Local school doily workshop

Good News! I am planning on conducting a birdseed doilies workshop with the St. Joan of Arc Catholic School (to help commemorate their activities for the International Day of Peace). It's been great to have the artwork extend to include others in its creation and to see such a positive reaction to the work. Deborah's excitement about the project since meeting her at the Good Citizen opening has been infectious- and I look forward to seeing the birdseed doilies manifest themselves outside the gallery setting. Since my previous attempts at creating the works with children have been limited to a few participants, this should prove to be a fruitful experiment and experience.

Sweet way to start the morning

After a great breakfast of cinnamon toast, grilled peppers and eggs and spending some quality time with Brad before he headed to work, I open my email and see my artwork featured in the WomanMade Gallery July Newsletter. And a hearty congratulations to WMG for being selected as one of the best art galleries by Today's Chicago Woman readers.



A very friendly voice from WMG called recently to make sure I really didn't want to the birdseed mailed back to me. It feels great to be low maintenance and let them know "really, you can just spread the seed outside (hopefully in a an artful pattern) and just reuse or recycle the containers." The gallery gave me such a sweet spot to install- right at the base of the stairs, under their street level window. Due to the crowding during events and the length of the show- the work was placed on a base for this one instance. Beate-the director and Tasha-the intern who answered my barrage of questions made the installation process enjoyable. Their staff and volunteers are wonderfully professional and friendly. It was great to work in such a lovely space- especially since I had to travel half a day to get there- with a staff that was organized and laid-back. This image- the one from the newsletter- was a great view down from the stairs and the artists shown were working on the peice for at least about a 1/2 hour, some nearly 1/2 of the opening. It was great to see others get lost in the act of making.

"Interactive" gets a review from TimeOut Chicago

I love google. The show came down yesterday---but Check out the review!

"“Interactive” makes one’s body feel welcome in the gallery space, rather than feared as a source of potential damage."

Although it poured outside, seeing friendly faces and getting to spend some quality time just enjoying artwork on a more visceral level, flipping delicate pages and smelling vials of "literary essence" was worth the drive up and back. The public transport I took to get from Elburn to the gallery ran like clockwork and was a gorgeous alternative to sitting in Chicago traffic. Too bad Brad was caught at the airport for the "worst day ever" with delays and cancellations and a comedy of errors, so I was solo- but it was worth it and very enjoyable meeting other artists and playing with the works in the show.

Interactive Chicago

Last Friday I drove up to Chicago for Woman Made Gallery's "Interactive" exhibition. I wanted to see the reception of my work as well as meet some new people and see some old friends. The weather was horrible- thunderstorms and lots of rain, but several people still came out. B got stuck in St. Louis due to weather, and I didn't MegaBus it due to our original plans of spending some quality time in IL with friends the rest of the weekend together. Luckily, I met some great artists and met up with good friends-so I enjoyed myself despite the unseen solo aspect.

The works engaged several people, especially since people saw others engaged in it. So many of the book arts on display still seemed so fragile, I don't know if people really got to enjoy them as planned. I recommend the show, but bring a group to friends to play or the younger braver set.

I did get to have a great museum day (after nasty traffic) at the Art Institute of Chicago to see the new Modern Wing. The gardens were wonderfully cool comparatively and a great introduction to a new mindset after sitting in parade traffic.A recent work by Charles Ray. He found a fallen tree, fell in love with it, and had it carved by Japanese woodcarver. After seeing some of Bidou Yamaguchi's work during Ayomi's installation- all completed with handtools and no sanding- the labor that went into this is a thing of beauty itself.

Work At Home and Out of Town

Things this past month have been busy- lots of out to town trips and piles of work to do to settle into the house. Here's a small sample of the goings on.


We drove back home a few weekends back to celebrate my best friend's little sister's wedding. It was great to see the family perform during the ceremony: singing, playing guitar, and belting it out on the organ.


I traveled to Chicago last week to complete a birdseed drawing as part of "Interactive" at Woman Made Gallery. This is a small detail before any audience interaction.



Bush pickles are looking good. Tasty too.


The Magnolia in front is in bloom. Most of the blooms are above head level so we are closely watching those closest to the ground.
I have finally finished up my sister's baby blanket. She's due in a few weeks, so I made it just under the wire. It is still en route, so I can't post images. That much time into a gift--- there needs to be a surprise element.

Lace in Chicago and outside the window...

I'll be making an interactive work (on a small scale) at Womanmade Gallery in Chicago in June- I just got the notification this morning.

I've been running some trials on my patio (to the pleasure of some very fat squirrels) and have been learning a few bird names in the process. I plan on making a bird garden next year, and just focus this year on composting and a small container salsa garden.