Still cranking away at printing, matting, bagging, signing, etc, before I load up my car and head out before tomorrow’s sunrise.. Here’s the weekend details:
49th Annual Mid-Winter Art Fair
Ward Parkway Center
8600 Ward Parkway
Kansas City, MO 64114
Hours
Friday: 10am- 9pm
Saturday: 10am – 9pm
Sunday: 12pm – 5pm
Saturday’s Holiday Art Fair at the Lawrence Arts Center went great. Thanks so much to everybody who came out and supported! This was my third year there, and my best yet. I’m always glad to be able to support the Lawrence Art Guild. 10% of sales went directly to them to keep these events going, help upkeep 1109 Gallery on Massachusetts Street, and to support the endeavors of local artists.
Friday morning’s sunrise from my hotel room west of the city center. I had a great weekend.. made lots of new friends, sold lots of artwork, had lots of fun.. Thank you to you folks who came to Artclectic. I wish I had more time to stick around and do some Nashville things.. but alas, back to the homebase where lots of new exciting things are about to happen.
Yesterday I made my way across a couple states to get to Nashville for this year’s Artclectic. This is such a fun show to do — it’s all indoors and setup like a gallery. There’s about 50 other artists participating. It begins tonight with the Patron Party and is open to the public for the rest of the weekend. I spent my morning and part of my afternoon arranging and re-arranging and tagging and wiping glass.. Spending my late afternoon crashed in my hotel room before I get all gussied up for the opening.
I’ve got lots of new paper cuttings in the works in preparation for the Plaza Art Fair which is just right around the corner. Hopefully I can get them all cut, colored (where necessary) mounted, and framed in time… I’m ambitious enough — I think I can do it. And as promised previously, I’ve been ignoring my blog as I’ve been running full steam with intermittent crashes. Short reading breaks and morning jogs through town are helping to keep me in check… (segue) and also helping me get ready for the Head for the Cure 5k run in Lawrence, KS, on Oct. 2. My cousin and I will be running in memory of longtime family friend Vern Ostdiek who died from brain cancer in 2008.
Back to art: last weekends art fairs in Lenexa and Lawrence went great — better than expected, actually, despite the Lenexa show getting cut short due to the threat of lightning. Those marked the beginning of my fall “season” of shows, and it’s such a good feeling to be off to a good start. Thank you so much to you all who came out. I received so many kind words about my work that are really encouraging and so meaningful to me.. It isn’t always easy to stay enthusiastic and motivated working alone and managing myself all the time, but the folks that take the time to come out and show their appreciation for what I do — I very much appreciate you.
I’m spending my last day in Colorado regrouping and relaxing before a long drive home and major work to get done after that. I’ve had a great time here, first at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival in Denver, then at the Greenhorn Valley Art & Music Fest in Colorado City, and finally at the OpenArts Fest in Boulder. Each show went really well. And I was so happy to get to see some friends from past shows (as well as make some new friends that I’ll surely see again).
Some cool news derived from my travels: the gallery director from Art & Soul Gallery in Boulder saw my work at the Cherry Creek Arts Fest and contacted me regarding artist representation. Sooo, I drove into Boulder early last Friday before the OpenArts Fest to meet with her, and I’m honored to say that my work is now in the gallery which has been recognized as “Boulder’s Best Gallery” by the Boulder Weekly Readers Poll for 6 years. It really is a beautiful gallery with so much really great work inside, and I’m totally honored to have my work in there.
My major faux-pas of the trip: before I went to visit with the gallery director mentioned above, I was looking for parking and resorted to a parking garage after an unsuccessful search on the streets… Only I forgot that on top of my taller-than-average vehicle is a rooftop clamshell carrier. And it didn’t exactly fall within the height limits in the parking garage, so I found myself hitting signs and scraping the ceiling and having a small panic attack after thinking I was going to be stuck in there forever. I eventually made it out alive, and have only felt better about my mistake by admitting it to the world.
When I get home tomorrow night, I’ll start in on fulfilling three weeks of Etsy orders plus five commissioned paper cuttings, as well as tearing into finishing up 12 new works for my upcoming exhibit at the Carnegie Cultural Center in Ottawa, KS. Summers have become the busiest season in my world, it seems. And I guess that’s alright by me.
Tomasz Stasiuk stopped by for a chat about my artwork. I’m trying to get over being self-conscious on camera, and the preview frame couldn’t be any more flattering.
Side note: I just finished the Greenhorn Valley Arts & Music Festival in Colorado City, CO. It went great. Heading to Boulder, CO, for the 1st ever OpenArts Festival.
I was briefly on Denver Fox 31 news over the weekend in promotion of the Cherry Creek Arts Festival. Thanks to Angel Andres & Hendrik Sybrandy for stopping by for a quick interview and for putting my artwork on the airwaves. Check it out here (beginning around 1:11):
This is the first day I’ve relaxed in weeks.. Last weekend was the Cherry Creek Arts Festival in Denver, Colorado, and my 4th art festival in the last 5 weeks, with 2 more coming up over the next two weekends. Cherry Creek is one of the largest art fairs in the country with approximately 350,000 spectators. Needless to say, it was amazing and exhausting. I’ll post more about that later when my brain is functioning better. I also have so much new work to post, plus some cool news (like my spot on the Denver news), etc.
Today, I cruised around Rocky Mountain National Park and shot lots of photos. The one above was taken at the Alluvial Fan (read about it here: http://www.rmnp.com/RMNP-Areas-HorseshoePark-AlluvialFan.html). Thursday I’ll head down to Colorado City for the Greenhorn Valley Art & Music Fest, and then the following weekend I’ll be in Boulder, CO, for the Open Arts Fest. More blog updates to come…
Last weekend I went to Salina, KS, to exhibit at the Smoky Hill River Festival. I had a pretty great time! I didn’t take a lot of photos, but I’ve got a few to show you… Before I do, here’s some of the highlights:
1. The weather was PERFECT all three days. There was a bit of rain on Sunday morning, but it was nothing to complain about.. Maybe even washed some of the dust off my tent!
2. I got to hang out with William and Olga, owners of Wood Fashion Cafe in Salina, at their farm house, and eat their delicious cooking. Many animals to admire and photograph..
3. My mom, who went with me, got up both nights that we ate dinner at Wood Fashion Cafe and sang along with a couple guitar players during open mic hour. (I did the rooster that is part of the logo — seen below– for the restaurant last year!)
4. I met the ladies of The Good Lovelies, a Toronto-based harmonious trio, who were both good and lovely! And now I own one of their cd’s, and they left with some of my art as well.
5. I had some of the best art fair neighbors ever and really enjoyed chatting with them all weekend. And now I own some of their work, which includes a hand thrown tumbler with the most beautiful glaze, and some hand carved wooden utensils, walnut to be exact, to go in it. I’ve been in the process of outfitting the house I’m moving into in August, and the kitchen seems to be the only room I’ve really paid attention to! Dinner parties to come…
Anyway, here’s a few photos…
