Hello all!  Just a little recap of the art-events of the summer as we head into autumn!  I was hard at work throughout preparing for or selling my wares at the Orleans Artist Cottages in Orleans, on Cape Cod.  I spent a week there over the Fourth of July, and then another one just a week or so ago over Labor Day.  Both were great!  I had fun spending time talking to all the folks browsing and buying, and was buoyed by a great group of fellow artist-vendors.  Thanks to you all for being such a supportive community, and to the Cottages staff for the opportunity to be there. 

​I really enjoyed talking art with both customers and artists, and had a great time drawing and giving free short drawing lessons to passers-by.  I really like this venue because it allows me to have conversations with all sorts of people about art.  I gave free drawing lessons and did drawing demonstrations while I was there in order to engage the community.  I use an exercise for both where I draw with various simple drawing tools taped to the ends of 3-ft sticks, and making a mess of marks, and then free associating and making the marks into something by adding color and tone and additional linework.  It is a fantastic exercise for breaking old habits, loosening up, making new kinds of marks (the foundation of drawing!), and generally breaking oneself out of perfectionism, tightness, and all of the other things that inhibit creativity.  Kids love it, as do people who think they cannot draw.  It's also a hit with art teachers and artists.  Try it... you'll like it!  At some point, I'd love to develop a workshop that uses these kinds of exercises to teach drawing and creative practice.

Howdy, all!  I am delighted to report that my work will be included in the spring show SPRING - AWAKE - ARISE at the Galley West Art Gallery in Orleans, MA!  The show opens on Saturday, March 26 and will run through Saturday, May 7th.  Galley West is on the Campus of the Church of the Holy Spirit, at the corner of Route 28 and Monument Road.  It is a "volunteer run community art gallery dedicated to displaying and selling art created by artists from the Lower and Outer Cape Cod towns of Brewster, Chatham, Harwich, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown."  Thanks so much to the lovely local artists who had the vision for this gallery and the hard work they have put in to make it a reality.  Please do stop by and see the show, everyone!  

Well, well, things are finally starting to brew here in my new home base, Cape Cod.  I am happy to report that you will now be able to  buy a selection of my art prints and greeting cards in person at the Sea Howl Bookshop in Orleans, MA.  This great little independent bookshop is located at 46 Main Street, right in the heart of things.  They offer a well-curated collection of books, plus beautiful puzzles and paper goods.  Whilst you are there, you can view an installation of paper birds that I made by hand.  

Also! I will be setting up my booth at the Orleans Artist Cottages Holiday Market on Thanksgiving weekend.  The event will feature art vendors, food and drink, music, and other entertainments. On Saturday, the Orleans Winterfest Candlelight Stroll will end at the Holiday Market.  I will be selling my full line of products, including cards, art prints, stickers, and t-shirts.  So come on down!  It should be a really lovely kick-off to the Christmas season.

Where: 15 Old Colony Way, Orleans, MA 
When: Saturday, November 27 from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday, November 28 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.  

Get ready!  This Sunday, May 20, it is time once again for the Mount Pisgah Wildflower Festival.  I'll be out there with my booth, selling prints, cards, and stickers of my artwork, and basking in the glory of spring.  I can't say enough about the magnificent and always interesting display of live wildflowers.  (For some photos of past events, see last year's blog post.)  It's a family friendly event, with nature walks, music, booths selling plants, art, nature books, and things to munch on.  It runs from 10 am - 5 pm.  Check out the link above for the full schedule.

I must say, it is so very beautiful this time of year, with all the flowers a flowering.  At last year's Wildflower Festival, I bought two good sized starts of trollius, aka Globe Flower, which are back in bloom in my back garden now.  What a show they put on!  They have complex and beautiful flower heads on tall stems.  After some experimentation with location, I decided to pop them into a large pot where I could assure they get plenty of water and are in a good spot for showy display, where one can get up close and see those gorgeous details in the flower. 

The trollius are not wildflowers as far as I know, but also looking glorious in my garden this year are the California poppies (escholzia californica), which I learned at the festival last year are considered native up to the Columbia River, and endemic above it.  The ones in the garden I planted from seed some years ago.  These are vigorous re-seeders, to my delight and some people's vexation, I suspect.  They have kept coming up in the narrow mixed border in which I first planted them, but last year decided to come up on the fringes of the main beds, where they look just glorious.  I enjoy them for their bold color, and their draping, informal habit. 

So come on out to the Wildflower Fest, and get some inspiration!  I know I always do.

Stickers and cards and prints, oh my!  Yes friends, starting this Friday, January 12th, you'll be able to purchase my complete line of individual cards, stickers, and art prints at the Maude Kerns Art Center Member Gallery & Gift Shop!  

Also!  For a more limited time, a pair of my original works will be on view in in the Member Gallery.  They will be on display, and available for purchase, until the end of March.

So why not swing by the opening for the new exhibition, A Convergence of Elements: Intersections, this Friday, January 12 from 6-8, and take a stroll through the shop while you are there?  

Well boy howdy, who knew mushrooms were so darn interesting??  I did not.  To be honest, the first time I decided to take myself on out to the Mount Pisgah Mushroom Festival a few years ago, I thought well OK, it's something to do but what's the big deal?  But good-heavens-good-gracious-good-golly I was wrong about that!  It is a beautiful and fascinating array that educates while it wows and entertains. The variety of species is remarkable, the colors and shapes and details a true delight.  If you are local and have never been, you must go in the future!  You must!

Like the Wildflower Festival in the Spring, there are tables and tables feet-upon-feet-upon-feet long all loaded up with amazing displays of nature's bounty: 'shrooms this time, collected by the mycologically knowledgable, and arranged beautifully amid mosses and branches and the odd skull or two.  

Alas, I did not get to see much in the way of the display this time, so the mushroom-diaplay photos are from 2015.  I was busy all day womaning my art-vendor booth, where I sold art prints and cards and stickers, and the first design in my new line of t-shirts.  It was great fun once again to get to meet all y'all who dropped through.  I enjoyed chatting about art and nature and all manner of things.  Thanks to everyone who came out to support the Arboretum, and also my art!  (I am happy to say that 20% of my gross sales for the day went to support the Arboretum.)

Thanks again as well to all my supportive friends, especially the talented Kimberly Munn, who helped me out during the Festival.  In addition to being a highly skilled jeweler, she is a very fine photographer, and took the photo of me with my booth.  (Don't hold her responsible for the other pictures, tho... any she took would undoubtedly be much better!)  You can find her elegant, hand-made artisan jewelry at her Etsy shop, Revelling.

That's right, folks: the jackrabbits are off to spend some time at ColdFire Brewing!  After their delightful stay down at Noisette this summer, they have decided they have a taste for travel... Especially if it involves locally crafted, delightful food and drink.  The folks at ColdFire have invited me to hang my art in their fine establishment for the months of August and September.  I installed the bunnies this morning, along with their goat and owl friends and a family of fieldmice.  

I hope you'll stroll down with your own friends and have a pint, made for you right on site by the Hughes family, and of course also a burger from HayBaby, the food cart that lives out front. You'll find ColdFire Brewing at 263 Mill Street, Eugene.  I myself plan to be there on Wednesday evening for some beverage and vittles and some good chatter with fine friends in a lovely, welcoming space.  Perhaps I shall see you there!

Come on down to the inaugural Booth Kelly Makers Market this Friday, July 14 from 5-8 p.m.!  I will be there selling my wares (including new stuff!) and answering questions about my art.  There will be a variety of artists and other makers exhibiting and selling their work under the shelter of the old Booth Kelly mill.  The Market will be a stop on the Springfield Second Friday Artwalk, which starts at 5:30 at the Emerald Art Center.  A mighty fine excuse to have an stroll on a fine summer's evening, don't you think so?