Fine Furniture it's not

Tomorrow I take off for Tahoe. I'm participating in the Lake Tahoe Festival of Fine Arts, in South Lake Tahoe. I won't have time to paint while I'm there, but I'll be busy with the booth and the many, many customers that will be visiting. If you're in the area, drop on by!

I built a little folding table today for my display booth out of an old door and some plywood I had kicking around from building the kitchen cabinets. It took a couple of tries to work the kinks out of the design, but I think it'll be really functional. While I was at the hardware store picking up hinges, I noticed a pile of plastic folding tables about the same size as the one I was cobbling together. Price? $30. It sort of took the wind out of my sails after spending the afternoon gluing up table legs. The good news? I don't have to take the old door to the dump.

Big Ribbon

I spent last weekend showing my work at the Cottonwood Wild West Art and Wine festival and came home with a big show ribbon. The festival was held in the small town of Cottonwood, near Redding in Northern California, and the temperatures over the weekend hovered around 115 degrees (that's 46 C for those of you outside the US). I didn't think it was possible that anyone would even show up, but a few hardy souls came and bought art and tasted wine and took in the entertainment. Apparently that kind of weather is common around there, and the locals sort of shrugged it off while wearing long sleeve shirts and jeans. Meanwhile my partner and I survived by applying ice to the backs of our neck and spritzing each other with cold water.

I was awarded the prize for "Best Booth", which I think means I was the classiest act present. I didn't have a lot of competition. There were only a few other painters present, and one of those was exploring the tradition of painting on saw blades. But I really did appreciate being recognised. I did a lot of research last summer looking at displays at several of the high end art festivals in the area, and have put a lot of thought into designing my booth. So I'm taking the ribbon as a pat on the back. Besides, I was always a little jealous of my cousin and her wall of horse show awards. Now I've got a big ribbon of my own.

California Poppy

My front yard is a wildflower garden devoted to California native plants, and this year the poppies just took over. It was like stepping into a sea of orange and yellow every time I opened the front door. They're setting seed now that the weather has gotten hot, but I still like them and their strange stringy fruits. I printed an edition of this print last night, and I like the image enough that I'm planning on doing a couple of versions of this print. I printed a few that I'm going to sit down and hand color once I get away from the computer. Oh, and did I mention that one of these sold within hours of being listed on etsy?

An inconvienent truth

"Three Balls" 18x24

This blog is about art, specifically about my process of making art. So ever since I saw "An Inconvient Truth" at the movie theatre last night, I've been thinking about how it relates to my art, and thus how I could talk about it here.

I didn't learn anything I didn't already know. I give a lecture on global warming every semester to my students, and I use a lot of the same material that's presented by Al Gore in the movie. But the film is really about passion, about having a commitment to an idea and pursuing it against the silence of complaisance and ignorance. I don't think my art is going to change the lives of millions. But I do think that what I do is important, because the process of making art is my way of bearing witness to the landscape. And lord knows, that landscape is gonna change.

If you haven't seen the film, you should. If you think global warming isn't a big deal or you think there's nothing you can do, you really should see the film, regardless of what you think of Gore.

Cottonwood Art Festival

Weekend after next, the 24-25th of June, I'll be starting my summer art fair season with the Cottonwood Wild West Art and Wine festival in the little burg of Cottonwood, CA near Redding. I've never associated the wild west with both art and wine so it promises to be an interesting mix. If you're in the area, please drop by and see some work and meet the artist and maybe even buy a piece to take home and display with pride and affection in your living room.

Needless to say I'm excited and a bit overwhelmed with all the preparations. I've been busy framing all sorts of new paintings and prints, but the picture at the top is an older painting, one of my favorites from a painting trip to the Shasta area last summer.