Mark Mackmiller Framed Me

Or did I frame him? I'm not sure. Judge for yourself:

Mark and his wife Mary, of mackmiller design+build, are some of the most remarkable -- and remarkably generous -- people I've ever known. This photo was taken yesterday afternoon, after Mark built the frame for my (rather large!) Minnesota State Fair Art Show entry, thus helping me save about $200.

He took time out of his work on his new showroom space at International Market Square to do this. Thank you, Mark, and thanks to Mary for her help with some media relations things I'd never have known how to do on my own.

I'll let you all know, of course, if the framed piece gets into the show.

Strange Things are Afoot outside Old Town Artists Studio

I met the new neighbor today.

 Now, this was about as startling as you'd imagine, but she (he?) seemed friendly enough.

... although it looks as if some medical assistance is desperately needed! Victim, perhaps, of an illusionist's "Saw the Dino in Half" trick gone wrong?

It looks as if the fourth floor of ACVR Warehouse is about to get some kind of interactive installation for kids. Being pretty much a kid myself, I'm intrigued.

Parking Lot Landscape, Harriet Island

5.5 x 3.5", in the Tiny Moleskine Sketchbook.

One of my dearest friends gave me the little sketch book I've been using so much the past couple months. I have taken to carrying it wherever I go, like a small talisman that reminds me to enjoy living, and especially to practice, every day, living as an artist.

If I have ten minutes because a friend is running late, or I'm waiting for them to finish changing the oil in my truck, or I got there early and the store isn't quite open yet -- I have a ballpoint pen, a pencil or two, and my Tiny Moleskine Book. I can be joyful and creative instead of bored and impatient.

I recommend this, even if you think you can't draw (link goes to a piece by Roger Ebert, with whom I often disagree but who I will always love for this post alone; thanks, Roger). If you write, carry one with ruled pages. Or a little MP3 recorder. If you cross-stitch, keep a small project on hand. Jokingly I call my portable art supplies my Boredom Prevention Kit, and it is, but it's more than that. It's something to remind you that you are who you are.

Katie Bar the Door, indeed!

Strip-mall Petunias, 3.5 x 5.5", in the Tiny Moleskine Sketchbook, sketched outside PostNet on Ford Parkway yesterday

                                       Katie Bar the Door is 11.5" high, found wood, oil paint, wax medium, string.                                             A symbol of the dangers of too much self-protection.

In the last month or so, I have:

Made art every day
Taken a fantastic painting workshop with Kami Polzen
Begun teaching at Old Town Artists
Accepted an invitation to participate in the $99 Sale at the Soap Factory
Accepted an invitation to participate in the Rescue Me show at Altered Esthetics
Signed up (this morning) for a demo and workshop with Mark Balma
Accepted an offer to be profiled on CreatedByChicks.com for their "Who's Creating? Wednesday" feature
Sold several drawings and paintings
Found a new venue for my salvaged-materials art
Begun writing professionally for others after years of writing professionally for myself
Joined the Outdoor Painters of Minnesota

Thanks to Lauri Flaquer, the Mackmillers, Josephine Geiger, Kelly Williams, Gail Weber, my amazing family and many many others in my life for reminding me that if I want to, I can.

And I'm sharing all this not just because I want everyone to know how awesome my life is now, but because  I've been the most timid, the most self-effacing soul, the one with the most reasons why the things I wanted were out of my reach, and I've changed. It can be done.

I hope someone else will see what I'm doing and decide to do what they want.

"HEAT INDEX" would be a great title for a bad movie.

Jerusha's Blackberries, 5.5 x 3.5" (in the Tiny Moleskine Sketchbook)

Despite being native to sultry Southwest Florida, I don't do well in this kind of weather. I'd like to be outdoors doing more drawing and/or painting, but it ain't gonna happen. Thus, today's plans include a lot of indoors-at-home things I need to do:

• Creating MORE ART -- salvage work, today. I'm continuing my series of Little Houses.

• Promotional postcard design for my Old Town Artists drawing classes

• Decide on schedule for the next run of classes at OTA 

• Various and sundry Annoying Paperwork Items

Hm. Hot weather or not, I may require a second round of coffee.

Foxgloves, a Pony, and a 110-Degree Heat Index

Foxgloves at Jerusha's House, about 8 x 5.5" pen and watercolor. Click to enlarge.

Palomino Pony at Wholechild School, St. Paul. Based on a toy horse that lives in the classroom.

You know, I'm certain I had Interesting Things to Say today. Sadly those thoughts seem to have melted and leaked out my ears during the time I spent outside.

People often ask -- while looking at me as if I've lost my mind -- why on earth I left Florida. It was mostly because the support I wanted as an artist was here, not there, but also: this kind of heat. Month after month of this.

If you need me, I'll be hiding under a nice, cool, shady rock for a while.

Watercolor Flowers, and a Bird that's a Bird, this time

These small flowers are so popular that I plan to make note cards out of them.

Courtyard Sparrow, about 5.5 x 8", pen and watercolor

 All three of these are from the J&S Bean Factory coffeehouse today, done while I sat in their pretty back patio area. The flowers kindly sat still for me; the birds didn't, and I sketched this little fellow as best I could from memory.

The flowers are something like 3" x 2.5" each, quite small. I'll sell either of them for $15; $25 for the set of two. 

What to Draw? Whaddaya Got?

Birds on a Wire, 5.5 x 8" pen and watercolor at Jim Sannerud Woodturning

Students frequently ask me what they should draw. It's tempting to say, "Well, whatever!" -- because really, pretty much anything can make a good art subject.

If you're practicing drawing, look around your house, your yard, your garage or potting shed. You don't need "pretty" things. A still life does not have to be wine bottles and (*yawn*) fruit. It can be your pegboard in the shed with the red-handled saw hanging there, or the multicolored pliers and screwdrivers. It can be your old work boots on the floor in the sun.

... but the flowers in your garden will work, too. Hollyhocks at Lauri Flaquer's house, from 7/12

Once you start to look for things to draw -- and stop limiting yourself to things that "look like art" -- you'll start seeing everything around you as if for the first time. It's okay if your drawings aren't perfect; the fun in recording them is the point.

Art Tourist meets Photo Tourist at Como Conservatory

The Petunias in progress at Como Conservatory. Photo by Patrick O'Reilly, who kindly emailed it my way.

When I lived in the South (and yes, folks, Florida is the South), an open sketchbook was an invitation for people to come and talk to me. I enjoyed that, but I've found Minnesotans are more reserved, more cautious, more apt to think they're going to disturb me.

So, when asked nicely whether I would mind having my hands photographed while I worked, I readily agreed, and only asked if the photographer would email me a few of the shots. Which he did, when he got home; he's not from Minnesota, either.

This isn't posed. I was lightly sketching in pastel pencil, then going over that with the Micron pen (in my left hand, in the photo at top), to make the final lines. When that was done I erased the pencil and broke out the watercolors, and you've already seen the result:

 

I expect to be back at Como Park tomorrow morning for a while. You'll probably find me near the carousel, sketching horses.  Say hello if you're out there. If I wanted solitude, well -- I have a studio for that.

Little Landscapes

Memory of Saturday's Trees, about 7 x 6"

 File under, I Suffer for My Art: Chiggers. I have chigger bumps behind my left knee, from Saturday's workshop, and oh they itch, so what did I do today?

Moon and Long Shadows at Bruce Vento Park, 3.5 x 5.5"

Yep. I went out in the evening and sketched while I could in the gold light and blue shadows. Standing in the grass in my sandals.