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

Due to some last-minute serendipity, I will be showing my floral photography at Ombu Salon & Spa in Edmonds for the upcoming Edmonds Art Walk, and (most of) the show will remain up through mid-July. There will be at least two, maybe more, new pieces for people who saw the Fremont show I just took down. And if the Edmonds Art Walk site is to be believed, there will be a wine tasting as well.

I am really excited about this –this will be my first show in my hometown (I’m so from Edmonds I used to dance around at games as “Bonnie Bengal” for the Edmonds High School Tigers. Fear my fierce school spirit!)

A new piece which may, or may not, be in this show:

Tomorrow is the last day my show will be up at Fremont Jewelry Design, so if you want to see it in person, I suggest you have lunch in Fremont tomorrow.

While some of the pieces in the show will also be at the Shoreline Arts Festival in 4 weeks, about half of it will not, and it probably will not be exhibited again in the next 6 months.

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 went and met the lovely Lisa who runs Fremont Jewelry Design in person today, so I can now actually announce that I will be showing there in May. I am really excited about the possibilities of the space, and the potential to show some things that are actually BIG. (Spending all these years showing on 4×6 panels at cons has really skewed my sense of scale.) I will be showing the more abtract flower photography; I’m fairly certain at least one, maybe two pieces from the ones I’ve posted this week will be included.

And if you are going to be in Fremont soonish, the December show of acrylics by Aegae Barclay was still up, and stunning; really engrossing in its layering and color. And there are yummy grinders and gelato just around the corner, too.

• 2 new pieces available for sale: Dandelion Squad and  Nigella Nebula (finally! — both of these first showed up on the blog this summer)
• TusCon has been added to my list of shows for the fall; Natural Woman 2050 will have her first “in the flesh” showing there.
• A number of new conventions have been added to the SF Art Show Convention Calendar

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)

I’ve taken a small personal project public:

Public Calendar of SF/F/H Conventions with Art Shows or Artist Alleys

It’s pretty Western North America-centric right now (i.e. my mail-in radius but I’m starting to add outside my own range; I hope this will be helpful. If you would like your convention added, just e-mail me the URL for more information (and make sure there is at least a “coming soon!” page for your conventions Art Show or Artist Alley!)

This was inspired by the fabulous calendar that Christy Nicolas (“Green Dragon”) used to maintain for the SFFHs_ArtShows mailing list.

… which was why I was so excited to send some of my work to this very cool new service AnthologyBuilder.com: they let you build your own anthology from their quickly growing archive of science fiction, fantasy, romance, and other short stories, and pick your own cover, too, and deliver it to you in snazzy trade paperback form.  And I just found out this morning that 10 of my pieces have been accepted (I will be sending more, too.)

See my covers on AnthologyBuilder

This is what I alluded to on an earlier post (that would be after the submitting, before the “yes”) and it feels like a bit of redemption of a past mistake. You see, when I was a younger artist, and more prone to thinking I was the exception to the standard rules, I met an art director at Norwescon, who very much liked In My Sights and said if I could make a lot more like that, he could use them on the new imprint they were launching.

So I went home and (yes, I know some of you are shaking your heads disapprovingly out there already) and lost a great deal of sleep creating about 30 covers. On spec. And sent them to said A.D. and heard … nothing. After several months of not being a pushy artist, I sent another polite reminder, and heard nothing.   Some of them, in hindsight, were crap — I don’t normally work that fast and some of them show it.  But many of them weren’t. (No, I’m not saying who it was.)  However, while sometimes the work I intend as a fine art print also looks like something that would make a good book cover, the reverse is not always true. So they’ve just been sitting there, idling, on my hard drive for ages (hence my rediscovery of Natural Woman 2050, which was in the parent folder).  So this feels like a small redemption. (And will feel more like one when people use enough of them on their anthologies that I get a check.

And one more thing. AnthologyBuilder is now running a “match that artwork’ short story contest. If you use one of my works as your inspiration and make the finals, I will give you your choice of any of my limited or open edition prints.