Accepted! and Rejected!


Saraswati Reliquary


Well, I’m batting one for three so far. During August I had submitted entries to three juried shows. First I got rejected for the Book Arts show in Oregon. I was disappointed, of course. But then, about two weeks later, I got a call saying that two of my pieces, Saraswati :: Saraswati Reliquary and Contemporary Wall Sculpture :: The King’s Garden had been accepted for an for the San Luis Obispo Art Center. The artist reception is October 15 from 6-8, and the exhibit runs through November 13th. As you can imagine, I was thrilled to get accepted into my first show. Now I have to figure out how I’m going to package The King’s Garden and send it down there safely.

Wall Hangings :: The King's Garden

Having been accepted into that show softened the blow of the rejection letter I received the following week from the Roseville Art Gallery. They turned down my three Dia de los Muertos altered books.

Last time I wrote about being rejected for a show, I had so many nice people write to offer their encouragement and support. Thank you all so much for that.

I’m heading to Reno this weekend to watch the Grand Finale of the 2000 Supermoto Bike Series. It’s not exactly my first choice of events to attend, but my son and husband are into that, so I’m going along for the great seafood platter and ciopinno they have at the Atlantis Hotel where we’ll be staying. I’m not the gambling type, but if I can find a $1 blackjack table, I’ll play for hours. Do they still have such a thing??


Handmade Paper Sculpture :: Anatomy of Paradise

I haven’t been keeping up with the blog lately because I’ve been trying to tie up some lose ends on my web site. Wait!! Back-up. Erase that. I promised myself that I would never be one of those blog apologists. Sorry. I won’t do that again. . . Moving right along . . .

I have finally added three more book sculptures to my Wall Hangings Gallery. I am particulary proud of the one on this page: Handmade Paper Sculpture :: Anatomy of Paradise.


Wall Hangings :: Anatomy of Paradise

I started it right after school got out last June, but then my mother’s alzheimer’s suddenly got a lot worse, and I was spending two to three days every week driving to my parents’ house and helping out my father. Coming back home, I’d always have a ton of stuff to catch-up with, and not only that, I didn’t really have the energy to devote to this book. It languished on my table, taunting me to come back and get it finished. But I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

Finally in August, with the summer slipping past, I was able to pull all the many pieces of this book together. Flowers, leaves, dragonflies, hummingbird, butterfly, tendrils and vines were blended together to grow out of the book. I’m so happy with the way it turned out. Unlike so many other pieces of art that I do, this one turned out just the way I envisioned it in my mind.


Eye of the Storm


Altered Book Journal :: The Art of Happiness

Like others around the world, I have been transfixed, appalled, and saddened by what I have seen happening to the people in the Gulf states in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I have been following one blog in particular Dancing with Katrina where two journalists who stayed holed-up throughout the storm have been updating us daily with conditions, news, pictures, and their personal experiences.

Ironically, when I came to the latest page in my altered book The Art of Happiness, the text was full of imagery about the wrath of Nature. As I selected words and phrases for my poem, the pictures of the hurricane poured into my mind. When it came time to do the art, I searched on the internet for one of those deceptively beautiful infrared satellite images of the storm and that became my inspiration for the art work. Such bright colors hiding the murky, gray reality of the devestation of so many lives

Visible and invisible
Nature
inexplicable
unfathomable
disaster.
stirring and heaving
chaotic, panic
drifting towards the darkness.
tossing and wailing
recurrent winds
a battle between
the forces of destruction
and the forces of creation
and all the poor creatures of earth.