Smokey

I just received the sad news that the star of one of my pet portraits, Smokey, has gone on ahead. I had so much fun making his painting, he was a wonderful joyful subject. He lived 12 happy years, and his owner sent me a very sweet tribute to him in which she details his antics which include: 'burying a turkey carcass in the couch and getting up on the kitchen table and standing there for no apparent reason'. She asked that we all 'do something silly that makes you deliriously happy' in his memory today. And I will.

I try so hard not to worry about my 13 year old Izzy and instead cherish each day I have with her. She is the reason I started painting dogs, the cornerstone of my art business, the one who really opened my eyes to all the other homeless pets out there that need adoption, and my 4 legged soul mate - I can only guess that the love I have for her is equal to the unconditional love a parent has for their child. It's hard for me to leave her behind as I embark on 2 and a half weeks of traveling... I know  she will be in good hands and that crazy Alice will keep her busy while I am gone. I sure do love my pups.

New Postcards...

There are benefits of doing your own graphic design but the curse is that you spend way too much time tweaking and changing and deliberating on the final piece. And of course as usual, I left this task to 3 days before leaving for my 8 day artist residency at the Fields Project and a road trip the following week to Colorado for a family reunion at the YMCA of the Rockies. Rich chose the final design, we went with the upper left one. I placed my order late last night so they get printed and mailed before the July 13-15 Magnificent Mile Art Fair. I use GotPrint.com for my printing and my mailing. Their prices are great and the quality superb. Other companies I use are PSPrint.com (for bookmarks and stickers) and ClubFlyers.com (for high quantity - minimum order is 5000 cards but for the incredible price of $150). Phew...okay, now on to the next 25 things on my to do (in the next 48 hours) list!

Suit

Illustration Friday Theme = Suit

This was a page from my sketch book last year - I like to do a little visual wardrobe planning (or wishing) before I take a trip. I think I was mentally 'suit-ing' up for my trip to New York for the 2006 Licensing Show. Sadly, I don't wear the cute fancy high heel shoes or the pointy ones, I have very large, serious feet that insist on practical, comfortable footwear!

Recent works in clay...

Acupuncture72

We had our final spring class at Lill Street on Monday night, so I brought home some new pieces. These are both carved terra cotta tiles painted with slips and underglazes. The foot (created after my first accupuncture treatment earlier this spring) is about 2.5"x6" and the squarish tile is 2.75"x3"...an image that surfaced during a conversation with my friend Erica about a dream she had involving a crow. I have some interesting 3d pieces as well but still need to photograph them. This clay journey never ends, I'm constantly learning new things and am often surprised with what comes out of the kiln. I will miss the great people I have had the honor of working with in Corinne Peterson's class: "Dreams, Myths & Stories" over the last 12 weeks. I'll start up again in the fall, her class has been inspiring me for many years now as do the other students who take it.

I got the call...Wells Street this Weekend.

I have been wait listed for the Wells Street Art Fair for the last 4 years (after cancelling in 2003 to go to the Fields Project). It was always one of my best shows of the season, so I was very happy today to get the call that I am in! My booth number is #285, I will be on Wells Street between Goethe & Evergreen. Yay! This show runs concurrently with The Old Town Art Fair (a few blocks northwest of Wells Street) where you can see the work of several other artist friends of mine: Deb LeAir, Dolan Geiman and Judy Zeddies.

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.   

Cars

Illustration Friday Theme = Cars

Only one car here, but if you count the one I was riding in...carS works. I drew this on a drive up to Wisconsin for Labor Day weekend last year. Clouds, trees, silos, signs, cars, water tower, road - I'm a much happier passenger than driver, I like to look out the window and daydream.

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.