Dia De Los Muertos Exhibition

A month ago I was asked by Star Moxley if  I would like to ba a part of a Dia De Los Muertos Exhibition at the Idaho Historical Museum. I said yes immediately.  Then after looking at the dates, I realized I would be out of town for the installation. I asked my daughter Katherine if she would be interested in collaborating with me and help to install it. She said yes, then I got it cleared with the museum. After several different ideas, I came up with this one with the help of my daughter.  This is to honor my father who passed away a few years ago. 

This is what the display of niche's looks like. Above is Karen Bubb  installing hers. 

The display is two sided, that is mine up on the top. 

This is what the display looked like after Katherine installed it. I was afraid that you wouldn't be able to see the battery operated candle glowing but since each Niche is dark, it shows nicely. It's a Texas theme. With lots of yellow roses. The green bottle in the middle holds my dad's ashes. It is sealed with a cork that says "liberty" and on top of the cork is a pair of pistols because he loved Texas and guns.

Exhibit Dates: Oct 30th -Nov 10th (Friday, November 2nd is the opening). 

Sippin 'n Paintin at the Chocolate and Wine Festival of Texas

My set up. I had a table to display my art and two tables for the classes.

The doors opened at noon and there was a rush. My two sisters, Dana and Leslie were just outside the door checking people in. 

My sister Selina setting up the chocolate samples.

Chandelier of wine bottles. 

Candy for Sale

More chocolate samples...

The festival continued out on the back patio

My first class consisted of these 2 nice ladies. They had pre- registered. One was from the area and the other had traveled all the way from Plano to take my class. 

My third student was an hour late as she got stuck in traffic but we had a very nice time visiting, and  it was no problem getting her started as the others finished up.  She even made her strawberry look like it had been dipped in chocolate with a white drizzle. Her sister is a breast cancer survivor and she made a custom label for the bottle to show her support. "Always Fighting" 

Popcorn, a Movie tin and a map

The parts come together. A movie tin from an old 8mm movie reel,  plastic popcorn on a string found at a church rummage sale, a map, a scrapbook page of movie stuff, and barbie and doll house miniatures that I repurposed with paint and collage. 

On top of it all is a layer of 2 part resin. I was working on this piece during open studios  earlier this month and several visitors told me I should sell it to the local art house movie theatre. I don't know the owner and I am not going to do that but it did give me the idea to enter it in a local show of Boise Art and I named it "The Flicks" (the name of the previous mentioned theatre)

"Ephemera Central"

 Nancy, Geoff and I had 77 visitors to our open studio this weekend. Most seemed to be artists looking for ideas for their own studios or students that were out interviewing artists for a school assignment.  I had a woman who had taken a class from me come by and another woman that had purchased a piece of art from me from one of the TVAA shows and wanted to see where I had created it.  A few friends came by which is always nice, and one bought a piece of my art for his new home.  A few people had seen my art at Green Chutes and were curious as to how I kept all my little pieces organized. One gentleman called my studio "Ephemera Central" and another said it was a room of Organized Clutter. 
There was some interest in possible commissions and in me teaching another class...so we will see.

The entrance is flanked by Nancy and Geoff's doors that were on display at the museum last week. 

Geoff Everts working on Bas Relief in clay.

Nancy Panganiban creating one of a kind paper mache sea creatures.

That's me working on some projects. I finished 3 and started 2 others.

T Assemblage- lot's of fun looking for this that start with the letter T: tiger, turtle, turkey, tree, trumpet,  Terriff's Toilet Soap. 

A friend from TX saw some of my bike art on FaceBook and wanted me to make her one. I finished this piece up and will mail it this week. She was thrilled.

The start of a new bike piece.

The start of a piece with a movie theme in a film real canister. 

My daughter and I  worked on several different versions of an ofrenda for the Dia De Los Muertos Exhibit  which will be held at the Idaho Historical Museum this November. This is not the final version. (another blog post for that one.) My daughter is involved in this project as she will be the installer of the piece at the museum.

All in all it was a very nice weekend, the weather cooperated beautifully. It was nice having friends over and it was nice having my daughter and her pug, Ray Charles spend the weekend with me. (and yes he is blind)

This week will be studio night at Marianne's and then it is off to Texas to teach my sip n paint class at the Texas Chocolate and Wine Festival. 

Open Studio Tours this weekend Oct. 13 & 14, 2012

ThThis is my third year to participate in BOSCO Boise Open Studio Collective Organization Studio tour weekend. I am looking forward to meeting new people interested in art and seeing familiar faces. Geoff Everts and Nancy Panganiban will be joining me with their art, so you get 3 for one! The first year Marianne Konvalina joined me, but now she has her own cool studio. This event always gives me a good excuse to do some straightening up. Well this year I took it to a whole new level and moved everything around. I just wasn't feeling so inspired in the space anymore, it felt way too cluttered. I didn't like facing the window/wall. So while my husband was out of town I turned the room upside down. I like it much better, what do you think? or better yet come by and see it. Maps are available in the Boise Weekly and at Art Source Gallery or email me for my address. 36 artists are participating this year! The only downside is I can't go! 

I forgot # 10!

In yesterday's post I talked about being gone for three weeks and all the art related things I had to do when I got back and I forgot # 10 which is to vote for me!
I was invited to be a RAW artist this year in a show in Boise. Because of that I am eligible to be in the running for the RawAwards. If you would like to help me out please go and vote for me! thank you.

I'm going to New York with my bike art, maybe I'll get to go to LA too! (That's were the final awards will be held)

1. Go to www.RAWartists.org and click REGISTER at the top of the homepage
2. Input a valid email address (only have to do this once)
3. Verify the email address by checking your email and confirming it
4. Log-on with your new registation and vote!

PLEASE NOTE: We provide this registration process so that we avoid cheaters, we're not going to spam the registered guests. We never sell or abuse anyone's contact information.

Vistors to the site can vote once a day, per craft category, until October 15th.