100 Artists Show Opens!

The 100 Artists show opened last night at Mary Lou Zeek's Gallery! I have a piece in the show, my first time participating. If you want the back story on the piece I created, Pieces of Memory, just give a click HERE. The gallery was abuzz last night as the opening coincided with Salem's First Wednesday.


Here's the list of participating artists - I'm there about a third of the way down . . .

. . . here's a better shot, although a bit crooked!

And there's my piece, at the bottom of the row next to the list of artists.



I met up with my friend Tory of Copper Crow Studio, who also has a piece in the show and which SOLD on opening day! Way to go, Tory! (Side note: I bought Tory's piece from last year's show before I even knew who she was - and now here we are, friends!)



And with our host, Mary Lou Zeek herself!

Stuff For My Studio Yard Project

I had lunch with my friend Hazel last week and she mentioned she had a few items she thought I might be interested in (she's been to my studio and she knows what kinds of things I'm interested in -- pretty much anything!). Hazel is a powerhouse of a woman, working tirelessly in the Salem community to make it a culturally exciting place to live. Hazel spearheaded bringing a carousel to our Riverfront Park, was active in refurbishing the historic Elsinore Theatre, was instrumental in getting an old railroad bridge over the Willamette River converted to a pedestrian walkway, and is now the driving force behind the developing Oregon State Hospital Mental Health Museum.

So today I popped over to Hazel's historic home in the heart of the Court-Chemekta Historic District (I met Hazel when we used to be neighbors) and here is what we managed to load into my car:







Thanks, Hazel!

Walking in This World: Discovering a Sense of Personal Territory and Boundaries

Last night was week five of my ten-week Walking in This World series and we opened our evening by doing some creative dance movement inspired by Deborah Koff-Chapin's Soulcards.

After we were warmed up and our check-ins completed, we moved into our evening's activity: Creating a Pocket Shrine, or what I prefer to call Think Outside the Tin (also a new class I will be offering this spring!). I prepped metal mint tins prior to our meeting so everything would be ready to go - here's the progression of the project:

And in a little over an hour, the ladies created some gorgeous pocket shrines - they definitely were thinking outside the tin!

Thanks, Jami

Thanks, Jami! You certainly know what I like because we like the very same things!

Fabulous Find!

I was in Washington last weekend visiting my daughter and two of my grandkids. I needed a couple of things from Michael's, so I popped in looking for some new stencils I had heard about and in my roaming around, I came upon a whole display of Golden art supplies. Well, I don't know about your Michael's, but the ones in Oregon (at least the ones I have visited) no longer carry Golden products. So I was at first struck by the fact that Michael's even had Golden products. Well, well, well, lo and behold, it looks like they aren't going to be carrying Golden for much longer because all of the Golden products were marked down by two thirds. TWO THIRDS! I had just purchased some Hard Molding Paste from an unnamed store in Portland and it cost $23. I found the exact same thing for $7.99! My husband roamed by as I was standing in front of all of the marked down goodness (with my mouth open, I'm sure) and told me I had to stock up and take advantage. And so I did just that. (Some of the paints - both tubes and the 4 fluid ounce bottles were only $1.99 each!) If you live in Washington, you may just want to check out your local Michael's to see if they are liquidating their stock of Golden art materials. Our salesclerk, who happened to be an artist, was flabbergasted as she was ringing up my purchases as even she didn't know everything had been marked down. Her concern was that I might have purchased all of the turquoise paint (I hadn't, I assured her).

*8 Things: On Your Bedside Table

Okay, so I'm only a little bit behind on my Thursday post. For last week, Magpie Girl asked participants to blog out *8 Things: On Your Bedside Table. Here's the problem: I have more than eight things just in my book/magazine pile, and although I think my reading material is fun, it isn't the only thing on my bedside table. So, I'll list what is on my table and then share a bit of what I'm reading.


1. An alarm clock (gotta get up in the morning).
2. A coffee cup from PSU's Haystack program (a defunct arts and writing series that used to be offered at Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast) holding my pens, scissors, and markers.
3. A glow in the dark Madonna that I purchased in Italy.
4. A tube of Aveda's Hand Relief cream.
5. My adjustable arm, adjustable beam bedside lamp.
6. A coaster from one of the McMenamins' brew pubs.
7. Books: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and Lit: A Memoir.
8. Magazines: Artful Blogging, Where Women Create, Art Jouranling, and Entertainment Weekly (guilty pleasure).

From Sam, With Love

Sam, Sam, Sam, my friend and the proprietor of Lil' Gypsy once again had a pile of goodies for me. I popped in last week to pick up my largesse. I didn't snap a photo of the bag of word beads (I was too excited to spell out my thank you to Sam), but just picture a big 'ol pile of beads with words on them (like the ones in the above photo). Here's what else was in the big red bin of fun:

I didn't even know there were patterns for girdles??!!!??