Artful Adventures

Getting ready for some summer fun!

Check this out!  This box of innocent looking jars are going to give me hours of fun dying paper, fabric & ribbon this summer-I feel like the mad scientist about to embark on a new experiment.  Actually, that pretty much describes it:)  Awhile back, I talked about Mixed Media Nature Journals written by L.K. Ludwig, rather than repeat myself too much, you can go back & read it here.  For once in my life, I wanted to be prepared, so I made sure that I had plenty of Fabriano watercolor paper on hand (love that stuff!) and then went on over to Dharma Trading Co to order dye.  Sounds simple enough, until I got over there and saw all the possibilities, amazing!  Look here and here and then just keep digging through the site, there are enough ideas to keep anyone busy for a very long time!  This morning we ran into Kewaunee for an estate sale, it's that time of year for all kinds of sales, so off we went.  Not quite sure just yet how or when I'll use this stuff, but it was too cool to leave behind.  See that's the problem at these sales, no time to think, because if you don't grab whatever it is that you're looking at right away, it's gone right before your eyes.  But I'm either going have to do some assemblage pieces soon or I'm going to run out of room in here!  The other thing that keeps me out of the studio for a bit this time of year, is playing in the dirt & potting up containers.  Here's part of one of a pair, to go on each side of the front door.  It's the north side, so not much sun, but by incorporating houseplants, I can still have color in the shade and even bring the container in for the winter and keep it for next year.  See, the old mind is always whirling:)  The violas will drop seeds on the ground beneath it for next year, and the dusty miller, strobilanthus, and streptacarpus all make good houseplants.  I've always said planning a garden (or container) is like collage-layering colors, texture, shape & form-maybe we could coin a new term & like "art gardening", well, ok we can probably do better than that, but it'll do for now.  In the meantime, our flower gardens have gotten out of control over the last few years, so I've got Gary digging up, splitting, & moving plants all over.  And then we keep finding new ones-can't win!  Like this beauty we found at The Flying Pig out in the greenspace.  Robyn does a great job on getting her hands on some different plants to keep our gardens interesting and fresh looking.  Now we need rain to keep the gardens looking good, so far we've had very little.  Hoping this isn't a repeat of last summer!  Ok, now go plant something, I'd love to see what you all come up with!

What to do, what to do!

There's a place near here, that used to be an antique shop plus a rummage sale in the garage.  Now it's only open on weekends, and the 2 are combined, a place we've gone to for years where we've always managed to find some little something.  The last time we stopped in, I was presented with several boxes of photos & paper ephemera to take home & go through at my liesure-then go make him an offer.  Well, naturally I want it all after sitting here going through it for hours & sorting it all out-big surprise.  So I keep looking, and trying to be reasonable as to what I'll actually use, and making him a pile that he should be listing on ebay where he can get a lot more than I can offer on some of this stuff.  Here's just a couple of the over 100 photos, and a page from an autograph book that is just too sweet.  And check out the date on it-1889! There are quite a few photos of young children wearing dresses, but the names are of males-it's pretty funny because the look on the faces of some of them are literally screaming "get me out of this dress!!".  So, back to my sorting & balancing what I can use, with my checkbook in mind-that's a joke after shopping Isabel's sale!  Where's that wining lottery ticket when you need it??

Isabel Treasures

A few months ago, I posted about Isabel a truly exceptional artist and person.  If you don't read that old post, treat yourself to reading about her on her website-you won't be diappointed.  We recently got a notice in the mail that all of her remaning work that isn't already in galleries, much of which has never been seen before, was being liquidated in a 4 day sale, starting yesterday.  It started at 3 pm, and we were there by 3:05:)  I'm not sure I can describe what it was like to be in this huge space, totally surrounded by her work, which spanned decades, as well as so many mediums.  What I had really been hoping to find when we got there, was a piece of work that maybe she hadn't finished, or had doodled on, something that was more the heart of the artist kind of thing-does that make sense?  Well, it does to me, anyway:)  That said, I was thrilled to pick up a large sunflower painting, only to find that there was another version on the other side of it!  Both sides are signed, so I'm really not sure which she had intended to be shown.  After browsing around and choosing some of her plates that she had carved for some prints, some supplies that she held in her talented hands that she used to make her art, and a couple other pieces, it was time to leave before we got too carried away-which would have been easy to do, knowing that there will be no more new works from Isabel-this is it.  We were standing in line to check out (even though I could have stayed for hours just soaking it all in) I spotted another painting that literally jumped out at me.  It was an older piece, done in 1961, the price was great, I LOVED it, and------------she had started another work on the other side of this one, as well!  Talk about feeling like the luckiest person in the world at that moment!  I may go back up to the sale tomorrow because Isabel is going to try & be there, and I'd love to see her again.  And there's another piece that we didn't get, that's haunting me-I'm sure it's gone by now (which would be a good thing for the budget) but I HAVE to know for sure.  If it's still there, then it's meant to be, right?  I'll let you all know:)      

Mission Accomplished!

For the last 2 days, I've been busy, busy, busy cleaning.  My studio was a mess, and I couldn't find anything, let alone not having a clear spot left on my worktables, to finish working on anything-and I seriously have a ton of stuff started.  The last straw was when we stopped at an estate sale in Algoma Saturday, while on our way for my weekly treat of a blended iced mocha coffee at The Flying Pig -sounds innocent enough, right?  We really didn't buy that much at the sale, but by the looks of things, we really missed a good one & wish we'd have gone earlier.  But we did score a fantastic ledger that was in a box with a bunch of other stuff, old reciept books, and a lot more-you can see some of it on the photo.  Also got a couple pairs of great long gloves and some hankies. 
The ledger belonged to a local doctor, who was meticulous in his entries, some of which dated back to the early 1900's.  All the old family names that still farm around here, are in there-it's really interesting.  Most of his house calls cost between $1 and $2, and a lot of the entries were from during the depression.  It took some of those families 5-10 years to pay those bills-but they did pay them.  You have to respect that kind of pride!
Anyway------when we got home, I realised that I didn't have a flat surface left in the house to even set this stuff down on-it was time to take care of business. 
Well. you know how it can go with cleaning, how 1 thing leads to another-felt like I'd never be done!  But I'm now the proud owner of an empty kitchen island (that thing is the catch all for absolutely everything!), an empty dining room table, and not 1, but 2 clean worktables in my studio!  I'm so tickled, I can hardly stand it:)  The studio was in need of some reorganizing anyway, since I moved into that room last fall, I never really did finish it.  Now I've got enough elbow room to get at some of this artwork that's piling up.  Photos tomorrow of works in progress!