Merry Christmas!

For the first time in a while, I put up a Christmas tree. But, not just any Christmas tree. First, have a look at the original...

This is my 6 foot tall rendition of a California Giant Kelp plant. Now, have a look at my Christmas tree...

I never really thought of using my own artwork as a Christmas tree, and I like it! Thank you Scott Sutton for the idea!

Its Been a While

So, what have I been up to? Well, not much. I got another cold that I am just getting over. I've been selling lots of fabrics on eBay. And, I actually sold one of my ornaments on CafePress. I also managed to get my Christmas cards out just in time. The above photo is of one of the poinsettia flowers I made for this year's cards. I really like the way it turned out. This is my usual technique as I used to make both the rose and the kelp sculpture. Eventually, I'll get some photos of those to post.

Last show of the season

Well, the Pomona Harvest Festival was this past weekend. It was a very nice way to end the season. Of course we had to contend with a few minor difficulties along the way, like rain all day on Friday and a bit of flooding on the floor. But, other than that, I talked to lots of people and even met a fellow Glendale High alumnus.

Here's a photo of what the booth looked like during setup. It takes me about 4 hours to get all set up. Most of that time is spent dragging all the boxes and display stuff from the car to my booth space. This photo shows my tent and walls put together and some of the boxes and tables waiting to be moved in. It's amazing how much work goes into putting together a booth. And, when it is done right it looks just perfect.

As exhausting as it is, I do so enjoy the show life. It is a very intense few days, from the last minute production of artwork, to loading the car, to the setup process, to being at the show ready to talk to people and sell my artwork, to teardown, and finally to getting home and recuperating. That's what I've been doing today, recuperating.

What fun!

I have been adding more images to my CafePress store. Now there are three different dragon designs, and two different cat designs. More designs will be coming soon. The hard part is deciding what types of products to sell. So far, I have greeting cards and ornaments. Some of my designs my also lend themselves to t-shirts, but I'm not sure if I want to do those or not. Anyway, check it out. Click on the link in the links section.

New Work

I still have this cold, but it is going away, very very slowly. In the meantime, I have been hard at work on new items. I am doing some Christmas ornaments to have available for the Pomona Harvest Festival. I'm not quite sure what I am doing yet, but there seem to be stars forming from bits of fabric. The first idea I came up with for stars uses the gold holographic fabric that I found in Las Vegas when I was there during Art Expo. I am trying to figure out a way to do music theme ornaments.

I have also just opened up a web store. So far I have only put in two different images, the black cat with the yarn and the red dragon. More will be coming soon. I need to do lots of work to get the images sized right. This is the link to the store.

The image shown is called "Who, Me?" and, of course, as with most of my cat art, I had some inspiration from my favorite cat. He used to dig a nest in my piles of fabric and yarn. And then he would look at me with those eyes, pretending not to be guilty. Yeah, right! By the way, the original of this piece sold at the San Diego Artwalk earlier this year.

Great Show!

Well, the Del Mar Harvest Festival was great! There were lots of people there enjoying themselves and I sold many things. Unfortunately, I ended up getting a cold which is why I haven't posted until today. This is a photo of what my booth looked like. The piece on the far left is called "Do I Have to Practice Now?" It was given a new home by a lovely lady who absolutely fell in love with it and couldn't resist. Now I am going to have to get to work to make something new to replace it. For now, it is time for sleep and try to get rid of this cold.

I Got Accepted!

I had completely forgotten that I had submitted an entry to a juried competition. Today I was notified that my piece "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" was accepted into an exhibition at the Art for a Cause Gallery in Miami Beach, Florida. How cool is that?!?

This was my very first pictorial quilt. I started with two different photos, one of me with the setting sun in the background, and the other of palm trees. I photoshoped myself out of the first photo and merged it with the tree photo. This was the result.

The piece was made by collaging a multitude of different fabrics in colors to represent the sky, the sea, and the sun. The semi-circle of the sun is done with a piece of gold metallic fabric. After a lot of heavy quilting, the palm trees were appliquéd over the collage. The trees were painstakingly cut from non-fraying upholstery velvet.

Opening Post

Well, it seems only appropriate to start this blog on my birthday. In these pages I hope to show a glimpse into the life of an artist. Being an artist is not an easy life, full of parties and art openings. Yes, I do get to attend events and such, but there is so much more to being an artist.

So, now we get into some of the drudgery... I will be selling at an arts & crafts show this weekend, the Harvest Festival to be precise. The dates were changed from the last weekend in October to November 9-11. (Yes, because of the wildfires.) Now the pre-show fun begins. Today was spend trying to get my garage organized so I know where all my show supplies live. Tomorrow will be making some last minute inventory. And Wednesday will be loading up the van.

In the meantime, my creative brain is still busily working. I am still trying to figure out what to do as an encore to my kelp sculpture. Maybe a dolphin, or a sea urchin, or an abalone. Don't know yet. My brain needs to process this further. The idea will come. Eventually. And probably from some unexpected source. I'll post a photo of the kelp later on.

Retta