Art Girls...

Last night I hosted our monthly Art Girls get together...it was "Pot Leuck" I made my Mother's great Seafood Lasagna.  As usual..I forgot to get out the camera until everyone was on their way out. We had a great time and shared lots of good information. It's inspiring to trade leads and resources and hear eachother's news, big commissions & sales, new venues etc. On resource we'll all be checking out soon from  Kathy Frey is the Women's Business Development Center, they offer seminars with business counseling included in the fee. I also shared about my favorite art/client/exhibit database management software Eartist - from Artscope.net. As usual the food contributed by all made for an amazing meal from the appetizer to the desserts....and yes there is still plenty of talk about doing our own cookbook! Girls in the photos Match, Kathy, Mimi, Kate & Eva sporting their flower child candy bracelet head bands! And Sharon & Match...

Free Rice

Now in addition to www.Websudoku.com, I have a new diversion...Rich just told me about Free Rice, it's a vocabulary game...and for every word you get right 10 grains of rice are donated through the United Nations to help end world hunger....I donated 610 grains today, and I don't feel guilty!

Folk Art HEAVEN...

Returned from Alabama last week - the Kentuck Art Fair was a gem, like no other show I've ever done. My first thought upon entering the park was "I'VE DIED AND GONE TO FOLK ART HEAVEN". I was very inspired and moved by all the visionary art work and wonderful artists that I met (first photo William Scrip's amazing sculptures, Robert Seven's art and booth, and one of my wonderful neighbors).

Gabriel Shaffer has a wonderful photo album on his flickr site capturing some the most memorable artists from this show. I had the honor of meeting his mother, Cher Shaffer (a highly collected visionary artist) from whom I purchased this fabulous painting of her cat, Yoda...also got some other nice treasures from Mark Orr (the perfect art fair neighbor), Jim Shores and Kim Young.

My dear husband did all the driving so I was free to read and look out the window and dream, I also did a lot of drawing in my sketchbook. I have some great new images for future road trip / map paintings...scroll down to see them:

Adopt A Pet In The Park...

I donated the design of this Ad for Chicago Animal Care & Control's upcoming pet adoption event in Lincoln Park on October 14th. The full design has a lot more text etc. I made this one for postcards and another for possible t-shirt printing. Watch for it in an upcoming issue of the Chicago Reader. I hope it brings lots of people out for the event so more of Chicago's homeless pets find good homes.

Chi-Town Kitty

Here she is...my donated pieces for the Treehouse Animal Foundation's Annual Cats on Parade: Day / Night / Half & Half:

Chicago on the Feline

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Ever the procrastinator...I started painting the fiberglass cat for the Treehouse Animal Foundation Cats On Parade event today. Did some serious sketching last night and decided to paint the city on the cat...as I was working I decided to go for a half day half night effect. I'm pretty happy with it...post varnish pictures tomorrow before delivery.

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Speechless...

I think I have allergies, not normal for me. But I started feeling strange over the weekend, and worse Sunday afternoon as I set up to show some work at the River North Dog Owner's Association's "Social at the Park" Fundraiser for their new dog park. I was a little hoarse to start with, but by the end of the evening I could only whisper...that's all I can do today. It's hard to be quiet, so when I speak I whisper, and it's kind of funny because people start whispering back to me...like we are discussing a great secret!

The event was set at the end of Erie Street on the terrace of the Erie Cafe overlooking the river and a lovely Chicago skyline. The weather was perfect and it was lots of fun seeing so many different sizes and kinds of dogs - all for the most part getting along.

Trades...lovely benefits of being an artist!

Kass Copeland is a Chicago artist and illustrator who creates wonderful witty assemblage/collage pieces. She also does a lot of design work for Red Moon Theater. I got this beauty as a trade at a recent art fair we did together...

LUCKY ME ! It looks fabulous on my peacock blue walls. Title: "The Bad Fairies". She assured me they were not evil just mischievous. I asked her to name them, they are Prudence and Cornelia...she said the dog's name is up to me...hmmm..any suggestions?