Unruly Sun

2011-02-04T17:47:00.000-08:00

I'm working more on mixed media pieces. This is one is titled "Invasion". It's splash ink on crescent matboard, a metal skull bead, and lots of little watch parts. If you're into ACEOs, this is a great tip - those plastic containers paper clips and tacks come in are the perfect size to make an ACEO case.

Enjoying the pretty day...

2010-02-14T15:10:00.000-08:00

Sitting in the yard, enjoying the day.
Magdalena, New Mexico

Feeling like snails today...

2010-02-07T20:28:00.000-08:00

This is a close-up of "Snail of Fury" by badbird
www.badbird.etsy.com
Makes me laugh every single time I look at it.

This is "Sarah and her Steam Snail" by WinonaCookie
www.winonacookie.etsy.com

This is "Going Nowhere Fast" by livingwithart
www.livingwithart.etsy.com

Feed the Beast

2009-08-18T12:55:00.000-07:00

I started a non-profit along with my sister and the rest of the family here...

We started out with the intention of fostering cats and adopting them out. But we ended up not being able to part with the first two kittens we took in, and decided maybe fostering wasn't for us. So now we focus on raising funds for medical emergencies. We raise money through product sales and donations. We assist stray animals, loving owners with financial difficulties, and other non-profit groups.

See photos (and stories) of animals we were able to help:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=126130&id=116065390139

Get Feed the Beast merchandise and help animals at the same time!
Go to http://www.cafepress.com/unrulysun/2553353 All profits will go directly to Feed the Beast animal rescue.

eww eww eww

2009-07-02T11:15:00.000-07:00

Okay, so there was a BIG UUUUUGLY spider in the laundry room. Really gross. I think he's dead, but I was so scared I threw a bucket over him anyway in case he decided to come back to life and get me. Plus, I didn't want to look at him, and I can't get near him to clean him up in case he decided to come back to life and get me.

SO I still have the heebie geebies over that and I'm walking from my art table to the kitchen and I see ANOTHER ONE. Smaller, but equally gross, also dead. I poked him with a long stick to make sure he was dead because I didn't have a bucket handy. Then I ran away, because you know I can’t get close enough to him to clean him up.

So now I have the double heebie jeebies because clearly there are more in here somewhere, ALIVE, and whatever happened to make those two come out and die last night freaks me out. (What scared THEM????)

So okay. Trying to get control of my jeebies. Every tickle, every weird fold of my shirt... imagination imagination... ewww. So I manage to put it aside for awhile by playing on the computer. I go out and make a sandwich, la la. Walk back toward my art table. AH! Where is that spider corpse? Looking looking looking. HE'S NOT THERE! OH GOD, HE CAME BACK TO LIFE AND IS GOING TO GET ME!!!!!!!!!!!!

No, okay, don't be stupid. He has to be around here somewhere, he was right here....
OH MY GOD. I'm STANDING ON HIM. IN MY BARE FEEEET!!!! EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

I am so completely freaked out right now, you have no idea. I have shoes on, but it's not helping. And I have a tickle on my back I can't reach........... eww eww eww….

Sneaking and Reading

2009-05-02T22:11:00.000-07:00

I've sadly neglected my blog. I'm probably the only one who cares, but still...

Since I've been talking so much about SNEAK ATTACKs, I thought I should at least report how it went. IT WAS AMAZING!!!! The shopkeeper, Going to the Dogs Shop, makes jewelry and sells it on Etsy to benefit the Lake Area Humane Society in MN. She was so excited - she told me that we made it possible for her to donate over $120.00 to the shelter.

Something I didn't expect, which turned out to be very cool, was chatting in the forum with the other SNEAK ATTACKers! What a fun group of really amazing people. I posted the forum the night before, and when I woke up, there were already 5 pages of chat! It went on and on, with people popping in and out, chatting about their day, sharing virtual margaritas, commenting on each other's shops. It was amazing, and I would love to do it again! And I will. :)

Okay, so awhile ago I said I'd look into the Colorado spay and neuter program. Check previous post. I don't have it all pulled together yet, but while I was researching I came across this great, informative site by the Animal Law Coalition. If you're interested in improving the spay an neuter program in your area, you may be able to find some very specific tips by reading through the articles. http://www.animallawcoalition.com/spay-neuter

The Sneak Attack - Quick Tip on Finding the Right Shop

2009-03-21T11:06:00.000-07:00

I was allllll geared up to sponsor a SNEAK ATTACK on Etsy (see previous post). But I've been having a heck of a time finding a shop that meets the requirements. I didn't think it would be that challenging - I thought I would just browse Etsy in the categories I'm interested in and eventually I would come upon a shop to sponsor!

The shop needs to have fewer than 4 sales and more than 14 items listed, with some of those items being $10 or under. It also should be at least a couple weeks old and have some positive feedback from either a few sales or purchases. They also cannot have another, more successful Etsy shop. Well, let me tell you, it's not so easy to find all of these in one shop.

Finally (and maybe I'm just spectacularly slow and everyone has already thought of this) I realized using the Pounce feature for Undiscovered Shops is the best way to start. Go to the Etsy home page. On the left, under the Categories section, you'll see the Explore column. Click on Pounce. Make sure to select "Undiscovered" vs. "Just Sold" (the one selected will show up in color vs. grey). Then just click the POUNCE button!

You can immediately tell how many items the shop has, when it was started, and because the shop is undiscovered, you know automatically it has had no sales. Three requirements in one quick look.

Then you can open up the shops that fit those three criteria, and scan for the other requirements (price range, feedback, and other owned shops, which are usually mentioned in the shop announcement).

Viola! Just like that, you can quickly scan shops for eligibility! I've found several great shops this way and I'm excited to become a sponsor!

SNEAK ATTACK!

2009-03-07T10:18:00.000-08:00

I've just learned of this wonderful thing happening on Etsy - if you don't know about Etsy already... well where have you been? :) Etsy is an online marketplace where you can buy handmade items as well as craft/art supplies and vintage items. Check it out! http://www.etsy.com/

Anyway, I've just read about this thing called the SNEAK ATTACK. Put on by The Handmade Movement and "hosted" by a volunteer shopkeeper, they stage an attack on a new Etsy shop and swarm them with surprise business! Check out the website at http://www.thehandmademovement.com/

The truly amazing thing about this is the sense of community it creates. If you're an artist, you know how difficult it is to put your stuff out there, to either watch people walk by at shows or check your online store every day hoping..... I especially remember my first shows, those first months on Etsy. You start to question your art, yourself, you get discouraged. I know a few times I thought I should just quit altogether. Then things start picking up and you dust yourself off... Imagine the boost in confidence to a just-starting artist to get a bunch of sales and positive feedback!

I think it's so important, especially in this economy, to encourage artists to continue doing what they do. So, participate by either buying from the SNEAK ATTACK "victim" (if you can't buy, go to the shop and leave positive feedback) or if you're an Etsy seller, volunteer to host an attack! The website will give you details on how to do this. I'm going to volunteer right now...

Spread the word! The SNEAK ATTACK is on!

My husband loves the ladies

2009-02-14T11:14:00.000-08:00

First, let me say, I am not obsessed with my pets.

That said, here's another blog entry about my pets.

We had a chow chow named Angus (aka Gus). We got him when he was 8wks old from a chow rescue group. We had him until a few weeks ago, when we had to put him to sleep because of what the vet says was either stomach cancer or an enormous abcess. Either way, the chances of him surviving surgery were slim, given his age and health, and we decided to put him through that would be cruel. We really miss him.

I just want to say this - Chow Chows have a bad reputation. They don't deserve it. Gus was a purebred, very sweet and loyal, good with kids especially and also cats. Chows are very stubborn and not particularly anxious to please their owners, so I think in the wrong hands they can become vicious. But with kindness and and understanding of the breed, they're excellent dogs. Dumb as rocks, but excellent. Gus was a good dog.

After Gus died, our other dog, Ginger started to get really crazy and destructive. She was abandoned out in the desert as a puppy and I think she has some separation issues. So event though we weren't quite ready, I went down to the shelter (my husband could never go there, we'd end up with every single dog they had).

SO, now we have Juliet! She's a red heeler/shepherd mix of some sort. 4 months old, very very sweet and smart. They get along great!

Juliet and Ginger

For you animal rescue junkies out there here's something interesting: The shelter director told me that Colorado's spay and neuter program has been so successful that they've actually run out of adoptable puppies! An animal group will come down to NM from CO and pick up any of the unadopted puppies at the shelters for adoption up in CO!!! Isn't that great?

I'm going to look into the details of CO's spay and neuter program and see if there aren't ways we can lobby our own states to follow their model! Check back here for info, I'll post it as I get it.

So my husband is surrouned by the ladies now. The girls: Squeaker the cat, Penstemon the kitten, Squishy the cat, Ginger and Juliet the dogs, and Me the person. His only male buddy is Mister the cat. My Mom, Sister, and Niece live next door (same property, different house) so he's got ladies there, too! He loves it. I know he does...

Okay, next time I will not blog about pets, I will not blog about pets....

My husband's new girlfriend

2008-12-20T11:39:00.000-08:00

I was at the post office waiting for my sister to come out. A guy comes out and points to the truck next to me and says, "There's a cat under there." I thought he meant under the truck, so I said I'd tell the guy when he came out to be careful. He gave me a funny look.

"NO, under the HOOD!" he said.

Well, I've had very bad experiences with that before. Terrified, I ran into the post office to find the owner of the truck. He came out and popped the hood. I expected carnage, but instead found a tiny, starved, ratty little orange kitten crouched on the air filter lid. He didn't know whose kitten it was, probably a stray, but it seems like she'd ridden there to Magdalena all the way from the Navajo Reservation, about 45 minutes away. Poor little thing. But she was completely unhurt, just hungry and thirsty.

I know. We have a non-profit animal rescue group and I should have tried to adopt her out to make room for future rescues. But it was love at first sight. It was mutual until she met my husband, and now I'm just the Food Lady. The kitten, Penstemon, and my husband are in love. And I have the photos to prove it.

A Note About Inspiration

2008-11-24T21:09:00.000-08:00

I used to think art was about vision. About seeing something in your head and then having the skill to translate that into something other people could see. And since I couldn't go directly from seeing with my head to creating with my hands, I thought art wasn't for me. But art is really just taking what you see and pushing it around and squishing it and holding it up to the light to see what ELSE there is to see. With your head or hands, makes no difference.

Then when you see what else there is to see, you suddenly can see how another thing can squish or twist into the first thing.... viola. You made something squishy and twisted. :)

Little bone skulls in a seed pod, strung with picture jasper beads. Sold it at the Festival of the Cranes this past weekend. I'm happy to say this did NOT come directly from my head to my hands, it was very much more experimental squishing.

Bosque del Apache

2008-11-16T21:03:00.000-08:00

It's that time again! The cranes are flying into the Bosque. We went this weekend and saw lots of whooping and sandhill cranes. ducks, geese, some sort of cool chirpy blackbirds of some sort in the rushes, and a huge hawk. It was a beautiful day.

Even if you don't particularly like birds it's an incredible experience. The Festival of the Cranes (there are shows at the Bosque and throughout Socorro, I'll be showing at the Finley Complex) is usually the third week of November, but you can see the cranes flying in through December.

More experiments...

2008-11-07T20:06:00.000-08:00

I've been having so much fun lately with mixed media pieces (thanks Denise, for the kick in the ass). So far I've been doing magnets, I love the instant gratification and it lets me experiment with techniques on a small scale, but the real challenge has been to combine the beading with the mixed media stuff!

There were samples of some in my last post, but lately I've been making them like a crazy person! My favorite these last couple weeks has been polymer clay pendants. My mom uses polymer clay on her gourd Santas, and I've used it before for the Magdalena Egg Show for my Egg Snake sculptures. It's great to work with, but I'd like it to be a bit heavier for pendants... I'll have to think on that.

I want to go back to my work table but it's too cold in here! I can't wait until the construction is done. But I have two shows coming up... Festival of the Cranes in Socorro and the Cavalcade of Arts at Isleta.... Oh, and the joint show with Denise... If you don't know Denise's work, check out her website http://www.desertglassdesigns.com/ I made the website, but of course I can't get one done for myself... maybe I should do that and stay here by this space heater.

Anyway, I'm babbling, here are some photos of recent work...

First, here's one of my Mom's gourd art creations. Her favorite. Isn't it amazing? She has some of her work for sale on Etsy:http://www.redbarngourds.etsy.com/

Pics of my jewelry...

Mama's Minerals Fall Art Show

2008-10-13T11:32:00.000-07:00

My first jewelry & mixed media show in Albuquerque! It was at Mama's Minerals, right next to the Albuquerque Arts Alliance gallery where I was in that Chinese Splash Ink show. I should post pictures of my paintings some day...

Mama's Minerals is great, a fun place to shop and they were very good at organizing the event. The weather was terrible though, so everyone had slow sales. Windy, cold, scary clouds. We made a run for it just after 3pm and we were one of the last vendors standing.

I was thrilled to sell some of my mixed media stuff - a sun magnet and "La Rosa" which I hand painted and then "glazed" with wine! Mimbres Red from the St. Clair winery in Las Cruces to be exact. I'd had wine one night and the next morning the wine in the bottom of the glass was a gorgeous deep red/clear gel - I just knew I had to drip it on something! (And yes, I did leave a dirty glass out all night. And now I've proven that cleaning is detrimental to creativity.)

I also sold a few jewelry pieces, nothing major. Weather, gas, stock market... people don't want to buy. Hopefully as Christmas gets closer it will pick up. Strangely, the Farmer's Market in Socorro has been excellent for me. Go figure.

Here are some more pictures of my table at the show: