Rainy Day Playtime

Wednesday was the monthly meeting of my Salem Art Group and it was a full day of arty playing. Katy, one of our members, owns the Art Department in downtown Salem (well, she owns it with her husband . . .) and at the back of the store is a lovely, big, bright work space. Wednesday had our name written all over it. One of the things I did was deconstruct the monstrosity of a skirt that I'm modeling in the above photo. While I started in on that, the other ladies started in on a variety of their own projects (after we did about a two hour show and tell!).









I was the first to arrive . . .


. . . but in no time at all we had taken over all of the tables!


I spent the day working on two Fearless Faces makeovers; I just felt they needed a new look. So here are the two faces, before and after!

Before . . ..


And after . . . .


Before . . . .


And after . . .

Open Doors Sale: Finito!

The Portland Art Collective Open Doors Show and Sale was this past Friday and Saturday at the Multnomah Arts Center. It was a huge success. I've documented the sale from set up to tear down . . . .

The set up. Tory was our logistics queen. She arranged to have the 60+ doors transported to the gym and arranged so that everyone had just the right amount of space. She divided us into teams and each team captain had a printed schematic of the layout. We learned very quickly that she knows how to use two of her fingers to blow a very loud mouth whistle!






By Friday morning, the gym had been transformed into a magical wonderland of over 20 artists booths. I just did a post on the Portland Art Collective blog with photos of many of the booths and candid shots of the shoppers, so rather than repost all of those photos, just click HERE to be transported to the PAC blog.

My booth. Getting started on the huge job of hanging close to 150 pieces of art seemed daunting at first, but finally the job was completed and the shoppers came. But first, we had to face down the dreaded blank space.









A pause. I want to thank my always supportive (and good-looking husband) for all that he does to help with this show, actually with all of my art. I want to give him credit because he 1) wired all of my art, 2) hung all of my art (and there were 125 Curious Elements), and 3) helped me set up and take down my entire booth. That doesn't even take into account that he helped to unload the doors on Thursday night and reload them on Saturday night!


The show. I sold three of my Fearless Faces during the show. The first, No. 18, was bought within the first hour by a lovely woman artist who was taking a class at the Multnomah Arts Center!


Dozens of friends and family came to the show, but I was so busy with working my shifts or visiting with visitors and patrons, that I rarely had time to snap any photos. But here are a few -- one with two of my grandkids, one with friends, and the last is of my sister and mom!




The end. There is nothing like a good, hearty laugh at the end of a long day to finish things up!

On the Home Stretch

The Portland Art Collective Open Doors Show and Sale opens tomorrow at 10:00 am and all of the artists are abuzz making final preparations. I thought I would share some of what I'll be offering for sale when the doors are flung open in the morning.

I'm bringing lots of original art, most are smallish in size and under $100. I won't share much of the art here 'cause we want you all to come to the sale and see it in person! But of course, a little teaser . . . .


I'll be offering over 120 of my Curious Elements ranging in price from $10-$60 - something for everyone. You can see more Curious Elements by going to my blog.


I love arted up hands so I'll be offering six-card sets in my latest series: Artful Hands.


I'll have a variety of my Fearless Faces cards, journals, and original art. Here's a sampling of how the cards are packaged and one of the original faces on repurposed board.



And of course, I just had to put a bird on something!


Last night was a final frenzy of finishing up the last of the Curious Elements and getting everything tagged and double-checking my inventory lists. Here's the very last of my Curious Elements, finished up just last night.





And final preparations:

Fearless Faces: Meet Numbers 17, 18, 119, & 120

I just finished four of my quirky Fearless Faces - two in an old oversized atlas journal and two on repurposed boards. The faces on the boards will be available for sale at the Portland Art Collective Open Doors Show and Sale on December 2 and 3 and all of them are being made into cards that will be available for sale at the show. The first two are from my journal (Nos. 119 and 120) and the last two are on boards (Nos. 17 and 18).