Artful Adventures

IsAbel's sketchbooks

Within the pages of this stack of 13 sketchbooks, lie a small fraction of the ideas of Door County artist IsAbel Beaudoin.  I've blogged about IsAbel before, here, here, and here, and here I go again:)  Last week we met with Lucy Roske, IAsbel's agent, and Debra Rosenthal, curator of the Miller Art Museum in Sturgeon Bay, so that we could look at IsAbel's sketchbooks.  When I asked Lucy last summer if she had any, and if they would ever be for sale, I had no idea what a treat we'd be in for.  When she walked in with this huge box full of sketchbooks, I almost fell over!  But before we dug in (well, we did quick peek at a couple) we all walked down the block to have lunch at The Red Room, and had some darn good burgers and even better conversation.  Lucy & Debra were so much fun, we laughed a lot, exchanged stories, learned more about IsAbel, it was all good!  Then on back down to the office, where we sat down with this box of books & started going through them-art overload is the best I can come up with to describe the experience.  The sketchbooks spanned about 40 plus years, seeing how she tried out ideas, reading her notes, seeing little sketches, some full pages, some painted, some with india ink, all wonderful!  And we even found her preliminary sketches of a piece that we own, now how cool is that!  Here's a couple of pictures showing a little of this treasure we brought home, if you want to see more, you'll just have to make a road trip:)  We're going back up after the holidays to look at the rest of them, it was truly more than we could digest in a couple of hours. 

This woman, IsAbel, is 86 years old and still painting, how many of us truly have that kind of passion about anything in life, the kind where you can't wait to get up in the morning and get to it?    

Watch Shan paint!

Despite the TV blasting that there was a tornado watch here all day yesterday (who ever heard of such goofy weather in WI in October?) we spent the better part of the day & night running around.  Going backwards, we ended the day by going into Green Bay to Weathered Goods for gallery night to get a chance to see Shan work her magic with her oil paints, seeing her work in person is amazing!  The thistle that she's painting in the picture looked so gorgeous, can't wait to see it when it's finished.  Earlier in the day, we were bead shopping.  Recently I ordered beads online, and decided that I'm much better off seeing them in person before I buy-live & learn:)  We hit one shop in Sturgeon Bay and another one in Luxemburg, a brand spanking new shop.  They converted a church into the shop and are calling it Rocks of Ages.  I met the owner, and we visited for a bit-very nice woman who grew up in a family owned jewelry business-which explains how she's done such a great job with her inventory already.  Looks like a place that I'll be spending a lot of time at, and less than 10 minutes from home-that just doesn't happen out here in the sticks!  And tomorrow I get to continue with the dreaded rummage sale, hopefully we'll get more people this time around.  I'll be doing it myself this time, Gary will be gone for the day helping Jessie & Michelle move into the home they just closed on this afternoon-an exciting time for them!  So I'm cooking a pot of chili at the moment, to have Gary bring with him tomorrow to feed the moving crowd.  Once we get through this week end, I can go lock myself up in my studio & get cracking, it's time!

Weekend off to a Great Start!

So far, this has been a GREAT art filled week end!  It started with a couple of long overdue phone chats with my friend Geri while she was driving to Valley Ridge to attend a 3 day class taught by Nina .  Geri makes the most wonderful handmade books, that you fall in love with as soon as you handle them, and is a polymer clay master as well.  The way she blends the 2, is pretty amazing!
Yesterday, we drove over to The Flying Pig to see the exhibit that just opened, featuring the most fantastic figures made by Holley Bakich.  It's her reproduction of the individuals that were in sideshows, commonly called "Freaks".  There's actually a movie from 1932 called Freaks (it's in public domain and can be seen by clicking on the link-cool!) that has most of these characters in it.  These dolls that she's made are just so freaking cool (no pun intended!)to see-each on it's own stage, with a colorful banner, and their own story written up.  So now, go back to Holley's link & look at these people-you'll love it:)
Then last night was the benefit concert for ArtBeet , and it was truly magical.  As we sat in the greenspace against and under a grove of cedar trees that were filled with tiny white lights, watching the full moon rise over the tree line to the east, we had the pleasure of listening to a performance by Dorothy Scott , accompanied by the bullfrogs in the pond:) 
As we were leaving the beach yesterday, we heard someone say there was going to be a wedding performed on the water's edge soon, and shortly afterwards we saw the bride go through town on a horse drawn carriage-it looked like a fairy tale!  On that note, since I'm always talking about the beach, here's some photos, everything from Gary rock picking to just random shots to give you an idea of why I like it there.  I have a feeling that the summer's going to fly by way too quickly this year!