Summer Daze

It’s official. As I flip the calendar from May to June our summer begins. Alaskans tend to pack a year’s worth of gardening, barbequing, fishing and general warm, outdoor activities into the next 90 days –yes, June, July and August is about all we have for summer living! I’m dancing to a whole new schedule this summer with our commitment to selling Fresh Art at the Spenard Farmers Market. I feel consistency is key to sales and keeping my customers happy which hopefully will keep me in fresh metal. June also kicks off more intense volunteer duties as the Alaska Botanical Garden Art Show Coordinator, one of my FAVORITE events. I’m rounding up the artists, encouraging our participating new artists, sending out e-mails and following up with communications to layout and design the artists brochure and signage. The fundraising Gala is June 24 and the Garden Fair is June 26 & 27 this year –they usually sell out but there’s still time to get your tickets to the outdoor Gala!

One of the pieces I’m working on for the ABG Outdoor Art Show is taking the forms I welded “Steel Wool” from and making topiary sheep.

The wonderful folks at Sutton’s Brown Thumb Greenhouse sold me 3 bags of (Gold!) Spaghnum Moss to fill out the bodies of the adult sheep and two baby sheep. What a great greenhouse and Patty was so helpful showing me their examples of topiaries in progress. The large photo at the top of the post is a shot of their topiary work area. Here is a link on how to make living walls and another resource for making topiary's (thank you for the lead Julianne!)

I also picked up a few new hanging baskets to embellish my welded plant stands that we sell.

This weekend is the Festival of Flowers and Anchorage is a HUGE city of flowers…I think it’s due to our long, dark winters that make us all go a little crazy for all things colorful and LIVING! For FRESH ART this weekend, Daddy-O will be manning our booth at the Speanrd Farmers Market and I will be at our booth downtown at the Town Square from 12– 6pm on Saturday. My own garden still needs some attention

and the veggie beds need to get put in but holding customer’s purchased pieces has filled it up so it doesn’t look lonely at all! Customers have bought plant stands and sculptures for surprise birthday, wedding and Father’s Day gifts and asked if we could hold the artwork for them until their special day. The photo at the bottom shows the crowed front garden –plus a STACK of upcycled duct work that I cut the “Steel Wool” curls out of that now needs to go to the metal recyclers -it's on my "to-do later" list! I’m more concerned about caring for the hanging baskets that were sold with the plant stands –I don’t want them to wilt with the sunny weather we’ve been having so I’ve hung them on

the cool, back doorstep. Not a problem babysitting though, I love having all the hanging baskets and (SOLD!) happy art waiting for their new homes.

End of the month also meant I got to take a road trip up to Half Moon Creek Gallery to do the month end inventory. Sales were fantastic and Chris, Christian, Sarah and Abigail (pictured) have the Gallery looking beautiful as usual. Check out their web site or FB link for summer glass torchwork, mosaic and fusing classes & workshops.

New Inspirations

First, HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all my mommy friends, and especially to MY Mom! I’m lucky because I get to share Mother’s Day with my Mom today as the folks arrived in Anchorage Thursday night for my nephew’s graduation on Monday. The mama llama's are celebrating with the whole family by going to the opening of the Saturday Market and eat funnel cake and Gyro's! The card I found for my Mom

shows a cover photo of a crowded beach scene with hundreds of sunbathers and says “Can you spot the Mom in the photo?” After my Dad, Gus and Derek looked at the photo for a few minutes and took their guesses the inside of the card

reads “She’s the one still back at the car unloading the coolers, beach blankets, beach chairs and toys!”

With all the art delivered up to Half Moon Creek on Thursday, I was able to fully enjoy

Gus’ 6^th grade, all day field trip to Seward on Friday. Daddy-O and I were lucky to be included as chaperones to the Alaska SeaLife Center and then on a Grey Whale watch cruise with the class. We learned all about

cephalopods with hands on science at the Center and took water samples aboard the cruise. The Alaska SeaLife Center has always inspired me and Friday was no exception! I took a lot of digital pictures and will start sorting and printing new images that will hopefully soon become the impetus for new artmaking!

The Show yesterday at Half Moon Creek Gallery was wonderful under clear-blue, sunny skies.

We decided it would best be described as a “soft opening” as the girls still have so much work to do to get the Gallery as they really want it to be. The new Bullseye Glass Center was a hit even as crates of new inventory were being unloaded. With only a fraction of works from other artists on display, we had a huge supportive crowd that was happily hauling my metal work out the door to new homes! Thank you to everyone who made the Show a success. I’ve been so inspired the last few weeks and being able to visit with all the GREAT customers truly re-energized me to make even more art for the upcoming Spenard Farmers Market on May 22. Mark your calendars -there's more art and fun ahead!

Loyal Half Moon Creek Gallery customers, Lloyd and Joanne with Joanne's Mother's Day gift from Lloyd!

Happy Mother's Day Joanne!

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.