pixels, light and hot wax

The next leg of the abstract flower tour will be a stopover this August much closer to my own neighborhood: at the PizzaWorks in Bothell. This will be a subset of the work from the Fremont show, with a few new pieces mixed in.

Pizzaworks is unique, in my experience of local pizzerias, for offering not only vegetarian, but also vegan, wheat-free, and gluten-free options.

(and I thank them not only for the opportunity to show, but also for another reprieve in figuring out where to store all these large framed prints.

I’m hanging today (the 2nd) so stop in between the 3rd and the 31st for a slice or a grinder, eh?

2 new photographs and one old one (and the first not-a-flower) will be making their framed debut tonight, assuming there isn’t some horrible mishap with the drill:

(Edited to add: while there were no power tool mishaps, there was an epic tantrum. So these three did *not* get framed in time, alas.)

Cherry Blossom #98 (from my Lapin cherry tree)

Queen of the Night Tulip

Anemones in Pink and Green

I went out last night to the first meetup for the Seattle Artist’s Salon, and it was rather lovely to have face to face time with people who take the value of art as a given; I am going to try and go to more of these events.

Although, it was a bit disheartening to have several complete strangers comment on how exhausted I look and realize that my looking completely exhausted has become the normal, expected state of Jane for the people who *do* see me regularly. I kind of wish I had the ability to nap.

However, I have slaked the Monday morning grumpies with a large dose of lolcats and chai, have my one rush order out the door, and am now possessed of a flow chart to govern getting things ready for my first arts festival. I might be moving very slowly, but at least I’m moving slowly in a somewhat efficient manner.

My next scheduled round of overcoming my introversion will be, I think, trying to go see the ukiyo-e print exhibition that is up at SAAM next First Thursday (June 3rd), probably around 11. I’m happy to go solo, but company would be okay too.

June 26th and 27th you can find me, as well as fabulous jeweler Tammy of TM Originals, sharing a booth in the Artist Marketplace at the Shoreline Arts Festival. It will be my first time having a booth at an arts festival, and I am really excited (and a little scared).

I will be bringing pretty much everything — garden photography, science fiction photoillustration, big pieces, little pieces, pieces that I’ve never posted to the website, so come check it out. There will also be music, performances, and food.

I did a shoot last week with Tammy of some of her work and this is my favorite of the shots:

Steampunk-inspired beaded faux watch-fob with found objects, by T.M. Originals

I will also be doing greeting cards for the first time for this festival, though I haven’t been able to narrow it down to anywhere near the 10 designs I’m planning yet. Which means that sometime in the next three weeks, there will be a poll, with a giveaway attached.

Less than a month until the show! So mark your calendars for next months Fremont Art Walk; Friday May 7th, from 6-9 rain or shine. The show will be up pretty much the whole month, though, at Fremont Jewelry Design (and if you missed this month’s art walk (like I did, thanks to a charming little virus), stop in to check out Diana Comstock’s amazing paintings (and the jewelry is worth seeing as well, of course!)

From the “bathtub session” with the yellow cactus dahlia:

Coming up next, I’ve been spending some quality time with white carnations and purple waxflowers, which are full of tiny hidden detail.

I’ve just got one last print to mat, and I’m off to Foolscap in Redmond to set up my things in the artshow; there are several pieces I haven’t shown to anyone anywhere yet, and some not before seen in meatspace, and I’ll be on the Saturday panel at 10 on The Changing Definition of Art.

I’m daytripping, and also trying to make a technique workshop on this side of the water, so if you want to meet up, either catch me after the panel tomorrow, or call my cell (which is also my business number and hence, on my website)

Sunday I went to checkout Bothell’s arts festival, since it runs the same weekend as Shoreline’s. From the website, I was expecting something rather large, but it is actually quite compact; definitely smaller than Shoreline. Everything had a very polished feel — the work in the juried show was of very high quality, particularly the watercolors. The booths all looked very professional — in fact, I think I recognized at least 75% of the artisans from other festivals, and given that I haven’t been frequenting the festivals/street fairs for the last 5 years, that’s kind of sad; most of them did not come from the North End. I really wished there had been a little more Bothell in it. I did really love Bothell local Peter Godwin’s Concrete Garden Art, and I may have to make it to the 6th Street Fair to pick up a few pieces for the garden that aren’t on the website.

As far as things for the kids go, Arts Umbrella did have a booth set up for kids to do hands-on art, but other than the playground, that was it; certainly there was far less for kids to do than at Shoreline.  I know which one I’ll be taking them to next year!

I intended to linger a little longer in the artist’s booths, but since the musician who was playing at the time was having pitch and phrasing issues that were making me twitch, I fairly quickly headed out to the Sammammish River Trail, to enjoy the river and figure out a probable turnaround point for the Biznik Walk & Talk I’ll be hosting in two weeks.

This was my first year visiting the Shoreline Arts Festival and I was fairly pleased. Going into this, you must understand, I’m from Edmonds. Home of an absolutely huge, intense, overwhelming, people-come-from-far-away arts festival that usually left me with heat stroke, panic, and a need to be in a small dark room and not interact with people for at least three days afterward. So in my adult life I have mostly avoided arts festivals, which is a pretty dumb thing for a professional artist to do. Shoreline, in contrast, was quite pleasantly community based, big enough to have lots to see and small enough not to be overwhelming. I still have enough introvert-excursion-points left over I may even visit Artopia or Live Arts Bothell this weekend, too!

Highlights, for me, of the Shoreline festival:

When we were there, there was a steady flow of people throughout, but not enough to clog the walkways or get irritating. I will definitely go back again next year, and will look into the possibilities of getting a table and selling prints; I haven’t really had many opportunities to be face to face with people as they look at the work.