This will be fun. I’m having another Open Studio on Sunday the 29th It’s a way to get myself to work on the small projects that I love like magnetic pins and collages, votive cards and shards. The best news is that two talented friends are joining me, JJ Martin with her photography and Jan Longfellow with her jewelry designs. I am so lucky! This is the last official day of Fiesta San Antonio so I hope no one is too pooped out to come by :

What a thrill! Not only were two pieces accepted into this 100th anniversary of the San Antonio Art League juried show, but one sold and the other got an award. I knew about the award, but when I walked in the gallery, I saw that the diptych had a red dot on it – woohoo. Here are some photos from the event. There sure is a lot of gray hair there (and a lot of wonderful artists whose work I’ve admired for years). It was a very good afternoon.

This piece had a red dot on it when I walked in the gallery

Me looking dazed and confused 🙂

The award check – yes!

Inspire Community Art Center is a place that’s near and dear to my heart. Today was the annual fund-raising event, Blossoms and Blooms, which funds Inspire’s outreach art programs to places like Haven for Hope and Alpha Home. I was one of the committee members, and they were a hard-working bunch of artists! There were art activity booths for the children, live music and even some exotic fortune-tellers.This little video shows some of the fun, art and food.

This is more of a complex experimental sketch than a finished piece, although I’ll probably include it in the May show at La Vida. I like the idea of “grave shards” in which a face from a cemetery is re-imagined into a new myth or goddess or artifact or fragment. Combining the clay and paper is still a challenge because of the differences in texture and substance, but I love the way they look together.

With everything else that has been going on, I haven’t had a good day’s work on e-reader covers in a while. But today I got to work in the studio, finished and posted three (!) new ones to my Etsy shop. I like them all – perhaps “Avril” is my favorite, but that keeps changing.  Here they are. Tomorrow I’m going to make some little “Re-Coverie” journals using each one of these:

Funny name, but these little journals are the result of several friends’ advice urging me to reproduce my original journal and kindle designs. These “Re-Coverie” journals (appropriate name in many ways) are traditional chapbook construction which feature a color scan of the original designs. The smaller version, little journals that are 5×7″, are sewn with elastic metallic cord so that the “tail” of the book can be pulled over as a closure. My friend Gina gave me good advice on trimming the pages. I’m happy with the results, plus it’s a good way for me to keep track of my original designs from now on.
In the first photo, you can see the original covers with their Re-Coverie Journal counterparts, and in the last one you can see the inside of the journals with a library card on the left side for notes and cards and an explanation of the design on the right side. These will sell (I’m hoping) for about $10.
What is it about spring that gets creative ideas running rampant?

One of my favorite fellow Etsy-ers has both a gallery shop and a shop in which she sells supplies for other artists. I thought I might try it to see what happens. My little face shards are popular items at workshops and I thought people might like to buy them for themselves to  create with. So here’s the new shop –

It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the little shard faces on this site. If they don’t sell on Etsy, that’s just more for me to play with!

I’m back from a visit to my dear friend Carol – it’s becoming a great artquest to go to Colorado Springs, and it often feel like a spiritual home. I always bring back a huge store of ideas and joy and love. Thanks, Carol Sue!

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Straight out of this morning’s kiln firing, here are some sculptural pieces built as part of a small paper-and-earthenware assemblage. The first photograph is before the firing during the “thinking” stage. These have no surface treatment at all but I think the combination of paper and clay (much like I did for the Art League show) has a lot of promise. I hope my beloved studio partner has lots more cast and pressed paper for me to steal!
Surface treatment is still a question, but whatever it is, experimenting will be fun. Think Klimt. I see these pieces as both free-standing and wall hung . . they are definitely works in progress.

Visiting the Hill Country studio and gallery of my old friend and former sculpture professor, Phil Evett, is a special event for sure. This visit was even more special – we were going to meet Brella, a small, elegant wooden goddess whom we were taking back to San Antonio to become a treasured part of a private art collection. Author and professor Frank Kersnowski went with me, and we had a wonderful tour of Phil’s studio and then a fine lunch at the Redbird Cafe in nearby Blanco.The cafe is owned by the Briegers, potters and artisans, and their gallery is right next door.
Phil’s work continues to be astonishing in its scope and complexity – at 89, he is a legend and a delight. I’m sure all of his former students would agree as would Brella herself if she could talk.