Have Your People Call My People

This has been a meeting crazy week. I had meetings on Art Shows, Art and Music Festivals, Garden Fair Gala and Outdoor Art Exhibit, Gallery business, a new Farmers Market and even the planning of the 6th Grade end-of-year BBQ. The good news is loads of communication has meant loads of information, decisions and ideas out there. The bad news is when I’m in meetings I’m not making ART…. And it’s just one week away from my BIG annual Garden Show at Half Moon Creek Gallery. This will be the eighth year(8!) and to compound my building anxiety is the fact they have relocated to a new location in another city and my Show kicks of their Grand Opening. Also adding to my building anxiety is next week is shaping up to be even busier than I can wrap my head around. I know my parents and their friends read this Blog so I am sincerely admitting this. The real reason next week

is going to be a bit biZZier than usual before a big show is that my parents are coming on Thursday for a visit because my nephew is graduating from high school. Visiting relatives is not a bad thing but we all know what visiting family can do to any regular routine. My parents are cool so we’re not too stressed but I am a bit fussy. Truthfully, I just want my house to be in tip top shape. I want to show my parents that YES, they have raised me right and I DO know how to keep a clean and organized household (though I haven’t been lately). At almost 50 years old (that truth statement will give them the shivers when they read it) I still don’t’ want to disappoint my folks. Soooo, on Daddy-O’s list of honey-do’s the partial list reads; have the car detailed (that they will

be using), have the carpets steam cleaned, mop and bleach every surface in the house, buy new bedding and pillows, have the dog groomed and de-stinked, the garage mucked out, the teenager’s cave emptied, purchase lots of alcohol, coffee and good food, plan the weekend’s must-attend events, install the new garbage disposal (I know Daddy-O forgot this one) and rake the yard and get rid of any traces of winter’s doggie doo… and that’s just on Derek’s list.

My list includes a ton of household and Mom chores but mainly getting ready for the Half Moon Show and making more art for more show opportunities that have surface this week. I also need to figure out how to transport the flock of sheep and big chimes (the photo shows them weathering lined up next to the house) up to the Gallery in Palmer along with the larger works, the most efficient way possible. I think I’ll call in son William for

this… Another one of my meetings this week included the news of the new Spenard Farmer’s Market opening May 22nd! I’m going to be selling some of my garden art AND some of Julia’s Honey! I’m pretty fired up about this. The other meeting was for the upcoming Alaska Botanical Garden Fair Gala and Outdoor Art Exhibit coming up. I’m the volunteer Art Show coordinator and also need to write an article this weekend for their newsletter on “Artful Gardens” or why people should buy art at the upcoming Gala. I LOVE this event and have already been fielding artist’s calls and e-mails who want to participate. I also met with my friend Katie Sevigny to

figure out some new, fun pieces for her Gallery. The photos are of some smaller works that have already sold –yaay! After Katie and I met, we went to Sacks Café and met with the Downtown Anchorage Partnership group to re-tool the Art on G Street event. It’s looking like now, the G Street Art event is only going to be one day, July 10 and be a Art AND Music festival. Yes, all of the meetings, conversations, new information and ideas have my head throbbing but I think the real headache will be when I have to start cleaning my house…

New York Has Nothing On Us

Sunday morning we overslept. I had wanted us to catch the 7:00 a.m. installation of Anchorage’s first real monumental sculpture being “seated” in front of the Anchorage Museum. Thankfully we are just 2 minutes from downtown and arrived just in time to see “Habitat” being lifted off the transport bed. We did miss out on the commemorative lanyards that were given to the first 100 spectators BUT it was a good thing we arrived when we did because as it was we froze our azz's (that's a Gary word) off while the highly skilled crane operators negotiated 36,000 pounds through the closed 6th Avenue and all the spectators. “Habitat” was designed by British sculptor Antony Gormley and fabricated at SteelFab. In February when I was at SteelFab working on another project I got to see "Habitat" in one of the huge bays waiting for some finishing touches. Here are a couple of media links; KTUU and the Anchorage Daily News story link on the statue. I think the real artists were the steel workers and engineers who spent over 1,700 hours to create 57 giant box forms fabricated from 342 plates of stainless steel. What prompted us to attend the installation was not only to show

support for SteelFab but I

read that this could be one of those “I was there when” moments for Gus. Of course the critics have already started

squawking and graffiti and sculpture climbers are probably not far behind but I think Gus put it best after watching the enormous sculpture being gently set in place when he said “after all Mom, Anchorage needs a statue because even New York has one!”

After our day at the Museum we wanted to celebrate with the season’s first grilling. I looked out the window and overheard Daddy-O tell the flock “don’t worry fellas, we’re not having lamb chops tonight!” Now that the snow has cleared from the deck, Tauzer was keeping watch not only on my mini sculptures but I think the yummy pin-wheels and ribs. Spring MUST be just around the corner –isn’t the aroma of BBQ supposed to bring on the good weather??

Meet Our Newest Neighbor

Our cool, new neighbor is named “Candle,” and he’s a big Ibizan Hound whose owner recently moved to Anchorage. I enjoy seeing Candle out on his walks because he’s so graceful and deer-like at the end of his lead. Though his coat is very wiry and feels much like a goat, his ears are rabbit-smooth soft that stand tall and his eyes are a beautiful golden color. I’d never heard of an Ibizan before I met “Candle” but learned that they are very common in Spain.

I called my friend Katie yesterday to see if she wanted to meet for a quick coffee before I started welding.

When she answered her i-phone out of breath, I asked what she was up to… She was setting up for the Alaska Women’s

Show –WHAT?! Yes, I think Katie must be one of the hardest working artists/business owners I know. She had two booths at the Show all this weekend, one for Katie Sevigny Studio and one for the other Gallery, The Fiddlehead. I hadn’t been to the Alaska Women’s Show

since I think before Gus was born. I swear, sometimes I can be so out of it –I mean who would have thought sales at the Women’s Show would be off the chart for selling art?! Katie did. She’s had great success with the event before and is working her tail off through Sunday. I made Gus go down with me to see her and see if there was anything I could bring her. The place was SLAMMED! Free admission and free parking probably contributed the masses of females killing time on a Saturday but it was beyond busy, and this

wasn’t the only big event today. There was also over 6,000 people(!) registered to run the Alaska Heart Run 5k AND Alyeska Resort’s Slush Cup Spring Carnival. Sometimes I wonder how I can be so out of touch. I could not believe all the different vendors hawking everything from cosmetics, back rubs, jewelry, health food supplements, OB-GYN services to mops and chef knives -but mainly I couldn't believe how many women were there BUYING!

My latest sculpture (though not yet taking the place of the Steel Wool) is Crescent Moon playing the Sax. This old Saxophone was given to me by another artist a few years ago. He had good intentions of making something out

of it but after collecting dust in his studio for a few years, he gifted the Sax to me. But before I welded it to Mr. Moon I took it down to my friend who owns the Horn Doctor to make sure this wouldn’t be an episode of Antiques Road Show gone bad by de-valuing a priceless vintage Sax! All was clear and I got the go-ahead to up-cycle the instrument –actually the exact words were “yeah, better to use it in art than the scrap heap” which I thought was kind of sad. I love vintage musical instruments and keep an eye out for good deals at my favorite Thift Store, but they are usually way overpriced. The sculpture needs to weather and patina a bit more but I think may add some good jazz tunes to a garden.

Grazing Steel Wool

My growing flock of “Steel Wool” has had to be content with grazing on our deck as the garden area still has snow in it. Thanks for the name of my new sculptures Jim! I am a bit nervous though –judging by the phone calls and e-mails just from friends and neighbors, these sculptures will all find homes as soon as the Show opens at Half Moon Creek Gallery. The most common question is “how

much will they be?” Since I’m still in love with them they are still a million dollars each…at this rate, I’d be O.K. with them staying in my yard because I like them even more as their flock grows. I so wish there was a large, open grassy area to do a good photo shoot before delivering them, but in traditional Alaskan fashion, things are a dead, dingy “break-up brown.” I’d better get making some other fun stuff so I can part with my flock. I decided to make another set of three sheep because of their popularity and made the little baby 25% larger than the original baby. Terry at SteelFab now calls the original size “Baby Sheep” and the new size the “Toddler Sheep!” I talked with the girls at Half Moon Creek to confirm the show details and opening date. They are busily finishing construction on the new Palmer Gallery and it’s looking like it will be a mad dash to the grand

opening target date of Saturday, May 8 but it will be HAPPENING! Christian dropped off some more duct work that they took out and I’ll be spinnin’ it (plasma cutting it) into steel wool probably next week! The Virgo’s in Daddy-O and I are dying to get rid of the metal recycle pile that has accumulated along side of the house. It looks just terrible –but not too bad considering how other areas in 99503 currently look... Spring break-up is an aesthetically difficult time of year for Alaska! Even harder for those of us who crave Nature's beauty blooming, sunshine and all things growing green!

Production work for the first Raven order of the season also started this last weekend. Jana at Cabin Fever and The Quilted Raven (when Kristen is in town this is her favorite quilt store!) ordered all things Raven from me for her downtown Anchorage shops. Normally it’s hard for me to do ANY repetitive task but my reward is I get to bead, wire and finish tag the Garden Ravens and Ornaments in my jammies while having my coffee and listening to NPR in the Studio. The Weekend Edition Saturday was fundraising time in "You Call Us, Or We'll Call YOU" and friends had friends “outing” each other in who had never donated to Public Radio, yet had listened for years! It was really funny to hear their "reasons" for never donating -from being too "young" to donate to needing the extra cash for Happy Hour! –Also catch the “Babysitting” series on This American Life. A big brother who was tasked with babysitting his younger siblings had "bravery tests" while their parents were out for the evening! All great listening for happy artmaking.

This Thing Called Art

The above photo was taken by photographer, Heather Thamm while I was working on some pieces for my upcoming show at Half Moon Creek Gallery. Cool huh?!

Who says I don’t understand the “art of compromise?!” There have been some ongoing issues with the final location of my proposed 1% Public Art Sculpture “Bicycle Bloom.” My proposed sculpture was one of 5 new Public Artworks scheduled to be installed this Spring as part of the Mt. View renewal and beautification project along Mt. View Drive and the new Bragaw overpass. There have been several new businesses and capital improvements taking part in the revitalization –including a new Jr. High School and Credit Union One building. On Wednesday, a site meeting was called for all the core-interested parties to discuss and hopefully resolve the current “issues” with regard to the final placement of my sculpture (there are no site issues with the other 4 sculptures). Though there have already been several meetings and plans drawn up with the landscape engineers and architects, the public art engineer as well as approvals from the Mt. View Road Improvement Public Art Selection Committee, there is still not a final go-ahead for my sculpture –which I need before ANY fabrication can begin. I didn’t select the site for “Bicycle Bloom,” the 6 member Public Art committee decided the appropriate locations for each work. A short

story long is that the architects for the newly constructed “financial institution” feel the already committee approved public art sculpture “Bicycle Bloom” will impede the view of not only the front of their new building but also obstruct window views from within the lobby –though the sculpture is over 20’ tall…

Our site meeting took place during a freak, Springtime snow storm in which Anchorage saw at least 8” of sloppy, wet snowfall! At the meeting on the very busy corner of Mt. View Drive and Bragaw was the Mt. View Drive Road Improvement Coordinator, the “financial institution” representative, a representative from the architectural firm, the Curator of Public Art and myself –the artist. With her arms crossed and not once making eye contact with me, the financial representative who was clearly against placing the sculpture anywhere near their new building bluntly asked “so how tall is THIS THING anyway?!” Just about that time a HUGE semi sped by trying to make the intersection light and completely doused all of us in dirty, slushy ice water -I am not kidding!! With my stomach already in a nervous knot, now soaked, armed with my engineer renderings, site drawings and architectural plans I shared my creative vision as was proposed to the committee last Fall. After a bit of posturing and everyone trying to “best guess” under all of the snow, where the planter and walkways would be placed I listened to their concerns. I offered to have my sculpture arch to the right instead of the left and asked what if it could be taken out of the large Public Works planter and “scooched” (technical engineering term) a bit to the right of their storefront windows down the walkway a bit. It

seemed to work and everyone shook off the slush, nodded their heads in silent agreement and thought that would work just fine. There was some final “have your people call and e-mail my people” as we all retreated to the warmth of our cars. As soon as the confrontation had begun it was over with and appears at least for now, a clear resolution to issues that have been going on for weeks.

During the meeting the only vision I had was when Gus’ adversaries meet, at least they show up with MMA body guards, thick-necked guys in suits and swords drawn! That would have been much more dramatic at the corner of Mt. View and Bragaw –don’t you think?!

What's The Opposite of Shearing A Sheep?

I’m in love again. It’s a good thing my show at Half Moon Creek Gallery, “The Artful Garden,” is still a few weeks away, because otherwise, the price for my new Sheep sculptures would be one million dollars each! I’ve Blogged before about loving certain pieces I make a little too much to realistically put a price on them to sell, but I know the love affair will end and I’ll soon be able to part with them. I’ll probably be out of love by this weekend because I’ve got so

many other ideas percolating right now that my artmaking is in high gear. Good timing with all of the Shows coming up I need to be highly creative AND productive –which isn’t necessarily something I can conjure up on demand.

Based on my patterns and maquettes, SteelFab got the bodies of the Sheep cut out in record time. I plasma cut out their curls from some of Half Moon Creek’s up-cycled galvanized duct work they tore out of

the new Gallery building. As I was welding the metal “wool” to their bodies I was laughing to myself thinking what the opposite of shearing a sheep would be?! The adult Sheep stand about 30” tall and their lamb is about 15” tall. Their steel bodies will have a nice rust patina over time while the galvanized “wool” will contrast and stay bright and shiny. I want to make

a whole flock… we’ll see how my stamina holds out! They would have photographed so much better on a pasture of green grass, BUT we still have a yard full of snow.

Mother’s Day weekend is going to be jam packed for our family, not only do I have “The Artful Garden” show opening but my parents are coming up here that same weekend for my nephew’s high school graduation. It’s probably a good idea that Alaska Airlines charges so much for extra baggage because I think my Mom is going to have to come up with another way to sneak some of these sheep home to her garden…

The middle son William, my ever handy shop helper, delivery guy, sculpture installer, traded his Chevy Tahoe for another open bed truck –YAHOO! Just in time for Garden Show season! Will’s trucks over the years have been so much easier to haul my larger works in than in our Tundra which has a topper on it. He’s smiling because FREE gas from Mom is ever-so-nice.

Full On

Thursday?! What happened to Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday?! This week is flying by like I knew it would. From here on out before we know it I’ll be raking leaves! No, it’s not pessimistic thinking, it’s the life-long Alaskan in me speaking from experience! Our family “jokes” we pack an entire year’s worth of events into the craziest, busiest, best 90 days of weather Alaska offers in June, July and August. My other time trigger that kicks me into high gear production is my annual Half Moon Creek Gallery Garden Show. This year is even more special because the Gallery has moved to Palmer into a brand-new building and will be celebrating their Grand Opening with my Show the “Artful Garden,” Saturday, May 8. I LOVE to do this show because the customer turn-out is so fantastic and I get to make ANYTHING I want to. Because of the incredible support and popularity, I tend to make some of my most creative pieces. Along with the Half Moon Show around the corner, there are several other shows and art events I’ll be participating in during the fast and furious days of summer -well the sun shines until midnight up here, so what the heck. Plans are also underway for my other favorite event, The Alaska Botanical Garden Fair and Gala, June 24 and 26 & 27. I’m the volunteer coordinator for the Outdoor Art Show and will be rounding up artists starting next week.

After all the eggs this weekend I was inspired to make a couple of “Garden Hens,” similar to some I made a few years ago, only these are free standing, about 6’ tall and a bit plumper than a life-size hen. Continuing the farm theme the right side of my brain was in, I made up patterns for some life-size sheep. My mom actually inspired the sheep sculptures with some photos she sent me.

On larger works sometimes I will draw out an idea then cut the components out of tag board and assemble a mock-up. The heavier paper, or even foam core, is more rigid and can give me a better idea of how the shapes will or won’t form in steel. On the large sheep I’ll have SteelFab cut them using their large bed plasma cutter after we refine the digital file. I want to have the bases out of steel and curly galvanized metal circles swirling all around their fat bodies. While remodeling the new building, the Half Moon Creek girls dropped off a load of duct work that I wanted to up-cycle and use for the sheep’s curls! With my bounty of metal, the side yard is quite a sight… it’s probably a good thing we don’t have a homeowners association policing the grounds in 99503 -ha!

Derek’s Aunt & Uncle in AZ follow my Blog and sent me this bumper sticker they won with some goodies at their Community Center. Kay thought it would be perfect to hang above my kiln and I agree. THANKS for thinking of me guys!

ROCKIN' THE CASBAH! -A 4.6 earthquake rocked Southcentral Alaska yesterday morning. Not a biggie, but enough to make you feel insignificant! Gus and I were eating our Wheaties, getting ready for school and the whole house shook. But as quick as it began, it was over. Bunny Foo-Foo was in the studio thumping away! The rabbit senses earthquakes before they happen. The other weird thing was, is that I heard this earthquake before we actually felt it...

Artsy Date Night

Anchorage’s First Friday art walk was great! The sun was out, the downtown sidewalks were free of snow and full of folks who came out –many of us admitting this was our first, First Friday this winter. As we ran into several friends everyone agreed that we all were"crawling out from under our polar fleece" for the first time and First Friday is a great excuse to not only socialize but to get some much needed culture from a very long, dark winter! Daddy-O and I met friends for some “pre-function” drinks at Sack’s Café then popped over to my friend Katie Sevigny’s Studio –which was packed with artsy types of all ages. Katie's Studio is definitely the new downtown art hot spot. We ended at the “Here Comes Spring” show at Artique where we saw my “Sunflower” and “Spring Nest Topiary” sculptures had blue, sold dots on them! The photo at the top shows my large, chime and the top, left photo is of the "Sunflowers" displayed horizontally at Artique. The gallery was beautifully displayed with incredible works of art. Luckily, I had a great show because it cheered me up from receiving a rejection letter for the All Alaska Juried Exhibition show at the Anchorage Museum. Oh well, nothing that a quick package of Oreo’s didn’t cure! The juror, Michael Darling from the Seattle Art Museum (which we love to visit) chose 46 pieces of art from 28 artists for the final round. The total number of artworks submitted were 433 pieces from 124 artists –that’s the group I was in. Ironically the letter was dated April 1, but sadly I don't think it was an april Fool's joke... However, other good news is that I got a kick azz (to use a Gary Rith word) commercial sculpture commission last week which is also helping to take the sting of rejection away –I’ll be able to talk more about the new project next week…

After Daddy-O and I had our First Friday date night we grabbed the offspring and headed down to Girdwood for the Easter weekend. I remembered to add the Ukrainian egg

decorating kit to our “to-go” bag after reading a Blog post by Jim Gottuso. A couple years ago I found this new kit at the thrift store for $2(!) but kept forgetting to take it off the bookshelf at Easter to decorate our eggs –but thanks to Jim's Blog post, I remembered this year! Gus and I enjoyed playing with the hot, drippy wax just as much as we enjoyed

seeing the bright colors of dye color our eggs batik style. The art of Pysanka (pis’-ahn-kah) pl. pysanky Ukrainian Easter egg is from the Ukrainian word pysaty, “to write.” Pysanka was harder than I thought it would be. I had visions of decorating several eggs like the box's cover photo to share with our neighbors but ended up with just a few “survivors” for our own Easter table. We also had high hopes of using raw eggs as the directions recommended, but after the first two crushed eggs, I boiled up a batch for us to decorate. Here is the web site, Ukrain

ian Gift Shop of where my thrift store kit came from. The dyes that were included in the kit were so vibrant and rich that I’m storing them in containers for some future dye project. Though it's going to be a few more days of scrubbing and cleaning my finger tips to return them to normal!

In The Groove

The other day I had one of those great artmaking days. I kept thinking “Stella found her groove” as the shop tunes were perfect and I was happily working -though when I googled it I found out the movie was actually called “How Stella Got Her Groove Back.” I didn’t see the movie, but as time seemed to stand still, I really felt I was in the art groove. I LOVE those days –I wish I knew what can flip that switch because the day before I just was not feeling the love –then ZAP,

creative inspiration rained down and showered me with golden rays of creating energy! When I’m not feeling very inspired I know enough to just keep moving forward by printing tags, make deliveries, do administrative type of paperwork, clean-up the shop, replenish supplies etc. It helps to move forward or the dry spells can turn into more of a funk –which is not good for a full-time working artist.

The inspiration zap might not be as mysterious as I’d like to think. When I was trying to figure out what may

have triggered it (because then I could bottle it and save it for the next dry spell) I realized it might be as simple as a few of these things –good music, money, aesthetics and productivity -though I think it takes a unique combination of all four to flip the switch. When I make money I can buy more material and have WAY more options. When I see artful or thoughtful design and hear great music I’m easily inspired to create. When I have a productive and meaningful day I feel satisfied. At the start of my groove day I delivered a commission piece and the client was thrilled. Not only did I have money in hand but another order for a future wall sculpture. I went to see my buddy Peter at SteelFab to order some steel and talk about a new piece I need cut out and being around all that industrial steel can really

get me fired up. Everyone there (all guys –I liked being the only flame chic there...) were so helpful it gave me even more ideas for three other pieces I want to make! Their multiple gigantic shop areas are hubs of productive activity. I use SteelFab to help me cut the larger works because they have this enormous plasma bed cutter that works from an auto-cad program. I draw my designs out and their tech guy converts them to a DXF file and shazam! Most of the work I do on the big bed cutter is a

bout ¼” steel plate, too thick for my machine. Lighter gauge stuff I can cut at my shop/studio with my hand held plasma cutter. The max I can cut is about 18 gauge because I like smooth, fast cuts.

My artmaking groove produced a new sculpture that I’m in love with and was inspired by some tiny spore type mushrooms I saw. I’d been germinating (no pun intended) this idea and design for a while and then the design and fabrication all came to me in one fail swoop! I also had another idea for a free standing sculpture that is called “Creative Sentinel” based on my experience that happened the other day. When creativity hits I thought of the sculpture as a lightening rod harnessing and capturing that ZAP, then spreading it’s power to awaiting artists. The spore sculpture (I don’t have a better name for it yet) is about 6’ tall and

“Sentinel” stands over 7’ tall. I’m going to create a feature clay piece that will be suspended from the center steel circle on “Creative Sentinel” –it just hasn’t hit me what that will be yet…