 4 legged friends and if you are ready to add to your household please adopt ... there are hundreds of cats and dogs waiting for homes in Chicago today.As I left City Hall I saw this beautiful mosaic mural across the street at 120 N LaSalle. It is called "Flight of Daedalus and Icarus" by Roger Brown, It's27 feet highand 54 feet wide and of course all original. There are hidden gems likethis all over  Chicago. I count  myself lucky to have spotted this onetoday.

Artropolis

Last weekend I made the short trek downtown to visit Artropolis -the annual mega art event here in Chicago, stemming from the originalArt Chicago. I made the mistake of trying to see everything. As a result, I cannot recall what Isaw in the last hour, as it was just too much stimulus for the eyes, brainand soul to handle. But my first 2 hours were a treat. My favorite show was the Bridge Art Fair where the highlight wasseeing the works of Beverly Ashein person and then getting to meet her and having her tell me she knows my work!Wow. I have admired her paintings for years via the internet - a chancefind early on of the gazillion or so hours of surfing I've done. She was exhibiting with her gallery Strange Weeds. I discovered a few new favorites: the painter, Scott Redden with Dillon Gallery and from the the Intuit Show, the works of Franz Kernbeis from Galerie St. Etienne and Theresa Disney of Checkered House Gallery. I just don't do the gallery thing often enough, I am so inspired and happy when I do - this was a big reminder...note to self.

Working outside the box

Boyswork

My childhood best friend and her family (from my home town of Sparta, WI) recently came to stay for the weekend. The boys always paint in my studio when they come to visit...they told me I should do something different so I picked up this cut end of a cardboard box and started painting away making use of all 3 sides of the box...fun! That's Rocky their Chinchilla on the right, as they described him to me. Here are some of their fabulous paintings...one is still a work in progress to be finished at the next visit.