Bidding Adieu to 2009!

The headlines for next (week’s) year’s Blog posts have been formulating in my head already… “Getting back into the swing of things, Snap Out of It!, Working Girl, Oh, my aching muscles, Ouch 9 to 5 is hard work, Woe is Me, Crack That Whip, What do you mean where’s the money to pay the bills"…

I’ll be hard at it Monday morning, I promise…but until then it has been a house full of family and friends, skiing, eating, movie watching and roasting marshmallows in the fire pit. Tonight Daddy-O and Kristen want to ski in Alyeska's Torchlight Parade to bid farewell to 2009. Everyone else will be watching them from our deck, sitting by the fire pit, snaking down the mountain like little red fire flies. Life is good and the Hot Butter Rum Batter we whipped up has been delicious (too delicious, my head hurts...), Happy New Year to everyone!

Me, Gus and Daddy-O

Gus, Katie and Kristen on the Mountain

Roasting dinner, I mean marshmallows

More Merry Making Than Art Making

Look at the sweet little felt birdie I got from my friend Pat for Christmas! I wish it were tagged or carded a bit better so I could give the artist who created it credit. Pat purchased it at the 2 Friends Gallery because it came it a cute, red bag with their card on it. The cool thing about 2 Friends is that they give 10% of all sales to a different non-profit organization each month.

We also gave and received honey for the Holiday! The lighter color honey on the left is from our friend in Homer, AK who makes a pure Fireweed & Clover variety under the name Kachemak Mountain Dew Honey Co. The other handled jar is Orange Blossom Pure Arizona Honey from The Honeyman.

Not a whole lot of artmaking going on this week but plenty of eating, drinking, and merry making! Kristen is down from UAF and with us through New Years. She and Derek want to ski in Alyeska’s annual New Year's eve Torchlight Parade. We're hoping it cools off a bit

(strange for some of you to read, I know!) and snow. It has been an unseasonably balmy 40 degrees and rainy the last few days. Yes, that’s my stocking feet horizontal on the sofa, along with my constant companions, Tauzer Schnauzer and Sugar puppy. I did get up and make some delicious Rhubarb Apple Strudel. Pat (who gave me the birdie) gave me a recipe from our other friend Amanda’s Rhubarb book “Every Which Way With Rhubarb.” Pat had some left over frozen Rhubarb from her garden she gifted us

and Daddy-O is crazy for Rhubarb. I’m not a very good baker (though I am in my mind...) and stick to easy to succeed recipes and this is one of them! Yaaay for Daddy-O and me because there are only a couple of pieces of this Strudel left. It really is easy –here is the recipe:

Filling:

2 cups rhubarb, thinly sliced

3 sweet apples, finely chopped

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons lemon zest (I used orange peel)

3 tablespoons raisins

2 tablespoons Minute tapioca, dry from the box

Pastry:

12 sheets phyllo dough (I bought the Safeway frozen brand and it was OK, though not too buttery)

½ cup melted butter (I used waaaaay more)

¾ cup pecans, finely chopped

Combine the first six filling ingredients with ½ cup of water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Simmer for 12 minutes. Stir in tapioca (I should have shaken up the box better as it instructed) and let cool. Set aside. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Using 6 sheets of phyllo for each strudel, spread each sheet with butter, sprinkle with nuts and stack. Spoon half of the filling along the long edge of each stack. Fold the edges over to enclose the filling and roll up, jelly-roll fashion. Place on a greased baking sheet. Brush the tops with butter. With a sharp knife cut four slits in each strudel. Bake 25 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool 15 minutes before slicing and serving. *This tastes wonderful made with just apples too!

Santa Sighting

What does Santa do before he loads his sleigh delivering presents to good girls and boys?

Santa skis for free at Alyeska!

Ho-Ho-Ho

...and he has a cold, Alaskan Amber on tap at the Sitzmark before he flies through the night-

Merry Christmas to All and To All a Good Night!

Gifts from the heART

When Gus asked his Dad what he wanted for Christmas, Derek answered, “I’d like you to make me something, like writing me a story or drawing one of your special cartoon strips.” Gus asked if he couldn’t just go to the store and get Daddy-O some new underwear or gloves because Gus thought Dad could really use some new ones...(don't worry I've got that covered).

Warning Holiday spoiler ahead: Daddy-O don’t read this post any further until after Christmas Eve…

After we talked about how much more special hand-made gifts were, Gus was fortunately inspired by two movies we saw. We recently watched “Nim’s Island” (multiple times) that I had picked up at the Thrift store. The story was based on the book written by Wendy Orr. Both Gus and I fell in love with the paper cut-out art featured in the introduction and trailers. We researched the artist and found out that this very creative paper art was created by the design group Imaginary Forces. We also were inspired by the small hand-cut paper puppets

seen in the movie “Paper Heart.” After seeing the cool paper cut-outs used in a mini-play in Paper Hearts, Gus and I decided to put on a paper puppet play for Daddy-O on Christmas Eve. Of course, Gus’ play is about all things Frankenstein. Mine is going to be about a hip and talented

art chick who meets a very hot ski guy who is also a really smart teacher and they both are always kissing…or something like that. I haven’t cut out my characters yet because I was busy making the Theater. I made it to look similar to the Mann’s Chinese Theater in LA. I Googled images of the iconic theater and thought it looked so cool! I had no idea that it has the most incredible metal work on the peaks and roof. When Gus and I put on our Show, I think our paper theater will look dramatic with all of the lights out except the mini-spot light and the Christmas tree lights shining on the

puppet stage. While Dad was up on the mountain yesterday, Gus and I had a practice rehearsal with his Frankenstein and the angry mob characters and it looked great so far! I think we are going to make some more backdrop drawings and I’m going to cut out my hot couple xOx. They’ll probably look a little like D and I… This may even turn into a Holiday tradition -sounds fun huh?!

Welcome to Winter!

The Love Shack as the afternoon sun begins to set in Girdwood.

Happy Winter Solstice!

Twelve is a big number. Between today and January 1, we will gain twelve wonderful minutes of daylight -which is a very big deal considering that the sun will set today around 3:41 p.m. Surrounded by all of this snow it’s hard to believe that Winter officially only BEGINS today in the Northern Hemisphere. I’ve always happily looked at Winter Solstice as the beginning of the end. Today is one of Daddy-O’s favorite Holidays, second only to sometime in the Spring, when we spot the first Seagull returning. In Anchorage, when the Seagulls replace the Ravens it is a true sign of warmer and brighter days ahead.

Today's Dilbert...

Let it Snow in 99587

We were right. While we knew Anchorage was getting walloped by snow, it DUMPED in Girdwood! This is a picture of our street. The trees were so heavy with snow they formed arches for us to drive under! There was so much snow we couldn’t get up our stairs to the front door (do you like my $1.50 wreath I bought at the Thrift store this week hanging on the front door?!) without shoveling a path. Thankfully Bob with his front end loader had visited our house and the drive was clear. Over a foot in the last couple of days has left our neighborhood looking like a heavily frosted Gingerbread village and with four-wheel drive it’s lovely.

oXo

For my friends in Anchorage wanting some FRESH art, my friend Katie Sevigny just told me that she and the Upstairs Studio Artists at 406 G Street, between 4th & 5th Ave. -the stairs are located next to Pils Deli. are having an open to the public studio sale this Sunday from 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm. For more information give Katie a call at 258-ARTS (2787).

CaFÉ Help: If you’re an Alaska artist (other artists may find this site informative as well because it is a National data base of Artist Opportunities) interested in participating or applying for % for Art projects, don’t miss this teleconference! The Alaska State Council on the Arts has just started using the paperless CaFÉ online application process for Calls for Art and other art projects. *This is not to be confused for applying for the Municipality of Anchorage 1% For Art Projects which is still a paper application process.

CaFE Teleconference for Alaska Visual Artist

Tuesday December 22, 2009 12:30-1:30 pm

Or

Tuesday December 29, 2009 5:30-6:30 (repeat of Dec. 22)

The goal of this teleconference is to familiarize Alaska artists with the CaFÉ online application form and the application process for ASCA’s % for Art projects.

Please RSVP:
By phone to ASCA at 907-269-6610 or 1-888-278-7424 or e-mail andrea.noble@alaska.gov <mailto:andrea.noble@alaska.gov> before 9am on Monday December 21, or Monday December 28 (for the repeat offering of this session). You will receive the conference code when you RSVP.

Our neighbor's car waiting to be dug out after a "light dusting" of snow in Girdwood where "We HEART Snow!"

xOx

What Have Your Hands Made for the Holiday?

Southcentral Alaska has been under heavy snowfall and it’s been beautiful. Just in time for the Anchorage School District winter break which begins when the final bell rings today at 3:30pm. YIPPEE! Of course if it’s been dumping snow here in Anchorage we probably won’t even be able to make it up our deck stairs in Girdwood –Alyeska always gets a ton more snow than we do here in town. But we’re ready to scoop and shovel and give good directions to Bob, the front end loader driver who really does all of our plowing in Girdwood. With a relaxed production schedule I’ve been the one keeping up on the Anchorage driveway

and decks and I admit even with the big snow scoop my upper arms are sore. My studio table hasn’t seen much art production this week but the Studio has been looking more like Santa’s workshop. The table is the perfect height and size for wrapping and assembling gifts. Some get delivered to school today and others will travel with us down to Girdwood tomorrow.

For gift-giving I made some special Good Fortune Pea Pods that I have Blogged about before. I also plasma cut and welded my sister Chris a wildflower wall sculpture –though I didn’t know it at the time… The Gallery called me last week and said my sister was in and really, really, really liked the large wildflower wall sculpture they were getting ready to hang. It would fit perfectly on her entryway wall. I asked Chris at Half Moon Creek Gallery if she was sure my sister Chris didn’t say something to the effect of “I really like that sculpture because it looks like the one my sister made me” and Gallery Chris was positive that my sister Chris had

expressed interest (though probably in jest) in wanting that sculpture. Though I was a bit stumped, I told the Gallery thanks for the heads up, to set it aside and I’d be in to pick it up as it would be the perfect Holiday gift for my sister Chris. OK, so here’s the weird part. A couple of months ago I had welded three similar wildflower wall sculptures, two for the Gallery and one for my sister’s entryway after she asked me to make her one this summer. I thought I’d already given her the sculpture but instead I had taken all three to the Gallery and she never got the one I made especially for her –until Tuesday at lunch!! Chris (my sister) and I met for yummy Mexican food and we exchanged gifts for our kids and then walking to our cars, I “surprised” her with the sculpture I'd picked up from the Gallery!

The picture is cropped because it’s just a quick “inventory” shot. I try and shoot every piece before it heads out of the Studio just for my files. Chris’ piece is just over 5’ long, with a clear coat finish and she was absolutely thrilled to get it and thought the whole story was even funnier. Along with the Pea Pods, a couple of wall sculptures and smaller metal ornaments, I’ll probably be making some small, 3x5 water color mountain paintings this weekend as well as some Holiday cookies. So what are your hands making for Holiday gifts for friends and family?

The Orangutan and the Hound

When Surya the Orangutan meets a stray Hound Dog by the river, the two seem like long lost friends.

During this Season of sharing, enjoy a little holiday love...

Watch The Orangutan and the Hound

Here Fishy, Fishy!

The Holiday inventory is created, tagged, priced and delivered to the Galleries. I tried to work extra hard prior to the Thanksgiving break so I’d have enough inventory for shoppers during the month of December. I was thinking it felt a bit like fishing. I love to both fish and make art, and was thinking that one of the most important components for both is presentation. When I’m fishing I present the bait nice and fresh, in just the right place, right time and in an attractive way.

I was thinking that it was the same for my art waiting to be purchased at the Galleries. I’ve tried to keep the art new and exciting, priced right, attractively tagged and the Galleries have merchandised the work beautifully. The old saying “if you don’t fish you can’t catch” works for both as well!

It was a fishy, fishy week in the studio this week too. There was a Copper Salmon commission that needed to be made and orders for more Halibut Ornaments and wall sculptures. On request, I delivered a few more pieces to Shelbi Lynne’s new Babes in the Woods Gallery in Girdwood. She’s had great traffic and enthusiastic Holiday shoppers. I was a bit bummed though when I read she had misspelled my name and website (Cyndi…) in an e-mail advertisement. Especially since EVERYTHING

I deliver is individually tagged and even my delivery receipt has the correct spellings of my name, address, Blog and website. These mistakes can happen to all of us this busy time of year, but it is a good reminder to double check posts and links before hitting send. While I appreciated the mentions, having a website address that leads to nowhere doesn’t help either of us. On a positive, when I delivered Copper Salmon wall sculptures to Half Moon Creek Gallery on Friday the store was filled with customers AND beautiful new inventory. It was reassuring to witness all of the art buying going on.

The pictures I’ve posted are of the Halibut Ornaments and some of the Copper Salmon used in the wall sculptures. I like to heat-treat the copper using a small propane torch to give it that iridized color. The copper is very sensitive to heat and the small hand held torch provides just the right amount of flame and heat without “burning” the color out of the copper. Once the copper burns, there is no retrieving that iridized color. Because copper is a non-ferrous metal, the copper components are then hand riveted to the welded steel sculpture’s frame. Though they can be hard to find, I use copper rivets on the copper salmon instead of the standard aluminum or steel rivets normally found at the hardware stores. I do use the aluminum rivets for the Halibut Ornament's googly eyes though. I thought it was funny seeing all of those Halibut Ornaments looking up at me from the studio table as if they were saying “OK, we’re ready, now where are we going?”

Ding Dong, Love's Here!

The other day Gus sweetly said “Mom you don’t buy Dad and I Ding-Dongs anymore.” The Neil Diamond song “You don’t bring me flowers, You don’t sing me love songs, You hardly talk to me anymore” went through my head as I thought about it –and he was right. I haven’t shown any Ding-Dong love for quite a while and for all the reasons you may guess. In a weakened moment at the grocery store this week, a bright, big Hostess display loomed (just in time for the Holidays) and Neil Diamond sang out to me as my cart passed. OK, the box didn’t even make it home unopened and by the first stop light I already had wrinkled foil on my lap! I’m not really a lover of sweets or even a chocoholic, really –because with Daddy-O’s sweet tooth he could eat enough for both of us! But since I was a kid I’ve had a soft spot for a Ding-Dong kind of love. During school lunches, my friends and I used to make fake braces with the foil and put it over our teeth, then shriek if the foil came in contact with

one of our fillings. My grown-up household theory has been if I don’t buy it, we won’t eat it. Same goes for any addicting junk food you love to hate like; Ben & Jerry’s, pork rinds (Derek, not ME!), Doritos, Lay’s potato chips, Coca-Cola etc. But damn, that creamy frosting Ding-Dong center surrounded by the moist, fakey-fresh chocolate cake hits the spot every time! Hungry?

*Not that I would or have ever ordered BUT did you know that Amazon even sells everything from Ding Dongs to Pork Rinds junk food?! And here is a link for the T-shirt.

Share and Tell

This year, I have made an effort to buy thoughtful holiday gifts that are either handmade or support good causes. Blogging has been a wonderful benefit to connect with artisans I might not have otherwise known about. Two, really fun packages arrived last week. First, my friend Marjorie of Cowgirl Goods helped me to purchase these beautiful felted sculptures I Blogged about this weekend. Aren’t they wonderful?! When I first saw felted goats on Marjorie’s Blog I knew immediately who I wanted to give them to for Christmas (I can't say who because she reads my Blog)! I actually had them wrapped up but UNwrapped them because so many of the fiber artists from Art Coffee wanted to see them. The artist who makes them is Marilyn Pratt from Maine and she is 80 years old. Marjorie told me that Marilyn’s booth at this weekend's Women’s Holiday Art Sale in Berwick Maine, was swamped with customers clamoring for her felted sculptures. Lucky for me Marjorie was my long distance personal shopper. The coolest part of all this is that the wool on the sculptures comes mainly from one of Marjorie’s Navajo Churo Sheep named Vera!

The second special package that arrived was from Julia at Henhouse Pottery. I knew from following her Blog that Julia and her family lived on an acre and a half in a cool 100-year old house with a bunch of animals, including thousands of bees. What I also learned was that Julia harvests and sells their All Natural honey they collect from their hives under the name Wilkins Honey. My golden gifts arrived with a beautiful, full color card describing their love of bees and how they get their honey. “We are small, non-commercial beekeepers who keep bees because we love them and care about preserving the honey bee population in Utah. Our bee’s artisan honey is a wonderful by-product of our symbiotic and respectful relationship with our insects, and we are delighted to be able to share it with you.” Thank you Julia for sharing your lifestyle, your process and your harvest, because now I have 5 (well, actually 4, because we opened a honey bear up in Girdwood to have on our fresh, hot biscuits!) more wonderful gifts to give and share!

And speaking of sharing… Sophia’s Dad is one smart cookie! Jim suggested that I Google the names of the mystery glazes and see if any of them pop up. And guess what?! They ALL did, exactly as they are named on the buckets! I found them listed on Sheffield Pottery’s web site. So far it appears that this group of glazes are “Cone 6 Opulence Glazes.” I don’t think I can use my test tiles (?) on this cone 6 glaze because they were only bisque fired at only ^ 04. Probably just as well because I’m also going to take Meredith and Ang’s advice and switch to a ^6, higher firing clay for my sculpture work. Thanks potters for all your sound and expert advice!

Great Glaze Mystery

Hard to believe, but I think I’m caught up and happy. Sorry but I had to Blog about it and I know with Holiday shopping and art making for all the upcoming shows, most of you are a bit envious. Without a heap of work needing to be welded up I was able to enjoy Art Coffee yesterday a bit longer than normal –the pictures are of some of the artists who attended our gathering at Middle Way Café. We had a record turnout and a few new faces. Art Coffee is an informal gathering of independent artists who meet to share, Grinch or crow about all topics relating to life & art. A few of the highlights were announcing all the First Friday openings last night including the new Upstairs Studio grand opening. Spearheaded by my friend and painter, Katie Sevigny (who has endless energy and is also a partner in Fiddlehead Gallery) the new Upstairs Studio is a large upstairs space at 416 G Street featuring the work of 10 local artists who have their working studio spaces with a large common gallery area that is totally HIP and has Katie’s touch written all over it! The GAGA’s (Garage Art Girls Alliance) Linda Warford passed around beautiful post card mailers and announced her group had an art opening and reception at Snow City Café. Half Moon Creek Gallery –my Gallery of choice, celebrated their 7^th anniversary last night with plenty of new works and a celebration at 510 W. Tudor. Another friend, Mary Hertert shared her new location for Color Creek Fiber Art at the corner of 36^th and Arctic. I congratulated her on her “Wasp Bride” being accepted in the Earth Fire & Fiber Exhibit at the Museum! My footloose and fancy-free schedule yesterday allowed me to visit her in her new space and get fired up about doing some felting –which is all Marjorie’s fault. All pretty cool and I’ll Blog about that next week after I take some pictures and get my laptop back…

With the studio table cleared of metal sculptures, I’ve finally had some brain space for clay. There’s been too long of a break since my last firing and my supplies are low. I did pull out these buckets of glaze I bought off of Cr@igs list for only $30. Short story long is that the person who was selling the glaze was a friend of a friend who was being transferred and the selling friend had no idea what cone temp the glazes were and needed the buckets out of her garage. She didn’t really even know what the glazes were used for… the other problem was I felt I had to purchase the buckets of glaze after the friend of a friend’s, DAD actually drove them off of the Air Force base and met me at the front gate (after Daddy-O and I had an hour wait) to show them to me because I couldn’t get on Base to take a look at them… Sooooo, not to have them go to waste, my thought was to just use some of my test tiles (in the photo above) I made and fire the glazes at maybe a ^04?? Some of the names on the buckets are Satin White, Smokey Mt. Mist, Sea Spray, Galaxy, Autumn Frost, Antique Iron, Blue Monday, Eggshell, Calico and Paprika -any of these sound familiar to anyone? I hate to NOT use them if I can figure out what cone they are as I’m currently glaze poor. BTW, I should admit that I really dislike glazing! My larger clay goal is to settle on ONE type of stoneware(?) clay, maybe something tan/gold/brownish with a bit of grog for my slab work and sculptures -any suggestions? I don't do any wheel throwing and I have two large electric kilns that have an electronic controller. I need to start fireing higher than ^04-05 and also know that I need to start using larger quantities of glaze so I can DIP and start mixing my own instead of the high priced commercial quart sizes I've been buying. What do my potter friends think?

I Heart Apple Care

When the Mac store service tech told me my laptop was still covered under Apple Care, I almost jumped over the counter and planted a big fat kiss on his cute face! My MacBook Pro had a weird system bug that was causing CD’s to whir at a super sonic speed and spit out, the System Preference window would flicker on and off and my battery was acting funky (all hi-tech terminology). The good news is I had purchased the extended Apple Care Plan (hard to believe I had the foresight or cash) when I bought the laptop a couple years ago. The bad news is I need a whole new OS install BUT I would need to downgrade or upgrade. There is no way I could downgrade so I had to spring for the new $169 (“The worlds’ most advanced OS…”) Snow Leopard OS –but of course. AND since there have been a couple of new system versions since My computer was purchased I had to make the “The worlds’ most advanced OS” Snow Leopard leap. The laptop will be in the shop getting “diagnostics” done for two or three days then there is probably the two to three days for the OS install.

Now you may be asking –but how am I posting? No, I don't have an i-phone or could I even "phone-text" a whole sentence. I have a trusty Mac G4 workhorse tower that has served me well since my graphic design days. We used to purchase a new system every year and I think at the time we bought the G4 we thought it’s hard drive was HUGE, a whole Gigabyte!! I just picked up flash drives at FartMart (the store that shall not be named is really W@lmart –and I shouldn't be shopping there). FartMart had 4 and 8 Gig Flash drives for under $10 bucks –I couldn’t resist! How fast e-times change. I’m good to use the G4 for a few days, or so I thought… this morning Daddy-O asked me about an appointment he had, I said “just a sec, let me look at my calendar…” Cr@p. My whole calendar and contacts, production schedule, notes, blah, blah, blah are all on my laptop!