I is for Ink ...

and P is for Pie... a couple of new works which are part of a bigger project. More on that later!
For illustration friday

Sandy Gordon's "show girls"

With beading delight, Sandy Gordon from a highly sophisticated and very upscale area of California created these new pin/necklaces for the gallery. (insert wild peals of laughter here based on her assumption that New Hampshire was in anyway hoity toity....)
Her unique and wildly creative way of putting together these objects simply amaze me. We have been talking for a year now about getting some of these gems and apparently they are winging their way to me now. Pop over here to see the rest at her blog, later into the shop they will go. Thank you Sandy!

Flossy-P's - Lone Wolf Bag

Lone Wolf Bag, originally uploaded by flossy-p.

The bag you see here (and click the photo through to ms. flossy-p's flickr) and more are winging their way to artstream from Australia.
They will be in the shop,soon soon. Yea!

Just a quick post today as it's our anniversary!
Marital bliss is a good thing, a wonderful thing, something which I do not take for granted and am thankful for RH each and every day. Happy anniversary mein schatz!

Albina McPhail rides again ...

Just catching up on a lot of other people's posts from the summer and found a couple of pretty things as usual over at Albina's blog. She's off soon for a month to Ireland. Land of the redheads, Jenny! What a great trip that will be!

Summer's Last Days

four 6x6 mixed media paintings currently at the Salmon Falls Village Gallery

Little girls playing and giggling along the steps in the back yard, the sun warming the frangrant grass and a cool nip in the air reminds me that there is not much time left in what we will remember as the summer of 07. It was rich and full and warm. Let's stretch it out a little further? These thoughts and smells and feelings bring floods of memories back to me from the past summers, mingled with this one. A little glad to have had the time to laze about a bit, a little sad that structure is upon us again and a little warm glowing feeling inside that you might steal a few more days of summer.

The word for the day is ... thankful ... for family, friends both near and far and summer!

Small Watercolors

Red Birds in the Reeds, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

Another little piece I did during vacation. Birds were a constant inspiration during our stay in Maine, however, there were none this color...

Sweet things

a felted bag from Belinda

a Fiber art purse from Beatte
Time marches on ... sometime earlier in July - er was it August - a rather lost month for me - two blogging friends from across the sea - Beate, from Dusseldorf and Belinda, from Luxembourg dropped two nice blog awards on me. Too busy to do much about it at the time, I have finally surfaced now and will thank them properly ... thank you ladies for thinking of me!
These two women have incredible fiber arts talents, I visit their blogs and flickr accounts almost daily and love to see what they have created! Belinda just came back from a felting symposium holiday in Kyrgyzstan. Go see her posts on yurts, fashion and traditional felting at her blog. AMAZING.
Beate has just finished a beautiful new piece of fabric art here and you can browse her black and white photographs in her portfolio (my favorite one) and pop by to see her set of love letter books which are more than cute!
I am the happy owner of a beautiful felted poppy which sits on my desk at the gallery gifted from Belinda and a sweet set of fabric postcards from Beate on my small studio table at home.
Wonderful artists, bloggers and blogging friends!

Moth to Flame

coral reef by Moth to Flame
Friend Pat sent over this link to yet another great Etsy seller Deborah Gwinn Scott of
Moth to Flame.
These beautiful renderings are made in bleach on matte board. Amazing. Toxic love! Check out her other wonderful pieces including a torn wing dragonfly and some beautiful oceanic scenes.
Thanks Pat!

Maine moondance

moondance, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

A funny little timelapse photo of the girls dancing under the moon last week and Busy weekend with Grace off to college... the times they are a changing! Photos coming of new work I have been finishing up between vacationing, college-ing, (er that's not a word!) and birthday partying ... psst, happy bday burton green, danny blajda, and you others who are turning the new decade out there ... yeah, it's not the 3-0 one ...

Ah life is rich and full! Photo above of my brother in law on the drums at his birthday party last Saturday night - The George Westbay band - does "Joes Garage!"

Illustration Friday -Visitor

Haven't played along in awhile, so here we go. A little watercolor I did on vacation - there were so so so many birds around our little apartment that it was inspirational for me.
College preparations this weekend so this is all for now! Have a wonderful sunny weekend.

The word for the day is ... release. ... as catch and release, release your feelings and fly from the nest.

Andrea Pratt - oceans ten

oceans ten, originally uploaded by didrooglie.

More splendor than summer can hold. These pieces are available at our shop. Originals folks, and beautifully executed .... for $45. Summer can be all year around for your home!

Hadley Hutton - "In the magnolias"

in the magnolias, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

Another little encaustic by Hadley Hutton, here on display at artstream.
This piece is an original work on a wooden support. So pretty!

What August is ...

what august is, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.
from the sea to me. glass, weeds and ceramics we found!

Been away to the beautiful coast of Maine for some days now. It's so close and yet, with our busy life we don't explore it enough - till now! We had a lovely time beaching it, getting back to the quiet things in life and being a family of four.
Back to reality and work now, refreshed and ready to go.
While I was gone - Grace from design*sponge posted a guide "Bloggers guide to online shopping" and there is a lot of good info there from a variety of bloggers! Thanks Grace for including me in the fun. Take a peek here for some wonderful links around the web for all sorts of great shopping for your home, self and friends! See you soon with other bits and bobs from August!

Summer Splendor II

MuchachaK's coin purses - 16.50 and Pink Bathtub card

MuchachaK's coin purse and Boiled Art card

MuchachaK's cosmetic bag and pinkbathtub card

Andrea Pratt's Fish series in acrylic

Megan Bogonovich's Colonial Subdivision

Steve Bowersock Wysteria in watercolor

Steve Bowersock Pears in oil

Judith Totman's pastels of France
More shots from the gallery... including a little daughter peeking through the sculptures...

Scenes from Summer Splendor

two headed dog sculpture by megan bogonovich

small lusterware house by megan bogonovich $40

pineapplien platter set by megan bogonovich


platter set by megan bogonovich

goldfinch bowl by megan bogonovich
Today we have packing for our trip, packing for kitchen renovations, packing for daughter Grace to go to... gulp...college.
Instead of dwelling on the inevitable, I shall simply glance around the room here at the gallery for a few hours of peace with some beautiful objects by Megan Bogonovich. More later from the other artists here...

beneath the boughs

beneath the boughs, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

another new mixed media piece on a 12 x 12 wood support... this one is most definitely directly inspired my daughter grace.

the joesph cornell exhibit - by the way- was magnificent. The entire exhibit was captivating, moving, and completely comprehensive in everyway. My only complaint was the low lighting, but I understand the need completely to keep the work from harm. Truly a great exhibition. On the run again today with much to do before our time away!

Tuesday

clutter desk, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

Today I am off to the Joesph Cornell show at the Peabody Essex museum. Just. can't. wait. Seems decadent to buzz off there today, but a girl's gotta do, what a girl's gotta do.
Just another snippet from my progression of girls - this one was cut out and bound for other places.
Have a wonderful day in your corner of the world!

Painting

12x12 mixed media on birch -- in progress

I have been working on a number of new images from my sketchbook. I love working on the baltic birch panels. This one I stained to keep the texture of the wood showing. Most of the newest work involve images of girls. Many seem to be composite memories of my daughters. Must be coming from my internal preparation for daughter Grace to fly the nest for college in a matter of days. This, along with old age is just not for sissies. Luckily old age isn't here yet. wink wink.
The weekend was over filled with picking up the motherlode of kitchen cabinetry from a huge tip off from a friend and Craig's list. Saws-all usage and major power tool action is in our near future! Hooray and egads! Thankfully Rainer is well versed in renovation skills and we have friends who will be receiving phone calls. Everything will be removed, back to the studs, (including the ceiling) beginning soon, so we will be getting help on this one for sure.
We are both a little tired from the whirlwind weekend, but are pleased to be in the beginning stages of building a new kitchen.

Interview with Danny Mansmith

Over at Cutout and Keep inside "Snippets" there is an interview I did with Danny Mansmith. He continues to amaze me and well, I think the interview was fun too. Check it out here.

hornsea coffee morning, today

hornsea coffee morning, today, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

Just enjoying the lovely mild morning we are having and a cuppa in bed with my sweetie. These cups are new to us and well, just sort of tickle my fancy.

Stephanie Levy

We received a letter awhile back from Stephanie Levy of Munich, Germany. She found us through our ad at Poppytalk - (thanks Jan!) and she asked if we would have a look at her work. At first glance I knew that we would be most interested in showing her beautiful collages and paintings at the gallery.
Have a look right here at her portfolio - don't miss the Trendfarben and the series on "details" - it's all beautiful. I really love the way her work softly creeps up to the drawing lines from the bold placement of color. It gives one the feeling of entering a room and looking about it for the first time.
Stephanie and her husband are both artists who studied for the MFA at Berlin's University of Art. I am happy to say that we will have some of these pieces and some new work from Stephanie before the year is out.
Here are a few word directly from the artist:
I am an American artist/illustrator who has been living in Germany for the past 11 years. I mostly make collages and paintings on paper, wood, and canvas, and I incorporate a variety of materials including origami paper and gold leaf. As you probably noticed, the main subjects of my work are interior settings. I gather images from all types of sources, from IKEA catalogs to old issues of Better Homes and Gardens. I like to think of the images I use as "fictional interiors" because most of the photos in the magazines and catalogs depict interiors where no one really lives!

Megan Bogonovich - Platter Power

megan bogonvich, originally uploaded by artstreamstudios.

A little tiny post today while daughter Chloe rests from her oral surgery... She's fine, but woozy.
The platter is part of Megan Bogonovich's series Pinapplian Platters. It's my favorite and full of color. $225 and available at the shop.
Enjoy your Thursday!

Heather Smith Jones

Heather contacted me this spring about her work and well, I just can't keep in further! Here are a few previews of her lovely works she sent over on cd. We just can't wait unitl they appear in our gallery. Lots of mystery to her work and beautiful patterns and color. More to come about Heather, but until then - look over at her lovely website right here.

Bigger than Barbie

Yeseterday I was taking a peek at the Art Tea Life blog by dear heart, Sandy Gordon. There I found out about the most compassionate program I have heard of in ages. Art Aids Art and Monkey Biz.
It all started with the "one little person making a difference". Making a difference through art. The film "Bigger than Barbie"attracted me first - as we are partial to indie film here - and then the entire project captured my heart. So much infact that we are going to host a trunk show of the work here at artstream in the fall, (stay tuned for day and time), along with a showing of the film.
I hope that you can come. I hope that you will take a moment and look at the links to read more about this wonderful program. Here is an excerpt from the writings about the film:

When Tina Davis first saw the colourful and quirky Monkeybiz dolls in a friends’ house four years ago, she fell in love immediately. Back then she didn’t know anything about who made the dolls or where they came from. A few months later she came across the dolls in a shop. It was only then that she learned about the non-profit organisation, Monkeybiz and their amazing work combining arts and empowerment for women from the poorest townships in Cape Town, South Africa.

After her first visit to Cape Town in late 2002, she was convinced that the fascinating story of Monkeybiz and their invaluable work could be made into an uplifting and heartfelt documentary.

We follow the dolls on a fascinating journey from the township of Khayelitsha to the high-end stores of Donna Karan in New York. The film also takes you to Tromsø, “the land of the midnight sun” in the far north of Norway, where Monkeybiz had an exhibition in connection with the 46664 Arctic concert for HIV/AIDS in 2005. The strong and admirable women behind Monkeybiz are at the heart of Bigger than Barbie. The film also includes appearances from Desmond Tutu, Donna Karan, Annie Lennox and Nelson Mandela.

Tiny traffic cones

small, but vibrant! nothing amazing in art, but fun to earn!
Well, you guessed it. Tiny traffic cones, Stephanie, (and all ...)
They are part of the children's summer reading program prize bag. Each year when I was a child, in Cedar Rapids Iowa, the local public library CRPL, had "read a hundred books program" in the summer. For each of the ten books you read, you received a small ceramic prize (think Tetly Tea animal size) relating back to the theme of the program. They were made by one of the local art schools in our city - manned with more than one artist.

One year it was Under the Sea. I had a mermaid, octopus, starfish and I remember a gold chest, because I still have it to this day. Three years ago, I decided to make some for our library. They are not high art. They are not even low art. They are something only a child could love. But it IS fun to make and to give. And the children love them.

I couldn't make a series as there is only me (and ok, some of my family help too!) but we managed to make 130 aliens the first year for the "Reading is out of this world" program, and then 130 parrots for the pirate theme last year. This year it was Reading Road Trip. I was stumped at first at what to make. Little VW's? Tiny maps? Then daughter Grace said, traffic cones! So hence the above in the most lovely shade of neon orange. No glaze would do. Spray paint it was. Feeling like going further with that medium...

Lisa Congdon at etsy!

I saw earlier over at design*sponge that Lisa Congdon has a new esty shop! I hopped right over (thanks Grace!) and found a set of cards made from the beautiful ink drawings we had at artstream earlier this summer. Can't wait to get them in hand. I missed them on the wall, when we took them down to ship, but know they went to good homes... Now I can see them again !

a shot of the Lisa Congdon wall we had in May.

Hint #2 from the post earlier:
They are the same color which they are in their "natural state"

What is this?

Just a little guessing game - what is this?
Enter your guesses below.
Hint: It is part of my yearly donation to our local library.
Back later with another clue and a post.