Think Geek

A pair of new seascape sculptures will be on their way to the Fireweed Gallery in Homer this week. As soon as they were dry enough to move, I made way for some more Garden Flags to be made. Switching from wet, messy sign painters enamel, to a dry, clean surface for sewing is tricky. I tend to get paint EVERYWHERE! I go through rolls and rolls of recycled newsprint and multiple pairs of latex gloves but still managed to have flecks of bright orange paint on my slippers (yes I was working in the studio in my slippers)!

For the upcoming Spenard Farmers Market I’ve made several sets of the Raven Garden Flags and wanted to have these smaller designs on flags for sale too. For now I just call them the “lucky flags” with 5 main designs that I place iron on transfers onto cotton batik fabrics and sew them onto various colors of double wide bias. I really like the look and design of these 5 elements but need to come up with a better name. I’ve had a set flying in my garden for a couple of years when I first made the “lucky flag"

set and think they will be popular like the Raven Flags. Tracey even had her gifted set of Raven flags flying at her Shakori Hill Grassroots Music Festival booth! Fun to see the flags flying so far south in some place warm -Thanks Tracey! Crazy busy now getting geared up for the Market between my volunteer vendor coordinator responsibilities, making enough inventory and the houses and yards

emerging from a very l-o-n-g hard winter, there is much to do. Daddy-O, Will and Gus are eyeing the end of the school year (I've set the rakes out...) and I’ll have my shop boys back –and not a minute too soon!

What a fun Easter Bunny Day we had with the offspring! Kristen was able to surprise us with a stop-over on her way down to the spring Seward line science cruise. Not only did she help her little brother dye the eggs but her and I surfed one of her and her lab mate’s web site faves, Think Geek. We couldn’t help but order this, this (for Daddy-O) and even this (for Kristen) … UPS delivered the box this afternoon and the little Think Geek monkey sticker that was include is soooo cute –I’d keep it for myself if it wasn’t going to be in Kristen's box o’ graduation fun (coming up May 15)! “Think Geek Stuff For Smart Masses.” Check it out. So what if I didn’t get half of the higher order science jokes –Kristen explained them to me and I did get most of the graphics!

Brown Hurts My Head

What a crazy busy week that’s winding up for a crazy busy month. Customers are thinking garden art, Gus tests for his Purple Belt tomorrow (if he’s feeling better…), family arrives the first part of May for Kristen’s graduation, the Market opens May 21 and the Gallery is busy, busy, busy with tourists hitting Alaska early. All good, just time to pace myself and balance work, family and fun –never a problem for the FUN part! My volunteer, Vendor Coordinator duties are in full swing

for the Market and though FUNdraising can be tough we choose to tie a great big concert party to it! The Spenard Farmers Market celebrated our first birthday party last night at Tap Root with great tunes from Amy Lou, Emily Kurn and Hot Dish. In keeping with the theme of Brown (the predominant color still here in Anchorage), my beverage of choice last night was a yummy Kenai Nut Brown –ooooweeee! It was fun to have our core group of Market Volunteers cut loose, enjoy our friendship and not be sitting around conference tables with our laptops, giant calendars and planning books in front of us!

The e-mail requests have been coming in for what customers want at the opening Market day for my Garden Art

Show. My “Steel Wool” sheep are at the top of the “must-haves” good thing they are fun to make. I’m also making up a few topiary style sheep, sans steel wool for customers. I’m moving a bit slow this morning due to all of the Brown(!) but I’ve got a full day of production planned, a trip down to SteelFab, and even a little (or a lot) of mommying –both Derek and Gus are home sick with wicked sore throats and colds. To shield the germs, I’m gong to keep my welding helmet on with the shield pulled DOWN!

Wild About Reading

I had good intentions, but not one thing was welded on Friday. I was having way too much fun getting Gus and my costumes ready for the Wild About Reading event at Kids Day Saturday downtown at the Dena'ina Convention Center.

It started with looking for Cat In The Hat, hats for the volunteer guest readers to wear on Thursday when I spotted “The Red Queen” hat, inspiration hit! I could be “The REaD Queen.” When I told Gus about my costume idea he immediately thought he could be “The Mad Reader (Hatter)!” Both characters are from Alice in Wonderland with a Wild About Reading twist. Lynette Sullivan, the Read Booth organizer, literacy advocate and Mayor Dan Sullivan’s wife, invited me to

be a “Special Guest Reader” at the event. I was to read during the first session with Jackie Purcell the KTUU weather person. Lynette mentioned that the kids enjoyed the guest readers who came in costume last year and of course that was all I needed to hear. Any reason to make a costume and I’m creating it! Lynette was Gus’ kindergarten teacher and to further our fondness of Lynette, the Sullivan’s not only at one time were my parents next door neighbors but Lynette and I were in the maternity ward together when our daughters were born! Gus and I would volunteer for anything Lynette was involved in and share her passion for kids and literacy.

Preparing the costumes and making “The REaD Queen” special bookmarks was so much fun –almost as much fun and rewarding as it was having kids line up to have a story read to them. Children and their families came to the free event (there were over 50 vendors along with the police and fire departments all offering free kids activities), selected a gently

used donated book (Thank you Title Wave Books who gave me 10 boxes of used books!) of their choice and had special guest readers read them the story. There were so many kids that Lynette asked Gus to help some of the preteen and young teen kids select books and for Gus to even be a reader. After Gus read one young boy the book the boy had selected, the boy threw his arms around Gus’ neck and gave Gus a long, big hug! We all were a bit teary eyed witnessing such a tender sweet moment. Trying to help our kids have a positive experience with community service can be difficult. Just when I thought working on the costumes and reading books to young, eager ears was satisfying, the best part of the day was being able to witness Gus play a genuine part in community service and reap the rewards volunteering has to offer.

I just got an e-mail that said over 20,000 people attended the Kids Day event! WOW.

Gus, with KTUU weather forecaster, Jackie Purcell (Gus is smitten with sweet Jackie)

Brown By Any Other Name is Not So Sweet

The predominant color in Anchorage right now is brown. Not a rich, patina brown but a dried up, left over, it’s been one hella’va winter yellow-brown. Alaskans call this time of year “break-up.” I think it’s because you are ready to “break-up” with this state and move to Hawaii about this time because things are so ugly AND still cold (it will be in the 20’s tonight). But spring must be around the corner because the Canadian Geese are back and landed on the park strip this morning. This site thrilled Nimbus and had me repeating “leave-it, leave-it, l-e-a-ve-it!” on our morning walkies. The geese are hard to see, but they are in the upper left corner of the picture (photo below). It looks like my little topiary grass sheep (above) made it through the winter –or at least he finally popped up out of the snow. We’ll see if any of the moss and plantings sprout back. I’ve got more “Steel Wool” sheep cut out and will be welding them up tomorrow for the Spenard Farmers Market. It took me a whole day to cut a sheet of curls but I love making them. I’m going to add only small mesh chicken wire to a couple of the sheep for topiaries instead of the curls. Customers had asked about them last year. I’ll probably bring my planted one as an example if it sprouts back nicely.

This week I’ve had

my volunteer hats on. Saturday Gus and I will be reading to kids at the Kids Day, Wild About Reading event. I'm honored to have been invited as a “celebrity reader” (due to my children’s alphabet books) and will be reading Saturday, April 16 at the Dena’ina Center downtown from 10am - 11am. We’ve also rounded up hundreds of “gently read” books to give away promoting literacy. While helping sort the boxes of donated books the last couple of weeks Gus has had his very own lending library! The other project I’m happy to be spearheading is the new “Blooming Artist Youth Booth” at the Spenard Farmers Market! This will be a free booth for kids 17 and under to sell their hand made arts and crafts. Gus has been inspired to try and sell some of his paintings and has been practicing on several small canvases the last few weeks. I thought this would be a good opportunity for youth groups and individuals to share a free, Market sponsored booth as a way to raise and earn

money. The Market will provide the tent and tables. Kids and youth groups must be supervised by an adult at all times and reservations are necessary. If you know of a young artisan or youth group that would like to sell their items at the Market starting Saturday, May 21 have them contact us at spenardfarmersmarket@gmail.com. Also this is a reminder to my artist and farmer-grower friends to get your Vendor Applications in NOW if you want to participate in the Market. Space is limited and 10x10 booths are only $15 per Saturday 9-2. Go to www.spenardfarmersmarket.org and download a vendor application and spend the summer with ME at the Market –where I promise there will be plenty of fresh GREEN color!

I saw this house near downtown that had one of my "Wind Raven" sculptures on the outside! I thought it looked great against that brick color -nice contrast.

Favorite Things

This may be a bit too Martha-like but as I was baking cookies last night I was thinking of some of my favorite things. This vintage Mixmaster I picked up at the thrift store is definitely one of my favorite things. I bought it for the cabin but wish I could clone it and have the same mixer in town! I love the color, the sturdiness and most of all the deep purr the motor makes as it mixes. Though the list frequently changes, some of my other favorite things this week are:

• The new, Spring smell of the Evergreen and Hemlock trees as they are starting to thaw

• The additional daylight in my studio (and sadly, now on my much more apparent dirty house).

• New art supplies of ANY kind, this week it was a box of brand new, soft Prismacolor pencils, ALREADY sharpened –mmmmm.

• Pinwheel steaks on the deck BBQ last night and we actually could bear to stay OUTSIDE while they cooked and smell the grill!

• A fresh from the oven raspberry and cream cheese pastry from Fire Island Rustic Bakeshop this morning.

• As the volunteer Vendor Coordinator, I’ve had a phone to my ear all week getting to talk with the farmer vendors who are signing up to be at the Spenard Farmers Market. Most have started their plantings by now and are planning their crops. My family knows my not-so-secret dream is to have a farm and a ranch full of animals and gardens that all take care of themselves while I work in my gigantic, multi-medium, indoor/outdoor, supply loaded, sun-filled studio…

Those are just some of my favorite things (this week).

~•~

This is a new wall sculpture I delivered to Katie Sevigny Studio Gallery this week. It is about 14" x 29" and part of my "Relic" series. I really enjoy using steel, copper and found objects that are layered, welded and constructed. A heavy patina process has been weathered by the elements then given a clear coat finish. The natural weathering process takes time and is usually out of my control letting the work tell me when it's complete, not the other way around.

The Big Carrot in the Sky

Mother Nature dumped another Spring snowstorm on us. The garden art trellis’ I have been working on are getting a good patina right now “weathering” in the front garden area! With all the snow in the forecast I switched to finishing a Mountain wall sculpture commission and am giving garden art a break for now. Here is some of the process on how the mountain sculptures went together. I made two to take the pressure off of the commission piece, giving one to the

Gallery and one to the client. First, I draw out my designs on 4x8 sheets of black iron,

then, free-hand plasma cut out the desired shapes. After the plasma cutting I have a two part sanding and grinding process to achieve a nice finish that reflects the light nicely. After I weld the components together on a frame for support and dimension, I gave the trees a quick heat treatment with the torch to create a gunmetal blue color that I like. After the metal cools, I spray the back with a Hammerite enamel dark gray and the front with a clear coat enamel finish.

xOx

12 years ago someone irresponsibly dumped their pet baby rabbit in our garden. We’d already had a couple of frosts and with winter approaching, the kids and I were cleaning out the last of the cabbages. Willie shouted “look out Gus, there’s something under this cabbage!” After I scolded him for teasing his little brother, we saw a small, shivering and frightened, baby black bunny under some wilted leafs. Living near downtown and on a busy boulevard, the chances of his survival were not good. “Can we keep it, can we keep it?!” shouted all three kids, and the rest is history. Sadly, Bunny Foo-Foo hopped to the “big carrot in the sky” today. He lived a long and free-ranging life in my studio, listening to good music and getting plenty of apples and fresh carrots each day. He was 12-13 years old, which is considered a long life for a domestic bunny. The kids named him Bunny Foo-Foo but Daddy-O always affectionately called him “Lucky.”

"Bunny Foo-Foo" a.k.a "Lucky" 1998(?) -2011