Dunwoody Art Festival

Wow, I am blown away by the crowds this past weekend at the Dunwoody Art Festival!  The citizens of Dunwoody and surrounding areas came out in droves in support of the first annual festival the city has sponsored.  I loved seeing people out shopping with their mothers buying them original artwork for Mother's Day.  The best Mother's Day present I could have received was the love and support of my family during the festival and that's exactly what I got (along with some beautiful homespun cards from my boys)!  This was a great festival for me in terms of sales and networking and I am already looking forward to participating again next year.

One of the most exciting aspects of showing my work at festivals is discovering new artists and their work.  Here are a couple of artists I met whose work I admire and now own:

Bob McGill, a painter from Nashville, TN who paints with a common safety razor!
http://art-collectors-artist.ning.com/photo/photo/listForContributor?screenName=2ujtwtz5bco66

Joan Curtis, a painter from Birmingham, AL whose beautiful work ranges from florals to abstracts:
http://web.me.com/jdentcurtis/Joan_Curtis_Designs/joan_curtis_designs.html

I am currently applying for fall art festivals and am hoping to participate in some good ones!

Alpharetta Arts Streetfest

This booth shot was taken last Sunday at the Alpharetta Arts Streetfest.  Can you see that the sun was shining brightly?  If I had taken a picture of my booth 24 hours earlier and posted that instead, you would see quite a different scene.  Unfortunately, the weather on Saturday was not ideal for an outdoor art festival and the Alpharetta police advised all the artists and vendors to leave at around 12:30 PM.  A huge storm system moved through the area bringing with it high winds, lightning and torrential rain.  Luckily, the weather on Sunday was the exact opposite and brought out all the shoppers and art enthusiasts.  Something unexpected happened on Sunday...I was presented with an "Honorable Mention" ribbon by the festival organizers!  This more than made up for the disappointment of Saturday's weather events...

Next stop is the Dunwoody Arts Festival on Sat. May 8th & Sun. May 9th and I am hoping for clear skies!

http://dunwoodyartfestival.com/

Wild Oats & Billy Goats!

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Weatherly Copenhaver (isn't that a great name?) who is the owner of a new folk art gallery in Decatur called Wild Oats and Billy Goats.  She had seen some of my paintings in another gallery and wanted to know if I would be interested in showing my work in her new gallery. I didn't need to think twice before answering with an enthusiastic "YES!" since I have long wanted to get my work in front of the hip citizens of Decatur.  Weatherly and her husband, Hugh, have been fans and collectors of folk art for a while and decided they wanted to take their passion one step further by opening WO&BG.  They are such nice folks and I wish them the best with their new venture.  The gallery is on E. Ponce across from the courthouse and it is well-stocked with many beautiful pieces of original art including paintings, sculpture, pottery, jewelry, photography and hand-sewn crafts.  Check it out if you get a chance as it is not to be missed!

"Stanley" here is one of the pieces I am exhibiting at WO&BG.  He is a sweet calf I met recently at Cagle's Dairy in Canton.

Wild Oats & Billy Goats

112 E. Ponce De Leon Ave.

Decatur, GA 30030

404.378.4088

http://www.wildoatsandbillygoats.com/

Stool Pigeons

I am honored to have been invited to create an original piece for the upcoming Chairish the Future charity event on Saturday, Feb. 27th.  Each participating artist was asked to paint a second-hand chair to be auctioned off at the gala.  My chair, entitled "Stool Pigeons", is actually a stool featuring two pigeons gossiping on a limb.  The auction proceeds benefit the Atlanta Furniture Bank which distributes essential home furnishings to individuals and families moving out of homelessness, fleeing domestic violence and living with HIV/AIDS.  The event's honorary chair and host is Vern Yip of HGTV.  I am a big fan of his and am hoping to get a chance to meet him at the gala!

For more information on Chairish the Future, follow this link:
http://www.chairishthefuture.com/index.html 

Here is a pic of my chair:

Visit my paintings at Matilda's

I did hear back from that mystery gallery and it's owner, Mary Jane Potter!  Mary Jane is the proprietor of Matilda's Enchanted Cottage in Alpharetta, a funky, offbeat, whimsical gallery and gift shop.  She loved the 3 paintings that Ben dropped off and she wants more!  Thank goodness for my Man of Action.

Check out the enchanted cottage at:

http://www.matildascottage.com/
377 South Main Street
Alpharetta, GA 30004
770.754.7831

Man of Action

I am blessed to be loved by and married to a man who knows me well and doesn't lose faith in me in spite of my many faults. A combination of my most crippling faults has succeeded in preventing me from doing something I have been "meaning" to do for weeks now which is to contact local galleries about hanging my work.

Perhaps my most debilitating fault is that I procrastinate, and despite concerted efforts on my part, I cannot be reformed. Next is my propensity to be easily distracted. The never-ending minutae of life (i.e. laundry and other household drudgery, paying bills, PTA duties, soccer practice) consistently undermines my attempts to organize myself and formulate a plan about how to approach galleries. And finally there is a lack of self-confidence...what if the gallery owners hate my work and consider me unpolished, unschooled and unworthy of being represented by them?

Yesterday, my sweet Ben, having become as frustrated and exasperated by my inaction as he could stand (and being quite a man of action himself), grabbed 3 of his favorite paintings and visited 2 galleries on my behalf. Lucky for me, Ben is a fan of my work and a charming, talented and tenacious salesman to boot. The second gallery he visited really loved my paintings and expressed interest in hanging all 3 -- in fact, they wouldn't let Ben take the paintings with him! I am hoping that I will hear from the gallery owner today about hanging those 3 paintings and possibly more. The best part is that this gallery has a great reputation, a long and solid history, a loyal clientele and well, it is just plain cool...

Norcoss Art Fest

Tonight I am resting up from my second-ever art festival.  The Norcross Art Fest was such a blast to be a part of and so worth all the hard work leading up to it.  I contacted the festival director 2 weeks ago on a whim to see if just maybe there were cancellations and she would accept my application.  The gods must have been conspiring in my favor because I got in and my acceptance set me on a course to prepare for it that would cause me to neglect all my motherly-wifely-volunteerly duties for the last 2 weeks -- and I mean ALL!  Luckily, my family supports me and they understood (quite lovingly) when dinner was often born of the freezer, laundry was breeding itself into mountains, and dust bunnies were growing into dust tumbleweeds.

I met tons of nice art-lovers, was visited by many dear friends, made some gallery connections and sold enough work to cover my booth fee and them some!  The weather was lovely all weekend except for maybe 10 huge raindrops that fell Sunday afternoon. 

Best of all was that I was surrounded by so many talented artists!  Here are some of my faves...

Nancy Cann - beautiful fused glass designs      http://cellarart.com/index.html

Allison Strine - her Lady Birds make me smile!  http://allisonstrine.com/

Malena Bisanti-Wall - I wanted 50 of her delicate pottery pieces! 
http://www.mbwclayartist.com/gallery.html

Showing my work in the midst of such talented artists legitimized what I am doing and it was such a thrill!