Fast Forward to February

Whew!  January is Outta Here!!

The 30 in 30 Challenge really helped those dull, dark January days fly by fast, and I'm so glad!  Thanks once again to all who participated with me, it was really fun. xx

Speaking of flying... 

This week I'll be heading out to teach glass workshops in Houston, TX, Portland, OR, and St. Louis, MO.  

I'm so excited!  We'll be designing some colorful fused glass cities in Houston and Portland, and whipping up some fused glass powder sgraffito drawings in St. Louis!  

I'll share what's going on during class with all of you next week so you can enjoy the colorful messes we make in creating our masterpieces!

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To begin February,  I've spent a few hours working on the 'dreadful stack' of 2015 juried art show applications... Every show artist looks forward to this process every year.  NOT.

For those of you who aren't familiar with how it all works, here's the scoop:

Life as a show artist is a crapshoot, it's risky!  There are so many variables that have to crash together in just the right way to be successful. 

Definitely not the path to choose if you want to the 'glamorous life'.

Being an artist pays better in job satisfaction than most glamorous life occupations. That's good enough for me!

Here is how the attack of the 'dreadful stack' works.

First, you have to look for shows where you think your work will sell well.  

How do you know which shows those are?  You work hard and do a lot of them.  

Keep the good ones and mark the not so good ones off the list.

Next, you take awesome photos of your best work, set up your entire display in the driveway, and proceed to take awesome photos of that with your awesome work inside. 

Thank goodness for digital, I don't miss the days of taking slides at all!

After this, you fill in your application and try to explain your entire process in 100 characters or less. Yes, spaces count, lol.   

Now it's time to choose 3-5 photos of your best work, which I find to be most difficult.  They have to look like they go together, and they also have to represent your full body of work for sale.  I work in a few different styles so naturally, this trips me up every year.

Once you've finished all the 'guessing games' and are ready to send your application in, you rush over to your PayPal account and hope there is enough there to pay for the jury fees.

Usually they're $25-$50 per show, and everyone who applies has to pay to have their work juried.  If you're not accepted you don't get your $ back.  If you are accepted, you rush back to that PayPal account and say magic words before you look to see if there is enough to pay the booth fees. :)  Most weekend shows I've done cost between $200 and $800 for the booth space.  

My breathing is labored just from typing this.

Thank goodness I'm almost finished filling it all out and the 'waiting part' is near.

Bullseye Glass Portland Trip~ Part One

I am home from a wonderful week of Educator's workshops at Bullseye Glass, and now it's time to fill you all in on everything... I'm finally feeling 'back to earth' after a super busy week so to warn you ahead of time, so much happened that it's going to take several posts to share all of it~ Our class was a unique group of very talented and successful kiln glass artists from as far away as Scotland, England, Massachusetts, Florida, Texas, and more. It was interesting to see the scope and range of everyone's work as we all got to know each other. I feel blessed to have been part of such an accomplished group of artists. I'll link all of their websites later so you can check them out too. The first full day of class we worked on a kiln-forming 'forensics' type project (KSI) where we inspected around 35 glass pieces and had to match them to the firing schedules to find the problems. It was a bit overwhelming at first when we were handed the big stacks of kiln programs, but in the end it was really pretty easy and kind of fun. We returned to the research and education center and found that we each had a huge clean space to work in, and that there were 'shop fairies' who came along each day and completely cleaned up our workspaces. How I would love for them to have followed me home! Throughout the rest of the week, we were taught how to effectively teach new techniques in screen printing with powdered glass (Stacy Lynn Smith), pattern bars, cold working, and casting (Jim Weiler, Louise Krampien, and Bonnie Celeste. We had full access to Bullseye's entire product line and were allowed to experiment with new colors and products, (my favorites being the new half-millimeter stringers and new 'cream' non-reactive glass). I learned a lot about planning curriculum, teaching effectively and was given a lot of time and resources to create class samples on my own to use in my teaching. This talented group brought a lot to the table for the workshop, and I appreciate the immense amount of information we all took from each other during the week. I have to thank my personal tour guide and new friend, Chris Lally who took a huge chunk of her time to pick us up from the airport and show us the beauty of the Portland area. She is an accomplished painter and I met her during Leslie Saeta's "30 in 30 painting challenge" earlier this year. More to come on our Portlandic adventures with Chris and her husband Tim and all the terrific people I met...along with more glass stuff, of course!

Wonderful News!

Student projects from last weekend's Fused Glass Sgraffito Drawing workshop~
Look at all this fantastic work!
This was a really fun group to work with, and their pieces are all extremely well done. Hats off to you ladies!
Artwork from left to right:  Shirley Cole, Laurie Mueller, Gail Stanforth, and on bottom, Gloria Moses.

Next workshop is scheduled for August 9, 10, & 11, and we'll be doing something a little different! We'll be designing colorful cityscapes by incorporating powder drawings into a larger work of art.  You can find out all the details and registration information on my website   HERE.

Wonderful News!!!

As many of you know, I have been given the incredible opportunity to work with other glass artists and teachers for a week in Portland at the Bullseye Glass Factory next month.  I have had many sleepless nights worrying about how I was going to pay for the travel expenses to be able to do this.  Lots of my artwork has sold, but with 4 kids and bills it has still been really hard to save for the trip. 

Then came a huge surprise...

I got a letter in the mail saying I had been selected to receive a Palmer Scholarship from the Toledo Museum of Art, which will pay for ALL of my travel expenses for the trip!!!  I am so thankful to the donor who sponsored it, and I can't wait to be able to tell them how much it means to me.  I feel a huge weight removed knowing I'm not going to have to sink into debt to make the trip, and I'm going to learn EVERYTHING I can possibly soak up while I'm there (without the added worries)!  Thank you, Thank you to everyone who has supported me, and to TMA for offering these opportunities to help artists grow in their discipline.

Freshening up in February, Here are some of the pieces I have available for sale

Monet Path, Fused Glass Frit Painting, $1495

 As I am freshening up around the studio, I wanted to post a few of the fused glass pieces I currently have available.  These are on display at Coffee Amici in Downtown Findlay during the month of February, and are available for purchase in my online gallery at Daily Paintworks.  If you are interested in learning about my process, you can check out my website or register for one of my upcoming classes in fused glass sgraffito drawing or "frit painting". 

Some really exciting news, (and words can't convey how excited I am!) 

PORTLAND!!  Bullseye Glass has invited me and 9 other glass artist/teachers to come to their factory's Research and Education Studio for a week in May for some in-depth training and collaboration.  More on that later.... But be prepared to hear about some fun specials I'll have coming up this month to help raise some money for a plane ticket and lodging:)  Planning to have some new work up by the end of the week!  Blessings to you...

Garden Party, Fused Glass Frit Painting $595 SOLD

Farm Storm, Fused Glass Collage $2300 SOLD

Paris Boat Dock, Fused Glass Powder Sgraffito Drawing $395

Sing Song City,  Fused Glass Collage $4295

Autumn Foliage (Unframed) $495

Paris Carousel $395