Todays progress...

watching Kristin paint...
The beginnings...painting the lines.

Layering.

Details.

Almost finished.


The finished square.


Close up of finished square...We can see her signiature stitching lines.

Day 1-Face the Public

We are beginning today with our Face The Public painting and here is our blank canvas.

Watch the painting unfold as we progress during the month of October.

Today we'll see Kristin Kuhns and spend the afternoon with her...catching up, watching her paint and enjoying her company.

Lights, Camera and......Action

OPB and the Art Beat Crew came to the gallery today. So exciting but terrifying. Everyone was extremely nice and so personable. They all settled into filming in the gallery and referenced the various artists whose studios they had visited. Lights were set up, make up was applied and prompters were in view. Even though the gallery is small, I think we made a big splash with our artists today. The walls looked great with fabulous paintings, the sculpture and ceramics stood out with great color...we all looked pretty great if I don't say myself. I do think they liked coming all the way down to Salem. The show will air October 6th so don't miss us!

Of course I couldn't help taking photos to document the day.

First was the make-up for the hosts. Our back room was cramped but seemed to work. I really didn't understand the needing of make-up though..Katrina and Jule looked beautiful before they even sat down in the chairs.


Setting up the computer so Jule and Katrina could read from the prompter.


Hiding the microphone on Jule


Adjusting the make-up on Katrina


Almost ready....


Shooting....


Did I mention that the gallery is small and we didn't have chairs? Jessica Martin the producer is sitting on the floor reviewing each scene.


Watching the shot on the monitor


Yikes...it's my turn.


I'm now asked questions and am suppose to think about my answers...oh my.


and I said what????? Such a blur.


I spent a few minutes talking about our Face the Public show which will be happening when this segment airs.


And that's a wrap. Thank you OPB and Art Beat!

The Bra Ball is movin' on

to a wonderful shop just a few doors down. For the month of October, Hot Mess Boutique will "host" our one of a kind bra ball! Artful bras are welcome, just bring them in and they'll be added to the ball.

Morning walk in the hood...

Looking out from our back porch and seeing the sun, I couldn't help but grab my camera and take it to the streets...our neighborhood that is. The sun was out, the air was cool and I couldn't help but notice how everyone had chairs out in their front yards. This pretty much sums up the people who live here...friendly and sitting out in front of their homes in the evenings, greeting everyone who takes their walks...me included.


















I also noticed gardens...







Tile



a garden where one can leave a tile message


and last...my two little neighborhood friends who joined me on my walk.

It's hot and what the heck.

Today a lady came into the gallery asking about a painting...Lady says...."it's a oil pastel and you had it years ago on the wall". Anything else you can tell us about this "painting that we had years ago and should remember?"....it's hot and there are days like this.

Artful hoarding?

Today we loaded up our globes for a friend to use for a fundraiser. As we pulled out the various spheres that were sitting all over the house AND the basement I thought......oh my. Take a guess of how many we have...they aren't all in this car either, we still have more. oh my again.
Each one has something unique...a base that has an airplane or the one that was a sweet little bank. I'm just going to call this "Artful Hoarding" and be okay with this. okay then.

Weekend...

Not very often do we get to escape the gallery and go over to the beach. This weekend it was HOT, HOT, HOT so a perfect time to get away. Of course everyone else thought the same thing and we were stuck in traffic for an hour longer than usual.
The best part of this was stopping near this car that is perched in a tree. hmmmm.....we had a fun discussion about this.


Arriving at the beach house always makes us smile. We see many projects that originated from the gallery such as this large ART sign from our "Different Spokes" show.


We have baseball bats that are the balusters for the stairs. My husband was a baseball coach for many years and has quite a collection of these various bats and it seemed logical to use them this way. Recycle and reusing at its best.



We spent some time visiting various places that are near our house...this is Barking Dog Farm. Heidi Erickson has her studio in a huge barn plus has fabulous organic vegetables for purchasing. We were able to catch up on how Tracy MacEwan was progressing and then started planning an event for October to help benefit Tracy.


We are always visiting our artist friends, discussing art and visiting artful locations so we never leave the gallery far behind.

Facing the Public...

as many know, we do our Face the Public event during the month of October. For this annual show, we have artists from the gallery come in during the month and they paint a small section on one panel. When all artists are done painting their square the completed piece represents a famous painting.

After it is finished, the painting is displayed in the gallery and is offered for sale. When or if the painting sells, we are able to help "artists in need" throughout the year from the proceeds. These artists that donate their time have helped with funeral costs and have assisted fellow artists who have gone through chemotherapy. We have helped those that have had surgeries while others who have had to deal with overwhelming medical costs.

This year one of our artists, Tracy MacEwan had a serious stroke and has been in critical care for quite some time. Tracy always has been in our Face the Public exhibits and would be one of the first artists to say "yes" when asked to come and paint for a day.
We always loved having him here with us...his cheerful demeanor, compassion for the arts, and love for life brought clients in when he would paint for the day, everyone loved seeing Tracy. I know he would be happy to know that we were able to contribute to his paypal account from our Face the Public sales.

This year means much more to us than ever when planning this upcoming show. We all have Tracy in our thoughts and talk about him each day...as you can tell, he's one of our favorite artists from the gallery.

So where am I going with this crazy conversation? Well.....yesterday was a wonderful day. Out of the blue, one of our clients was looking for a particular piece to "fit a space" and in discussing what would work best we pulled out "Cape Cod Morning" by Edward Hopper (painted by 12 different artists 2 years ago). The client gasped and said..."This is it". She was thrilled to have a section that had been painted by each of her favorite artists and loved knowing that her purchase was going to our "artist in need fund".
What a happy day for us all. Get well soon Tracy, we love you.

Art Park Fun.

We celebrated summer and our Art Park by having dinners out in front of the gallery.

Art + Food + Friends....

This is a good combination...and yes, do add wine to the mix.
I love setting a table and probably get more out of doing this than cooking...and last night was no exception.







I could hardly wait for night to fall. A good dinner with company was had by all.