A Town Called Peculiar

My longtime, online artist friend Kristin Smith is helping plan an event for the Downtown Peculiar Arts and Culture District (Peculiar is a town in Missouri). Kristin explains that they are a "non-profit, grass roots group working toward the revitalization of Peculiar as interactive arts and cultural center."

Their upcoming train car themed event is "The Frisco Depot" which features a dinner and an art auction. (Kristin designed the poster you see above). She explains that they have an "odd auction as the interested bidders just put money (anywhere from a quarter up to three dollars depending upon the value of the piece) into a bowl on their table, and then hold up their paddles to indicate that they in on the bid. Then numbers are drawn like a lottery...and whoever's number comes up wins the art." Most people bid on every piece.

Here is the story about how the town was named from wikipedia:
Peculiar received its name in 1868 when the first postmaster, Edgar Thomson, had his first choice rejected because it already existed. Several other choices were also rejected. The story goes that the annoyed Thomson wrote to the Postmaster General himself to complain saying, among other things, "We don't care what name you give us so long as it is sort of 'peculiar'," (with "peculiar" in quotation marks). So the town became known as Peculiar.

The town motto is "Where the 'odds' are with you". And a historical plaque in the town reads: "In 1861-1864 while bloody battles raged throughout the southern states nothing happened here." (I thought that was pretty amusing)

Here is my entry for their art auction. I have dubbed this piece "Funkytown."

Studio Walls are Going Up!

My husband is the greatest. When my grandmother would hear all the projects he was working on around the house, she would say "he is so handy!" And Grandma was right! His gift to me for Christmas was to finish my studio in the basement. I had been complaining (okay whining) that it was too cold to work down there and when I try to heat my area, it never works as the space is open & the heat travels up the stairs. Also, I need doors to keep my two cats out of my workspace, even though I have dubbed them artcatz. They are so curious about what I am doing and want to hang out with me. Which is okay most of the time. However, when I have everything set up for a photo shoot of my jewelry that is the time that they jump on the table and I get a picture of a paw instead of a bracelet. Or the bracelet being dragged away by a paw. You get the picture.

Here is phase 1. My husband has framed in the space where the walls will be.
In phase 2 he ran the wire to the multiple outlets that I'll have. And he put in a phone jack so if the phone rings I won't have to leave the studio. Although I may not answer the phone, I am still excited about this!!



Drywall is going up now. Our friend Tom came over and helped as it's tough for one person to handle. When I am out of town this week, the mudding and sanding of the drywall happens. Sorta glad I will be out of town for that work. Right now everything is covered in dropcloths and I can't get to anything. I know I will be uneasy until I get everything reorganized and put away where it goes.


So I need to think of what color to paint the walls. This IS an art room, so I am thinking something bright and colorful. Two walls will be drywall and the other two, for the interim are still painted white concrete walls. If/when we can finish the basement, the other two walls will be finished. The cool part is that I will have two doors, multiple electrical outlets and a phone jack. And eventually upper cabinets and a wash tub for cleaning up paint, rubberstamps, brushes, etc. But that's down the road.


So what color(s) should I paint the walls? I mentioned a splatter of colors a la Jackson Pollack and my husband looked horrified. I am thinking one bright yellow and one red. Or maybe one orange and one pink/coral. I LOVE those colors together. I don't want to go too dark as it will make the room look small. And once I get all my junk back in there, it will probably look small. Another thing is that I will want to write on the walls ("Oh, Good Lord" my husband said when he read this). Quotes and words and any inspiration. Maybe I should just get a huge bulletin board. Let me know if you have suggestions for me! I'm all ears!

Happy Hearts Day

This sounds weird but Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday. (Second would be Halloween)

I have always liked this day and as the Christmas holidays get more hectic every year, I have to smile when I think of giving Valentines to my friends and family. Not much pressure, no real shopping to do. I am pretty particular about the cards that I send out and love to buy candy for everyone. I guess I am a true romantic at heart. I don't really expect any gifts from my husband. We will just have a nice quiet dinner at our favorite local restaurant, the Bristol.

So Happy Valentine's Day to you!! Have a great day.

xoxoxo

The Shop at the Brown

I am tickled pink to announce that my jewelry can be found at the Shop at the Brown, in the historic Brown Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky!

It's a wonderful shop and now that I've discovered it, I am sure many of my gifts will be purchased there. I bought some old fashioned glasses that say "Just add Bourbon" for my inlaws.

Great selection of Kentucky themed items and lots of other pretties - check it out.

Monte Carlo Night Donation

My father is involved in a boating safety organization and this is my donation to their Monte Carlo night auction. I had a matching pair of earrings with the bracelet.

Art-O-mat - How Cool is That?

What exactly is an Art-o-mat?

They are old cigarette vending machines that have been converted into mini-art vending machines. How cool! This was introduced in 1997 in North Carolina by an artist named Clark Whittington. Now everyone can afford a piece of art, as the price is only $5. I had my first experience with Art-O-mat about five years ago. My mom and I went to a Lyle Lovett concert at the Ky Center for the Arts. We found the unique machine and my mom treated me. I got a little handmade book, that I still have to this day. Included was the artist's name and email address. I had not thought much about it since then as I don't get to the Center for the Arts very often. However, in the January 2009 issue of Southern Living, I was thrilled to see that Art-O-Mat lives on!

There are 82 of these across the country and you can find a location near you by going to their website. There are two locations in Kentucky and Ohio and several in IN and IL. There's even a machine in Canada and Austria.

If you are creative and your art can be sized into a small box (like a cigarette package) you may want to consider sending them a sample to see if you are selected as one of their participating artists. Artists receive 50% of the sale price (or $2.50)for each item sold. Obviously it's not about the money, it's the fun of creating art and sharing it with people across the U.S. All of the details can be found on their website.

Ice Ice Baby

Here are some images from our ice/snow storm last week. There were about 200,000 people without power in Louisville and over 800,000 across the state of Kentucky. Our power went off Tuesday night and didn't return until late Saturday night. It was 47 degrees in our house! I learned a lot from the experience as my husband was in Detroit the first 2 days of not having power. I learned how to light our gas fireplace (which we had not used in years) and hook up and start a generator. We traded off amenities with our neighbors. They had a gas stove and made us grilled cheese sandwiches and soup and we had hot water so they could take a hot shower.
The governor is saying it's the worst natural disaster to ever hit the State of Kentucky. Second worst was the wind storm from Hurricane Ike last September. We also lost power then for about a week. That's when we were fortunate enough to get a generator. But back in September it wasn't as cold, which made this outage a lot worse. Hotels were booked and most people had to stick it out at their home. Several people died from carbon monoxide poisoning from generators running in their garage or using gas stoves or grills inside their house to keep warm. Very sad.

These pictures were taken around our back yard. The damage was everywhere across Louisville from downed wires and tree limbs, and often much worse than what I found in our yard. But then again, I tried to mostly take pictures of things that were artistic and pretty.