Blissful Validation!

I have been so busy the last week helping my daughter attend college orientation (college is 3+ hours away) that I haven't had a chance to shout from the 'internet' rooftops about my sale last week. On Mondays I work at a local gallery where some of my work hangs and last Monday a gentleman came in and just loved my "Midsummer's Dream" piece. It is one of my favorites and has received lots of admiration so I thanked him. As he wandered the gallery, he kept coming back to it and finally decided he had to have it:) I have sold work via commission before, mostly more traditional pieces, and never out of a gallery setting; so I don't know that there are words adequate enough to describe the pure exhiliration I felt as I bundled up my baby and sent it off to live with someone new. There is no better validation of what you do as an artist and the time and love you put into your work than to have someone come in and purchase your art with their hard-earned money. When your work hangs in a gallery next to so much beautiful work and yours is the one they choose, you can't help but feel Blissful Validation for all your long hours.
I did manage to keep my composure even though I was about to burst on the inside:)

Fractured Flowers

This past saturday, Valentine's Day, my fiber art group got together to unveil our 2008 challenge pieces....we gave ourselves flowers. Our challenge was to make four sections of a pink flower. Three of the four sections were then exchanged with others in the group so that you had 4 sections-one of them your own.
As if that weren't enough of a challenge, I made it more so for the 3 other people who received my sections. Somehow I misunderstood the parameters of the challenge and finished my sections-quilted, threadpainted, and embellished-before exchanging them. I am so sorry, again.
The challenges I faced with this were 1. the color pink-not my favorite 2. trying to find a way to fit the pieces together- especially since mine had batting already 3. how to expand on just a flower. Plus all of that, my pink sections didn't really match in values and hues. In the end, I am glad I challenged myself and I like the border I ended up attaching.

On our group's blog http://artrageousfibreart.blogspot.com/ you can see the flower we began with along with the other finished challenges. It was a lot of fun to see how everyone faced the challenge and creatively solved it. Enjoy!

New Gallery Showing

This past week I was approached by a local wood studio

to hang a few of my pieces in their gallery. Nice Figures', world renown, artwork is breathtaking, to say the least; and so I was extremely honored that they approached me. The organic nature of both mediums is a wonderful pairing.

They have the most unique and high quality wood I have ever seen. All the artwork is created on site and so the smell of the gallery evokes so many memories for me of my grandpa's workshop. I loved going in amongst the machines and sawdust....miss you grandpa.

The gallery chose Autumn Shores and Frozen Days from my website

A third piece, Marriage, will hang exclusively in their gallery through the holidays.