Putting Myself Out There

Once I committed to living an "artist life" I had to then figure out what to do with this art that I was creating.  This is not such a simple task.  There is a big difference between creating art and promoting (and hopefully selling) art. 

Putting myself and my work out there into the public is very challenging for me--on the one hand, I am proud of the work that I do, and on the other hand, I am extremely nervous about the response.  I have finally, in the past few years, succumbed to the identity of artist.  This is what I do--its what I HAVE to do, what I am drawn to do,
And, living in a small town, whenever I get to show my work at a gallery or cool venue, I feel extremely lucky.

The Fraser St. Gallery in State College is one such venue.  It is on a little side street in this college town.  It is such a fantastic space--with cool people, great art, live music--it is arty without being pretentious.  I loved sharing my work there, and meeting all these other awesome artists from Central Pennsylvania.

Listening to the fabulous Riley Roth, and meeting the wonderful wood sculptor Jim Bright

Lots of the people who come to the gallery are also artists themselves

I never really get over the thrill of watching people view my work

Feeling grateful for the opportunity to share my work.  Thanks Fraser St. Gallery and Art Margaux!

Needle Felting, Knit Wrapping and Wire Sculpture, Oh My!

I've been playing around with new techniques in fiber and doll making, and I stumbled upon this idea---it is a  combination of my first step in doll making---using wire forms---but I decided to play around with fiber media.  I made the doll forms by bending wire, and then played  around with various fiber media and wooden beads to make unique doll forms.  On the last one, I formed her over a small vase, and then added wire to form the upper body.  All faces, hands and feet are needle felted.   what do you think?

A Rose By Any Other Name...

So I may have mentioned once or twice how obsessed I am with doll making.  I've been so thrilled with the response, and am amazed at how many people love dolls and doll making as much as I do.

My most recent dolls have been a very satisfying (for me) combination of fun fabrics, hand painted faces, yarn sculpted hair.  Like this doll whom I call Rose:

One thing I really love about this doll is that I didn't even realize that she resembled a rose until she was almost done.  In retrospect, its hard to imagine how I could have missed it. To start, her dress is a linen print of a rose.  That should have been my first clue, but I've used the fabric before in non-rose themed dolls.  I chose olive green linen for her leggings, perfect as a rose stem, but still, I had no plans to make a rose.  Then I chose that green/pink silk for her scarf (you know, like those small Rose leaves at the base of the flower).  Still no plan.  Even after I chose hot pink for her hair, I had no plans on making this doll a rose.  I was going to give her long wavy pink hair.  But as I was finishing her up, on Valentine's Day of all days (really, it could not have been more obvious), I started playing with her hair.  All of a sudden I looked at her and realized that I was, in fact, making a rose.  I piled her hair up on her head and sculpted it in a floral wave.  I added the little pink rose to her hair, and it was done.  A rose for Valentine's Day!