Fur In The Paint

This is my dog Cisco. She’s a collie/golden cross. And lately (and often) I’m waking up to find her nose just about touching mine, with her giant brown eyes staring at me. She seems to be standing there, willing me to wake up. It’s not like she wants to go outside or anything. She just watches me sleep until I wake.

When I open my eyes, she usually shifts her eyes left and right like she’s unsure. (I can be a bit of a Grizzly Bear in the morning) But when I smile or mumble incoherently, she makes little happy noises and stomps around tail wagging excitedly. Then in a flash she slaps a big lick on the end of my nose. Which usually gets a squeal or an Ugh. (Though I’m an animal person I hate licking, especially on the face and she knows it.) So it’s a hit and run lick.

I usually have trouble falling asleep afterward, even when it’s still in the middle of the night. Cisco however has no trouble falling back asleep. Now contented because she made me squeal she goes and settles down somewhere secure in the knowledge that her work here is done.

Here’s yet another little known fact about me.
There are people who have known me for decades who don’t know this about me.

And the thing they don’t know? I grew up in a . . . okay, I’m not going to say a “haunted house.” I really don’t know what is up with that old house. What I do know is really freaky stuff was always happening (and still does) and many people besides our family have experienced something . . . odd while in it. Frankly I think having grown up in it was a major reason I have such an interest in all the various world religions. But then again maybe not.

I rarely tell anyone about it for two reasons.
1. I don’t think about it much, except for this time of year, or when I go home to visit or during periods of great stress (and then I have bad dreams.)
2 People form opinions about you that are in general, not good. I mean unless someone has had similar experiences, they tend to think you’re making it up for attention or you’re crazy.

So why mention it now. I’m not sure. The Halloween spirit I suppose. Though even as I am typing this I am seriously pondering deleting it all. I want to say that I have not had any issues anywhere else that I have lived. The museum I worked for was supposed to be haunted and I never experienced anything there. So it’s just my family home that gives me the heebee jeebees. Awesome.

At any rate, I will post my ghost story in the early evening. Just about haunting time. Have a great Halloween!!!

And I turn one year older. And except for Budda we are all showing our age.

I would tell you my actual age (I may have already somewhere on this blog) but I’m feeling a little paranoid about handing out that kind of info on-line.

I have never been ashamed of my age. I figure it’s a miracle I’ve lived this long, (yes, death has tried to take me more than once) so I’m grateful. I like to think of all this gray hair as highlights. (ooh it’s so sparkly) I mean women pay good money to have that done . . . don’t they?

My brother who is four years my senior (and has a birthday this month as well) says it’s a sign of hard livin’. (not to mention our genetics) He recently had someone complement him on his good-looking grand kids. And yes you guessed it . . . they were his kids, nothing grand involved.

A huge thanks to Brenda from Sioux Land Bricks for helping us get bricks that were almost a perfect match to our building.

The gallery building is showing her age a bit as well. I’ve been here 9 years but the building is nearly 100. Mike has been hard at work tuck-pointing her. (That’s where the mortar gets scraped out and replaced.) A hugely time consuming job. But it will be good to fix a few cracks in the bricks before winter sets in.

Old buildings like this need a lot of love. But they have so much more character than new construction. Most of the visitors we have come in and touch all the old woodwork. And oh and ah. Which is almost always followed by the question “Was this a bank?”

We recently went through a bunch of old postcards showing Rolfe in the 1910-1930 era’s. None of them had a good view of our building. I’ve heard a rumor that someone in town has a early photo of our place back when it was a car dealership, which is what it was built to be. Oddly enough it had a bunch of Ford tractors parked out front.

I got a little off topic there. I’m easily distracted. So anyway, Happy Birthday to all of us. The business, the Budda and me.

PS Next post will hopefully be of a finished horse painting.

We got back today from our trip to Sioux City. To find out why we were there you can click here or then again . . . you can just scroll down to the previous post.

Kathy Audus was a wonderful host and took us to see the Siouxland Artists Inc gallery. The artists there are doing some really nice special event (art auction) charity work. The gallery is still in it’s first year and it is lovely.

I think . . . I think
Despite being anti-social, I don’t have much fear of speaking in front of people. Probably because of art fairs I talk to thousand of people and artists every year. (Not that artists aren’t people.)

I think we did okay despite only putting in a few hours prep time. We presented a handout based on the blog posts that you guys helped me with earlier this year. (Thanks for that BTW it was invaluable.) which included

Caring for your prints,
How to choose a giclee publishing house,
the difference between a giclee and a lithograph
and questions to ask yourself about whether you should make prints.

We also included a print sample and both the gallery card and the giclee website card.

Not that I don’t enjoy hand grenades, rocket launchers, assault weapons and snipers rifles just as much as the next middle aged woman. . .

Since we were bringing handouts I asked how many to expect and was told 15-18 is their usual attendance (despite being a group with over 60 members.) So to be on the safe side I brought 20. Well, somewhere between 25-28 people came.

We were told to talk for 15-20 minutes and then allow questions for 10-15. The whole thing should be wrapped up in about half an hour. The plan was I would talk about my work and how the business got started and then Mike would talk about the printing. We each would talk 7-10 minutes. Well . . . they started asking questions before we were done and didn’t stop until well over an hour later. All in all we are calling that a success.

There’s nothing more relaxing than shooting rabbits in the face with a plunger.
To celebrate I got Rayman Raving Rabbids. (yes, that is spelled correctly) which for those of you not in-the-know is a video game. Upon returning home we peeked in the gallery to make sure the cat hadn’t destroyed the place and spent the rest of the day at home playing the new game.

What a hoot. I seriously looked at Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, but chose a much sillier game. Not that I don’t enjoy hand grenades, rocket launchers, assault weapons and sniper rifles just as much as the next middle aged woman, but as some of you may have noticed, I’ve kinda lightened up a lot lately. . . . and so has my gaming.

Somehow shooting rabbits in the face with a plunger (and occasionally whacking them with a shovel . . . and once or twice with a hammer) until they explode seems so much less violent. Probably not though, huh?

Today we leave for Sioux City, Iowa to address the Siouxland Artists Inc. group there. They are a good sized group with over 60 members and their own gallery.

We were asked to come and talk about how I became the towering entrepreneurial artistic success that is Mona of Wild Faces Gallery. (umm . . no.)

We were asked to come and talk about how I turned my passion (and by passion I mean hobby) and a $500 start-up into a fully functioning and successful art business. (still not quite it. Too infomercially. That’s right you too can become an artistic success and all you need to do is makes some prints! . . . Yeah, I don’t think so.)

We were asked to come and talk about who I am, what I do artwork-wise, and how with the help of my husbands computer wizardry we created a successful art business through print sales and a seriously tenacious attitude. You know like a Pitt Bull. (I think that works as well as anything.)

At any rate, since Sioux City is a 3 hour drive and the speech takes place in the evening, we will be spending the night there as well. On the upside it’s a paying gig (Sweet!) So we’ll see you all on Wednesday. Or if you’re in the area feel free to come to the meeting. It is open to the public and from what I’ve heard there’s food.

Oops! You’d think if I were writing a post about her (and linking it) I’d spell O’keeffe correctly, wouldn’t you?

Artistic Life Lesson Learned The Hard Way
I (or more accurately my style of work in watercolor pencil ) often (as in several times a year) gets compared to Bev Doolittle. And to be honest, it does bear some resemblances. Most people think the resemblance has to do with my emulating her work because I like her. I think Bev is a great artist who created a genre’ that made her a millionaire and a household name for anyone in the print business. (definitely something to aspire to) But no, she is not one of my hero’s. Not even a little.

No Hidden Images - 21 x 23
Water Color Pencil on 140# Arches Hot Press

I have never been flattered by this comparison, though it is so clearly meant to be a compliment because of an experience early in my art career.

Long before I knew much of anything about the contemporary artists of the time. (You know back when I was all about animal health for a living and lived in a bubble.) (A much smaller bubble than I do now) I did a rearing paint horse based on a high school classmates horse in watercolor pencil. (that’s how long, long ago it was) Even at that time we did an art fair every once in awhile. And people would come running over excitedly in droves, because they thought the painting was a Bev Doolittle. Upon realization that is wasn’t, they promptly left the booth (without looking about further) hugely disappointed.

Alternate title that I rejected because it was . . . too silly, slanderous . . . basically untrue.

How Famous “Hidden Images” Artist Bev Doolittle Slapped The Innocence Right Out Of Me.

Now imagine that is you, and that happens over and over again. Trust me it’s an ego crusher. Nothing could have drilled into me more, the importance of finding my own voice. (Sad thing is, that was/is my voice.)

The painting had a title (which I no longer remember) that I later changed to “No Hidden Images” as a tongue in cheek poke to Doolittle. Fortunately the painting sold quickly. But as a result I didn’t do another paint horse for years. And I still haven’t done one in the lovely chestnut and white combination.

What’s surprising to me that people still occasionally see a resemblance in my work.

Which kinda brings me to the point of this post.
One a rare occasion (about once every year) someone says they see a little Georgia O’keefe in my work. Now for me, that’s a compliment. I love O’keefe, both her work and her personal life. So imagine my excitement when I learned there is going to be a movie about the life of Georgia O’keefe on the Lifetime channel, Sept. 19th.

We of course are going to be gone but hopefully I’ll remember to crank up the VCR to record it. (Yeah, I know. I am still living in the stone age. TiVo is completely beyond my grasp.)

Well we didn’t turn 19. The marriage did. Wow how time flies.

So we are working today, as the photos indicate since they were taken at the gallery. The plan was to go out for dinner and a movie tonight. But we couldn’t wait (we’re worse than children before Christmas) and went out last night instead. Mike calls it Anniversary Observed.

The problem with running around shopping, going to movies and eating out is it gets addictive. It took all my self control today to stay at work and not run off. Had we not closed Saturday and played hookie, I might have done just that.

I’m the hard ass when it comes to work ethic. Mike’s a push over. All I need to do is say “let’s go.” And there’s this whoosh of air and next thing he’s in the van, grinning.

Seriously, it’s really nice to have him always say “You should get it’ every time I indicate I want something. (Ummm . . .You should have expected me to go on about how great a guy my husband is on our anniversary, yes?)

So in honor of all the wedded bliss (well mostly wedded bliss, there were a few times it was . . . not so much) no real blog post for today.

But I’ll be back tomorrow with Part 1 of the 20 Things I’ve Learned From 20 Years of Doing Art Fairs. Now had I been a more clever blogger I would have made 20 posts instead of two. But who really wants that much information on the subject anyway.

PS We tried to include Budda in some photos but he kept having those weird glowy evil cat eyes.

PPS Anniversary juju is the best. I spilled Diet Coke all over the computer keyboard at home this morning and he just smiled at me. Ain’t love grand.