Catching up...and enjoying the journey.
Wow..July FLEW by! Things have been super busy and I've been on the go, August promises even more of the same...so for day to day updates, you are always welcome to visit or join my Facebook ALF Studio Fan Page. 
I've been trying to live a more balanced life this summer which means not working ALL the time which has been my m.o. for about as long as I can remember. This means getting home from the studio at a reasonable hour on the nights that Rich has free, committing Sundays to our tandem bike excursions on weekends that I don't have art fairs, visiting and catching up with friends, just doing what is most necessary in the studio, no more 'super anne'...why has it taken me so long to learn that I'm never going to get to the end of my to do list, and that any goal I reach will only be replace with another? There truly is no destination, so it's time to focus on the journey. If I ever get brave enough to get a tattoo this would probably be a good theme to work with. I've been here before and always get side tracked...no more...time to start living in the present (feel free to remind me!).
Here are some pictures from the last few weeks...
Top one: Sparta - Elroy Bike Trail...Rich and I took a beautiful ride to Wilton on the 4th of July, the tunnels were even better than I remember (Sparta is the town that I grew up in). 
Made some fun new little paintings for the Geneva Art Fair.
This is Gracie...the daughter of a very dear client, at the Geneva Art Festival.
Driving back to the city after the show...there was a beautiful full moon...
My good friend Laura Nugent stayed a few days after the art fair...it was great fun and we really enjoyed the Reverend Howard Finster Show at the Cultural Center, very inspiring! You should definitely check this out if you are a folk art fan.
Laura's toe nails are the same color as the wall she is standing in front of!
I'm happy to report that Alice
seems to be getting back to her silly self...the last 2 months without
Izzy have been hard on her. We've had a lot going on while Alice's
schedule has not been so exciting. Hoping to find her a foster pal in
the fall when all the show hoopla is over.
I just re-hung my windows (long overdue!) for this weekend's Retro on Roscoe...I will actually be in Minneapolis for the Uptown Art Fairbut Amanda and Match will be here if you are out and about and want to stop in!
Bike the Drive...2010
At 6am Sunday morning (before we even knew what the next 48 hours with Izzy would bring) we did Bike the Drive for the 3rd? time...but a first with the tandem and a bike that had more than one speed so I feel like we cheated a little. ; ) Round trip from our home and back with google maps: 40 miles. 
The most entertaining part of the morning was meeting the couple above (Jacob and Kate?) on another Schwinn Twinn...their's fully authentic complete with the originals seats and fenders...and much prettier, but they coveted our basket and Rich's custom rear light job. I was especially impressed when I found out he had just purchased it the day before, she told him the the only way she would do the ride was if he had a tandem, enter Craigslist voila...! 
Saying goodbye to my sweet muse...
After almost 15 years with us, on Monday, we said goodbye to Izzy. It was the hardest decision I've ever had to make, but in the end it was a more peaceful parting than I could have imagined. Things have been going downhill very gradually over the last 2 years, Rich and I did as much as we could to keep Izzy comfortable. Early on we tried acupuncture and chiropractic kinesiology to help with her arthritis. We gave her 9 pills a day, 7 dispensed with peanut butter in a special method perfected by Rich. He cooked weekly in the crock pot for the girls over the last year, and we started using sign language with her as she lost her hearing. We often carried her down and sometimes up the stairs, took very slow labored walks which she still loved, especially to smell the earth and nature (Rich wrote a song about her years ago called "The Sniffer"). There was endless discussion between us about the consistency of her #2...which on a good day was something we termed 'turdular' and if she ate or what she ate. Through it all she taught us patience and compassion and made us better human beings. Since the day we adopted her in November of 1995 (from a vet office on North Avenue where she had been abandoned) she has brought more love to our lives and inspiration to my art work than I could have ever dreamed of. 
I'm so grateful to Rich for helping to take such great care of her and to Alice for always being our comic relief. And other folks helped us through these senior years: Ben King from Urban Tailz, who took such gentle care of Izzy and Alice whenever we had to go out of town, Kelly I was going to close with 'Rest in peace, Pumpkin...' but prefer to imagine her sailing through the air to catch frisbees in that big dog park in the sky...
Poem I wrote in 1999 written around the painting above:
"My Dog's name is Izzy and she's really neat, she chases frisbee and walks on four feet.
She chases squirrels, she chases cats, she even lives with two, how about that?
She loves me no matter what my mood, but she loves me most when I have food. "
She is the color of cinnamon and pumpkin pie...
I'm happy she's my dog and those are the reasons why! I love her so..."
Mutt Lynch Wine Label Contest...Vote #61
"Mixed Breeds", ©Anne Leuck Feldhaus
The Dog Art Today 2010 Mutt Lynch Winery Label Contest is underway and voting ends tomorrow, Tuesday, May 25th. I would love to have your vote for "Mixed Breeds" #61, the label is for a new red wine called "Muttitage". Be sure to scroll down and check out all 77 entries...and vote for your favorite!
The winning entry will be made
into a label for Mutt Lynch Winery's limited edition wine (only 500
bottles) that will
debut at the winery's Dog Days of Summer event on August 14, 2010. This
annual event includes wine tasting,
dog themed art, and vendor booths to benefit the San Francisco SPCA.
Tandem Trip #3 of 2010
My handsome husband sporting his tribal sunscreen application...
Last Sunday we headed to Indiana to ride on the Erie Lackawanna Trail. We did about 20 miles, all paved...I prefer more wooded trails but this was perfect for the day as the sun kept us warm and the trees in bloom were gorgeous.
Not sure if we'll ride tomorrow...weather looks iffy and I have so much to do before I hit the road for Kansas City on Wednesday....hoping my painting muse shows up tomorrow! I'll leave you with a few more trees in bloom photos, one looking out our kitchen window and the other over here in Roscoe Village near my studio. Spring sure came early this year!
Tandem Trip #2 of 2010
On Sunday we took our 2nd tandem ride of 2010, almost 30 miles round trip, from our house to the Museum of Science & Industry and back (so I could check out the storm exhibit...I am intrigued by weather!) It was a great ride south, I never get tired of looking at the glorious blue green color of Lake Michigan...this is all a little easier now thanks to the 3 speed hub Rich outfitted our 1970's vintage Schwinn Twinn Tandem with for our inaugural ride on Easter Sunday. We did 25 miles from under the I-90 bridge at the Fox River through Elgin down to St. Charles and back...the wind blew us all the way back which of course we planned (and I needed, as I was still recovering from my freaky cold).
The photo above shows the false horizon I kept seeing...you cannot see Michigan from Chicago but it looks like it here! And below, our fair city from the south shore:
Apartment Therapy....
As promised last week, here is a link to our House Tour on the Apartment Therapy Blog which went live on Monday. Thanks to Jason Loper now a Contributing Editor as well as fabulous Designer. Here's a peek at a few things that didn't make the House Tour...still lots of painting to do upstairs and art to hang:
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