The High Speed of Social Media Stream of Flotsam and Jetsam

Gus and I rented a fun ride for our trip in WA

I blame my kids. Smart phones were an expensive luxury but our (adult) kids wanted to be able to text and send frequent fun pics on their travels  -and so started the family of incredible handhelds. Daddy-O has even been converted and with that let's just say "pigs can fly!" We are a family of the latest iPhones and Androids with all the photo, texting, calendar, news, music and web browser apps you can tap into.

But all of this instant posting, texting, uploads, tagging and sharing has left my Blog feeling cumbersome and taking more time than using my phone for a quick update or post to the Farmers Market and to my personal Facebook accounts. Feeling overwhelmed by the social media choices available and trying to keep up I was ready to trash it all and unplug but gave myself this summer to see which social media streams will win out. So far, it appears that for ease of use it's Facebook and LinkedIn for professional work and most of my family is now also on Facebook. I don't personally Tweet though we do have my Spenard Farmers Market Facebook posts and shares being pushed out through Twitter for our Market followers. The gadget that's been left in a ziplock bag for months is my digital camera! Why lug that around when I can tap, shoot and upload with my phone that fits in my pocket?! Like the digital camera I haven't made time for my Blog like I used to and my web site has been hopelessly neglected. I don't like doing web or blog editing using my phone because the screen is too small but I opened my laptop and I did a quick review of my Facebook posts and grabbed just a few pics for my Blog that I'll share below -holy cow we have been having FUN!

Record good weather temps has let me weld up a few things for a Spenard Farmers Market garden day event I participated in. As the Community Relations and Media volunteer for the Market I'm happy to see that the Market is growing, growing and is in full swing with vendors now harvesting loads of produce bringing lots of happy market goers.

Good weather has our garden in full bloom and the new boxes Daddy-O built are producing huge, thriving greens. We held another impromptu garden party for Kristen and her friends. Kristen made a quick stop home during a layover on her way back to Boston from a research trip to the Arctic Slope. Having all my kids in one spot was a treat for Mama Llama! We found out Nigel-dog loves the hose, Black Bears love our neighborhood garbage which put us in the news... and not finding seats on Alaska Airlines Gus and I enjoyed a fun trip to Seattle on Jet Blue for the first time which is now flying seasonally to Anchorage.

At the Sequim, WA Lavender Festival Gus and I visited my parents (on the left) and toured farms, visited artists, went to street fairs and soaked up the Olympic Peninsula warm temps. Here we are at the first day of the festival -first stop was the Red Hook Beer Garden! I'm with my Grandma and Gus had to sit OUTSIDE the beer fence... hey at least I bought him a Lavender infused ice cream!

At the Festival there were three days worth of endless activities. Gus found his dream car at the classic car show, a '68 Barracuda, I bought a chicken purse in Port Townsend, and at a Quilt Show I met with vendors for my patterns, bought delicious new fabrics and bought a scissor headband for the girls at the Quilted Raven at home.

To fund more summer fun, more welding is on tap for this week as it looks like this record breaking summer of good weather is going to hold! To see what I'm up to you can find me and my latest work on Facebook if you want to be my friend! 

Report from the Sequim, WA Lavender Festival

Great art, music and a bar set in the most beautiful fields of Lavender. Every Lavender Farm on tour hosts arts and crafts vendors, live music, gourmet food AND wine, beer, Lavender Margarita's and my FAVORITE, Champagne with Blackberry liquor topped with a fresh sprig of Lavender! Of course I've had to sample all of them. Now that's the way to tour a farm!

The Sequim Lavender Festival continues to inspire me. The color, the vendor booths (over 150 at 2 locations!), the artisans from across the country and of course the incredible farms. Even though the Lavender plants are a bit delayed in their blooming this year, some of the darker varieties are offering color for festival goers on the farm tours. A special surprise for me yesterday was the "Quilt Show" which had over 200 art quilts AND vendors... more on that later!

Lavender, Art and Color, OH MY!

Gus and I are in Sequim, (rhymes with swim) WA on the Olympic Peninsula. My parents retired to Sequim from Alaska a few years ago seeking weather that was a bit more hospitable to year round golf and doesn’t require the ownership of a snowblower. Lucky for us wecan now visit not only family but a vibrant and inspiring arts community. This weekend is the annual Sequim Lavender Farm Faire and Tour and the annual Sequim Studio Tour.

At least 30,000 people are expected to visit Sequim this weekend to attend this legacy rich area and

tour some of the worlds’ most beautiful Lavender farms. In addition to all of the COLOR, the arts and craft fairs, demonstrations, farm tours, culinary programs, music and other city-wide events, the Sequim Artists are opening up their studios all weekend.

Another artful treat is that my Dad and Mom both have their art on display this month! Mom’s work is included in a group show “A Tribute To Blooms” at the Sequim Museum and Arts Center and one of her ceramic sunflower vases had the magic red dot on it! Dad is the featured artist at the Blue Whole Gallery, 129 Washington Street in downtown Sequim. His assemblage work is in the front

window area for all the Lavender Festival visitors to see (and buy!). While gallery hopping yesterday I liked the work of Karin Anderson. Her work is illustrative and happy and I purchased some of her Giclee art cards. I’m filling my little black Moleskine book with ideas and inspirations –all of this color has my head exploding with ideas! I’m filling my memory card with digital images of color and textures too. OK, more later, we’re off to the rolling acres of all things PURPLE! Thank you to Daddy-O and Willie who are covering form me and are on doggie and Market duty this week.

xOx

I'm keeping color swatches of ideas filling up my little black Moleskine book!

On the Edmonds-Kingston ferry.

El Gaucho

"El Gaucho" Gus at the Olympic Lavender Farm during the Lavender Festival last weekend in Sequim, WA

Supplies are low and production and motivation needs to be high. I didn’t feel the need to have large amounts of steel, wire and round stock on hand right before we left on our trip so I let my supplies run to an all-time low. Not such a good idea when you return and need to hit the ground running!

I’ve spent the last couple of days, getting pieces delivered, confirming orders, finishing up a large commission piece and generally trying to get back into the swing of things. I think my body enjoyed the time off with my family and the warm sunshine a little too much… Today I spent the morning at the steel shop getting base plates punched for mounting bolts on a large outdoor commission piece. “Dancers” will be a memorial sculpture at a local spiritual center and part of 

a new outdoor garden area. I’m also working on some new wind salmon, but had to get more wire and swivels. I love making these driftwood salmon. Hopefully I’ll have enough on hand for the next 

G Street Artist Fair I’m participating in on August 15^th. I'm keeping positive thoughts that there will be enough advertising on the Fair to let people know that the August 15th event will be the last one. I think I'll send out and post cards a couple of weeks before -yikes that's just around the corner(!)

Look at the flowers that bloomed in my garden while we were away! My boys (xox) did a good job of watering, especially during Alaska's record setting heat. The Dahlia’s are from tubers my Mom sent from WA to my best friend Pat this Spring and Pat planted a few of them in large pots for me! The pink and white Peonies are very old and were t

ransplanted from my Grandfather’s house several years ago. My Peonies and Dahlia’s are not even close in size to the ones my Mom can grow. When I was taking pictures of the flowers in my garden I couldn't help but look at the color palette in each of the photos. I would like to experiment and work with these colors either in painting, fabric, or even in glazes. Hmmm, sounds like I already have to start a "want to-do" art  list for this winter.

The High Cost of Doing Business

"For as long as space endures, and for as long as living beings remain, until then may I too abide to dispel the misery of the world." 

By Santi Deva

We are back home and unpacked. Back to the cool, beautiful and calm climes of Alaska. My mind has been stuffed with new inspirations and to-do's. I saw this t-shirt on a guy at the Purple Haze Lavender Farm. The Purple Haze was one of my mom and my favorite farms on tour. This image of His Holiness the Dalai Lama has helped to keep my mind calm. The guy wearing the t-shirt was tending the Lavender Margarita Bar under a huge Weeping Willow tree. As an estimated 30,000 people 

migrated into Sequim for the Lavender Festival over the weekend, I couldn't help but feel that the majority of couples were seeking answers to a change of scenery, or new life directions. Perhaps even urban escape. The ferries between Seattle and the Olympic Peninsula were choked full and wait times reached over 2 hours! Maybe this is normal but hard for me to adjust to.

Not only Lavender Farms were on tour during the Lavender Festival but so were Artists Studios. Pat & Coffee Miklos of Dungeness Studios are artisans in fine metal jewelry. In their former professions, both jewel smiths created high-end, fine gemstone jewelry featured in glossy, full color catalogs of collections. 

Most of the pieces were over $100k. now, Coffee creates in a large, custom outbuilding on their property near the beach in Dungeness and is making more than jewelry. Inspired by his surroundings, he also makes very cool custom wind sculptures with forged steel and copper components balancing beach stones that had a Calder-like form to them. I was envious of their Shop. The building was divided into the forging side and the finish side, or the clean area. In the finish area were two, custom work spaces for he and Pat. Coffee mentioned he wanted to start Blogging and hopefully I helped inspire the network of benefits of the Blog. At first glance, his work reminded me of another Blog I like to read called Stonz and encouraged him to check it out as well. Click here for a recent newspaper article on Coffee that shows a few of his incredible pieces of art. Don't miss the comment boxes paying him high praise as well.

It was refreshing (depressing?) to know that the common issues on the Studio Tour on the Olympic Peninsula centered around similar conversations I have with artists here in Alaska;

1. Rising Gallery Commissions

2. Finding the Time to Make Enough Inventory

3. Fair Market Pricing 

4. The Difficulties of Getting Their Art to the Right Market

5. The Struggles of Advertising and Marketing and the New Media

For space, I'll just give my two cents on the first issue. Commission rates are climbing higher to averaging around 50% now, up from when commissions averaged 30%. My argument is that Galleries who charge 50% are forcing artists to take WHOLESALE pricing for their art and that is NOT consignment pricing. The Gallery has virtually no risk and artists would be better off to sell their work in a wholesale/retail situation and receive guaranteed payment in net 30. As I sit here Blogging, I had needed to take a break from inputting my accounting into Excel. So I don't go into a tail spin or fall into a creative funk as I see the columns of retail prices versus my NET, less expenses and commissions, I can only focus on that guy's t-shirt at the Lavender Margarita Bar! Ohhhmmmmmm. 

TTFN & Bye, Bye WA

Sigh.... said goodbye to the sunshine and folks. The ferry ride from Bainbridge to Seattle was pituresque and the I-5 drive to Sea-Tac a bit gripping at times but all well worth it. There were three HUGE cruise ships docked at the Seattle harbor and Gus saw some dude para-sailing above the busy waterfront (he's in the picture with the Space Needle)! I've got some pictures of the Lavender Festival to post as well as I want to introduce metal artisans, Coffee & Pat Miklos who I met on the Open Studio Tour... more after I unpack (not the best part of a trip!). 

Sneak Preview

Cynthia Thomas 

My Dad first met John Dach at an arts council meeting. John is originally an organic apple farmer from California, turned metals alchemist and foundry purveyor. Cynthia Thomas, John's wife is a talented sculptor who generously opened their studio to the 2009 Sequim Art Studio Tour. B making an appointment, Dad and I were able to have a sneak preview of their shop and studio yesterday, and what a good decision that was. Over 30,000(!) people are expected today through Sunday here in Sequim for the annual Lavender Festival and Art Studio Tour! I wanted to get this post made this morning before we head off the the street fair,

other studios and lavender farms on tour. Because Dad had made an appointment we had over an hour of personal time with John and Cynthia -but Dad and I could have stayed all day as we were 

fascinated with all of the tools and processes that they both use to make their art.

John and Cynthia graciously met with Dad and I yesterday, though I knew they were eyeball deep in preparations for the upcoming open studio tour. Cynthia is one of the main coordinators for the e

vent with Sequim Arts. Overhearing a couple of phone calls that came in while were were there, I was reflecting on my volunteer work for coordinating the ABG Outdoor Art Show

 -only x 1,000 for Cynthia! John even had crab pots that were waiting for him to pull in, but they both opened their work spaces and shared their passions with Dad and I loke long-lost friends. John even gave me a set of the coolest little tools called a C.R.A.B. (cleaner, rubber and burnisher) for cleaning and burnishing metal. I was thinking this may be something for my friends Vicki & Rick... Each little rubber nib contains tightly compacted glass fibers. 

But hands down, one of the coolest BIG tools we saw was John's metal sprayer. The mention of this machine caught my Dad's attention during their first meeting at the arts council. Dad knew this was a machine I'd be interested in seeing when we came to Sequim for our visit. The commercial applications range form oil derricks to boats to what John and Cynthia hope to use it for, ART. The machine can spray aluma-zinc and copper by using different spools of wire. John is also a skilled foundryman (I'm not sure this is the proper title) and makes 

casts and bronze sculptures from Cynthia's amazing clay sculptures. Her Metamorphosis Series are very spiritual and her Horse sculptures are so lifelike that Cynthia said the sculptures have caused some to say she "must have been a horse in a past life!" What I also appreciated was John and Cynthia's team approach to the art. Her originals combined with his skill at casting, finishing detail and patina work are symbiotic and beautiful. 

Woops! got to go, everyone is getting in the car for the BIG TOUR! More later.

In the Land of Art

I never thought it would be possible, but can there be such a thing as being on visual OVERLOAD? Or at least I think I am on inspiration overload! Seeing so much work by the many talented Pacific Northwest artists has inspired me to want to get back into the studio, slab roll some tiles, sculpt some clay, heat some copper or pound and weld some steel! We spent yesterday in Port Townsend doing the Gallery walk, but mainly our destination was to see the Juried Collage/Assemblage Exhibit at the Northwind Arts Center. there were many Galleries and shops showing a variety of artists and mediums. What I especially enjoyed was seeing the diversity of mediums, and REAL art, not too many sailboat watercolors or shrink wrapped prints! 

The Collage/Assemblage Exhibit at the Northwind Arts Center will be on display july 3 - 27 and my Dad had two pieces accepted 

for display! The first piece that I have posted here, is "I am not a he, I am not a she" and is an assemblage piece using fo

und objects, vintage illustrations and cast components. The second piece accepted was titled "Opposite Attraction" using three elements; day/night, up/down, and circle/square. My Dad's latest work has been inspired by the work of Joseph Cornell, (1903 - 1972) who some say is the originator of Assemblage work. The picture at the top was taken (with permission) inside the Gallery exhibit and shows my Dad and Grandma on the left.

A few of the Galleries that I enjoyed in PT were; Artisans on Taylor, Earthenworks, Gallery 9, April Fool & Penny Too and the Port Townsend Gallery. There are many other hip shops with new 

and vintage items for sale along the main road in downtown. We had a yummy pizza by the slice at Bay View Pizza and a full lunch at the Public House where locals say "Hippies & Retirees Agree the best fish n' chips are at The Public House!"

My sister (she is a professional and dedicated Nurse in Anchorage) and niece head North to Alaska today but not before we spend the day in downtown Seattle as touristas (more

 art for me to see!). My niece wants to see the Space Needle and my sister wants to shop at Pike Place Market. This picture is of my sis and I at our parents Big Five-Oh Anniversary party Saturday. Our Aunt Cindy was pouring us Grey Goose Lemon Drops (with fresh U-Pick raspberries!) to quench our thirst as we "manned" the grille! Gus and I are lucky to still have this week on the Olympic Peninsula. We will be experiencing the Sequim Lavender Festival and Studio Tours Friday. The Lavender Festival makes me think of my "across the miles" friend Linda. More pictures to post soon!