Finnegan’s Cousin

Something fun for all you dog lovers out there….

My brothers Mike and Ralph have a lab named Trevor who has made the big time…

Trevor was a rescue pup and his puppy photo was chosen to be on the new stamps which are also being used as a fund raiser for HALO which is buying food for shelter pets.

My sister-in-law told us that one of their new lab pups came from the same rescue in CT as Trevor…all in the family.

Congrats to the pack.

Knocking on my chamber door…

This cardinal and his mate have been tap tap tapping on my studio window incessantly for …ever.

I have tried closing the blinds, leaving them half open, open all the way, hanging strings in the window… putting up tiny signs that say hush… and still…every day…he and his mate come back a’ knockin’.

I even suspect that this is the second generation because last year the female had a strange growth on her head…probably from knocking it all day…and this year it’s gone.

One morning this winter, while I was eating breakfast, a cardinal slammed into the kitchen door. I mean kamakazi. He didn’t make it and what with the three feet of snow on the ground the best I could do for him was to throw him in the garden. He sank like a stone. Yesterday I found the bright red feathers amongst the brilliant green chives.

Perhaps he was the patriarch and the current pair are keeping up the family tradition of trying to get into the studio…or just to get my attention…

this must be the muses…

but I’m just not getting it yet.

Any thoughts ?

Art Auction

Westtown School is hosting their 2010 Art Show and Sale this weekend.

My dear friend Ellen Cryer Gilbert is Director of Advancement at the school and I’m pleased to help support her and the school by including some prints from our New Collection in this sale.   The show opens tonight with an artist’s reception from 5 – 8 pm and continues tomorrow from 10 – 3.   Following this sale there will be an online art auction which we are participating in as well.  Over 30 artists are showing their works … here’s a link to view the list of artists and their websites.

No stopping it now…

Spring is here and the studio is hopping…

Week three and I finally got a decent nights’ sleep and the long slow climb out of pneumonia is trending upward…

Creeping out of that fog it feels like the world has spun into high gear and I am a bit dazed. After the long cold months of dreaming my way through the winter… every corner of the studio has a new project calling…in some cases screaming…at me.

The new printer has arrived and we are preparing to launch the sale of prints published in our own studio and sold exclusively on our website next week. Emails back and forth with Ross, the webmaster…and testing of the new machine…and producing an announcement to be mailed out have the office hopping…

Outside the next phase of construction is underway in the studio garden… we’re going greener with some new raised beds in which to plant veggies to replenish our weakened immune systems…

Back inside the easel has this year’s mega panel endeavor waiting patiently for my energy level to return to normal. The panel is ambitious and I can’t wait to tackle the intense detail…so far it’s been weeks of building up the ground work interrupted by weeks of crawling back to bed…today for the first time I feel that tide turning.

And then last week my share of the Jupiter Moon Farm fall shearing arrived… this time I ordered raw fleece rather than the processed yarn. It is glorious and I won’t have to wait now until the May Sheep and Wool Festival to sit and spin my cares away. I am going to try and use this as a great big carrot to lead me back to the easel and only after a good days work of painting…allow myself to sit at the spinning wheel and let the healing fibers fly.

Through it all,  right at my side, has been my little apprentice…

Finnegan is the healthiest of the bunch around here. She has both of her legs back under her now and is rehabbing nicely. She is more than ready to run with the big dogs again but it will be 6 more weeks or so of restricted exercise before she can really let loose.  While I was writing this blog she decided that box of fleece left on the floor in the bathroom should be rearranged… the trail leads through the kitchen, down the hall, and right to my easel chair…

I get the message…back to work !

Stay tuned for updates on all these projects and more… H

I’m on the Map !

There’s a neat new way to find artists in your area or anywhere in the world…



It’s easy to navigate, simple to create your own listing, and  FREE.

After I took the tour and created my listing I got this email from the founders, they asked me to share the info…it’s cool and so I will…

Hello Heather,

Thank you for being part of www.TheArtsMap.com, the internet’s first interactive worldwide map focusing on artists, arts organizations, galleries, museums, and more.

The usefulness of The Arts Map will increase as more artists, galleries, museums, arts venues, arts organizations, and other arts related institutions create markers.

With that in mind, we are asking you who have already chosen to participate to help us spread the word about The Arts Map.

Please forward this message to as many folks as possible who you think might benefit from being “on the map”. Please be sure to tell them that Basic Listings on The Arts Map are FREE and will REMAIN FREE FOREVER. They can sign up by going to http://www.theartsmap.com/account.php and filling in the forms.

Thank you.

Cordially,

Robin & Jonathan
www.TheArtsMap.com ///// Connecting Artists and the Community

A passing…

I was saddened to hear this morning about the death of Bob Larson. He was the father and champion of one my dear friends, Beth. Bob lived a large and meaningful life and was staunchly devoted to his family, a powerful force in the business community, and a lifelong supporter of the arts. His philanthropy and his charm and his giant bearhugs will be sorely missed.

Thinking ahead…

The call came in at 3:30am from the hard working vet that Finn was out of surgery and doing well. I had caved in at midnight so it was early this morning that I got the message. Now my flu ravaged body may still be weary but my spirits are high. By this time next week all members of my little family should be off of antibiotics and we can say good riddance to displaysed  elbows and rattling pneumonic lungs and maybe even to … snow ???

I’ve got to pass along our thanks to all of you who have been checking in and offering help and that all important compassionate ear of support… you will never know how those words and gestures of kindness reach in and lift us up.

One person who has done some heavy lifting in that department is our friend Saren. She has talked me down off of many a ledge especially with dear Finnegan’s trials. I was checking in with her early this morning and felt like a corner has been turned. The sun is shining, there is a definite warming in the air, and when I took the time to look I found the first signs of spring in the studio yard…

Can I get a witness ???

Through the darkest days of this long hard winter I’ve been taking myself to one of the happiest and most anticipated events of my year…the Sheep and Wool Festival !

The warm sunny first weekend in May when the Howard County Fairgrounds fill up with color and fiber and everything sheep. The crowd is full of my kind of people…old back to nature hippies who dress in sensible clothes and parade their knitted and woven creations and scour through the straw strewn farm shed stall to replenish their supplies of yarn and fleece and needles and sheep dip, etc.

There are many happy memories there for us and I’m so excitedly looking forward to making that trip this year…we may go both days !

My spinning wheel waits behind the snow shovel…

And I’ve got one great big panel up on the easel that needs to be finished before then…

But by golly I can feel it getting closer…I am dreaming now of coming home with a nice bag of fleece in the truck and oiling up the old wheel and sitting on the warm sunny porch with Finnegan stealing bits of wool and running down the walkway with it flying up over her shoulders in triumph…