Yodel-ay-hee-hoo

Is this the mural I saw on my gnome hunt earlier? It kind of looks the same, doesn't it? I expect Heidi to come bounding over any moment with her arms full of flowers. She's sweet that way.

sketching by Niki Kelce

Originally uploaded by I can't live without a Poni.

This flickr sketchbook came via Dooce. I would be content if my finished work looked like this artist's sketches!

New stuff

I just got my new etsy print and had it framed. Check it out:


The "Red Squirrel" print is by Erin Zamrzla. She's got lots more stuff in her store at Etsy, erinzam. Thanks, Erin-- I love it!
I'm trying to figure out where to put it now. We had planned on getting stuff framed and on the walls this weekend but it didn't happen. I did finally get to the mess of the planting beds in the yard and managed to make some good progress. I spent about four hours digging up a brick path I put in four years ago. It needs to be redone because it settled weird and it's hard to walk on in heels. I regret it now though--my whole body is super sore.

Etsy stroll

Things that have caught my eye:These blown glass birds by Matthew Stewart (available here).
Handpainted screen prints by Magic Jelly
Colorful prints by The Black Apple

There is such a variety of independent artists' work on Etsy it is really easy to spend a lot of time looking through everything!

Sneak Peek

It's usable, but I haven't exactly finished it so I'm only putting a few pics up of the living room I've been working on. If anyone has any suggestions, please holla!Here's our new bar. We did have all the bottles carefully tucked away in a cabinet we no longer have room for and now our debauchery is out for the world to see. The little stackable tables and trays were picked up at a vintage flea market in Westport. Top print is by my hubby and bottom two are cheap Eggleston postcards in cheap Target frames.
Look at this! I love this! I thought it was totally cute and only $8 at Target so I bought it and the hubby made me put it in the back. He wanted me to return it--what!? Look how comfy this little gnome is on our deck! (ignore the shovel!)

Shot of one corner. This is our best solution right now for shelves though I'm not entirely happy with how I've arranged them. Only art books are on these shelves--I think about half of them. What about that green, eh? It looks both rich and serene at the same time. Another of the shelves. Lots of old family items and wedding gifts on these shelves. I have kind of a thing for different bowls and vessels (what do I want to hold...?) and hubby has antique and vintage cameras. See that little old guy sitting on the shelf? When you flip a switch, he stands up and puffs on his cigar before plopping crankily back on his bench. Kind of creepy, really, but there he is. His name is Mr. McGregor. There's a painting by me and some photos by the hubby and driftwood from a vacation and blah blah blah. You get the picture.

I'm still sort of working on the rest of it (the opposite side of the boxy space) and want to figure out what to hang on the walls before I get pics up. Any suggestions?

Online Galleries

Projekt30 is an online gallery with different monthly exhibits. Sometimes they select works around a given theme--"Noir" is coming up next. I haven't checked it out for a little while now, but I'm glad I did because the sculptures by Jamey Grimes are really beautiful. I posted a few shots from Projekt30 but Jamey's artist statement and more images are here.

"Merge"
"Flow"
"Merge II"

I love the lighting on Merge and would love to see Flow up close--they're both using transparent materials.

My new craft rug

Okay, I haven't done this yet, but Holly at Decor8 posted this the other day and I'm going to try it. Take a fake grass mat, draw your design on the back, cut it out and ta-dah! New cool mat! Holly links to a Danish site with a downloadable pdf pattern but I'm going to try to freehand something and see how it comes out.


Holly's got some crazy Danish connections so she always has something new on her site. I love so many foreign language blogs but I'm obviously only there for the pretty pictures--thank goodness someone out there takes pity on me and my failing language skills!

First Fridays

Image from Blue Gallery.
I wanted to get downtown on Friday and couldn't make it happen--I blame the bowling cookies that had to be decorated. Unfortunately, some of the galleries are open by appointment only which is a little off-putting for someone like me who really doesn't have the budget right now for an art investment. I'll just skip those exhibits because I hate feeling like I'm wasting someone's time when I know I won't be buying. Maybe for the next one.
I would like to get to some of the open galleries though and I might stop by on Saturday as I'll be in the area for an Incubator session.
I really want to check out Hung Liu at Byron Cohen Gallery (more info here). She uses historical photography with layers of painting and collage.I love all the layers and really want to see some of them closer. The gallery is one of my favorites too and I was pretty stoked I got to see some prints by Chris Verne the last time I was there.
And if you need an admission that clearly identifies me as a Midwestern gal, I think the current exhibit at the Grand Arts Gallery is funny.
It's called The Smell of Fear and the idea is to isolate the sense of smell so you can get back to more primal ways of knowing someone. I think it's essentially a big scratch and sniff wall. The reason I think it's funny is that the artist Sissal Tolaas has encapsulated the scents, pheremones etc. in an effort to capture fear, combined the scents with paint and...erm...painted the wall..with FEAR! Which is probably really close to what I did recently with my redone living room.

Handmade goods

I've yet to add items to my etsy store, thanks to too many home and work projects up in the air right now, but I could spend a lot of time on the site searching through others' work (and I have).

I really love the colorful graphic designs of these pillows by Frazier and Wing:

Over the past year I've really become weirdly obsessed with pillows but these are a little out of my budget. I still love the color combinations though...

Ashley G always has pretty and affordable prints like this one.

I just recently came across Not Too Pink and the shop is full of birds and cupcakes! These are very affordable prints too.

Living with art

When I started reading this NYT article ( Cool and Collected)I was expecting to read about living with the art rather than feeling like you had a gallery or museum. I might have a vastly different idea on what a gallery home feels like because further down I read that the featured home is 7,000 square feet. This home is larger than most of the galleries I've been to around town. There are pictures to go along with the article online, which is great--I love this Koons mirror in the dining room

(is it the weekday dining room or the weekend one?) and there's another with a Cindy Sherman photograph.

I love the color of the "powder room" (we call it a bathroom! hyuck!) but it irks me when it's referred to as a "hidden space". You have too much space if you can still manage to hide a bathroom. Really, when my home plus the living spaces of six friends can fit inside this house, I think that the line between home and gallery has already been blurred and now you're just talking about style. Great style--I love the space--but at 7,000 square feet, hardly ingenious.

Unbranding

I admit I am a sucker for marketing and I love pretty packaging. Recognizing this does not mean that I like it though so this idea is really compelling to me. Keri Smith at Wish Jar has been replacing her labels with all of these lovely illustrations. Isn't this little family cute? Keri even named these little characters. I love that not only does it eliminate some of the branding we bring into our homes, but it also adds a happy breath of art into the more mundane parts of our lives.
Keri has so many great ideas throughout her blog. I can't remember when I stumbled across it but I love checking it out to get a little pop of inspiration.