Weekend Gateway Art Show

Yesterday grabbed Adam and went to see Pirate Radio which had a nice vibe, good actors, great music, simple and fun, no thinking involved.  Then up to the Gateway for set up.
Had baby clothes, T-shirts, cups, cards, all kinds of things to sell besides framed art.  A cute dog named Lucky was running around trying to help too. He was adorable.  (don’t ask what setting I had on that last Lucky pic.)
We headed home and Adam took wonderful photo as we passed over the 17/92 bridge

Diane Miller, head of the Photography club at Gateway who was in charge of getting everyone their placement and making things run smoothly, could not have been kinder or more accommodating.  There were potters, quilters, jewelry makers, fine artists, even an artists who painted on leather. The excitement was building.

This morning I was up at 6:15, at the Gateway by 7:30am. The weather could not have been more perfect for those having tables outdoors.   They have a weekly farmers market each week. Outside they had very interesting booths.  A guy named Joe,  did woodcarving and had beautiful wooden mini houses.  There was one man who made solar light holders.  There was a quilter called Loving Stitches, a man selling things to benefit a border Collie Rescue, his dog Cali was a beaut!   And very well behaved dog too.
Of course there were jewelry vendors,  and my good friend Judy Segall and her beau Rob came with the coolest assortment of Asian/African instruments of which Rob was giving  free demos making people smile.
http://www.judithsegall.com

Inside was an impressive group of artists.  The inside quilter, Paula had gorgeous quilts, and hand dyed scarves and as is a weird 6 degrees of separation,
she knows my cousin,  Sue, who quilts under the name of Grannie Suzannie   http://www.granniesuzannie.com/
There was a man who made wooden bowls,   And gorgeous abstract art by Nestor Charneco.  Next to me was Bob who had hundreds upon hundreds of wildlife photos taken from his many African trips. 
The giraffe by the lady opposite me was very clever – do not have her name.
Also saw an architect named Don E. Grannon who was new to art, but really had interesting work.  Linda Bishop had well thought out paintings, as did the watercolor artist from St. Augustine beside her.  No more names, I’m sure The Gateway site will have much better in depth photos. Ed Cogle was on the job taking photos, his wife Nan was selling jewelry and both are always smiling. 
http://www.gatewaycenterforthearts.org/
The volunteers for the Gateway were so kind, they came to give us breaks by sitting at our booths so we could walk around, stretch out legs, eat some of the wonderful cooking, the tomato Bisque was so thick and full of flavor.  Diane had also organized a room where children could come and pick out donated items from the artists to buy very cheaply.  (My duck photo was rejected, is this the point you give up on trying to sell art when you can’t even give it away to kids????)
The drawback was the attendance was light!  There was no advertisement and this needs to be addressed for future events!  But I thank Sandra Wilson and Diane for their efforts and visions, and a million thanks to the ever ready volunteers!  Plus a big shout out to the bright lights that flash when you look in the room and see your neighbors and friends shining faces!  Thank you wonderful supporters for being there for me! I appreciate it more than you know! Sonja, Dee, Becky, Sandra, you all rock!
By 4pm, I was on the road home with all but two items. Swapped a lot of stories with many people about their sandhill crane sightings.  When I arrived home, I was ready to get everything out of the truck and put it away.  Adam came back from work after 5 and we decided to go grab some Outback food – the timing was perfect! We got right in and I heard about his great time at the midnight showing of Repo at the Enzian, he got home after 3am and was at work 5 hours later. I found out her had plans to return to the Enzian tonight featuring Jewish filmakers with the latest Coen brothers movie.  That kid is a walking movie fest!
I would say that as of tonight, I am not feeling like doing these venues anymore, they are actually depressing.  The one plus is certainly meeting new artists and people. I will try making an Etsy site when I get back from Tampa and see where that goes. At this point, the economy is not lending itself to art for sure. Most of the artists I talked with had sold next to nothing. The ones selling art were the jewelry makers.  One tries to look around and see what sells, how other booths are set up, but this hauling of stuff is really not something I am enjoying. Now it’s time to work on internet sales I suppose and if that goes nowhere, then what the Hell, I give away all this crap and only take photos for blogs, I mean what’s the difference? I am doing that now and it makes me happy, the money would just add a bit more happiness if ya know where I’m comin’ from!

Getting ones feet wet…

Today I walked out to feed the birds and Carbs was gone. I wondered if the BOBs had chased him away. The yard was busy, especially down by the lake where many many dragonflies and bees flew all over the yellow blooms down by the stump of my fallen oak. In fact so many bees were there pollinating, the air was humming. 
The fungi growing in the wet grass even looked happily like a cute couple.

The cranes flew over and the baby was quite intimidated by the step-father crane who kept bullying him. The baby would fluff all up and crouch with it’s head  down when it was near the male.  It knows to try and stay away from that dominant beak.

A titmouse was continually banging itself against my window. I will go into that in a day or two. The butterflies were all over the place, and the roses were young and tender.  
The brown thrasher was the bossy bird this morning. The bird was happily having fun splashing and cooling off.
and then a dove decided it was it’s turn to get wet .  The thrasher was wildly twisting and jumping and I suppose the dove thought it looked like such fun, it decided to join the thrasher.  Except the thrasher wanted no part of sharing the bird bath and screamed at the dove and sent the dove flying off. The thrasher fly up on top of the feeder.
Finally it ate enough seed and flew off.
I ran out to my Free lunch at Don Pablos. I won the free lunch for 4 by putting my business card in a bowl about two weeks ago. I took my good artist friends who have been so helpful and nice to me, Pam, Judy and Leslie. The service was great and the conversation too. Judy, Pam, and Leslie are always inspiring to listen too, always have irons in the fire. Leslie is a published writer who should have another book out sometime soon. She writes about film, (movies) and does a very detailed and thorough job of research, she also writes poetry and reads it at local venues. Pam has been juried into many shows, I think she said 8 or 9 this year alone, her infrared photography is a standout. Judy has a super group, she started the Womens Caucus for Art branch here in Orlando and really took pains in getting it to a non profit status. So I am the slacker of the group, well, actually I have one piece, a photo I did of Jimmy Hendrix, to be put on display for a month as part of an interior design show downtown. Tomorrow I have to go pick up the work at RT Art. Just one email and Roger said he’d have it for me so I could get it framed this weekend, that’s service!  sales@RT-Art.com
On the 8th of September, I will have 3 pieces at the Gateway in Debary for a month. So things are not that bad for s struggling artist getting her feet wet just like that brown thrasher, enjoying the exposure, lost in her abandon of the arts and the wonderful natural view in front of her window…
P/S, carbs came back and is still here…

3am and all is so peaceful

2:37am, no rest here.
Earlier tonight I caught a softshell turtle and had to unhook it, they have quite interesting undersides,  but it looked more like some kind of weird alien than a turtle from that angle. The markings are quite unique really, could this be a girl and maybe the boys have blue rectangles? Don’t worry she or he was fine after they got de-hooked.  They scurried back to the water. I HATE catching turtles!
It was actually quite hot and stagnant and I was hoping to get a shot of the rocket launch, but they scrubbed it again.
In the morning I took a few flower pics, The crepe myrtles are gorgeous. And forgot what this plant is, but loved the red flowers on it also.

The moon was even still out at 8am:

The crow was in the tree singing a morning song

And I had a nice lunch with friends. Came home and worked on more photos. Oh the days go so fast, summer half over – maybe El Nino will save us from the big storms this year! I don’t know, anymore around Florida all we hear about is people getting struck by lightning. I do have to watch more carefully when I am at the lake as the storms roll in,

The clouds roll in so fast and the lightning is really getting way too familiar with humans. But the storms are actually so wonderful to listen to, especially to hear the rain on the roof at night.  But not tonight, it is just a quiet one, so quiet, I might have to sneak off and go to bed, good…morning again…

Night things to do…

Poor Michael Jackson, I can totally sympathize with his insomnia, last night I slept two hours, actually it was this morning from 8am to 10am. If I had to go onstage like he did, or held a regular job, I’d be screwed.
I was going to go with Dee-dee and listen to a bird lecture, but I had no attention span for sitting and listening, in fact I had invited her to go with me last week and she ended up going alone, some friend I am…
I could use some liquid coma too a few nights.

I have no idea what 8 hours is, I guess for me it is 4 or 5. Don’t get me wrong, I do like sleeping because I like dreaming, dreaming is so damn cool, you can do anything.  But here I am after 2 hours sleep in a 24 hour cycle and I am still up and fooling around on the computer.  I did see a raccoon on the porch,

I brought Ringo in as I was not sure if he would jump that coon or not, or maybe the raccoon would think it was another raccoon because they share the same tail.
I took a few pictures with me and Frankie: 
Frankie was outside too, so I brought her in also. It was hot and very damp outside. Then I took a self portrait and worked it a bit,
Hey, at least I’m smiling! And I took a few pics of furniture,  and even cheated and took Andrea’s cat painting she did and worked that too. It should look like this:  Isn’t Andrea talented? She makes the cutest paintings.
Maybe I will go into my bedroom and veg for a while, turn on the news and relax, maybe read. I do want to say a special shout out to Tabbie my blog buddy, get well ASAP!
Maybe tomorrow I will find more wildlife, these hot days the only things I see are birds quickly in the early morning, turtles when I fish, and cats on hot tin roofs and porches. Even the raccoons know better than to be outside in the afternoon. Good night, it’s almost one, cross your fingers for at least 5 hours of deep alphas and dream patterns…

Comma Gallery Visit on Tuesday

This was the view  from the back parking lot of Comma Gallery. Loved it!  Pam and I had to go check out what is new at Karen Carasik’s amazing place at 813 Virginia Ave, Orlando Florida.

Pam has only been in town about 18 months and had never been to Comma, so I told her let’s check out the wood cut block exhibit from Charles Turzak and the very allegorical paintings by Patrick McGrath Muniz.
When we walked in through the back we were met by this painting– I apologize for not knowing the artists name, but it was a terrific piece of work. Below that skirt are very strong calves and everything except the skirt & heels screams masculine.
Further into the gallery were oils, acrylics and other media from the perspective of art crafted by world class artists past and present. One of my favorites is Grady Kimsey, he constructs very interesting figures and collages.

Also something new is all the wonderful jewelry by local artisans. The gem stones and variation of color and metals made the case sparkle.  Other works look like this to give you a feel for the place:

(that’s me in the mirror taking a photo of a Harolde Garde painting, the framed face above me. )        The colorfully blended abstract was painted by Karen Carasik.
The woodcuts by deceased artist, Charles Turzak were so well crafted, they each had historical significance.  There are a limited number of prints of them at Comma, so better hurry to buy that special one ASAP!   My favorite was Lincoln with the axe. Pam liked Carl Sandburg the poet. Loved Turzak’s art deco wood cuts also. Below are the tools used to make the amazing cuts. I can’t imagine the patience it must take, what detailing!

The other featured artist was Patrick McGrath Muniz, I will leave you with some of his fantasic irony and suggest to any of you artists in need of a space, there is one for rent at Comma — how can you lose elbowing with these heavy weight artists! Hurry before it’s taken. Call Karen (407) 894-4505

Go to Comma and see the fine details of McGrath Muniz paintings to appreciate the satire associated with them;

Now go pay Karen a visit. She has volumes of knowledge about all her artists. Go learn a thing or two and buy something; a beautifully hand crafted bracelet, a book on Turzak’s wood cuts or any of the fine art for sale inside the gallery and support the arts.   http://www.commagallery.com

Enjoy the works of:

john Wilton -  Lynn Polley
Stephen Bach -  Bernie Martin
Karen Carasik – Grady Kimsey
Tom Sadler – Barbara Perrotti
Sally Evans – Glen Hovis
Robin Maria Pedreo – Jim Casey
Elizabeth St. HilaireNelson
Camille Pissaroand,  and
Grayson Conroy

			Grady Kimsey	Camille Pissarro
			Bernard Martin	William Platt
			Sandro Natullo	Georges Rouault
			Elizabeth Nelson	Tom Sadler
			Barbara Perrotti	Maria Saraceno
			Barbara Phelps	Kathy Steckler
			Pablo Picasso	Terri West

Casselberry Art House – Exhibit from the Sanford Seminole Art Assn.

We have always enjoyed going to see art exhibits at the Casselberry Art House. Though I have not been there in over a year since I exhibited with Womens Caucus for Art. So we were surprised to pull up and see massive construction all around.  The land around the house was completely torn up.

We walked past the Police dept. and saw the old building with the Administrative offices was demolished. But there beyond the dirt and mess was the cute house with the red door and tiles by the lake.
I don’t know the history of the Art House, it was a private residence at one time and now is home to a wonderful gallery where there are not only exhibits, but they have all kinds of art classes as well. Call (407) 262-7774)  they will give you the information.
The work on display was from The Sanford Seminole Art Association, an art group turning fifty years old this year and I understand they still have some original members among the seventy or so of them. This exhibit highlights 19 of the members.
Inside there is a variety of media from paper sculpture to small Mexican boxes with adorable figures inside called nicchos. The watercolors, oils, mixed media and photography mingled well on the textured walls within the gallery. The art was well highlighted by the diminishing sun filtering through the windows making it feel cozy. The room and artwork melded together in a wonderfully symbiotic vanilla feel.  All the colors and textures placed on the walls complimented the space. 

As we left, 3 Pekin ducks came waddling up the path toward the front door as if they were ready to tour the room and give opinions on the works of art. When we trudged back through the construction on our way back to the truck, we noticed what a great area it will be when all is done. there will be a very long and winding pier  and it also looked like they would have a playground.  The trees and fountain give it such a picturesque setting.   They will hold their jazz festival out there in October. It will be a wonderful place for their venues. We are lucky that Casselberry and Seminole County keep up their interest in Art despite the economy.  The Sanford/Seminole exhibit will be there till June 26th.
I will be anxious to come back this Fall when all the work is finished.
On the way home, Adam pointed out a used book store in the Albertsons shopping center on 17/92 and 434.  We thought we would go have a look. It is called Best Used Books.  The light was on, but we saw on the door it was to close at 7pm and it was about ten after. The owner waved us in and told us to look around. We recognized him from many years ago, he has had 3 separate locations.  It had so many books and places to look we knew we just had to come back, though Adam quickly found a couple things to take home. I have bought many books from his shops before, he has a wonderful selection. I asked if he was selling through the internet and he said no. I would guess that would be quite an inventory you’d have to update and quite a consumption of time having to constantly list and pack books for selling. If you like used book stores, he has a quality shop, I could spend hours at these kinds of stores. My dream always was to have a wonderful huge library room at home with a ladder to the second story stacks, with shelves and shelves of wonderful books to get lost inside of. Unfortunately, the dream has not quite materialized yet and my library room is only a couple book shelves that doubles as the dining room. When I get that winning lottery ticket, I will get a house on a big lake with a big library and have poetry readings and meetings of some type, even if the cats are the only ones in attendence…