Art Showing: Seven Stones Cafe

A busy Monday evening at Seven Stones Café in Media, PA

I am always looking for new experiences related to my art-making.  Creating this blog several years ago was one of my first leaps of faith.  From there, I have participated in online classes, swaps, and challenges, as well as attending an art retreat.  I have sold my work at art and craft shows, completed a commissioned paper crafting job, and sold my things in a local gift boutique.  I have also taught summer art classes to children. 

Each of these experiences has taken me outside of my comfort zone into new territory that challenged me both emotionally and artistically. 

Now, I have a new experience to add to the list!


My art on the wall at the café (and my mother enjoying a cup of tea at the corner table)

Last night, I set up the first public showing of my art at the Seven Stones Café in Media, Pennsylvania.  The café features the work of a different artist each month, and I have twenty-three pieces on display for the month of March. 

I have been working over the past month or so to select the pieces for the showing, creating some new works just for this opportunity, as well as framing, pricing, and planning for the arrangement of each piece.  What a treat (and a relief!) to get everything on the wall of the café last night!

My mother came with me, thank goodness, for both moral support and help in getting the frames ready for hanging.


My mother took this photo of me in the process of hanging my art.

It was an interesting challenge to get everything on the wall in the midst of their normal business hours.  The folks at the tables were deep into their conversations, and seemed to take no notice of me hammering nails above their heads!  When I worked right next to an occupied table, everyone was gracious in assuring me that I was no bother. 

The most enchanting view for me came as my mother and I were leaving the café just after 9 p.m.  As we passed the front window, full of condensation in the evening chill, I could see my artwork framed in the window panes and twinkle lights.  I left feeling delighted by this opportunity to share my artwork with a community I love.

Seven Stones Café is in the town of Media, Pennsylvania--"Everybody's Hometown"--where I go to church and teach Sunday School each week, where I enjoy Dining Under the Stars when the weather is warm, and where craft and food fairs line State Street multiple times every year.  Seven Stones has the perfect coffee shop vibe in this great town, and I am honored for my art to be a part of it all!

Collage for a Cause

My friend Sue volunteers in the Handwork Group of the Hagley Museum in Delaware.  As a member of this group, she uses donated materials to create items to sell at their October Craft Fair.  She asked me to make some framed collages using donated Christmas cards, which could be sold at the fair. 

All earnings are given back to the museum for scholarships that allow students to experience Hagley's programming when they would not otherwise be able to afford to participate. 

I've been working on the collages over the past month, digging into the bag of Christmas cards and stack of frames that Sue dropped off at Studio 791.  My finished work is pictured here. 

I'll tell you, though, it's not easy to photograph framed artwork behind glass.  Please bear with me when it comes to strange flash reflections!

So, as the leaves outside are turning the loveliest autumn shades, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here!

For more ideas of how to re-use your holiday cards, check out this post from January of last year:

Christmas in January:  Recycling Christmas Cards

Creative Excursions in 2013

As I looked back over some of my favorite projects from this past year for my last post, I also reviewed some of the best creative excursions I enjoyed.  Seeing the places I visited in 2013 has gotten me excited for all of the possibilities for 2014!

Remember how excited I was to be sketching and watercoloring in Jane LaFazio's workshop?

One of the most noteworthy excursions was the CREATE Mixed Media Art Retreat in Somerset, New Jersey, back in July.  I was so incredibly excited to find an art retreat so close to my home that I could easily drive and spend a couple of nights completely on my own, doing nothing but soaking up art with hundreds of other people who enjoy and value it as much as I do.

My "tiny tarnished tome" from Kari McKnight Holbrooke's workshop

After Seth Apter's bookbinding class, I came home and "went to town," creating my own bound books.

I was going to try to convince my husband that an artists' retreat should be an annual event, but I've found several wonderful workshops offered over the course of 2014 at Longwood Garden, where we've been members for six years now, and I am thinking of taking some of them instead.  There's a watercolor class, mixed media, nature journaling...I think I will be able to get some artful excursions much closer to home this year!

The other workshop I took this past year was a Zentangle class at Morris Arboretum in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, back in May.

My completed practice tile from Zentangle class

The class gave me the opportunity to work with "official" Zentangle materials, specifically the thick 3-1/2 by 3-1/2 inch lightly-deckle-edged tiles that come with officially-sanctioned Zentangle kits.  I will continue to tangle on every and any surface with every and any pen I happen to have at hand, but it was fun to play around with the high-quality "real-deal" for those couple of hours in May!

Simon Sparrow's mosaic, "Assemblage of Faces"

Some of my most inspiring excursions took me to places to admire others' art.  I still find myself thinking about particular pieces from the Outsider Art exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art that I saw back in May.

Jon Serl's "Family Band"

If you check out my two-part series of blog posts, you will get a sense of how much I really wanted to share the experience with you and allow you to see all of the really amazing pieces that were on display.  (Part I is here.  Part II is here.)

Detail from George Widener's "Blue Monday (Reversal)"

I was also completely blown away by my first visit to Isaiah Zagar's Magic Gardens on South Street in Philadelphia.  Please take a moment to look through the photos in the original post; it just might be enough to get you to book a ticket to Philly right away to have a look for yourself!

The artist at work on his amazing mosaic project at the time of my visit.

My daughters giving the artist's dog a pat in the midst of the mosaic garden.

Head to the Magic Gardens in Philadelphia for a multi-layered mosaic extravaganza!

Another inspiring destination from this past year was the Allentown Paper Show.  So inspiring, in fact, that I had to go TWICE--once in April and again in October.

I should really put a strict moratorium on paper and ephemera purchases for the next year, simply due to the huge haul I still have from my visits to the show.  But it is very, very hard to resist!

Besides these noteworthy creative expeditions, 2013 was filled with a number of other Artist Dates that "filled my creative well" quite full over the months.  Some of my favorite places to poke around and get inspired include:

Stores with beautiful displays, like Terrain

The ocean

Thrift shops, like The White Elephant at St. Francis of Assisi in my neighborhood

Art shows with wonderful collage art, like the Wallingford Community Arts Center Holiday Sale

Flea markets, like the huge one in the multi-tiered parking lot of our local community college

Yard sales, like the ones we enjoy around town during Media Garage Sale Days

I am thoroughly convinced that I have no need to bring one single additional item into this house beyond food, so I believe that 2014 will be a year for window shopping and eye candy, rather than actual shopping and purchasing.  I plan to have as many, or more, artful excursions to fill my creative well with images, ideas, and inspirations, but I am going to try to keep my wallet CLOSED throughout the process!

I hope you will come along with me during the next year to find out what artful excursions await!

Community Arts Center Holiday Sale

This afternoon, after lunch with Santa at my daughter's school, I headed over to the Wallingford Community Arts Center Holiday Sale, featuring pottery and fine arts.  I can't resist pulling out the camera phone to take some second-rate shots of some first-rate local creativity!

So often when I attend these events, I notice a complete absence of collage, my very favorite art form.  I was so pleased to see the work of Nanette Noone and Wendy Cotton when I first entered the space.

I know that the collaged dogs and cats are the work of Noone, while I believe that the two pieces above are Cotton's, but I may have gotten my art and artists a bit mixed up.  (I was snapping photos while fearfully racing after my children to make sure that no pottery bit the dust at their fingertips!)

Some other fun pieces that caught my eye were these pottery houses by Shari Sikora.

Other fun ceramics included these candlestick vases, and armchair eyeglass and votive holders underneath them.

My girls saw these cute birds' nest magnets filled with ceramic eggs as soon as they walked into the show, and their grandmother treated them to one for our refrigerator:

Katy checked out some monster plushies from Jennifer Mishura:

I thought these papier mache Santas and snowmen made great holiday decorations:

And this artisan, whose name I didn't record, reinforced my understanding that you can truly make a clock out of anything!  (This is a very old, worn, antique pan.)

Will I get back to a regular blogging schedule with the holidays coming up?  I would like to, but only time will tell!

Happy, crafty holiday season to you all!

Open Studio Tour

Over the weekend, I enjoyed the Haverford Guild of Craftsmen Open Studio Tour. 

Though I worked for the School District of Haverford Township for nine years, I had no idea that this community was such a hotbed of artistry!  There were six studios on the tour, and all but one of them was located within a block or two of one another.  Each studio was in an artist's home, and additional artists (usually four or five) brought their work in to display and sell, as well.

It felt strange to walk right into someone's home and be ushered upstairs past kitchen cupboards and family photos and bedroom doors to find an art studio in their attic space! 

The first place had amazing mosaic work on the front porch, around the fireplace, and in the kitchen, but because it was someone's personal home and these areas weren't part of the tour, I didn't feel that I could go around snapping photos of their personal spaces!  I got a few shots out front, though, where surely no one would mind:

Look how they used toy cars and trucks as mosaic pieces on the front porch--love that!

This first location was the studio of Ilene Pearlman, who creates pictorial art quilts.  Her work was such fun to look at!  I took as many photos as I could because I knew I wanted to spend some more time exploring the details of her work once I was home.  Her web site has some photos of her work, as well, I was happy to discover.

Unfortunately, in my haste, I cropped the poor dog's nose!

I also loved the work of Sharon Bartmann who creates hand-built ceramics and raku.  I took several photos of her whimsical creations, as well, and you can check out her other work on her web site.

Most of the studio spaces had been transformed into display and sales areas, so some of the "studio feel" was lost in the process.  Murray Callahan, who creates hand painted frames and mirrors, left her entire work space intact and set up the items for sale in a separate area.   Happily, I could see her art-making space clearly--something I think we all like to get a look at!

I have seen references to Open Studio events on web sites before, but I guess it never occurred to me that there would be such an event near my own home!  I had two different friends tell me about the tour, both thinking that it would be something I would surely enjoy.  And they were right!  I will be keeping my eyes open now for similar Open Studio tours in the future.