Festival of Trees

Well, I have had five days off during Thanksgiving weekend and I took advantage of the free time by getting my Christmas cards done, most of my Christmas shopping and decorating the house for Christmas. Except I didn't put up the Christmas tree yet. Since this is the most time I will have off from work before Christmas, I just wanted to get most of it done while I had still had the time and the energy.

Last Friday I went to a very artistic exhibit called The Festival of Trees at the convention center in downtown Boise. This is an annual event that features all kinds of elaborately decorated Christmas trees & wreaths. The trees were just magnificent! There were all types of decoration themes trees like a rustic country Christmas tree, 1940's style tree, a Hollywood movie theme tree, a Peanuts character/Charlie Brown Christmas tree, and even a Pirates of the Carribean theme tree. I love to see what people come up with and how imaginatively these trees are decorated. I went with a group of friends from my church, the Vineyard.

I really haven't spent much time doing art work because I have been concentrating mostly on Christmas preparations. However, on Thanksgiving day I did do some work on a new piece I just started. This piece is actually going to be paired up with "Walking Through Fire" which is based on Isaiah 43:2. This new piece will illustrate that part of Isaiah 43:2 that says, "when the waters pass over you, you will not be swept away."

Vocational Rehab Art Show & Floating Gallery

In December I am going to be exhibiting my artwork at a downtown Boise coffee shop called Dawson's Downtown. This is an art show that will include about six artists from Vocational Rehabilitation that have various disabilities, and who are either professional or amateur artists. My disability hasn't been officially declared yet. It may be connected to my chiropractic problem or it may be connected to the chemical imbalance I was diagnosed with in 1991 that can trigger depression. (A condition that runs in my family.) My rehab counselor, Debbie, started this project along with the owner of the coffee shop. Debbie hopes to turn this into a floating gallery that exhibits in various places all over the Boise, Idaho area. I think this is a great idea and hopefully there will be plenty of other future shows. Debbie and the owner of the coffee shop, along with all of the artists who are participating in this show, had a meeting at the coffee shop last monday to plan the show. I am going to help with the preparations for this show doing things like printing title cards on my computer to use for the individual pieces of art exhibited. This floating gallery doesn't have a name yet, but one idea was to call it "disABLED artists." I will probably have about 5-9 pieces of art there. Set up day is December 1st.

There has been very little time to work on any new art projects. I went to the printers this week and got my Christmas card art piece turned into small note card size prints so I can paste them onto my cards. I have most of the stuff I need for my cards, except envelopes. The inside verse and any other text for my cards are run off on the computer/printer and then I do cut and paste for the rest.

I had an invitation to help with painting a mural this weekend that was being done at the Vineyard and I really wanted to help, but my back and neck muscles were so sore from custodian duties this past week I did not go. I decided I just wanted to give my back and shoulder muscles a rest this weekend.

Both Portraits of Thompson Completed--Another Happy Client!

The client who ordered two 5X7 colored pencil portraits of her nephew, Thompson, finally picked up and paid for her order. (See October 27th for first portrait of Thompson.) Last week she came by and I showed her both the portraits. Well, one was just perfect, the other one, she said was just a bit off and didn't look as much like Thompson as the first one. So I went over the flawed one using tracing paper so I could detect any and all flaws. I found one near the neck and the ear area, so I corrected it. Then I changed the shape of his head just a bit. Those changes seemed to do the trick because today, when my client saw my corrected portrait, she loved it! This is actually the first time I have done two originals of the same person, from the same photograph. I have decided that next time, I am going to ask for two different photographs. I don't really like doing two portrait originals that look exactly alike. I feel like I am doing it assembly-line style. There is something in me, as an artist, that says, "Okay, I've done this one portrait in this style, now I would like to do the other portrait differently." But you can't do that because the client wants them exactly alike.

Getting An Early Start On Christmas--A Handmade Photo Album

Because I am on a very limited budget this Christmas, I am going to either make gifts for people or give them special baked goodies. So this week I have been working on a different type of art project. I have been making a handmade photo album/scrapbook to give as a Christmas gift. (See above photo.) It is for a specific person and is going to be filled with photos of this person's pets. Several years ago I bought a book called 'Making Books By Hand' by Mary McCarthy and Phillip Manna. I also used this book to make my 'Measure of Man' poetry book. I found the directions in this book helpful but a bit confusing and not really complete. I had to fill in the gaps and invent a lot of steps that they did not explain. But it gave me enough of an idea of how to made books that I can figure the rest out myself. I find that I enjoy making books by hand because I can design them any way I want. I use specialty paper with all types of designs and sometimes I also use fabric. I think it turned out looking very professional and it was lots of fun to make.

The Art Gala At The Vineyard

The Art Gala at the Vineyard was yesterday (Saturday night) from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. Everything went well and I had fun. I had about about 7-8 framed art on display, some of my Stone Critters, plus a special exhibit that highlighted my illustrated family poetry, "Measure of Man." (See my website at www.chickartisticcreations.com for more info on this.) Several other Vineyard artists also displayed their work, including my good friend, Lisa Marten. There were two poetry readings, yummy appetizers, some interviews (one was with Brandi Swindell) and even an interpretive dance number at the end. It was great to be with fellow artists and art lovers and chat with people about how art has been used as a source of healing in our lives. The evening seemed to end about as soon as it begun and before I knew it, it was time to take down my exhibit and go home.

Setting up my exhibit at this Gala took longer than expected, but that's not unusual. I did not have the right kind of equipment for displaying my art and was not allowed to use my A-frame display stand. I guess it didn't look good enough. I thought it looked just fine, but the the director of this event did not. Fortunately, Lisa Marten's dad had brought some extra display panels that Lisa was not going to use, so it worked out fine. I would very much like to invest some money in those same type of display panels that I used that night. They would work well with my EZ-Up Canopy that I use in my outdoor art shows.

"Walking Through Fire" Based On Isaiah 43:2

I have just completed a new piece of art. I call it "Walking Through Fire." (Posted above.) It is based on a verse in the Bible, Isaiah 43:2, "....you will pass through the fire, but you will not be burned." I got the idea for this from a photo from the 2008 calendar hanging in my computer room. This photo doesn't give the location of where it was taken, but I have a feeling it is somewhere in Utah or Arizona. I found another photo of fire and combined it with the unusual red rock cave photo from the 2008 calendar and viola! I embellished the beam of light in the photo by expanding it and giving it some waves at the bottom. I don't think I have done anything before with such an intense color palate of yellow, red & orange.

I wanted to complete this piece before next Saturday so I could display it for the big Vineyard Art Gala on November 8th. I spent much of this past weekend preparing my display for this event because I am one of their on-site artists. (The purpose of the Gala is to raise money for the Vineyard church's art program & the Vine Arts Gallery.)