HOTD for my Birthday! (11-30-11)

30 Nov

Anachronistic? Sure.

Awesome? Completely.

Hat of the Day for Meg's Birthday 11-30-11

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Market Day Iowa – Black Friday 2011

27 Nov

I had a wonderful and exhausting Thanksgiving Weekend in Des Moines.  I imposed on a lot of the lovely people of Des Moines to appear on my blog, there are a few shots of my booth before the crowds piled in as well as those beautiful, whimsical, young-at-heart-if-not-in-years people who walked away with some of my creations.

 Thank you, Des Moines Buddies! See you in 2012!

HOTD for 11-16-11 A Private Moment Between an Eagle and a Trout

16 Nov

Lunchtime for Our Nation's Symbol

I don’t feel it’s unpatriotic to show our nation’s official bird of prey in this fashion. In this year alone in my part of Minnesota I have seen too many eagles to count– so many, in fact, that seeing them doesn’t make my heart jump like it used to. Okay, yes, my trip to the National Eagle Center in Wabasha was full of heart-jumping moments, especially when I was in a 20×20 room with 6 of the magnificent birds.  That was stirring. But the birds’ resurgence has led to sightings being much more commonplace. No less awesome, but not as rare. Yay, eagles!

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HOTD for 11-15 This Squirrel Might Have a Problem

15 Nov

I’ve written here before about my love/hate relationship to squirrels. I feel it really comes through in this piece. His asymmetric eyeballs are either forced perspective or bely his true insanity.

Hat of the Day 11-10-11 Dots on Stripes

10 Nov

Contrast is a beautiful thing. This motif is one of my favorites: complementary colored concentric circles bubbling around on a field of black and white stripes. I love the energy this composition exudes.

You’ll be ready to take on a snowball fight or a winter run in this hat.

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HOTD for 11-8-11 Snowy Owl on Vintage Turquoise

9 Nov

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This fellow is soft, round, and has big yellow eyeballs. He’s somebody I could  be friends with.

http://etsy.me/sJ77B0

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Hat of the Day 11-7-11 Chickadee Pickpocket

7 Nov

Caught in the act! This little chickadee went looking for a lunch in the pocket of this little brown hat. Don’t ask me why there’s a pocket on this hat or why there’s a long green worm nosing around in there. That’s just the way it is, all right?

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Hats of the Day for 11-5 and 11-6

6 Nov

No, I didn’t miss any days, I just didn’t blog about ’em. Here they are, chippies!

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So many places to go!

6 Nov

I spent an incredible Friday with my friend and erstwhile mentor Margo Ashmore. She took the new Director of Arts and Culture at City of Minneapolis, Gulgun Kayim, and I on a 3-hour tour of the arts in North Minneapolis.  Wherever we walked, people would stop Margo to say hello, to tell her they wanted to meet up with her to share some news, and she took it all in stride, making notes in her little pocket-sized notebook. She seems to know everyone in all the nooks and crannies of the neighborhood. 

Margo’s an editor and co-owner of two neighborhood papers in Minneapolis, The North News and The Northeaster. So even though it’s a job requirement to know the movers and shakers, she is a natural conversationalist, supporter, and documenter. She takes obvious pride in her neighborhood and that pride is contagious.

After our three-hour tour with Gulgun (a lovely, English-accented, performance-artist who’s just “come out” in her official city role), Margo and headed over to Northeast Minneapolis for the Casket Building open studio event. Our first stop was Sight Line Tile , the studio of Amy Baur & Brian Boldon. The two of them were so welcoming and loved to share their process (a hacked copy-machine deposits pigmented glass frit onto the surface of a pane of glass and is then kiln-fired to secure a picture-perfect image onto the tile forever. Brian also has a gallery-full of amazing kinetic sculptures (praxinoscopes and mobiles)  and stunning glass spheres that take his photographic images and make them appear as though they’re being projected onto the walls of the bubble from within. They stop me in my tracks everytime I see them. I love that feeling. (He doesn’t have any images of the spheres online, but you can see them if you visit his studio in person at the Casket Arts Bldg. 681 17th ave NE, studio 121, minneapolis, mn   55413 )     

Just before my feet gave out, they traipsed me across the quad to the recently-opened Franconia in the City@Casket where I met the founders of the Franconia Sculpture Park . Most memorably, I chatted with two Mary’s who are artists in iron and whose energy and laughter and encouragement were the cherry on the top of the day. Mary Johnson was so kind to hear out my frustration over working in a soft medium that can’t weather the elements like bronze or iron and she showed me that there are only a couple steps missing in  making a transition to outdoor sculpture. 

 I left knowing that I will be applying for the Franconia Iron Pour and give my dreams of a public art career some legs. (Check out the other Mary’s work here, http://touching-the-river.blogspot.com/)

Thanks, Margo, for getting me out into the world and talking to the many people whose hearts are in the arts. They’re some of the best people and certainly the finest neighbors.

HOTD 11-4-11 Owl in Bunny Slippers

4 Nov

I wanted to call this hat “It’s Easier to Wear Slippers Than to Carpet the Whole World” my favorite Stewart Smalley quote.  Look inward and change what you can rather than trying to make the world bend to your needs. Profound thought in a funny package.  That’s at the heart of all the scribblenest brand products.

This poor little owl just needs to take a day off and relax.

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Not on etsy yetsy, but check back tomorrow…

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