THE FUNGUS AMUNGUS......DAY 10

I have learned all I can from our furry friend. It will be returned to the forest floor tomorrow, before it does some weird damage to the bench! See you next year! ( or your million offspring)

HAIRY FUNGUS ....DAY 8

It really is getting kinda creepy! The yellow hair/fuzz is now a soft grey and the two sides are still joined up with the fuzz. I wonder what will happen next? POSTSCRIPT: Our first deer sighting of the fall season was yesterday. This sweet little one got an itch just as Roy took the photograph. After that, he/she curled up next to the tree, totally hidden in the tall weeds. Must have been nap time. No sign of a mother nearby however.

FUNGUS DAY SEVEN ....... OH MY!

I find this all so very interesting! I am worried thay maybe I just don't get out often enough???

GIANT FUNGUS DAY SIX . ..

It seems our giant mushroom has an issue ; it's very own fungus growth! Fun to watch how this goes. I will keep you posted on this interesting but no doubt useless information.

A CREATIVE SUNDAY . ..

Yesterday Roy and I spent the day in Pittsburgh at the Sixth Annual Co-op Art Harvest with over 50 local vendors, wonderful food and live music. I was pleasantly surprised at the variety of the art/craft offerings! There were the numerous jewelry vendors but there were many unusual creations. I took the oportunity to do some networking and passed out business cards as well as postcards showcasing my artwork. It was great fun! The following photographs show the row of tents and I also had to include a photograph of one of the streetside buildings that is so "Pittsburgh". Love that town!

After we had wandered around the festival we took off for the new location of the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse. I found wonderful things for making dolls; fabrics, paint, tassels, face forms, poly doll hair, a cool stamp, etc. I also found a beautiful platter for$3. It was all great fun!

IF YOU GO DOWN IN THE WOODS TODAY . ..

Yeah, you know the rest of THAT song, right? The woods can be scary and full of big animals (like that black bear who thinks our porch is his own buffet), and bushes full of thorns, and vines that like to trip you up. And, apparently our woods have these ginormous fungus things! We thought it was a lost soccer ball! It is very light, feels kinda rubbery and sounds hollow. When we cut it open (with a really big knife), the inside is sponge-like and smells woodsy. I have no idea what to do with it so it sits on the porch where I can go out and pick it up and look at it again and again. I'm not saying it is really wet here, but come on now, this thing is huge!!!

A NEW DOLL . ..

I finished this doll last night. I must thank my online friend, Dee Marcellus Cole for sending me a really big box of fabulous fabrics! Some of them I used to dress this doll. Thanks Dee! Dee does some truly wonderful, and very large, paper mache creatures. You can see them at www.3dee-art.com.

So, now I am off to create another one. As with this one, I have no idea what it will look like. I start by creating the face, and the face tells me what the rest of the figure will look like. This doll measures 27" X 12". Stay tuned for another doll!

STEPPING OUT.....AND BACK IN TIME ....

Last night Roy and I went to gallery museum event at a local historical venue. The Baldwin-Reynolds House Museum is a Greek Revival Mansion built by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Henry Baldwin in 1841 and is located in Meadville Pa, where I was born and grew up.

This venue was selected to showcase artworks and museum pieces from surrounding major cities. We were delighted to see an original Matisse and an original small piece by Picasso. Various well know artists from the area were also represented along with displays of historical interest, such as period furniture and tools and many household items representative of the day. I almost lost Roy in the antique tool room! One room housed several large glass-fronted display cases which held about 200 hand carved wooden birds local to the area.

In addition to the main house, the grounds are also home to 100 year old Japanese maples, gardens, a spring fed pond and stone patio.

Not far from the house is an 1878 sandstone ice and milk house and a rural doctor's house that had been relocated to the site from a nearby county village. Here you can see a display of medical and dental tools, pharmacy and early medical library books.

Roy was a dashing date in his charcoal pleated dress slacks and navy blazer. I wore a long dark brown velvet skirt, white top and turquoise and lace open tunic. Of course, I also wore some vintage necklaces in honor of the location and occasion. For some reason, I have fallen into the "Victorian velvet and antique jewelry" period of my life. It feels like I am dressing up in my Grandmother's clothes! What fun! Sorry, no photos of the dashing couple..maybe next time!

It was a wonderful event, with live music and refreshments, not to mention being totally immersed in a bygone era.

TIBETAN PRAYER FLAGS . . .

The Tibetan word for a horizontal prayer flag is Lung ta, which translates literally as "wind horse." The prayers of a flag become a permanent part of the universe as the images fade from wind and sun. Tibetans renew their hopes for the world by continually mounting new flags alongside of the old.This is my version of the Tibetan prayer flags. They hang outside my studio windows. These are words and phrases to remind me of how I want to live each day. I'm not always successful but I am working on it!

MY NEW STUDIO DESK !

No longer will I be answering e-mail on my lap! We moved the two file cabinets, Roy built a top from some pieces of heavy plywood in his shop, and I draped a cool tie-dyed rayon scarf over it. I have had the scarf since I bought it in Santa Fe but never found a way to use it so that I could see all the cool colors! Perfect! Yep! Makes me very happy!

"NESTLED" . . .

Yet another experiment in style and subject matter. I watched a documentary yesterday on the life and art of Paul Cezanne. It got me energized to try something new on paper. This is the result. I kinda like it......in a soft and primitive way. I might try another piece......looking for improvment of course. I will share it with you when it is finished. When I look at my gallery of works on Fine Art America it looks like a collaboration put togther by several artists. Oh well, I will just keep trying new things until something sticks......or I might just keep doing new and different things!

SELF- PROMOTION AND "PUTTING IT OUT THERE" . .

Self-promotion is hard! Rejection is real. But, unless I do this, my studio will fill up with stacks and stacks of artworks and no one will see them. I love creating my work, but even more, I love having other people enjoy it. So, since there never has been a long line of people outside my studio, I needed to figure out how to "put it out there". Yesterday ( after writing a letter of introduction via e-mail) I met with the coordinator of a fabulous program called "PA Route 6 Artisan Trail." After looking at my work and spending 2 hours talking about all the opportunities available to artists locally, he invited me to submit three pieces, of my choosing, to become a part of the PA Route 6 Artisan Trail exhibit. This exhibit currently has 70 pieces of work that will, over the next year, travel along Route 6 in PA, being hung in galleries and other venues across the entire state. So far, the exhibit has been displayed in three locations with an attendance over 3000. After the exhibit finishes the PA tour sites, it will begin it's journey the length of the United States for a period of 3-4 years. As it travels, it will form the impetus for the creation of the proposed National Route 6 Artisan Trail. After much thought, these are the three pieces I have selected. "Time Traveler" - wall art doll

"Pods" - painted fabric

"Bella" - paper collage with acrylic

I will deliver these to the coordinator on September 10th to begin their long journey away from the studio. I am so excited to have this opportunity and if, by chance, the exhibit comes close to your home over the next 4 years, I encourage you to check it out. In the meantime, I hope I don't foget what my work looks like! Here is a link to the PA Route 6 Artisan Trail site. I invite you to read about this wonderful adventure!

http://www.paroute6.com/static/index.cfm?action=group&contentID=13