Rachel Davis, artist

These works and many more are at the Chambers Gallery website. I have seen this work in person and it is astonishing!

Marian Bijlenga, artist

My favorite flickr photostream of the moment is Marian's. It is speaking straight to my heart. Please go see her works and all she shares there.

Ma Kuang Pei, animation

thinking out loud

I want a delicious healthy life with seeds, and a growing season, then harvesting, and celebrating, then dying back and composting rich and lovely qualities back into the earth to prepare for new seeds. I am speaking metaphorically. It applies to all areas. I want real food, real relationships. I want to wear my clothes until they need mending, wear them some more, and mend them again. I want to create some beauty and kindness. You know when you bite into a fresh tomato off the vine, still warm from the sun, and you taste it and your mind thinks, ahhhhhhhh good. This is what I want. This is what I dream of offering and hope to receive.

Keep and share = big love

Permacouture Institue

Marchi Wierson, artist

Flying coffee beans!

This is a story about my first moments this morning. But you need to know a little bit about my coffee grinder to understand. I have a grinder that turns on by putting the lid on it and pushing a button on the lid. So now the story. I put the beans in the grinder, plugged it in the wall, and before I had the lid on the it, it started grinding. Beans flew in my face and to every corner of the kitchen. I unplugged it quickly but not before there was a complete mess on the floor and counter tops and table. It was VERY surprising.

I think I even got ground coffee beans in my eyelashes!

What? I can't take photos from a public street?

I was thinking as I was on my walk yesterday that it is odd that I find industrial structures to have so much beauty given that I really think I am most inspired by nature. Yesterday I was walking through an industrial area which has a port and big trucks coming and going. There are huge oil storage structures which are very white and have those ladders that curl up the side. I was walking on a public street and two men told me I couldn't take photos, and if I did I would be reported to Port Authorities!! There were no signs that said anything about NO PHOTOS.

I said go ahead and report me because I always want people to look at my portfolio, and I smiled.

Then the younger of the 2 men said, yes maybe you can make a sale. Then the older tough guy quashed the young guys comment with a scowl. It was strange. I said, so even if I am on a public right of way, you can tell me to stop and I have to obey you? My reaction was to be charming because I felt odd and I didn't want trouble. I was just walking. My photos didnt look good yesterday. I think I was a bit wonky after that.

Today I saw this on my walk

Marchi Wierson, artist

The story of stuff

The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. Here.

My favorite blog at the moment

gray area symposium

Alice Necklace, at marchimadeit

This necklace is crocheted cotton, with a knit cord, and a czech glass button. It is 25 1/2 inches or 64 cm around. I think it is very pretty. It comes in red, brown, or black to white.

People ask, why wool jewelry?

Wool is something that people live with in their home and on their body, but for some reason, they pause when it is jewelry. Wool is a beautiful sustainable resource. It has a richness and texture which is a pleasure to work with. It has a long history going back to nomads. It is light weight to wear. And I meet new people when I wear it because they are curious. They think it is stone, or shell, or even bone.

On a personal level, the negative impact wool usage has on the earth and its inhabitants is minimal. This is important to me. I have worked with many materials which leave a dark trail of impact and I am not comfortable now with my legacy in this area.

For me it is part of a whole life philosophy, which includes valuing healthy seasonal food, owning items which are meant to last (but not forever), and having true friends in my life which nurture my spirit.

Wool is lovely and a pleasure to work with. I like that I can sculpt it and that it echos natural forms; and nature for me is the highest art which influences and inspires my creativity.

How a failure is an advantage

When I am making something, be it art or jewelry and if something goes against my plan, I tell myself it is an advantage because there is a solution waiting that I have not discovered yet and I need to keep working to find it. It keeps the work fresh and current.

At my etsy shop, marchimadeit

Plum Purple Coil and Big Bead necklace

A coil felted necklace with a large felted bead as a pendant and 2 more felted beads next to the clasp. Elegant, unique, original.

25" with 3 inch pendant

about my work space

Some artists/craftists have been showing their work spaces on lovely blogs or on flickr. I see their situations and am full of longing and awe. But not everyone has a studio set up for their work or the space to do it. So this is to show you what I do and how I manage to have a work space in the middle of my home space. What makes it especially challenging is I am in a loft. So a mess anywhere affects everywhere. And I am not the only one here, so I need to be respectful of his life and comfort. Sometimes art is chaotic. That is part of the process. So I have limitations which impact what I make and do not make. My living space impacts my choices as does my ecological concerns. I see this as good. I say to myself,

this is my situation, now what can I do with what I have.

I use large ikea drawers made for big closets to create work spaces. I can keep tidy and/or make a mess and then tuck it under the couch when I am done. I keep a third drawer clean in order to use it for wet and messy projects. It is kept in our utility closet. The drawers can be moved from table to table to floor to ottoman depending on what I want to do. It is very easy.

I also have large closets and hidden spaces to put supplies. And believe me, I have supplies everywhere, but only in my areas and not so it impacts my loft mate negatively.

Sometimes I work bigger. Then I make arrangements to work elsewhere. But I like to work where I live because I like to work alot. I do work alot. What I really like about where I live and work is the light which comes through a huge window and brings the outside in.

My new web site

I am building a new web site for my art and jewelry. And I am working hard at creating good photos with the tools I have available to me. I think this one photo turned out very nice and it makes me think I might actually learn to take good art shots. (cross my fingers for luck and persistence.) My web site is here.

Art as Business: Selling Your Art III, Alexandra Hedberg

"Let's be cheetahs."

Alexandra has written a very good post this week. go see it here.