Send a good old-fashioned card with a hand written note. That NEVER goes out of style! I have always made my own greeting cards and this is a fresh, new way for me to share the many photos I’ve taken on and around Orcas Island, thanks to fantastic printing technology that captures the colors of my originals so vibrantly on beautiful card stock with a nice weight. I am so happy with how these have turned out. If you are familiar with the islands, see if you can spot where some of these were shot. Cards are now available in my studio in Eastsound Square, $3 each, including a white envelope. Come check them out!
Eastsound Square, 109 North Beach Road, Eastsound, WA. (Across the street from Ray’s Pharmacy.)
Fri-Sat, 11am-4pm. Other days, by appointment. (360) 220 8221.
The mud smells dark and rich; the bird call is frenzied; the wet leaves and twigs glow like embers in the fast fallen dusk. Hello Fall. My favourite time of year is digging in and the palette of the season is a personal refresher for where my aesthetic choices are mostly rooted.
Taking stock of the body of work I showed at this past summer’s Artists Open Studio Tour on Orcas Island, it felt good to discover an aesthetic consistency running through my ceramic work. The forest floor, ocean find and woodland imagery are repeatedly used, and so are the organic textures and my tendency to leave or reveal the natural colour of the clay body. The show was really the first time I had all my recent work displayed together and it was gratifying to see how the individual pieces, whether functional, wearable or wall art, could come together to form a cohesive tableau.
Participation in the Studio tour provided the motivation for me to finally write an Artist’s Bio, and to explore various ways to display work, label displays, create visual flow, and other nitty gritty aspects of putting up a show that is not always a top priority because it takes precious time away from making stuff! However, the best thing for me over the three-day tour was getting practice in talking about my art to absolute strangers. Many thanks to Sharon Schmidt who hung out with me on opening day! Just hearing her introduce my work to guests helped me experience how a gallery visitor would encounter my creations for the first time. I realised how basic and crucial a skill it is for any artist to be able to talk comfortably about her own work, and, at a level that resonates with the viewer. I have been a docent many years and led many a gallery tour, but talking up my own work is an ongoing challenge. I know it comes with practice and I am working on it.
We had a wonderful, well attended opening party two Fridays ago. A big Thank You to all of you who came by, and also to all of you who sent hugs and well wishes from afar. It was a buzz to have so many people in the studio all at once, after all the nerves Christa and I had building up inside as the hour approached. Not too much wine was spilled, so that was good too 😉 Cheers!
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