Let It Snow!

So much for my shopping trip to town today! I had wanted to go to the Museum Craft Weekend and visit with my other artist friends, see all the wonderful art and peruse the Read Alaska Illustrators and Authors sale on this famous shopping weekend. However,  Mother Nature recommends that I stay off the highway and strap on the skis instead! The snow storm has broke for the time being and left over a foot of snow on our Girdwood doorstep, dumped 40+ inches on the mountain and left everyone giddy –except for the road maintenance crew and our front end loader driver who plows our drive! Will called and said the Anchorage roads were a bit of a mess but getting cleared up. Daddy-O is up on the Mountain carving it up and I think Gus and I will just stay put in paradise, make a turkey sandwich and have some more pie!

I don’t remember ever participating in “Black Friday” but I’m sure my sister and some of my friends were up at the wee hours yesterday helping our economy… I actually participated in the reverse and delivered artwork TO SELL to Holiday shoppers at Babes In The Woods, Shelbi Lynne's lovely new shop on the

Alyeska Boardwalk! She promised she'd send me some photos of the inside of her shop to post. 

*Oh Darn it! I have to run down to the Mercantile, I'M OUT OF COOL WHIP FOR MY PIE -arrrgh!

Giving Thanks

Tauzer is Thankful that she has a playmate. While Will is at work, and since I work from home, we get to baby sit Will’s new puppy while she grows a larger bladder. Tauzer is also Thankful that “Salem” goes home at the end of the day!

What I’m Thankful For (the condensed list)…

1. My Health. This one is a gimme. Exactly nine years ago today I was laying in a hospital bed at the University of Washington Medical

 Center for 30+ days after my first round of being treated for Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). This is a girl who has never-ever spent more than 48 hours indoors! The caring nurse brought me my “Thanksgiving Dinner” tray of semi-traditional fare –though the “turkey” didn’t really resemble the turkey we always enjoyed, it was more of a Spam-Turkey combo and not very tasty to say the least. I’m Thankful I’m in full remission and approaching the magic 10-year good statistic mark. To this day I cook a HUGE real turkey whether there are two or  twenty of us and toast “To Turkey Not Spurkey!”

2. My Husband. I’m Thankful we still like

 each other enough to hug and kiss every day. We are partners and are happy to be the best of friends. He’s a wonderful provider and he’s such a good father and mentor. I’m proud of him and would marry him all over again. I’m embarrassed to say that he’s so easy going I sometimes take him for granted. A customer came to the house to pick up a special order on Monday and shared with me that her husband was recently killed in an accident. I was so surprised and saddened for her loss, yet I was so thankful for my husband that I have been thinking about all of his qualities non-stop the last two days.

3. My Family. Yes, families can be difficult sometimes, yet our family is filled with so much love, happiness and opportunities that I am truly Thankful. Our kids are smart and healthy and they are growing up to be their own person, the transformations seems weird to me –where did the time go?! On Tuesday my sister and her daughter surprised us with a homemade pumpkin pie! They took the time to come over to the house and we all visited for hours –because of our cris-crossing schedules we haven’t been able to connect for the last couple of months though we live in the same city. Being nurses my sister and her husband are both working today at the hospital and I’m Thankful for the love and care she and her husband give to very sick patients and their families. I’m even Thankful for my former husband. We saw each other at Great Harvest Bread Company on Tuesday and gave each other a big hug –though we also live near one another, we hadn’t seen each other in a few months and it was good to chat, laugh and see that we both were buying fresh yummy bread for friends and family for the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Yes, I’m Thankful for many more things because I feel I have a very good life. I work hard, play hard, I am optimistic and try to be a good wife, mom, sister, daughter, friend and a good steward of the earth. There are so many things to be Thankful for. On this Thanksgiving Holiday what are you Thankful for?

Happy Turkey Day!

Tundra Comics are by one of our favorite local cartoonist's Chad Carpenter.

Blessing of the Skis & Boards

Today, after church services at the Girdwood Chapel, Rev. Jim Doepken hosted the Blessing of the Skis & Boards for young and old. It was a lot of fun as well as inspiring as we talked about the beauty and importance of the mountains that surround us. Daddy-O had to be on the mountain early with the new & returning ski instructors so Gus and I gathered around the fire outside the Chapel and his new rides were blessed! I even brought my X-Country skis to be blessed –you never 

know, Moose Meadows can get wild!

Blessing of the Skis & Boards Greeting from Rev. Jim Doepken (read responsively)

Many: Upon our skis and boards, O Lord, You bless us.

One: When we ponder the splendor of the mountains and the glaciers sparkling with snow…

Many: Upon our skis and boards, O Lord, You bless us.

One: When, through the cold blueness of the day, we track the snow-covered slopes, or cross the snow-covered fields…

Many: Upon our skis and boards, O Lord, You bless us.

One: Lord, protect your friends on the mountain and guide them across the fields of snow and through the trails, until the summit of our love resounds in praise and adoration.

Scripture: Psalm 99 and Psalm 121, Messge: Approaching the Mountain

A Prayer for Our Skiers and Borders

As the sun illuminates a crystal clear panorama of snow covered peaks, my spirit emerges higher still. Be at my side as I carve and wind down every graceful hill you have created. As the endless trail of life welcomes me further along be my guide and partner. IF I should stumble, catch me and raise me up./ Set me on a right path with the courage to try again, the wisdom to be mindful of pitfalls I should not repeat, and a warmth in my heart for the beauty you have created in this mountain, snow, and in me. Amen

The Blessing of the Ski Patrol and those who work on the Mountain. Blessing of the Skiers and Riders. Blessing of the Skis and Boards.

Humorous Closing Prayer (Said in unison) 

Our Powder, that falls from Heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Let’s all have some fun,

As we take some more runs,

On Earth, as it must be in Heaven.

Give us this day and our secret stash,

And forgive us our rope duckings.

As we forgive those who cut lift lines in front of us.

And Lead us not into any obstacles.

And may we never Need the ski patrol.

Amen.

Space Invaders

Last year, when I was redesigning the studio to accommodate my newest medium of clay I had bought a couple of good books on studio design and really cool potters studios. One of the things mentioned in a book was “a Slab Roller Table can double as additional surface area.” I thought to myself, “no way! I would never use my sacred slab roller area for anything other than clay,” that just seemed sacrilegious… well, not using that valuable surface area lasted about two months! Anchorage set a record low temp “for this day in history” last week. At a 

cool 6 degrees (colder in most areas and it’s not even Thanksgiving!!) I had to move a lot of metal pieces that were (not) drying out in the shop/garage area into the warmer and dryer clean studio area. Ravens were on tap this week filing pre-Holiday orders and finishing up some special requests from the Bad Girls Show. I had Raven sculptures in various stages of production everywhere! Ironically, there was a story in the Fairbanks Newsminer that a customer and our daughter had e-mailed me about “Hundreds of birds seem to mourn deaths of fellow ravens…” I guess there were hundreds of Ravens gathered in east Fairbanks after two Ravens roosting on top of a transformer were electrocuted. It made for quite an eerie scene.

We had a couple of pleasant surprises when we arrived at the Girdwood house last night. First, it was snowing and a balmy 15 degrees! Second, Daddy-O’s new boards arrived and were waiting for him at the Mountain Learning Center’s office. Derek works part-time as a PSIA Level III Ski Instructor 

and PSIA Examiner at the Resort. He was a very happy boy. The upper level instructors are being treated to a clinic day on the lower mountain today, before the mountain

opens to the public this Wednesday the 25th. Third, while Derek was picking up his skis we saw that the lights were on at Shelbi Lynne’s new shop, “Babes in the Woods Gallery!” Here shop features “Art, Apparel and Adventure” and is located on the Alyeska Boardwalk. Shelbi says her new gallery is “featuring a fresh collection of Alaskan artwork, a rejuvenated vision, surrounded by woods and some of the best ski slopes Alaska has to offer. Nestled in between the Sitzmark and the 

Day Lodge, just a few doors down from Girdwood Visual Arts Center and the Bake Shop, come by to say hello, enjoy the space, and get a healthy dose of inspiration.” She asked me to bring in some of my metal work and I’m excited to make up a few cool art pieces and bring them down to her hip little shop next week. Just in time for artful Holiday gift giving!

Deer in The Bright Lights

We have a digital type of “black box” that can beam, shoot or receive (or whatever it does) like a bazillion television channels to our house and we killed it –a long time ago. We keep the “black box” up in a closet  –and we only keep “cable” to have high-speed internet access. Much to our kid’s chagrin, we have always been a huge public television and public radio household, never giving them a gajillion channels at their fingertips (which would be gripped on a remote). So when Cindy Stophlet from KAKM called and asked if I wanted to be famous, I jumped at the chance. Well, not really famous, but would I volunteer to shoot a promo 

vignette with my wall sculpture “Alaska Range” which I was donating to their upcoming fundraising event. In Anchorage, our Public Television Station is KAKM and a premiere art and fundraising event is the KAKM Art Showcase that will be televised live February 11, 12 and 13.  A few of Anchorage’s well known artists, who were donating popular works, were asked if they'd like to promote their art along with the KAKM Art Showcase Auction as the station was filming vignettes with the artists and their work. The 2010 benefit is fast approaching and I 

cleaned up pretty well for the filming, left the welding helmet and Carhartt’s at home and even put on some mascara and lip gloss! I was really nervous and when it was time to read my lines my mouth went dry and my lips felt like they were sticking to my teeth! John LaFournaise, the Production Manager and Scott Bruno the Audio Technician were really helpful and patient as I raced through my blurb the first time. John and Cindy had written up what I wanted to say and input it on the computer which then gently rolled in front of me on the teleprompter screen. When I was able to slow my speech, pronounce my name correctly and clearly, calm down and quit looking at myself in the other monitor they felt we finally had a good take and I felt famous! Here is a link to the 2009 event.  *Anchorage Artists, there is still time for YOU to support public television by donating to the 2010 Art Showcase. KAKM is seeking artwork including sculpture, pottery, jewelry, glass and other fine art & craft. Donations must be received by January 6 to be included in the catalog, contact KAKM at 907-550-8400. 

More, Lights, Camera, Action! Got this via e-mail yesterday and know all my pottery friends should enter: Ceramic Arts Daily Announces Artist Studio Visit Video Contest. Send them a video of your space and enter to win a Skutt Elite Pottery Wheel! "We're looking for creative, friendly, personable, entertaining, humorous, interesting and informative video tours of the garages, barns, basements, warehouses, lofts, closets, and porches that enable our readers to work in clay. Videos should focus on the interesting things that make a studio or a method of working unique. For all the details on the contest, check out  a link to the prospectus."

Got this from my Raku friend Gina who is active with the Bunnell Gallery. Bunnell Trunk Show Comes to Anchorage! This is a fundraising sale of special items from the Bunnell Street Art Center to be held at Jo and Peter Michalski’s home, 921 West 14^th Street in Anchorage. November 22, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. There is a minimum suggested donation of $25. Enjoy a delicious mug of homemade soup with bread from Fire Island Bakery and earn a raffle ticket for a pair of Rika Mouw earrings with every purchase of your $25 donation!

Artful Publishing

It’s all Judy’s fault. My creative brain has been on overdrive for publishing another children’s book, or doing custom reprints of my original alphabet books. When Willie

 was born in the late 80’s, I wrote and illustrated the Alaska Animal Alphabet and later the Amazing Animal Alphabet. I wanted to create a “stay-at-home mom” cottage business and self-published the ABC wall friezes and books.  All of my printing was eventually done in Hong Kong at a major children’s book printer. I had the good fortune to travel to China as a designer with a client who was in the toy industry and introduced to their printer, forging an instant business relationship, though the thought of reprinting the books again in China would involve much more energy and time than I have now. Both books and wall friezes were a hit and as a literacy advocate I’ve volunteered at schools

promoting reading, writing and illustrating children’s books. I have a plastic tub filled with the most precious letters written by school children all over the country who have been inspired to create their own alphabets after learning how I made my ABC books. Over the years both have been reprinted a couple of times and as the kids grew and I moved on to other artful ventures and publishing and the books were set aside. Occasionally, I’m asked to illustrate kid’s names in the letters (thankfully I now have them all digital) for birthday or baby shower gifts. In high school an all zoo alphabet I created called AlphaZoo’s provided my gas money as I illustrated family and friends names. It was quite serendipitous that a friend asked me to illustrate (digitally now) a couple of names for them this week, as new baby and sibling gifts and The Alaska Alphabet has been put on the front burner again as part of a 1% For Art Proposal I’m currently bidding on…. I forgot how much I enjoy seeing the names come to life with each animal! When I read fiber artist extraordinaire, Judy Coates Perez of Painted Threads had just published her first book on the e-publishing site of Blurb I’ve been all fired up about the books again! We went to the library today and I was surprised to see my original Alphabet books on the shelf in the children’s section! With the new digital and electronic technology Blurb and other similar sites offer, just about

anything can be self-published at a fraction of the cost and hassle. Check out some of the Blurb staff picks as well as most recently published Blurb titles, those alone are inspiring!

Kristen is home from UAF for a few days and just in time to celebrate Daddy-O and my anniversary! With all the kids in one city at one time we treated everyone to dinner

 at Bear Tooth Grill for our Anniversary on 11/12 (we married on 11/12 so we could remember the date better -though Mom still needs to call us and remind us!). Our hostess took a group shot as we squeezed together in the booth. Will, Will’s cute girlfriend Nikki, Gus, Kristen, Me & Derek are in the group shot. Gus gets a big ‘sis squeeze and Derek 

and I toast the night with a yummy, Spenard Brown Ale! -I know, I know, the last two pictures of me in my Blog I’ve been holding alcohol… tis' the Season!

Artful Economics

Look what I bought with my sales made from the Show!!

Just kidding. Though there are times when both Daddy-O and I get WAP’s like “I know, lets sell the houses, home school the youngest on a boat and cruise around warmer climes. I could make arts & crafts for island tourists and D could give surfing lessons to beautiful socialites and co-eds… -huh?!”  WAP’s save us from ourselves. I saw this boat for sale this summer while visiting the folks -wow, did Gus and I both want it and it was a deal. In reality we probably couldn't have afforded even the fuel for it! WAPs allow Derek and I to dream without actually putting us in the poor house by making very bad, impulsive life altering decisions. We first saw WAPs in a Patagonia catalog - the original Wish Book. Wild Ass Plans allow dreamers to dream and allowed me to spend my (though very much inflated) Bad Girl Money in a very Bad Girl way.

We had our first real measurable snowfall yesterday and only 4 days shy of setting a new record for the year’s latest date for the snow to fall in the Anchorage Bowl. With crazy drivers being at an all-time high, my Monday was filled with a list of post-show to-do’s that didn’t all get done. Banking, deliveries, customer follow-ups etc. and today I need to RETURN my NEW credit card machine –arrrgh. With a line of customers

on opening night at the Show, my machine went on the *blink*. I was panicked –thank goodness I had at the last minute decided to throw in my vintage “knuckle buster” credit card slider and ended up manually processing every credit card transaction for the show. The machine (old one on the left, NEW broken one on the right) was still not working even after my sweet husband raced it back to the studio, had merchant services (he swears from somewhere in a third world country) over the telephone, re-program it, download more instructions for it to behave and raced it back to me at the Show. I’m even more frustrated because I was forced to upgrade and pay for this new machine after my bank told me my older machine was going to be non-compliant –huh?! Short story long, I’m going in to talk with merchant services today and grinch a bit for the stress, time and freak-out this NEW machine gave me this weekend during one of my largest Show's of the year.

I wanted to pass on a  few links I discovered while researching some 1% For Art Projects. First, is the Café, Call For Entry, an on-line call for entry site managed by the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF), which I had no idea existed but registration is mandatory 

to bid on certain % for art projects. On the Cafe site there are also links to;

ArtJob.org, an online Arts job bank listing national opportunities for arts administrators and others, internships, grants, public art projects, and residencies; ArtistsRegister.com,

an online gallery that allows visual artists to showcase their work and connects the artists with private collectors, gallery owners, interior designers, corporate art buyers, public art administrators, and general art enthusiasts; ZAPPlication.org™, an online application and adjudication system for art fairs, festivals, and shows; and CultureGrants Online™, a highly adaptive online grants-application system designed to make it easier for state, local, and regional public arts and humanities funding agencies to manage grant-making processes. WESTAF is also the creator and purveyor of a research-based economic development tool, the Cultural Vitality Index, that measures and provides comparable data about the health of an area's creative sectors.

Who knew?!

Bad Girls Gone Good!

This was my best Bad Girls of the North Show yet. I'm happy to say there were others who had fantastic customers as well, including Vicki, one of the Show organizers! I also had the best booth neighbor, Linda Smith who makes weaved beaded jewelry under the name, Mistress of Chaos. She and I worked together to set up an open style, easy to get in and out of spaces. Customers could flow from our booths without any walls or barriers. She uses incredible vintage props like hat boxes and small vintage suitcases to create various heights to show off her jewelry. Linda had created several romantic vignettes with antique mirrors, fabric and lighting on two large tables that could accompany several customers at once. My large, corner booth enabled me to have an open format with the gridwall flat against the ballroom walls and customers didn't feel boxed in by a traditional booth shape. By the time we were set up there were so many customers surrounding (and purchasing!) Linda's booth I couldn't get a good photo of our space!  My booth was a nice, corner space that allowed for the gridwall to be spread out and I was able to set up a couple of tables that held portfolio binders of work. Many people stopped to look through the work and inquire about future commissions. I had a small bowl set out with dark chocolate Hershey Kisses because the bright purple foil catches their eye and gives grateful customers a little sugar boost while shopping! The photo of my booth isn't the best, it was taken in the middle of setting up, but the design worked -I started with 4 FULL, large bicycle boxes of inventory and left last night with only a 1/2 full one! I'm also confident that there will be a few customers who will be calling in the next few days for those remaining pieces. Some customers wanted to purchase work after the Show to surprise a partner or friend. 

Setting up Bad Girls of the North Show Friday, the ballroom was transformed in a couple of hours. There were several places to Shop in additional booths outside of the Ballroom as well as another banquet room that featured the work of Christi Jones of Fairweather Prints. I wish I would have had more time to get some better photos of the great booths and talented artists, but honestly as soon as those doors opened to the public Friday at 4pm , it was non-stop sales until closing Saturday night! woo-hoo! Another bonus was set up for Willie and I went smooth and did NOT involve below zero temps. It remained in the 30's and made for load-in and load out a breeze and not a FREEZE. 

Thanks to all my loyal customers, fellow artisans and friends, it was a VERY GOOD Show!

Of course we had the traditional post Show dinner at LaCabania and Daddy-O was my designated driver.

oXo

Feeling Like A Bad Girl!

Good thing too, the 2009 Bad Girls of the North Show opens today at 4:00 p.m. and I’m READY! My hands are scratched up from wire and puffy, caffeine has never tasted so good and I was wide awake at 4:30 a.m. unable to get back to sleep. This is one of my favorite art events to do. Vicki and Carol, the show’s organizers strive for a first class event for both the artists and customers. The venue historically has been held in a major hotel ballroom creating a professional, festive atmosphere and which enables customers to enjoy FREE appetizers and a no host bar. So to say the least, tomorrow morning, I normally don’t have a voice left and I’m moving a little slow –but all in the good spirit of bringing ART to the people. Willie boy is on line again to help me load in and set up. With both of our trucks we should do it in one trip. The weather is totally cooperating being balmy and above freezing. I can hardly believe our weather luck –last year it was so cold the steel grid wall racks froze to Willie and my hands and I lost my load of racks on 9^th Avenue on the icy road! Gus has been wishing for snow but no luck yet here in the Anchorage bowl. Gus says our weather must be  “stuck!” Fine by me, at least until we tear down tomorrow night.

Above are a couple of pictures of another steel/clay work that will be at the Show. It’s called “Sedna, the Inuit Goddess of the Sea.” I used metal kelp and starfish to hold the ^04 fired clay work in place. I really like the direction of the work and hopefully will work on some more pieces in other types of clay, soon... I have been inspired for years of the Inuit legend of Sedna and would like to experiment with her form as soon as I can get more clay and glazes ordered.  OK, I’m ready to start my long day, send your positive energy and thoughts to the Universe's Creative Spirit Guardians, blessing all of the Bad Girl Artists to have kind customers, approved credit cards, good company and renewed friendships, oh and tasty Alaskan Amber & Ales on tap!

Push Me Pull Me (Please!)

With the flip of the calendar from October to November(!) I’m on countdown till the big Bad Girls of the North Show which opens at 4pm on Friday… Less than 3 days of production left –yikes. It seems like there were still so many other fun pieces I wanted to make. There are clearly not enough clay with steel works made. Originally, I had BIG plans to 

introduce my new medium of clay at Bad Girls but I didn’t do a very good job of juggling “mixing of the mediums” very well at all this year. Heavy sigh –so much art to make, so few 28-hour days. My stomach always gets a bit rumbly-tumbly and does flip-flops starting a whole week before a show. I’ve been working hard and diligently planning my artmaking but I’m never sure if I’ve made the right stuff or even enough stuff. There are only so many forming, welding, firing, glazing, finishing, painting, drying days left now, so a few things that were on my “want to make for Bad Girls” list have been crossed completely off.

One of the clay and steel sculptures that I really wanted to finish and DID finish -yippee, was “Tired Old Moon.” When I looked in the archive to see when I first Blogged about Mr. Moon I would have never guessed it was last January! Holy cow, where did time go?!

When I finished the Magpie sculpture last week, I was inspired as to how to make a stand for “Tired Old Moon.” Both sculptures are free standing, welded to round, 14” steel plate bases and are about 6’ tall. The Moon can slip on and off the steel stand through a fist size hole in the back of the Moon. He was formed using Tile White clay, fired at ^04 in my electric kiln and I used an Amaco Matte aqua glaze.

O.K. I admit my muscles (and Tauzer's too!) are moving a bit slower today than normal and it’s not from all the steel I’ve been slinging! Saturday, on Halloween Gus wanted us to look for ghosts up at Crow Creek Mine in Girdwood. The mountain scene photo was taken up at Crow Pass Trail, where we took him up to the trail head to see if he could see any apparitions. With no sign of spooky spirits in the bright sunshine, we headed back down the mountain toward the trailhead of 

the Iditarod National Historic Trail which extends from Girdwood to Eklutna. His voice echoed in the frozen boreal forest “If any of you miner ghosts are out there, just give me a sign –even if it is a creepy one!” That had Derek and I biting our tongues not to laugh out loud as we hiked along the Winner Creek Gorge Trail. The reward was reaching the hand tram and crossing Winner Creek. Thankfully, Daddy-O has Popeye arms and pulled me back across after I got a picture of the creek!