Getting Ready for Nothing?

Okay, so it turns out my name got left OFF the advertising. Ha ha ha ha ha . Business happens. And all of you understand the darker sides of business...if only I had asked THIS question, if only I had known THAT part, then I would have been SURE to take care of it.

Open Studio Hartford!

good place to start~

ArtSpace Hartford
555 Asylum Avenue,
Hartford, CT 06105
FIRST FLOOR
11-5!!!!

Saturday the 14th and Sunday the 15th.

see more info (can you say DIRECTIONS?) at my/our website: broadbrookart.com

But this is the other truth:

This is the first time I have shown with my ArtSpace homies since 2002. Then we had two shows a year and I opened when stuff and teaching didn't intervene. I don't do that anymore. I mean, let teaching intervene. On the other "stuff" that intervenes? I talked with someone last week who also believed that the muse can be a bitch of a mistress (hmmm...she didn't use those words) and that no matter how high one can get on making some kind of art, a crash (or crisis) of some sort will come. Call it the dark side of creativity...that "it" may go and NEVER come again. But then I could always just OPEN THE DOOR if someone wanted to see what I had (or didn't have) goin' on.

To say that is not an option here in the country is an understatement. In most ways I don't miss the sirens and the lights and sounds of the trains. After a couple of years the new gov shut off the Christmas lights on those beautifully filled the trees in Bushnell Park, but I still had the thrice-yearly fireworks and an open window or short walk to any live concert. You could also look up from Asylum Avenue (yes, it is named for what you think) or the Southbound or Northbound trains and see exactly where I was. I could find myself anytime, even when I couldn't quite find myself,

Now...slave over your work 14 hours a day with these guys staring at you:

Rosie IS the devil dog puppy she looks like. Playful, energetic...exhausting! And Cassandra, that enforcer of a kitty, just lives to leave her paw print as signature. She always has. She was raised indoors in Hartford, and in all of her 10 years I am pretty sure she has attempted to contribute at least one hair to each piece. I thwart her, but in the days of BIG installations, she completely glued herself to a number of large projects/objects. The bigger the money, the larger portion she glued herself to. This work? She was nowhere near it. Perhaps she grasps the concept hairless art equals kitty kibble! Nah. I lie. She is kittenish, but too old to be a devil kitty anymore. Wait! That is my Halloween costume idea...

Nah. I lie. Donna and I travel twice yearly to Cape Cod and marginally observe the spectacle the Halloween can be there. Things have changed during our tenure...no need to "come out" as anything queer...but you better be theatrical, no matter what. All Hallow's Eve is merely for the costumed now, no politics required. It is a blast to watch.

I won't make earrings or goddesses there. The sound of the ocean and the look of the sky automatically puts me in drawing mode, and what I don't draw I photograph for later drawings. These are just a few of this week's earrings:

A bunch more (see bin?) will finish drying before I dress them with classy beads.

I don't know how long I will be this divided person...the one who loves crafty stuff and the serious two-dimensional artist. For now, just think of it a little of something for everyone...every one of me!

 Open Studio Hartford has a theme this year...it is 20 years old. And I have been here (not always showing) all this time. There will be eyeglass cases created by individual artists for sale, all proceeds to charity. I have some in progress...

I will post the progress. In the meantime, dream time.

So THAT'S what's down the rabbit hole...

More than a week has passed since I disappeared into the Alice-In-Wonderland themed East Coast Artist Retreat, and it already seems like light years ago in some ways. I have never experienced anything like it...it was a sumptuous feast of creativity, like a music festival for your eyes and hands instead of ears. I spent most of my time there with Keith Lo Bue, a found object artist originally from Connecticut but who has resided in Sydney, Australia for a decade. http://www.lobue-art.com/home.html Keith's website showcases the work, so wonderful in person, but we were there to see if we could utilize his amazing techniques in our own work, or the work some of us hadn't even dreamed of doing yet.When members of our class emerged from our work area some of us sounded like cult worshippers. I had 3 days and 4 workshops with him and many took every one of his classes over the full 5 days. Closed in that hotel I definately felt like some sort of vampire, hidden away and greedily sipping life from all I came into contact with. In the end I could call myself, at the minimum, a Keith Lo Bue groupie. This is Jeanne, Nancy, Keith and me. I certainly look like a woman who rarely slept and closed myself in a room with a bunch of tools and some "junk" for days. Found objects, lost touch with the everyday!

Learning the new techniques will truly enhance my own work, but the retreat was "spiritual" for me as well as technical. Combining the hands-on tactile experience with meeting other artists walking similar paths created a feeding frenzy in my soul. So many artists described similar art-school experiences, shut down in some way, and the self-taught among us (there were many...with mad skills) had their own barriers, and we were able to strip all of that away for the weekend...to say "why not?" in place of "how will I ever?".

There were plenty of extras. We had creative visual journaling sessions in the morning and special lunchtime placements to be sure we met everyone we could, regardless of their creative focus. The screening of the documentary "Who Does She Think She Is?" was icing on the creativity cake. Be sure you wait for the flash intro to load if you visit the site http://www.whodoesshethinksheis.net/ . I recommend the film to anyone who has walked a path in pursuit of a creative life. Though the documentary describes a woman's journey, it may be eye-opening to the men among us who also want to understand the barriers to making and showing art. The organizers outdid themselves: the air virtually buzzed with excitement all of the time.

I made great friends, both the kind one keeps around all the time and the see-you-next-year kind. There were people for whom art serves as a vocation and those who have it as a passion in addition to a full time career, and those non-art career folks were no shirkers. It reminded me (like a great clap of thunder) how fortunate I am to be able to be in my studio as much as I am and how much all these other  business people have to offer~ I vowed to stop working in such isolation. Jeanne, pictured with me, and the found-object art piece she created, volunteered to share her hotel room and it made all the difference. We both had plenty of stuff to haul around (she came as an antiques vendor as well as participant) and our room looked like a mini warehouse. Our lodging couldn't have been farther from the venue and without her help hauling I would have been a very sorry soul indeed. The worst part for Jeanne was my talking aloud while I dreamed about the work~ really loud.

So I will be there next year...in some form of ruby slipper or other...ready for the magic Art Is...