Flora and Fauna

The Show opens Friday and I feel mostly ready. This will be the 6th or 7th (?) annual Show I've had at Half Moon Creek Gallery. Hard to believe how time has flown by. We time the Show date to coincide with the opening of Alaska's gardening season. My focus is usually metal garden art and there has been in past years such an incredible turnout I feel like I don't want to let anyone down, including the Gallery and my loyal customers. It's probably why I've been working with almost blinded intensity to have enough pieces in a variety of sizes and price ranges. Christian, one of the partners in the Gallery asked me a couple of weeks ago, if I had advertising and PR images I wanted to use for the Show. I told her I did and the images were of the latest seascapes using ceramic and steel. She gently asked me if those would be the best images to use since the Show is titled "IMBY -Inspirations From My Back Yard" and BTW, I do not live on the ocean. I chose the title because at the time I was creating some cool flora and fauna garden sculptures that were inspired by my garden surroundings. I quickly forgot about the Show's theme and forged ahead with a bunch of other not so flora-fauna IMBY themed art! Oh well. I returned to my original IMBY inspirations and made some more cool flora pieces.

It's a real juggle to be intensely making art, focusing on the creative process and take the time to also think about the other components of a Show. The marketing, advertising, direct mail, content of the Show, material costs, pricing, customer favorites, tagging, production flow and schedules, delivery schedules, set-up, etc. etc. etc. My brain feels split in half with the right side filled with great ideas that need to get out and the other (left side?) crammed with the account

ing and business to-do's. I've long felt my math brain is shrunken and I actually have two brains, a big fat creative brain and a little pea sized math brain squeezed into my one lovely mommy head. I'm extremely grateful for all that the Gallery does for me as a resident artist. I've said it before and I'll Blog it again, I gladly pay the Gallery their commission for all that they do for me. The business end of things is mostly taken care of by them and it's up to me to delivery the goods, so to speak -and that's not entirely true because next week they even offered to bring their open bed truck over and pick up some of the larger works!

We did sneak away this afternoon after the kiln was loaded with a bisque load. We bought our fishing licenses (yahoo!) and then went to Saturday Market. There are three or four full rows of vendors offering everything from junk to funk, food and art, and we saw our friend Elise there too with her cute puppy Dewy. Our mission is to hit the food row first and end up on the farmer's row for fresh veggies. Mmmmm...I go for the Earthquake Lemonade and Gyro's 

(sometimes 2!), the guys get their fill of either Brats, Piroshki's, Grilled Whole Ear Corn or dipped ice cream bars -then they steal sips of my lemonade, which is why I always buy two of those too  :)

Whole 'lotta Hosta Love

In a patient waiting area a couple of years ago, I think it was at my dentist's office, that I was thumbing through a tattered Martha Stewart magazine. I saw this great article on Hosta's. I love Hosta's. The issue was a couple of years old, at least this was my justification... because I ripped two pages out of the magazine and quickly put the pages in my purse. I frown upon people who tear pages out of waiting room magazines but I can be a hypocrite. When I got home I added the stolen pages to my huge, torn, black portfolio case. My ancient portfolio is stuffed with images and ideas as well as new and old patterns that I've made. I really need to organize the bulging beast because I had totally forgotten about the Hosta article. I came across the pages this week, as well as some other great but forgotten images when I was looking for something else.

Hosta's are popular shade perennials that come in a variety of sizes and leaf colors. According to the article, in Japan they are also a popular food where their young stems, known as urui are typically steame

d or eaten raw. I don't eat my Hostas but was inspired to make a steel sculpture of one after seeing the article again. I plasma cut individual leaves from flat sheet black iron, then hand bent and shaped the leaves with tip curls and folds at the steel stem. I surface welded bead lines to imitate the variegated lines found in each leaf. My real Hostas are still just pointy little fingers that are just now peeking up from the cool garden soil around the house. The finished sculpture might be included in my Show at Half Moon Creek Gallery that opens next Friday, June 5th -or may just stay in my garden year round because I really like how it turned out.

Kabuki and Cute Labor

Ahhhh, the feel of clay under my fingernails (along with a little garden dirt), what a great feeling. Over the weekend, I was able to get back into some clay work and since school is now out, check out my new apprentice! Lucky girl that I am, my new apprentice is willing to put off  few fishing trips and installation of our new hardwood floor, to help me get caught up on some work. Even though he prefers fly fishing, here he is throwing down some slab rolled rockfish. I did promise him that welding was on the schedule this week and he could suit up in his favorite, well-worn Carhartts.

Last week I welded up some steel bird's nests and thought they needed to hold some clay birdies, I haven't decided how they well be glazed, maybe some matte black or blue with bright orange beaks. We'll see. 

Along with the slab fish and sculpted birds, I pulled out this plaster Kabuki mask mold and drape molded some masks. The mold was tossed in with a bunch of misc. clay items I scored from the classified ads. I think I'm going to weld steel "branches" with wire, metal and copper embellishments around each of the faces for some wall hung sculptures. I really dream of doing Raku and think the pieces would look so cool Raku fired, but I'm just not set up for it.  Tracey's new set up is inspiring and her work is looking fabulous with the Raku firing! The masks may be good pieces to at least kick up the temp of my electric kilns to ^6 -something I've been wanting to do to expand my glaze palette. 

I've been doing all low fire, which has limited my glaze choices. I want to start mixing my own satin and matte glazes in larger quantities, some of which I saw at Seattle Pottery. I've got the clay, I just need the TIME to do some testing and experimenting. Finding that necessary experimentation (both physical and mental) time currently doesn't 

coincide with our busy summer schedule; I've got several great shows coming up, school is out, the house is full, fish are running, the sun is high in the sky, dogs just want to run, the garden is sprouting, kids want to make new tree house forts and potato guns, the BBQ grill smells even better with cold beverages in hand and I've got a stack of good books lined up for summer reading. What's a girl to do? Continue to live the good life, one step at a time with one foot in front of the other, feeling the sunshine on my face -oh, and try to make a lot of great art!

OUCH!

Ouch! Poor, "Mr. Moon's" Bum Blew Off!

And No, I don't have a GAS kiln -hahaha!

Everything else in the kiln fired fine. But "Mr. Moon" was just way too thick in his posterior. I thought this image was hilarious and I think he can be salvaged with some creative mounting.

Memorial Day Pause

The National Moment of Remembrance, established by Congress, asks Americans wherever they are at 3 p.m., local time, on Memorial Day to pause in an act of national unity for one minute. The time 3 p.m. was chosen because it is the time when most Americans are enjoying their freedoms on the national holiday. The Moment does not replace traditional Memorial Day events; rather is is an act of national unity in which all Americans, alone or with family and friends, honor those who died for our freedom. It will help to reclaim Memorial Day as the sacred and noble holiday it was meant to be. In this shared remembrance, we connect as Americans.

10 Things to Remember About Memorial Day by David Holzel.

The Greatland

Seattle was a sunny 70 degrees Thursday and Friday, but once again I-5 was gridlocked from the U-district to the airport starting at 1:00 in the afternoon. Confirming (once again) why we still call Alaska home. On the flight home from Seattle to Anchorage last night, I felt like a tourist taking pictures out the airplane window.  The glaciers, rivers of ice floes, majestic mountains and glacial fed lakes were too inspiring to ignore. The texture and color of the mountains and snow inspired me to work in clay today...

"Farmed Salmon"

"Farmed Salmon" by Cindy Shake 

for the Wild Salmon on Parade

After receiving comments on the virtues of FRESH, wild Alaska Salmon, I had to post a sculpture I made a few years ago for the Wild Salmon on Parade, here in Anchorage. My entry was titled "Farmed Salmon." This was totally inspired after eating  some store bought salmon one winter I naively thought was REAL salmon. The fillet's were beautiful in color, mushy in texture and tasted like how a fish tank smells! I was totally grossed out. "Farmed Salmon" was created using one of the King Salmon taxidermy molds distributed to selected, participating artists. I then used legs from a Thrift store rocking horse (again, deconstruction took place when Gus was out of the shop...). My hubby came to my rescue with his construction skills, patience and finesse in helping me attach the legs to the body (pre drilling, and using sheetrock screws) to the fragile fish mold. I used plumbers putty to sculpt the rooster comb and fill in the area around where the legs attached, and finish sanded. The whole sculpture had to be outdoor safe and weather proof for display on a free standing display stand that eventually was auctioned for charity. I used a nice coat of outdoor, sign painters enamel for the finish and sealer.

Copper River Copper's

The famous Copper River Salmon fishery opened last Thursday and the first cargo planeload of fish arrived at the SEattle airport less that 24 hours later. Alaska Airlines unloaded about 20,000 pounds of FRESH fish and the first King Salmon was "caught" by University of Washington Husky Football coach Steve Sarkisian and the ceremonial 40 pound "first fish" was sold at a charity auction. With a string of sunny days and higher than normal temps, fishing fever has officially struck Alaskans. We're a sport fishing family and we'll be pulling our gear out from winter storage, checking reels, updating line, sharpening hooks, tying some flies and practicing my fly casting with the new Fly Rod I got last Mother's Day. The first time I was practicing my cast in the street, I managed to cast back into a low slung electrical line... then I cast forward, got the hooked snagged on a small rock in the road, and when I felt the resistance, instinct took over and I set the hook and had myself a rockfish!

With last week's opener, it seemed fitting that a copper salmon wall sculpture was ordered by a customer. This week I plasma cut out the metal copper salmon and because copper is a non-ferrous metal I will cold rivet the fish to the welded steel back plates. I've hand bent round stock and welded the back structure for support, added some rust patina finish to the steel and after heat treating the copper I'll hand rivet each fish in place. I used to hand cut all my copper work using tin snips, but when I started developing Popeye forearms and 

felt freakish carpel tunnel pangs, I switched to using the plasma cutter. After heat treating with my torch, the copper fish will have a beautiful orange-burgundy, iridized sheen covering their bodies.

My normal rule of (green)thumb for planting the garden and pots is to wait until Memorial Day weekend, but

 due to our beautiful warm weather I couldn't resist getting a few things into some terra cotta pots. I found this lovely ground cover in a six-pack at the Nursery and potted a couple of the cells for the deck. The perennial is called Golden Scotch Moss and in a few weeks, tiny white-purple flowers should be blooming on top of the velvety cover. We've been dining every night out on the deck and have had the grill going with a solid menu featuring "turf" beef or chicken. The market price at the seafood counter for the fresh caught Copper River Salmon was hovering around $22.95 lb... though tasty, we'll need to wait until we can catch our own too add a bit of "surf" to our diet and the grill!

The Light of Inspiration

We've had unseasonably sunny weather in Anchorage. The comment you hear lately is, "we've had more sunny days in the last couple of weeks than we had all last summer." Last summer's weather was dismal with so much rain, clouds and record low temps that my garden was stunted. The sunny and warm weather we've had so far has meant not only early plantings (for Alaska!) but BBQ and dining alfresco every night on the deck. Shopping at City Market and the dinner menu has revolved around "what can we grill tonight?" So it was a bit of a surprise to wake up on Friday to heavy rains because all of this sunshine had made me punch drunk on summer-like weather. I love the rain but this sunshine has made everything around me glow (including winter's dustbunnies!). I've been inspired by how the light shines through the tender, new Birch leaves. The rain did it's job and gave everything a good rinse and Mayday tree sapling shells were littering the ground. The volcanic ash was able to be rinsed away somewhat and the sunshine returned in time for the weekend. 

With Friday's rain, it was a good time to hole up in the Studio and finish up a couple of Shrine-a-rella's. When it rains, it's usually not a good metal day and my plasma cutter doesn't cooperate with the humidity. I end up using more consumables (the 

cutting tips) which are expensive, and it makes me fussy when I have to cut slowly. I was excited to use my Thrift store finds and deconstruction of a doll could take place because Gus was at school. Once I had the arms cut, I gave them a coating of flat black spray paint because with the tooth of the flat paint, the plastic arms take the finish paint better. For the ephemera I use colored pencils, and both gloss and matte Mod Podge. The adhesive I use most often is E-6000, though now, I have some adhered to the on/off switch of my digital camera... One of the pieces is titled "Live Creatively" and the other is titled "In the Winter My Heart is 

With the Sea."

Fab Finds

Found this huge plastic jar of golf tee's at my favorite Thrift Store. At least that's what I think they are, because there was an old normal, wooden one among the plastic ones. At first I thought they were electrical wire nuts but I think they are tees. I also scored four, larger plastic dolls with great arms and hands to use on my Shrine-a-rella's. I like the shape of the hands because they don't look like small, Barbie hands, or like chubby baby hands. I usually do the deconstructing of any doll or toy AWAY and out of sight from my youngest son Gus. Way too traumatic...  There are so many golf tee's I'm going to share my bounty with my Dad for his assemblage works. The tee's would look cool running spike-like around the edge of a Shrine-a-rella that's been languishing in my studio (along with two others) for a few months now. Some of the frame pieces that my Dad shipped up to me can also be used on my "patiently waiting," unfinished Shrine bases. Since I've been concentrating in all metal lately, my clay and assemblage work have had to take a back seat -which is really frustrating. I've grinched before about this, but switching back and forth between mediums has required an entire new production schedule, which I STILL don't have worked out. My hands (and kilns) have been CALLING out to the clay.

My goal was to have a bazillion incredible clay and steel pieces for the upcoming Show. I'll have a few pieces, along with some great Shrine-a-rella's, just not the quantity of clay pieces I was hoping for. More practice and PATIENCE is needed for the clay work. The Show is scheduled to open the First Friday in June. This will be my 6th(?) annual Summer Show at Half Moon. The crowds are usually huge and wonderful and we sell out as many pieces as I made. I'm usually so nervous the week leading up to the event, it's important I stay focused on work so I don't make myself sick! So many of my loyal customers will wait for a couple of hours to say hi or to meet me which is always flattering but overwhelming and leaves me completely humbled.

The "Mr. Mantis" sculpture got glasses yesterday. I thought it would help him to better see the pot of flowers he'll be holding! As for his finish, a light rain last week decided it's fate for me, which is now starting to be a nice rust patina. He looks fine, so I'll let the oxidation continue until the Show. The "Nested" topiary I welded this week got enamel paint details today on the six little baby birdies inside. The topiary is about 5 and a half feet tall and was designed for an outdoor garden area. The steel topiary design is perfect for supporting climbing flowers. Another "Nested" topiary I  welded up has an empty nest that I'd like to put a hand sculpted, clay, bird in... as soon as I can get my hands out of welding gloves and back INTO CLAY!

I Got Mail!

I love getting mail, especially when it is a package! Whenever I post anything Raven on my Blog I think of Linda. I am happy to say that I have a friend who I met through artful blogging. Linda seems like a traditional friend to me, the only difference is we met electronically and have never seen each other in person, yet we have managed to create a friendship bridge from California to Alaska. I feel like I know her because I have been following her activities, life, beautiful gardening and her art through her Blog, Blue Starr Gallery. I enjoy her writing style and photography but I especially loved her recent barrel fired ceramics! With mutual admiration we agreed to trade each other some of our art. WOW was I surprised at the beautiful package she sent me! She even included fresh cut lavender -which is going to be shared with my next door neighbor Mary, (who gifted me the Dream Box!) because she also LOVES lavender. Mary will also enjoy hearing Linda & my "Friendship Across the Miles" story. In my friendship box was a beautiful Black Faux Bois Log, 2 Barrel Fired and Wax Coated Vases, a Barrel Fired Friendship Across the Miles Figure Eight chain, and my favorite, an incredible Barrel Fired PEndant with a leaf/fern impression. The pendant is made from stoneware and coated with wax, it feels dreamy. All of these gifts were lovingly packaged in bright, lavender tissue paper. I have everything displayed on our dining room table for family and friends to see and feel. Thank you Linda, everything is beautiful!

My favorite kind of shipping and packaging for business is the kind where I pop open the car or truck, load and deliver! No bubble wrap, newsprint, shrink wrap, foam, pallets or crating. I loathe carefully wrapping items for shipping, probab

ly because I'm not patient enough to be very good at it. I'm finding that this is also one of the reasons I enjoy working in steel -steel bends back in place easier than ceramics...  These are pictures of some sculptures I delivered to Half Moon Creek Gallery, here in Anchorage yesterday. The tall black birds that are on a free standing base are called "Blackbirds in the Garden" and the "Garden Sunflowers" are getting "shipped" for the 10 minute drive to the Gallery. Now that's my kind of shipping. 

Northern Comfort Fairbanks Style

The morning after the BIG (pre)Grad party. Kristen's professor/advisor/mentor and his wife hosted a wonderful Fajita BBQ Dinner Party at their house Saturday night! We ate, we drank, we ate some more, we opened gifts, we popped party poppers, we got competitive on their Wii Fit game... Can you believe that silly game labeled me as "UNBALANCED!!!" geeze. Thank you Jeremy and Shelby. Kristen is lucky to have such a wonderful and caring support network at UAF.

The BEST coffee in Fairbanks! There are double lines on both sides of the Sunrise Hut, 3+ cars deep... I know you're thinking "is this the only place to get coffee in Fairbanks?!" Hey, there are a lot of choices, but trust us, this is hands down the best. Their breakfast sandwiches to go are yummy too. My guess is, as with any college town, caffeine is a vital food source...

University of Alaska Fairbanks 87th Commencement Ceremony 2009

Sunday, May 10 ~ John A. Carlson Center

Over 1,000 graduates were recognized.

The perfect way to spend Mother's Day (after a lovely brunch)!

University of Alaska Fairbanks, School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences presents.... Kristen Shake and her beau, Nelson Crone with their Bachelor of Science degrees in Geography and Environmental Studies. Kristen will be staying at UAF to complete her Graduate work in Chemical Oceanography and Nelson (a Golden Key Honor Society member) is heading home to Pennsylvania for a brain break!

Congratulations!

All the family members who made the trip stayed at Pikes Waterfront Lodge. We had a block of rooms that were really nice. This was the first time we'd stayed here at the popular Lodge on the Chena River. It's very close to the Fairbanks airport and UAF. We were lucky to have just beat the tourist rush by one day. Bus loads (I mean BUS LOADS) of rail and cruise ship passengers will start arriving today. The large mama and baby moose out front will be flower topiary's in a couple of weeks -but the temps need to warm up at least 20+ more degrees!

We are just outside of Denali National Park. This is a shot from the car as we are heading back home to Anchorage Sunday night, it's about 10:00 pm and there is still lots of daylight and dry road to get us home. 

As we arrived in Anchorage it was a beautiful ending to a very fun road trip.

Congratulations Kristen, we are proud of you and love you!

Road Trip (further) North

The last time we drove from Anchorage up to Fairbanks was a couple years ago. At the time we were trying to convince our soon to graduate, middle son, Will to attend UAF with his older sister. Our plan backfired, mainly because it was snowing in September when we took the UAF campus tour and we were all freezing! He now attends UAA (Go Seawolves!) in Anchorage, which is closer to home and slightly warmer than a Fairbanks winter by about 50 degrees. We love road trips and will be heading up to Fairbanks once again tomorrow. Our eldest daughter Kristen will graduate on Sunday, just the kind of Mother's Day present I like. She absolutely LOVES Fairbanks and has an internship in Chemical Oceanography and is continuing her Graduate work at UAF (Go Nanooks!). The large photo was taken on the last road trip to Fairbanks. It's of Mt. McKinley in all it's Glory. We are always humbled to have such easy access to this beauty knowing first hand that tourists pay thousands of dollars to have this view.

We're taking advantage of the trip North and will hand deliver a wholesale order to one of my favorite customers, the Alaska Bird Observatory located in Fairbanks. I thought the Observatory would be happy to save on the postage and we'll get a chance to check out their facility. We'll also check 

to see which Migrant Birds will be arriving at Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge. If we're short on time, I'll have Kristen make the delivery on Monday. It's a long drive, 6-7 hours one way... Alaska is such a BIG state! ABO ordered wall mounted steel Ravens and the equally popular, smaller Raven Ornaments. I've plasma cut them all out of steel, gave them a flat black enamel finish and will embellish with red beads in their beaks to look like 

berries. Customers love anything Raven and the custom tags I use are appreciated by the shops and customers alike. I sometimes feel guilty doing production work. The assembly-line style necessary to kick-out multiples of anything has always made me a bit uncomfortable as an artist. I can also get fussy and grumpy when I need to do any kind of repetitive work, maybe that's why housework isn't very fun -ha! I admit I cheer up when I type up the invoices and I'm truly giddy when the checks arrive in the mail. I've enjoyed reading about how other artist's cope with production work, and their Blogs 

have provided a wonderful opportunity for a peek at behind the scenes work styles, frustrations, ideas and solutions. I'm off to finish tagging and loading a delivery for Half Moon Creek Gallery then back to package the Raven's for ABO and our road trip North.

The Dream Box

A bunch of us independent artists try and get together every few weeks to have coffee. We chat, grinch, share info about upcoming shows, new projects, galleries to stay away from or support. We call it Art Coffee and it is a good reason for us to crawl out of the loneliness of our studios to get some face time with our peeps. At Art Coffee a couple of months ago, my friend and ATC artist, Diane gave me one of her original Artist Trading Cards as a thank you for inviting her to join our coffee group. Diane met some new artist friends and enjoyed being included. I like to try and add a new artist friend to each coffee to help grow new relationships.

On Saturday, I attended the 2nd annual Transformed Treasures Auction & Luncheon at the Sheraton Anchorage Hotel. The event is a fundraiser for local Salvation Army programs. The idea of the event is to have local artists and craftspeople transform one-of-a-kind items found in local Salvation Army thrift stores into treasures. The luncheon attendees bid on the "transformed" items through silent and live auction. There were easily over a hundred items valued from $15 to a (re)hand crafted, game room, card playing table with 4 chairs set that went for $5,000! An old leather skirt was transformed into a journal cover, old sweaters were transformed into a hat and mitten sets, purses and felted wool art. Lamps were given hip, new shades with hand-

painted designs and otherwise tossed out everyday objects became incredible found objects of art.

My next door neighbor Mary and I went together and we each met another group of friends at the event. My other friends and Mary already had tickets and I was fortunate to be able to purchase one of the remaining 10 walk-in tickets because the event was sold out. The entire ballroom of the Sheraton was filled. In the silent auction sections, Mary was the successful bidder on a large, "transformed" wall mirror and an assemblage piece titled "Dream Box." The piece was originally a jewelry box that was made artful and had little messages and items in each of the 5 drawers labeled, D, R, E, A and M. There was a message about the Celtic God of Dreams called Angus Mac Og in one drawer, lampwork beads in another drawer and in the top drawer was an Artist Trading Card. The card was similar to the card my friend Diane had given me a couple of months 

ago! When Mary had returned from paying for her items I helped her carry the Dream Box and mirror to our car and shared with her what I'd found in the Box while she was paying for her items. When I told her about having a similar Trading Card to the one in the top drawer, she said "you aren't going to believe this -but I bought this Dream Box for you for all that you do for me!!" I said "no way, you bought this for me, how thoughtful!!" After discovering the card, Mary said it must have been meant to be! When we got home we compared the two cards and looked on the bottom of the Dream Box -guess who the artist was that made and donated the box to the Transformed Treasures event...... it was Diane!