It has Been Way to long since my last post!!!!

My fabric/paper birds at the FCCA Members Gallery holiday Show

Where has the time gone??? Thanksgiving was a blur with lots of pie's and yeast rolls flying in and out of the oven, a 12 Days of Christmas Swap gathered in and swapped out- with no errant left over packages- that is my biggest worry when doing a swap- and some very nice family time thrown in!! PHEW!!!!

So what has been up artistically???????????????????? Well, LOTS, to put it mildly!!!

A group of very wonderful volunteers helped me bedeck the Members Gallery at FCCA for our Annual Holiday Gift Sale that opens this Friday night at the Fredericksburg First Friday Event. We hung close to two hundred small works salon style,

in our small space and filled out the room with some lovely ornaments and jewelry, free form crochet scarves and felted neck wear.
The Holiday Members Gallery Show opened on Friday evening to rave reviews and quite a few sales!! Keep your fingers crossed that we will have many more sales this year. Something new that we are doing for this show is asking each member who submits work to this show to spend two hours over the month serving as a docent. This way when customers and show viewers come to visit, they are met by a friendly super knowledgeable person to assist them and answer any questions. I am sure that this will only help generate more sales as people really enjoy talking to artists about their work.

Some of my Resin coated fabric/paper jewelry for sale at the show.The Saturday following Thanksgiving I hosted an art play day for several good friends. We were going to experiment with a technique that friend Karen Scudder and I have been following on Ro Bruhn's blog, here and here. Karen and I have been trying to carve out time to play since last February and we finally found it, last Saturday. Friends Leslie Brier and Terry Pritzel joined us for a day of Painting Around!

Basically we took our 4 large stretched canvases put them all on one table pushed up tight one against the other and began to paint the canvases in circles as we circled around the canvases. it was sort of musical chairs with paints only using canvases rather than chairs. It was a blast and so very free and exciting. If we started a circle on one egde of a canvas we completed that circle on the canvas that was next to the first. If we liked a certain pattern or the way two colors looked when placed next to each other on one canvas we did the same on another canvas.
Very early in the paint around process.

Leslie and Karen working away!

The canvases after we each worked individually on our own pieces. We each plan to add many more touches to each of our pieces before we will consider them finished.

Leslie Brier with her great piece.

Terry Pitzel with her wonderful piece!

Karen Scudder and her fabulous work!

And a scowling moi with my piece. Not sure why such a serious face- I WAS having a great time- tired I guess! Since this picture was taken I have not had as much time as I would like to go back and add details in black and white paint. Soon I will have the time, I hope!!!

We were all channeling our inspiration form the awesome Ro Bruhn. Take a few moments to hop by her blog for a visit as there is no end to her enthusiasm and fabulous work. She lives in Australia but has a wonderfully infectious personality that makes me feel that we have met several times- SOMEDAY!! she will also be teaching in 2012 at the Upcoming Art IS YOU Australia Retreats!!!

A VERY Quick Update

I am very quickly checking in to give you all an update on my week!! It has been a mad whirlwind , to say the least.!! Just recently I was asked to join the Board of Trustees of the Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts,( from now on to be called the FCCA) here in Old Towne Fredericksburg. I was very flattered and after a bit of cajoling I agreed to have my name put on the slate of new trustees. At the annual meeting in November, I was voted onto the Board. At the following Board Meeting I was asked to take on the job of Corrdinator of the Members Art Gallery. The Members Gallery is on the bottom floor of our historic building. The House is known as the Silver Smith's House. It sits on Sophia Street in Old Town Fredericksburg and was built in 1785.

The busiest month for the Members Gallery is December! Of course it is!!!! What had I gotten myself into??????????????? I was assured that I would have lots of help and agreed to take on the job. This past week ahs been dedicated to getting this show up and running and the opening is Tonight. Upstairs in the Frederick Gallery , in the same building , is the Opening of the SMall Wonders National Show. I am so excited to ahve apiece in this show and it is the first time that one of my pieces has been accepted to a National show.!!

So last Sunday starting at 2pm, any Member of FCCA could drop off up to 4 pieces of art to be entered in the Members Holdiay Show. There was no entry fee and the art poured in. As soon as we had the inventory sheet and the show labels we set about to hanging. Now I ahve hung plenty of pictures in my many abodes but never have I dealt with such a volume in such a small space and in sucha short time. Fortunately There was A SYSTEM in place and I ahd wonderful people appear to help me get all 140 plus pieces hung and placed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The two pictures above give youa n idea of how densely we packed the pieces. it is very reminiscent of a Salon of the 1800's in one of the great European cities of art!! Ceiling to floor and every space in between!!!

What made it all even more exciting was we had no idea what forms the art would take, nor really what kind of size variteies we would have to deal with. THis served to make it all the more fun, and nerve wracking!!!

I don't know what I would have done without the help of so many wonderfully genreous aqnd creative people!!! My wonderful art pal Leslie Brier was with me the entire time and when folks stopped by to meet me and to talk to me about "important" concerns, Leslie just kept right on working!!!I also ahd the expereince and vast knowledge of artist and Membership Chairperson Shirley Whelan to lead me thru the day , as well as the hanging help of Norma Woodward, Leah Fromer Lee Cochran and many others. We got it done and I was back home again by 7:30 that very night!!!!

The Energy of Love

This is a fabulous mixed media piece with detachable necklace by Leslie Brier. I don't expect that it will last the evening without being purchased!!!!

These are three of my submissions. My work is very different from the vast majority of FCCA Members. My friend and phnenomenal Textle Collage artist Lorie McCown are doing our very best to introduce more fiber arts ot the area. ( Both Lorie and Leslie have wonderful pieces upstairs in the Small Wonders Show along with me.)

I also have a selection of my felted and beaded ornaments for sale.
Once all of the art was installed I spent a good deal of time decorating with tiny white lights and freshly cut holly in big white jugs. We have two huge bushes on our property that are loaded with beautiful berries so I got some pruning done while gathering the decorations!

Here you can see Santas Elves roller skate assemblage, First Night Baby and a beautiful Resin Necklace and Earring set all created by my pal Leslie!!! This artistss talents are truely astounding!!!

Here is my peice Cardinal Care as it sits upstairs in the Small Wonders Show. I am beyond thrilled with the placement and setting for showing off my textile collage piece. it is flanked by some glorious oils of chickadees and Barn Swallows by a very talented Local artist ( I will have to insert her name here later!!)
This is Leslie Briers fabulous Assemblage titled Goddess of the Kitchen. She takes center podium in the first room of the Frederick gallery and I fully expect that she will be sold tonight as well!! She is created with all sorts of wonderful vintage kitchen gadgets and has a wonderfully whimsical personality!!

This week was also the time for dropping off holiday wares at Liberty Town. Tonight will be the opening of the December Show there as well.

Here you can see a display of several of my owls and some of the miniature canvas collage ornaments that I created. (I have already ahd to restock my owls twice - perhaps I am not charging enough!!??)

And here is a rather difficult to view picture of a display of more of my holiday items for Liberty Town. I amde several Journals that I collaged with vintage text and then covered with painted paper towels. Hopefully folks will give functional art gifts this year as I had lots of fun creating these pieces!!!

So I ahve been very busy away form the computer and have missed visiting blogs and keeping up with everyones fabulous work!! I must rush off and change and get down to the burg to set the table for our First Friday Opening. FCCA Members gallery and The Frederick Gallery is defintely going to be the PLACE TO BE tonight!!!!

I will be back after a Fiber Arts Guild Brunch tomorrow and a bit of a sleep!!!!!

Have a wonderfully festive and happy holiday weekend everyone!!!