My Creative Friends...living their dreams

Today I visited the lovely shop of Chicago jeweler Sara Lenart (1924 W. Byron) with another wonderful copper enamel artist and friend Mary Laskey. We all belong to "Art Girls" a group of women that has grown to an evite list of almost 20 over the last few years. Most of us met doing art fairs and decided it would be fun to get together outside of the shows and more often than once a year at the annual Bucktown Art Fest's Patron's Party. We started out meeting once a month at restaurants and have moved more towards rotating potlucks at eachother's homes which is great because there is nothing more interesting than seeing the living space of other artists. On Thursday we met at the home of amazing jeweler Kathy Frey - she just had her first book published! Our talk on thursday was of blogs...and art business and a cook book that we'd like to put together. These art girls are some fabulous cooks...we have quite the tasty pot lucks and you will often find a spouse or partner sticking around to fill a plate - in spite of the sometimes deafening sound of a dozen women joyously conversing around a few bottles of wine...!

So back to my field trip to Sara's store...I am dreaming of getting a store front in Chicago, one where I can be more accessible to my customers and have more space and ceiling height(!) to work in. It's  a very big move to make so it was great to hear nothing but positives from Sara who has had her space for over 2 years...very inspiring.

You Say Tomato...

And I say we just grew our first Tom-ah-to (that made it!)...Well, it's Rich's tomato -I cannot take credit. It's beautiful and has a lovely little greencrown. I decided to give it a throne...a whimsical soap dish I made atLill Street.

17 Years Ago Today....

Seventeen years ago today, I moved to Chicago. 1990, age 23, no job, knew 2 people, none close friends, with the exception of an x-boyfriend but that didn't count except that he did introduce me to Rich...so I guess that does count! My plan was to stay 1-2 years and then move out to the west coast. I was so scared but also very excited to finally be in a BIG city. I was so excited to live only blocks from Lake Michigan (never mind that I was too naive to know how edgy my neighborhood was back then) Rogers Park area Kenmore & Granville. I was filled with a feeling of adventure not knowing what great things...and not so great things, awaited. My 10 day stint at an art foundry (I thought this was going to be my dream job)...left me frustrated and sad, the man I worked for told me "you are never going to make it in Chicago". So I"m a little emotional...so what, I'M STILL HERE. I think it just added to my resolve to find my own way. Then I became miss interviewee and corporate temp...I had to buy a suit (I didn't even own a skirt) and start wearing panty hose and heels - killer for a gal fresh out of art school. I found a job by December as a convention and meeting planning assistant. I worked there for 6 years. None that I regret in retrospect as it later proved to be invaluable to running my own business. Which I guess I better get back to...Happy Anniversary to me!

Transformations...

My Mom is coming to visit today from Wisconsin! She has never seen our house so it was good incentive for me to get some things done on my LIST over the weekend. Since moving in last fall I've had grand dreams of a beautiful deck filled with flowers and color, there has not been time for that so I came up with a quick fix over the weekend. I painted our $12 plastic adirondack deck chairs with Krylon Fusion Blue Hyacinth Spray Paint - not my favorite way to paint but the results were totally worth it. I had to go to the suburbs to get the paint - (no spray paint sold in Chicago city limits due to graffiti ordinance) and this color was hard to find as well. Ace Hardware in Glenview came through - what a great store, I also found some seat cushions for the chairs in the summer clearance section. I love a bargain...!

I picked up this kitchen table at a yard sale a few weeks back with plans to cut the legs and mosaic it for a deck coffee table. Couldn't find the tile I wanted - it's all glass these days and my glass  was not as thick as my tile, I'll have to postpone that part. Quick fix with the Krylon paint.

Also mulched the front yard, and pulled lots of weeds..I'm still learning what is and isn't a weed and in the backyard Rich & I have decided to let the indigenous riff raff grow in specific section - paying homage to the prarie plants...or those that think they are! I won't go into my caulking expedition in the bathroom, lets just say it was another BIG job - and I'm definitely not a pro but it does look better. Okay...off to the train station to pick up Mom & Bill!

International Exposure!

My painting Spring Has Sprung was featured in VIVA Magazine in Dubaie in the United Arab Emirates! The feature was in their July 2007 issue, it showcased events in cities around the world, and Chicago made it in for the Magnificent Mile Art where I exhibited. Unfortunately the description didn't quite match the event, but I received some great exposure nonetheless.

And in Germany on TV at the end of July, my Pet Portraits were featured in a story about The Dogs Gallery on the RTL Regional Television News (Europe's biggest TV Station, or so they told me!).

On a more local note, my Field Sculpture was featured on the photo blog called "The Farmer's Wife". The Farmers Wife was the Recipient of the 2006 Garfield Heritage Society Agricultural Preservation Award. Thanks for featuring my field, Zanne!

Plaster Cat

The other day, Ollie from Treehouse Animal Foundation delivered a plaster cat for me to paint for their fundraiser coming up in the fall. This one is much more realistic than last year's larger than life feline.I'm not sure how I'm going to paint it... the other one was allflowers, I called it "Botani-cat". Alice was a bit more curious aboutthis kitty than Izzy, she loves cats and misses Oliver, we all do - it'll be a year on Monday since he left us.               

The Art of Shoes and more...

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Is it art? Rich did his bi-annual Chuck Taylor wash over the weekend...I watched him arrange these on the railing to dry, looks like art to me. After this, I met him in the garage where we were long overdue to clean, organize and go through the boxes still sitting there from our move 9 months ago. A good portion of them were all the ceramic figures I made at Lill Street back in the 90's and a few bronze pieces I made in college. Most of the clay figures are missing fingers and have various other cracks and imperfections but I'm not quite ready to part with them. Rich wants me to plant them in the garden or around the yard, for now I was able to put the majority of them on a bookshelf in the garage...Oh, I did put two in the yard..I'll post those at a later date. Izzy & Alice snoozed in the summer breeze on the deck all afternoon.

Ladies Who Lunch...

A gorgeous day and a lovely lunch spent with some wonderful gals (not to mention amazing artists) to say good bye to my good friend Erica Jane Huntzinger...who is moving to rural Wisconsin in August. Corinne Peterson & Cathi Bouzide joined us...on the menu: Crab Quiche, a Blueberry, Blue Cheese & Pine Nut Salad, Veggies, Ice Tea, Candy Necklaces and Brownies (with an 'E' for Erica)!

Erica brought each of us a sweet little hand made felt and yarn heart necklace with our initials on them.

I'm getting better at this entertaining thing but I still get in a tizzy beforehand, I figure the more I do it the more comfortable I'll become...so come on over! Oh, but you do have to deal with Alice. You have to give her a little time to calm down, she is a lot to take when you first come in the door. I feel like a bad mother who cannot control her child.

Other bonus of entertaining: THE HOUSE IS CLEAN!