It is late August and where did the summer go?  For me, it has been an exciting season; I am writing now from Lake Siskiwit, near the South Shore of Lake Superior in Wisconsin.  We bought a little red cabin here in June.  Pinch me.  And two weeks ago, I returned from three weeks in France.  

I am also selling a few things; a few little art pieces, one or two more expensive pieces.  Since I haven’t updated this blog lately, I will catch you up.

 

   

This piece is called Diary of a Firefly.  In Spring/Summer of 2013, Diary was at  Flow Space Gallery, St. Paul, MN, for the

Polymer Clay Exhibition.   I took second place in the Emerging Artist category, something I did not expect and, I was in between two artists I find inspiring in the Polymer Clay world, Laurie Mika and Kathleen Dustin.  A small tea light illuminates the Diary’s entry, Burn.  Shortly after the show, it sold.

In May of this year, I participated in Northeast Minneapolis’ Art-a-Whirl in Claudia Poser’s gallery at the Northrup King Building.  It was a great show and Summer Vacation, one of the Johnson Family Photo Album pieces sold.  That piece still cracks me up (See my last entry for an image.)  I got cleaned out of a lot of work and that is a good thing because I was considering this show to be my Swan Song.  So, I will keep creating and trying to get my work “out there.”

One of the pieces at Art-a-Whirl, and it will be at the Northeast Minneapolis (NEMAA) Fine Arts show at the Solar Arts building in October, is Pearl Corset.

Let me tell you about this piece.  A few summer’s ago my husband, Jeff,  went bow hunting in Oklahoma and came back with several animal skulls.  Fast forward a few weeks and looking for inspiration, I bought a Burlesque magazine.  Mesmerized by a pearl corset on the cover, I began to think it would look stunning on a buffalo skull.  I studied the image, magnified it on the printer, designed patterns and tried to do the math...ordering a gazillion glass and fresh water pearls.  And then I sat on the project for a year.  I was afraid I’d blow it.  

Last winter I took it on.  I repaired the skull, cleaned the teeth, blew the sinuses out with an air hose, ordered more pearls, found the blend of paint I wanted, studied the beading pattern,  ordered more pearls, researched the adhesive, strung pearls at night in front of the TV (I love Orange is the New Black) glued pearls, glued more pearls, ordered more pearls...yeah.  Voila, here she is.

I had to create new horns to fit over the little horn nubs.  I used polymer clay and added red fish net (an orange bag) to up its' provocativeness.  

She is for sale and she is a good girl!  Kind of.

She is a tough act to follow, but I'll try anyhow. This is a picture of me in Carcasonne, France two years ago.

More about my most recent trip will follow. 

Speaking of following, thanks to all my 22 followers!  Pass me around; I may not be as provocative as Pearl Corset, but I'm still a lot of fun!