Shameless Self Promotion

Samples of products now available online. Su Nimon and I are both on Fine Art America.

Recently chastised for not writing more often, I have to admit that I do miss it. My excuse? I have not been anyplace to review because I have been working behind the scenes on multiple projects.  Granted there have been some recent events that inspired me to blast off a few lines but my mandatory waiting period to cool off before posting had me hit the delete button. My husband’s current favorite saying ringing in my ears….”not my circus, not my monkeys”.

The title of this blog should give you a clue as to its content. If interested in what I do, keep reading. If you have better things to do, we will catch up after a review of the upcoming Akron Arts Prize opening.

Behind the scenes project one (and in no particular order) has been the creation and installation of my piece for the Akron Arts Prize competition. This is a multi venue exhibition of pieces voted upon by the public via an app that records 5 votes per person, each vote for a different piece. The voter must be within the footprint of the venues for a vote to register. One does not however have to be in the location of the work itself, so going to lunch in a nearby restaurant and voting works just fine. Advantage to winning goes to artists who have friends in Akron. Out of area artists have to encourage imports to make the drive up (or down) so they can vote. Good luck with that.  My work, the “Daily Doodle Diary Dress” is at a new gallery called Ro3 or Rule of Thirds on the second floor of the building across from Summit Arts Space.  If you don’t see this piece in Akron, if I am juried in, you will see it locally come November. But go to Akron starting Saturday (their art walk) on a Thurs –Sat 5 – 10 pm until the first Sat in October and vote. Google the Akron Arts Prize for more detailed info on this whole process.

A second time consuming project is now over, the BSA Float for the H of F Grand Parade. Six grand prize awards in a row has been wonderful for a team of dedicated people. We figured about 650+ volunteer hours went into this one. Except for a temperamental bubble machine, all went well. Nobody fell off, nothing broke down and the boys had a blast despite their initial reluctance to participate. Try telling a young man he has to push a 10 foot canoe along a 30 foot channel for over an hour, using wooded blocks and a makeshift “paddle” while smiling for the camera…oh, and he was from Brazil so the language barrier to explain all this worked in my favor. Not sure if we will return next year, but thanks to all who cheered us on!

Project three has been helping Su N to re-purpose the Journey Classroom. What fun! My roots (not the gray ones thank you very much) but my professional ones were called upon to assist in the transformation. Not my place to tell what happened in there, but come First Friday, you all can stop by and see for yourself. The result of one of those conversations where someone says  “what if?” and the other says “why not?”  followed by “where would and how could?”  met with “right here and with help” so we did. So many new possibilities have opened up now….damn it. A brain already overflowing with ideas now has to go rent space in an imaginary storage locker. 

Project four….joining the 21^st century of online shopping. Sad in a way, because I realize how much of my own work is lost forever because we did not have the technology to record it at the time. High resolution as I am learning is not what our old cameras were able to do. Slides are just junk now. Kodak prints are faded and transparencies are worthless. Basically the first 20 to 25 years of my own work will exist only in some uploaded digital files that are not really salvageable for any sort of production purposes. Multiple transfers between computers, outdated technology and corruption of files have left my legacy in the limbo of cyber space someplace. Sort of like the one guy on Star Trek who never fully beamed back to the transporter room… just sort of all glittery in a lost dimension of time and space. However….some of my things are usable, so I have joined one of those online sites where you can purchase my images as things! Yes, I could walk into a bathroom someday and see my art on a shower curtain! Maybe my work will be on somebody’s tote-bag ( I promise not to accost you on the street and offer to sign it), or a phone case, or my favorite, the pillow!  I am being serious here, I think this is pretty cool…just because everybody has been doing it for years….this old dog has learned a new trick. So go to judi-krew.fineartamerica.com and check it out. I am trying to add new images every so often to get started. If you have a personal favorite from years past (the “Women” series is retired now ) I may be able to dig up a usable image for a one time production of a greeting card or small print.

Hmmmm… I suppose I could go on about some other projects going on, but now is not the time. Many thanks to Jamie W for helping translate the language of technology  not only for me, but also to set up the online shopping program at Journey Art Gallery. Now we can all sit around in our pajamas and buy art! Christmas is only a few months away so ho ho ho, it is time to go (to the internet!)

PS: First Friday is almost here and we have 160 medicine bottles filled with secrets and pieces of a larger puzzle. Stop by and claim one to be a part of the art and leave your mark!