Goodbye June, Hello July!

The last few days have reminded us all why we live here on the edge of the water...some glorious sunny days, little wind and even the overcast ones (caused by very high temps in the valley) are preferred to 90-100 degree heat!
This was a great weekend too as we had the director at our art center retiring (to return to making art fulltime), some very longtime friends visiting, plus I got an hour of a pro photographer's time to shoot some of my art works.
(Not to mention the guy feeding pidgeons by hand down on the bayfront...woo hoo!)


The photos are of some of our local workers (in the fields of art) presenting our director with a painting from the current show that she loved (and they managed to really surprise her!)...she's the gal in the black and white top...
Our friends from Napa...about the time chuck and I moved from bellingham, washington to portland, oregon, they moved from b'ham to napa, california and we've all stuck to our respective states for almost 40 years now! I think that makes them "true" californians and us, oregonians!
The pidgeon feeding guy...
The photographer whose name is thomas but I don't know his last name yet...he sure worked hard and from the looks of it, got some photos of my work much better than anything I could do...of course, he also had a digital SLR Nikon with a killer lens soooo......;)

Etsy

Looks like Etsy is down...anyone else with an etsy shop who can't get to it?

More Basho

Number 39, Maruoka and number 40, Fukui....and I can see the finish from here!

And the winner is....

Paula Hewitt of The Beauty of Life ! I will send you your surprise Paula as soon as you send me your snail mail address...thanks for all your comments about RAK's...they made my week!

Only Two More Days

Friday morning is the drawing for the surprise, so please add your random acts of kindness to the comments section of the last post before then!

Surprises!

A friend sent me a surprise box full of the most magical things and it just made me feel so warm and happy, I wanted to pass a little bit of that feeling along....so if you'll leave a comment on a time when you were surprised by an act of random kindness, I'll do a random drawing next Friday and send the winner a surprise gift.

Don't know if I mentioned that my "day job" used to be a typesetter/graphic designer working for printers, but this gift of awesome wooden type just gave me chills...and what is especially unique is that it can be both read and printed without any of the letters being backward as they usually are with type (so when they print they're readable)....to find a font that does that is just too, too cool!

Another bit of serendipity is that I had decided that one of the changes I'd make in next year's bjp is to print words on the fabric as part of the design...so you'll be seeing these letters in september's bjp!

We've Got Sun

Actually, it's been nice for several days in a row (gasp!) although a bit coolish in the wind. So I'm out at the end of the sunporch with the sliding glass door partially closed to keep the worst of it out. And it gets to a nice toasty 78 degrees before I open the door to cool it down a bit!
Here's my sumi cat lolling around on her cushion....she's my wild child and stays out all night when she can but I just love her to pieces!

Two More and counting

Basho 37 and 38 are beaded...I will finish 39 and 40 and then do their backs...at that point I'll be down to the last 4...whew!

The Final Push

I've got the next 4 Basho pieces coming along....all the fabric is chosen and most of the beads and other elements ready to be sewn on, but it was so nice out yesterday we took the day off from beading and the garden and went for a drive up the coast a way...stopped at our favorite bookstore and nursery and picked up a few small plants for the garden and porch, so today I'm ready to get back to work!

Backside

and this is what the back will say...in a much nicer font, of course!

The Nature of Things

Nature Inspired Mixed Media Show
by
Bobbi Kirk & Jackie Niemi

August 1-30, 2008

Artist Reception August 2
5:30 to 7:00pm

Newport Visual Arts Center
777 NW Beach Drive (541) 265-6540

Upstairs Gallery Hours
Tuesday - Saturday noon-4
Sponsored by the Oregon Coast Council for the Arts

You're all invited, of course!

Our Postcard

I've got the postcard we designed ready to go...hopefully we'll get it to the printers early next week and get them back by the first of july....we'd both like a month to send/give them out and the visual art center also sends them out to their mailing list.

Lifelong Learning

I've always been open to learning new things but now and then I think I know it all and then get reminded that "it ain't so"! I ended up going to a workshop for writing artist's statements last night and was very pleasantly surprised. First of all, I've been writing artist statements for years (along with my bio and cv or exhibit list, whatever the galleries want) and pretty much thought I had it nailed. Even though I'm not that fond of artist statements and the like...I'm pretty much if the work doesn't sell itself then I don't want my words to sell it...and I think most artists feel that way but the "establishment" all want artist statements so there isn't much choice if you want to play their game.
But, as I said it was a most pleasant and interesting experience...I'm working on an artist statement I might actually like and I got to know some of the other folks in the class better(most of us knew each other by sight anyway just from being in the artistic community of a small town) and we ended up going a half hour over on a 4 hour workshop, which for some of us more mature folks, means a lot!

Changing Moments

I was reading brenda's blog Luna C and she wrote of a changing moment in her life when she felt she had the choice of staying here, as it were, or checking out, during a car accident. I emailed her and told her I'd had a similar moment and she tagged me to post it....so here it is.
About 17 years ago I was living in a small town on the coast (here in oregon) about 25 miles from where I worked. The road I had to take, since there were, and are, no alternatives, was Hwy 101 or the coast hwy. as it's called here. The speed limit on the hwy. outside of the small towns is an insane 55 miles per hour....this speed makes sense on a freeway where entrances and exits have separate roads and the driver has time to either slow on their way off the freeway or speed up when entering it. No such roads exist on hwy. 101, so you're driving along at 55 mph and someone pulls out of a motel or restaurant driveway going 5 mph and you have to stop before you rear end them and kill all of you! Basicly, that's what happened to me. I was driving home...it wasn't dark out and it wasn't raining, thank goodness, but a young man pulled out in front of me anyway. As he was about 50 feet ahead of me there was no way I could stop before I hit him so I tried to go around him. In doing so, I ran off the road and rolled the car and amazingly ended up about 30 feet off the road, right side up and aimed back in the direction I had been coming from! I did have my seat belt on so I walked away from it with just a bruised knee and lots of very sore muscles. What I remember is driving directly at a telephone pole and not seeing any way of controlling the car so I just bowed my head and held on to the steering wheel and basicly gave my self up into the hands of the universe....there was a brief period when I don't remember much and then I was looking up and the car was full of dust and dirt but there wasn't a scratch on me. But I had the strongest feeling of having been "held" in loving hands and brought through the accident because I wasn't ready to go yet. I think in that brief blank period, I made that decision. Even though we don't live in that town anymore, I never pass that spot without saying a brief thanks to whatever part of the universe helped me that day.
The young man wasn't alone in the car...he and his girlfriend and their dog were also all saved that day because if I'd hit his car at 50 mph, none of us would have survived the crash. I give thanks for them too.
A couple of months later I began to bead on a daily basis...

For Lisa

of Pursuing Art...here's a photo of my son with his motorcycle...he had it for 7 years and survived...I'm sure spencer will too...just remind him to be really paranoid on the road, because it will SEEM as though they are out to get him!

Spring Day

Ahhhh....this is more like it....sunny and warm at the beach (if you get there before the wind picks up..;)
I decided to go play at one of our beaches this morning....I was going to make a rock pattern to add to the V&A world beach project but couldn't get it to upload my photos....still, it was fun and I got lots of exercise just going up and down the stairs, not to mention walking on the beach...or rather, scrambling on the rocks....they're very unstable at this particular beach but there are lots of them, so it was perfect for the project...I made a peace heart and the bottom rock is also in a heart shape...

(edited to add that I did get the site to work...a small thing I was doing wrong...and sad to say, it's been so long since I've seen a peace sign that I got it upside down...sigh....)

It's Raining Cats and Dogs Again

and I've been tagged by arline to do a meme...

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

1998 was a major year for me as I began making art fulltime after losing my job as a graphic designer. I didn't realize at first that I was done with the 9-5 world but when the opportunity came to work just a few hours a week at our city-owned visual arts center and I realized that along with my husband's social security we could manage, I jumped at it. Like robin, we've almost always been poor by US standards but very well off by world standards (i.e. always had a roof over our heads, always had plenty to eat, clean water to drink, nice clothes, transportation, etc.) so we don't need an awful lot of money to live well on.

2. 5 things on today's to-do list?

Pick up books at library, recycle bottles and cans and buy a few groceries, visit local bead shop to see the gals and chat, return videos to friend who loaned them...and that's 5.

3. Snacks I enjoy?

braeburn apple and tillamook vintage white extra sharp cheddar cheese
tillamook kiwi lime yogurt
non-fat pretzels

4. Things I'd do if I were a billionaire?

I've had a dream for many years of buying some major acreage and building an intentional community of my friends and family. Each friend or family would build their own home or have it built if they weren't able or interested, but they would all be handbuilt in some fashion...cob, wood, dome, etc. and fit well into woods. There would be a community building with a dining room, so if you didn't want to cook meals would be provided and a large building with room for many individual studios and maybe a small theatre for plays and musical performances, since many of my friends are artists and artisans and I can't imagine an intentional community without art. In recent years I've added farm acreage to the dream, so there would be an organic farm and also have a small clinic for us aging baby boomers and our "kids"... I also considered a small hacienda in Mexico so we could go south for a couple of months in the wet cold winter.

5. Places I have lived?

This is going to be a long one!

Born in Ludwigsburg, Germany
Lived in Heilbronn, Germany (my mom's hometown)
Columbus, Georgia
Elma, Washington (my dad's hometown)
Ft. Lewis, Tacoma, Washington
Mannheim, Germany
Tacoma, Washington
Bellingham, Washington (college)
Portland, Oregon
San Jose, California
Portland, OR
Waldport, OR
Seattle, WA (when the economy tanked)
Corvallis, OR
Monmouth, OR
Yachats, OR
Newport, OR (last 13 years)

6. Peeps I want to know more about?

Lisa of Pursuing Art

Morwyn of Another Country

Kathy V. of Artful Muse

Helene of Le nid de Colibri

Magpie Sue of From the Magpie's Nest

and Linda of Wild Wicked Beads because I know she's got lots of time, lol!

Functional

Not quite what I was imagining but it works and cost less than $4 for the wire rack and bookshelf, so it will do for now!

Display Ideas?

I'm getting quite a collection of these 4x6 plastic boxes that hold the little flip top boxes and am now looking for a space efficient way to display them...right now they're lined up in a row on top of some of the hardware drawer units but I'm running out of space up there.
I'd like something that would fit into a 12 inch wide space I have...it can go up to 32 inches tall but only 12 inches wide...oh, and did I mention it has to be lightweight but strong enough to support the beads?