"Animals in Art" Reception TONIGHT!

I have two little encaustic works in an exhibit that's up right now at the Northampton Center for the Arts. The themed show is a yearly event organized and curated by artist extraordinaire and all around wonderful person Jane Lund. This year's theme, "animals in art", has been interpreted by over fifty artists. I hear there's quite a variety of work that includes some very inventive approaches. The reception is this evening and, barring any cataclysmic events, I will be there. Maybe I'll even manage to snap some photos to share like I did last year.




exhibit details from the center's website:

Join the artists for a festive opening reception featuring the music of West County Jazz on Friday, December 11, 5pm-8pm. Regular gallery hours are 11am-4pm, Tuesday through Friday. The gallery is closed on Christmas but open on New Year's Eve until midnight!

GET DIRECTIONS HERE

It's Snowing!

photo by charlesimages
borrowed from Wunderground.com

Mark and the rest of the neighbors are out shovelling the sidewalks. The neighborhood kids are all heading to the park to have a giant snowball fight. Mr. Brown and WABU both stopped by already on their way over there. It's the first really good snowfall this year and it's the sticky kind--perfect packing snow for snowballs and snowmen and snow forts. I want to go out and play.

Stupid foot.

Stupid prancing Steph.

*sniffle*

An Update On the Good Foot

The update is that I still have only one good foot at this point. The doctor I saw on Wednesday didn't say much (without prompting) except that yep, it's a sprained foot and ankle. When pressed, he said there's not much to do about it except to let Mother Nature and Father Time run their course. I can expect another month or so of healing time and possibly some pain/discomfort for longer than that. OK.

In the meantime, I'm doing a ton of fabulous things like sitting on my fat ass in the living room, sitting on my fat ass in the other living room, sitting on my fat ass outside on the stoop, etc. I did manage to hobble out to the sidewalk and kneel in a rather uncomfortable position that didn't hurt my foot long enough to draw my hopes and dreams out in chalk on the sidewalk.

Yes, all I want for Christmas this year is a jetpack... a jetpack and a bullhorn! Oh, and a rickshaw which would of course require a coolie--preferably a friendly, handsome coolie with at least moderately impressive stamina. That's all.

Asymmetrical Leanings

I'm thirsty. I'm thirsty and I have to pee and I'm sick of sitting here in front of the computer . So get up! Well you see, I'm putting off getting up to take care of these things because my underarms and the palms of my hands are all sore and bruised and my left foot is starting to hurt. That and I'm developing a fondness for the safety of inertia. An embarrassing accident last Wednesday has left me with only one load-bearing foot. So now I'm hopping around on crutches (the least ergonomically designed apparatus ever) and whining alot.

What happened, Steph?!

Well it all started a couple of weeks ago with some leaf raking in the backyard. My 13 year old pal Mr. Brown climbed up on the shed and hopped off into our giant pile of leaves. Then my 14 year old pal WABU followed suit. It sure looked like alotta fun even though something in the back of my mind said it was a bad idea. Still, the next day I doubled the size of the pile and when Mr. Brown showed up I declared, much to his delight, that I was going to jump. With a little coaching, I climbed onto the shed and spent a little time thinking about how much it would suck to sprain or break an ankle. I spent a little more time conveying my fears to Mr. Brown. There was some discussion and debate which turned into me stalling for time while I tried to work up the courage to leap from the 8 or 9 foot roof which really wasn't that tall according to Mr. Brown who kindly stretched his arm up as high as it would go to illustrate that the roof was only a foot or two higher than that. More discussing. We decide it's a good idea for Mr. brown to relocate the pile a bit closer to the shed. I direct him from atop the structure. About 20 minutes into my stalling, WABU busts through the gate and announces that Mr. Brown needs to "get home now!" because he hasn't checked in with his mom since getting home from school and she's none too happy. Aw crap. Now or never. So as Mr. Brown is collecting his things, I launch off the shed and land with a most delightfully surprising spring and no pain whatsoever into the cushy pile of crunchy leaves! Yay! Fun!

About a week later as I'm preparing various variousness for the following day's Thanksgiving feast, I think I hear a car door. OH! Maybe Mark's home early! I run to the living room, hop over the ottoman and peak out the window. No Mark. Darn. I leap back over the ottoman, catch my foot on the blanket, land ALL Wrong on the side of my foot and go down. PAIN! Really bad pain. Loud cursing and rolling around. The cats leave the room quickly... no doubt to snicker out of sight and earshot at my idiocy. I crawl to the freezer for the icepack then back to the couch where I elevate and ice what appears to be a third ankle growing at an alarming rate out the side of my right foot.

Four hours in the ER where most of the staff refuses to make eye-contact, two triage nurses simultaneously grill me with unrelated questions and I'm forced to endure Glenn Beck's nonsensical ramblings on Fox "news" isn't as much fun as I'd anticipated making pumpkin bread from a real pumpkin would be. The P.A. is nice, handsome and has very stylish glasses. He also has big, meaty paws according to Mark, Mark who has slim, delicate hands. I score a set of crutches and an air splint. RICE = rest + ice + compression + elevation. Don't put any weight on it. Eat alot of NSAIDs. There will be a follow up with a specialist. Due to the holiday weekend, that follow up won't happen until this afternoon. I'll be sure to fill you in. Be prepared for more mind-numbing adventures!

Cupcake Power! Chalk, Frosting & Sidewalks

If you read my other blog (the one where I actually post) then you may be familiar with the weekly posts I call "Sunday Sidewalk Doodles" where I post photos of chalk drawings done by me , my friends and whoever walks by and wants to play over the course of the previous week. Above is a detail from one of this week's most popular drawings. Click it to see the rest!

Call for Art on d'Arte Board

Hiya. Just wanted to let you know that we're looking for submissions for our second art contest over on d'Arte Board--the group blog I co-author. The theme this time (which may be interpreted with all the looseness of your oldest pair of stretched out undies) is "Photographic Abstraction". Under the definitions set forth in the prospectus there is ample room for any and all types of artwork with the exception of video as we currently lack the means to archive video art in an online album. Winning submissions will be featured on the front page along with a link to the artist's website or other online presence, and all submissions are archived in a publicly accessible online album. Please do head over there and check it out. Be sure to read and follow all application instructions. We've set things up in a very straight forward, simple manner in order to keep everything easy and organized. Hope to hear from you all!

DEADLINE: JULY 15, 2009

Relevant Links

Photographic Abstraction Prospectus

d'Arte Board Blog

Spring, Sunshine & New Art

I admit I've been neglectful. My blogging attentions have been mostly diverted elsewhere. I'd like to say that will change. I want to tell you I'll be here more, I'll have more to say, more interestingness to post. And maybe I will.

For now, what's new in the virtual world is that I've added a couple new works to the Cells section and one new work to the Saccharine Cartography section of my art site. Those images above are of preview details. Also, I've joined yet another artists networking site. This one I'm pretty excited about though. It's called Valley Art Share and it's a site devoted specifically to Massachusetts artists from the lovely Pioneer Valley area. I'm excited about having such a great resource for keeping in touch with what's going on in the arts in my area.

What's new in the physical world is that I have a painting up at Wunderarts in Amherst, MA. If you get a chance, do stop in to see what's up at Wunderarts now. My painting is in the group section of the gallery. In the front is "Consumed", a show of works by Sarah Bliss and Petula Bloomfield. I've seen the show twice so far, once at the opening reception and again the other day at "Art Church" which was a really fun, interesting sit down gallery talk with Sarah and Petula. What else? Well, spring keeps peeking around the corner and teasing us with the promise of something better. Saturday was so gorgeous I donned short pants and went on a bike ride around Ashley Reservoir! Pics? ok.



Not much else except there are lots of WIPs in the studio which means there should be something new to post at some point in the not too distant future. I got a new hole saw which is making life much more fun. And the rain seems to be letting up. Yep. Guess that's about it for today.

Take Care,
-Steph