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.               

Moon

Illustration Friday Theme = Moon

This is one of my "Night Flyer" paintings,inspired by dreams of flying. Have not done one of these in a while, not since moving from Bucktown, where the neighborhood and architecture also inspired these images. It's also been quite some time since I've had a flying dream - they are amazing. The last one that I can remember, I was flying around inside a room and could use my feet to springboard off the walls and sail into the air bouncing off the other walls. I would still love to do an illustrated book of people's flying dreams some day. I have submissions from dreamers in many locations including Australia. My favorite was from a local Chicagoan who told me that when she flew she had to watch out for power lines - then went on to share that she worked for ComEd for 20 years!

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!

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!