Screenprinting at Bartram's Gardens

I scored some great new t-shirts, hand printed by artists on the lawn at Bartram's Gardens this weekend. I heard about the Art in the Open program through the Print Center's email newsletters, and stopped by the Buffalo Exchange for some cheap t-shirts to print and decided to layer the designs over each other.

While I was there I wandered around and checked out the trees, flower gardens, some cool raised beds with pitcher plants and hand twisted vine trellises and the boardwalks to the waterfront.  They are having a membership sale for $25 till the end of June and you get all kinds of free passes and discounts.  I picked up some unusual tomatoes and peppers while I was there, they have on sale for $3 each, pretty good for good sized plants and varieties like Czech Black and Bishop's Hat you won't ever find at Home Depot.

I LOVE INDIE PA!

I am so excited about this new site IndiePA.com.  They contacted me last week about this new website they put together featuring artists, makers and musicians from all over the state, making it easy to find homegrown goodies wherever you go! 

Matt and Darice explain it this way: "As Pennsylvania residents, creatives and explorers, we have a special love for PA originals – and we wanted to share that love with the world. While traveling around our great state, we tend to collect arts related information. Slowly, our tiny collection became a stack, and eventually the stack became a mountain (not to mention the long list of bookmarked sites on our computer!) We decided something had to be done. That’s when the idea for IndiePA was born.*

I applied and now I see I'm on the front page!



Art Cards Artist Finds

Saturday Night, Dec. 5th Opening of Two Week Art Sale at UCAL 5 - 9 pm

This Saturday, Dec 5th with be the opening night of the 2009 craft sale at University City Arts League at 4226 Spruce St. from 5 to 9 pm. The sale continues until Sunday, Dec. 20th, M-F, 3 - 9 pm, Sat-Sun, 12 - 6 pm. Over thirty artists will be selling ceramics, photography, paintings, prints, jewlery, pottery, cards, clothing, textiles, handbags at very affordable prices. Drinks and snacks will be provided and it's a great time to see this beautiful building and the fantastic classes they offer. I just finished taking a clay handbuilding class which was a great break from the usual work week grind. I'm going to start a new class in January, depending on how much you buy at the sale! I'm selling photographs and cards of Philly.

http://www.ucartsleague.org/

BIG OLD PAINTING SALE end of March One of a Kind!

I was looking at some paintings today and cleaning up older items on etsy when I thought, since things have been slow this month and I can't really get paintings framed by Mark until they sell, I would have a sale and take $15 off my original, one of a kind room paintings and branch paintings which regularly sell for $99 each. I love these paintings and I want them to find good homes soon. Each one has a simarly bright color palette, painting in acrylic on wood panels. I paint on wood because I want a super smooth surface and a matte/flat finish when the painting is done, so the shapes and color take center stage. If you scroll down on the page to look at the older posts, you can see details of the framing (not around but behind the painting) and features of the paintings.

I started collecting pictures from home magazines, tearing out my favorites and keeping them in binders, editing them down and after a while, I realized what I liked about some of the images wasn't the room or furniture, necessairly, but the colors and shapes. Then I thought I could paint simple versions of the images where I reinterpret the original. Here's my blue and red bedroom painting with the original.

This is a new one I'm working on now with the magazine page above. It still needs alot of work. I'm taking a break from it until I'm ready to fix it.

This is one of the branches paintings with the actualbranches I photographed in Elfreth's Alley. I'm always taking pictures of trees with interesting shapes.

I found this seller from Tucson, AZ today on etsy and wanted to share this awesome TV on fire sculpture:


From his intro: "When he first picked up metal as a medium, it was not for wind sculptures; Chris had it in his mind to improve on the chiminea, a popular outdoor heat source in the west. It wasn't long before he couldn't keep up with demand. He barely had time to sculpt what came to be one of his most popular pieces: The Primal TV, a life-sized replica of American television, complete with table stand and rabbit ears.' I think it really speaks to people's inner conflict about television and the guilty enjoyment we all feel spending so much time in front of it'."

New Etsy Shop Today

I was selected to be in a treasury of trains and I found this shop in the same treasury:

LocalWisdomCards from Stowe, Vermont

They have over 100 cards like this with a wide variety of quotes.
The collages are beautiful and very thoughtful and well crafted.

R8 Train Today

Jesse Whitacre Show Opens Friday, Jan. 9th, 5-7pm

This is an artist I love, Jesse Whitacre, who is having an opening at Gross McCleaf Gallery at 127 S. 16th Street in Philly tomorrow night, January 9th from 5-7. I got to see some of his work in person and they are fantastic, but these new pieces look amazing, especially the Philadelphia skyline "Philadelphia City". They are collages and large sizes (24" x 60" for Philadelphia City) and the subjects range from South Philly at Christmas to portraits to nature and animals. Everyone in my office is going there, so come join us!

Favorite Etsy Sellers

Krista Peel from SanFrancisco

Junk Prints from Brooklyn

Invisible Fountain from Easthampton

Ralph Nuara from Minneapolis

Cyrus the Potter from Pine River, Minnesota

Jack Procter from Vancouver

ClayLab Detroit

mck254 from Arlington, MA

redsonja designs from Ottawa

Fretz Fotos for Cystic Fibrosis

Second Line Frames from Orange Beach, Alabama

Montagyoo from Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Mariposa Avenue from Salt Lake City, UT

Bonnie Jones from San Angelo, West Texas

Pearson Maron from Southern California

Kinchi from Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Snappy Shop from LA, California

ETSY TREASURY

My orange and blue branches painting got included in this awesome treasury!

Ruby Red Etsy Treasury! My Red Poppy Photo!

Why Being Broke Makes You More Creative: ART CARS!

I was scanning old pictures of art cars into my computer today and wondering why you don't ever see them, at least here in Philly now a days. When I was broke and living in New Orleans, I made alot of really creative stuff, and creating your own art car is all about making your own fun. I spied a volvo on the way home that would make a great base for an art car. I was trying to think what my art car could be and I thought I could do a skeeball ramp on the back of the car and have parts of arcade games and foosball guys attached to the top of the car. I'm not a huge arcade fan, but I love skeeball.

What would your art car be?

I'm putting these into a calendar for the Books, Paper Scissors sale next saturday at the free library, main branch.