Papery Goodness

A blog post?  In March?  How is this possible?

Well, as with many things right now, it’s all thanks to COVID-19. But I recently saw an article being posted around my Facebook feed that got me thinking about this particular time in all of our lives and how it’s affecting us in different ways.

You might’ve seen the article yourself – it’s about how to ignore all the covid-inspired productivity…

Figuring things out (FINALLY)

Wow, friends.  It’s the end of the year, the end of the ‘Teens, and the end of my first decade as a full-time artist.  Yes, just two days from now, it’ll be ten years – TEN! – since I took that terrifying leap and quit my job in the newspaper biz.  I can scarcely believe it myself.

I fully intended for this blog post to be a run-down of all of the things I did this year – but about a quarter of…

I have to say – I’m kind of proud of my output!  I’ve had three shows since March – my enormous 200-piece show called 200 Days: A Life in the Quotidian at the Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts in March-April; Bird Fest at the Masonic Temple in Oshkosh in May, collaborated by Carol and Roy Toepke; and Places we’ve Been, a collaborative show at ArtSpace Collective in Oshkosh that I just finished, where I took my husband Brian’s photos from our vacations and recreated them in drypoint and watercolor.  Here’s a slide show of that show, which just hung last Friday.

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When I did my “200 Days” exhibit, I wisely gave myself about two months after the completion of my last print to frame, promote and create the companion book for the show.  During the Bird Fest time frame I took a long time coming up with a theme for bird-related art and therefore only had about four days after the last print and before the actual show.  But for “Places we’ve Been”?  I only had five hours between finishing the last print and when we left to hang it. That was nuts, and I never want to recreate that scenario!

I’m tired!  I’ve given myself a couple of days this past week to partake in some fun activities – Monday I got to spend the whole day with my wonderful niece Natalie in Madison, and yesterday, I took in my favorite places in Algoma – Yardstick Books, James May Gallery and James May North, where my friends Megan Johnson, Mindy Wittock and Kendra Bulgrin (also the owner of the galleries) are all in a gorgeous show called MOTHER + ARTIST, and a new shop and gallery called Yonder, co-owned by two very cool artists, Erin LaBonte and Don Krumpos.  It was much needed.  This coming Monday I’m taking advantage of the new Amtrak bus service from Fondy to Milwaukee and then taking the train from Milwaukee to Chicago, where I’ll make my quasi-annual trek to the Art Institute.

I’m telling you this because I want to stop feeling guilty about taking some time for myself. My rational self knows this time is essential, but my productive self is telling me that I’ve got 20 commissions waitng for me in my studio and that I should be doing these before any more fun adventures, even though I’ve been told by those patrons that there’s no rush. I can blame this attitude on my hearty Midwestern work ethic, which I love but which can also be a bit of a burden at times.

If any of my fellow artists/musicians/writers/creatives of all stripes are reading this, can I get a what-what from you all?

Goodbye, 2018!! I will actually miss this year.  I learned so much that it feels like it was two years long.  You know how it was when you were a kid, where the days stretched by endlessly (but in a good way)? That’s the way it was for me. New Year’s Day seems like a loooong time ago.

I had two incredible things happen this year – the first was that I was asked to have a solo exhibit at the Thelm…