Book Signing and Slumber Party

So on Thursday Katie drove to my house and on Friday the two of us drove to southern Oregon to visit Stephanie and Sue Hadden for a weekend of slumber party, girl sharing, book signing and art making. Girls never outgrow slumber parties, remember that. Few pleasures are better than leaving your responsibilities behind for a few days to hang with the girls.

We all slept at Sue's house and painted on fabric in her converted horse barn. Sue lives in the country just outside of Grants Pass where we woke up to wild turkeys, wild bunnies, sunshine and the most amazing gardens that Sue put in all over her property. It was heaven.

Stephanie and I got right down to business and signed stacks and stacks of books for the people who ordered them from us. We enclosed a print from each of us and they'll go out in the mail today. We are both so proud and happy to share the projects in the book with our friends near and far.

After we painted we sewed on our paintings and Stephanie and Katie showed us how to use the special thingy on the machine that lets you roam around on the fabric and draw pictures in thread. That was a new experience for me and it is so much fun. Now I'm going to do some at home.

Katie shared kimono fabric with all of us. Stephanie is sorting through the treasure in this photo.

We stayed up late to paint and discuss and yes, the wine was available to those who enjoy it. (now who would that be?) We all felt so creative playing exquisite corpse.

Above is part of the long, narrow piece that Sue is going to make into a pillow. It shows the four of us and Sue's little dog Ozzie who was a member of our party. (we let one "boy" come.) We chose nicknames for the weekend: Raven, Moonshine, Stardust and Annie Bedsprings. We'll leave it up to others to guess who is who.

I didn't get photos of all the pieces and mine aren't done but here is another I happened to shoot. I loved everything about this painting-fabric-sewing process.

It's so much fun to see where your friends live, to stare at their studios and the art on their walls, to learn more about each other and to feel the affection growing as we gain insights into each others' accomplishments and challenges. We all have both and it helps to share that amongst ourselves.

Here is a wall in Stephanie's house that is pure amazing, incredible Stephanie. She and Sue whomped up the most delicious food for us, provided every comfort and sensory delight; we even got to see the fuzzy little chicks and meet some new friends during the visit. And she has a treehouse. A big, terrific treehouse that lots of adults can sit in and from which they can look out over the rolling green hills and talk like pirates.

I'll try to finish my exquisite corpses (just the sewing, not the painting) and show that to you tomorrow.

Let's all inspire each other! Pass it on. xo

Call for Plaster Art

Time to let the cat completely out of the bag. I'm very busy right now getting the first stages completed in the book writing process. Stephanie Lee and I are co-authoring a book on the use of plaster in art and we are both up to our necks in plaster projects, writing and organizing images for the gallery section of the book. To that end, I know a lot of my readers are artists who have worked in a variety of materials and that many of you have plaster projects you have done that you'd love to share with the whole world.

To have your work considered for inclusion in the gallery section of the book, we ask that you send us a high quality jpg file sized 300 dpi at 8x10" (ideally) or 5x7" at least for our consideration. We hope to have all the files assembled by December 15th and then follow up with a release form and photo credit shortly after that. We are really excited to get a book out on plaster and mixed media because no one has done one yet and we love plaster for so many reasons.

Think casting, sculpting, painting on a plaster substrate (or joint compound) and the like. The book is scheduled to debut early 2011 and it's going to be wonderful.

On other fronts I am getting more familiar with my new iMac, my new printer and PhotoShop. I've not put Elements on this computer because I know I will fall back on that for speed if I have it and I want to make the full transition now. Everything goes slowly at first as anyone knows who has looked at all the tools in PhotoShop for the first time. It's overwhelming.

We had our first killing frost here last night so the yerba santa is drooping sadly outside my bathroom window. I will miss seeing those verdant boughs first thing each morning - I see winter is officially here, even if the calendar says we have a few weeks to go. Snow in Houston? And possibly here by tomorrow? Brrr, time to get out the woolies.

Haven't painted in the wee book except for this one face. And today I'll be mixing plaster for the next project. Music, garlicky food, wine at night, sun shining through the big windows in my studio, fragrant face creams, putting on my apron to work in the studio. These are the things that make me very happy today. That and finally posting to my blog. I have big plans for the future. More sharing with you here; more blog tutorials and inspiration, lots of reaching out. I love feeling connected after so much time to ponder and work in solitude. I need both. How about you?