New Year, another sale!

2018. A new start, yay! I didn't much care for 2017, for various reasons. I didn't like that the many negative things happening in the world, in my country, overshadowed the many positive things that I lived in 2017. So I'll shed off the bad stuff, and bring into focus the good stuff:

• A great week in Chicago, highlighted by an inspirational workshop with Maestro Verdiano Marzi
• Completion of our studio building in August, just in time to host our friends the O'Briens from England, to share the unforgettable experience of a total eclipse of the sun, right here in Central Oregon
• A fantastic trip to Aix-en-Provence for a week in September, then to Ravenna for the bi-annual Ravenna Mosaico, and Venice for the Biennale in October
• The coming together of our Northwest group of mosaic artists and celebration of the opening of our show in Lincoln City, Chiaroscuro
• The beginning of winter in Bend with a reprieve from the horrendous snow from last year. A mild winter carries me into 2018.

Once again, I got an email out of the blue, inquiring about one of my works. My buyer from last summer was back, and wanted to acquire Navy Pier ! Many emotions came over me at once. Oh boy, a sale! Simultaneously, Oh shoot! We'd kinda gotten used to it being the focus of our living room art collection! But never mind… if I put my work, with a price on it, on my public website, and someone loves it enough to buy it, of course I'm going to sell it.

I'm inspired and given the push I need to forge ahead… get into my studio and get to work!

Happy campers in the brand new studio

My studio mate. Bob is exploring the world of printmaking.

Pleased to have sold Navy Pier, a little sad to have it off our  living room wall!

A Sale!

Out of the blue I got an inquiry through my website, asking if my work "Untitled" was still available. My first instinct on inquiries like that is skepticism, as so many of my colleagues have reported experiencing potential scams arriving in their inboxes. I've seen some of these in the past too.
I replied to the inquirer, and determined that this was indeed a legitimate potential buyer. We exchanged a couple of emails and I agreed to sell the piece, finalizing details after the 4th ofJuly holiday.
Thanks to PayPal, transactions like this are so slick. I was able to determine that the money went into my checking account before I shipped the artwork off.
This was a much needed shot of confidence for me at just the right time. I haven't sold much fine art work, and especially for what I consider a fair price! For so many years I followed the theory not to post prices on your website; let the potential buyer contact you to inquire if they really love it. Well… that method never yielded any sales for me, so this time around on my redesigned site, I figured why not? Put those prices out there! 

Now that I can feel confident and proud of my work again, it's time to get busy on new work!

Happy to make a sale!

Memorializing this winter

To say this was a monumental winter is an accurate description. Maybe even an understatement. Here in Central Oregon, it was the heaviest snow accumulation on record since 1993. It was our fortune that it was the first full winter we've spent here.
Lucky us!

For all the years we've been going back and forth from Hillsboro to Bend, traveling across the high desert on Highway 97, I've enjoyed absorbing the landscape. Iconic in this landscape are the irrigation pipelines. The repetition of the wheels along the pipe are mesmerizing. A perfect design inspiration for art.

This winter I took some photos out of the car window on our travels and used them as the basis for my most recent piece. Brainstorming with Bob on the title (I am not an inspired titler of my work!) we settled on Winter Repose. I made this piece to contribute it to an auction in Sisters, Oregon that benefits the art education program in the Sisters school district. I am excited to support the amazing work that the Sisters Folk Festival's Americana Project does to bring performing and visual arts education to the kids of Sisters. Among the programs they support are classes where high schoolers can learn to build guitars and ukeleles! Kids have classes in songwriting and performance. And new to the program, every 5th grader in Sisters will learn to play piano! The annual auction and party, My Own Two Hands, will be held on May 13.

At right is a detail shot of the work in progress. I walked into the studio one day when the light was coming in the window such that it cast shadows perfectly on the sky. The winter of my discontent was magically turned to joy!

detail in progress, Winter Repose

Winter Repose. Smalti, slate, thinset, electrical wire, marble dust and adhesive. 
20 x 16 inches, 2017.

Still Snowing in Bend

This has been the snowiest winter I have ever lived in. Of course, there's not a high bar to surpass, since I lived the first 33 years of my life in Northern California, and the following 26 in mild Western Oregon. We've had our home in Bend for 12 years now, but wouldn't you know, the first full-time year we've lived here turns out to be a record breaking snowfall year! Most snow to fall in town and stay built up in piles all over since 1993, I'm told. It is beautiful when it's fresh, light and clean, but the melt, ice and slush is not fun at all. People who've lived in conditions like this for years might be laughing, but I really didn't think I'd ever live in a place where snow would be on the ground for months. Ah well, new experiences are good for the soul!

The upside of being cooped up in the house is that I made time to create this new website! And I've finally been able to spend time in the studio experimenting with new work. In the temporary little bedroom studio, that is. The downside of this exceptional winter is that our new studio construction project is indefinitely on hold. Along with almost every other construction project in the whole area! My mantra is Practice Patience this winter. Along with my daily yoga practice, the mantra is working!

Here are a few pictures of what's been going on, inside and outside, during the month of January.

Todd Lake with Broken Top in the background.

Mid-January, when the piles of snow around our house were HIGH.

Setting full moon. I love our views!

Salvage Wallscape. A new work I just completed, in an experimental new series. 10 x 10 inches.