Another Thirty Thankfuls -

Today I am Thankful for:

1) Sunlight on yellow lily blossoms
2) The audio book, "Yes, Chef."
3) Friends sending online "NAN/Breyerfest updates last wek
4) A Very Good art fair weekend up North in Grand Marais, MN
5) Folks canceling their motel reservations in GM
6) New ideas for more bears
7) Going to the shore to put hands in Lake Superior ("my" Lake - ha!)
8) The iPod Nano
9) Fast funny chat about Dark Energy with pro Physicist
10) This photo of me and the red bear an excited lady bought at Spring Green Art Fair:

11) Fresh baby dill sprigs from the garden
12) Chard from the garden
13) Basil from garden
14) Kale from.....
15) Baby tomatoes peeking out from lush greenery
16) Todd driving most of the way to and from Grand Marais
17) Goat cheese
18) Beautiful Art Made by Others
19) This morning's low temperature being 54 degrees - because it could have ben COLDER
20) Stillwater Library lending out magazines (pace yourself, Susan!)
21) New Likes on Sue Rowe Studios Facebook Page  - Thank You!!!!
22) Learning yesterday that there are 94 species of fish in the St. Croix River (I will look at this river differently from now on.)
23) People with small bills and coinage at art fairs
24) Quote collections
25) Crow on a mission:

26) A few CLEAN spaces in the house
27) Bluegrass music
28) Stockholm (WI) Art Fair being able to be held in usual beautiful park location instead of alternative
29 Mississippi River deciding to retreat from above park in time for this Saturday's Art Fair
30) Knowing that there are WAY MORE than 30 reasons for which to give Thanks!

On to the day. Some parts of plans are going smoothly. Others - not so much. Life as usual!!

This Saturday, July 19th, holds the Stockholm Art Fair - this well-run show in small town of Stockholm, Wisconsin, is always one of the high points of our season. Great friends, wonderful art, great music, and located near the shore of Mississippi River  are  just a few reasons we love doing this show. Now to cross fingers for a lovely day... If you DO come visit - remember to buy a slice of pie at The Stockholm Pie Company and walk through the other shops and galleries in town. No, I don't know where folks park. I only know and appreciate that they usually come early and in great number.

Then - next week (July 25 - 27)- the three day Ely Blueberry Festival - usually our best show of year. We shall not remember the weather (BAD IN MANY WAYS) of 2013. New year. New bears. New Hope. Old Space: Booth 15 - yay!

Also -  one last bear and our 30 Bear Challenge will be over at long last. Am aiming for TODAY.
Crossing paws......

Fare-thee-well,'
Sue

Another Day, Another Fool

Beginning the new series of Jesters and Fools hasn't been a bad idea. So far. Whew.

When starting out one something "new" I seldom know if the end result will be worth time/effort or if the whole grand plan should have been shut down on the first day. It's the playing out of the run that will leave it's evidence. And I feel that there may be a whole lot of Fools and Jesters with which to deal.

No, I'm not going to discuss politicians, religious sorts, business ethics, weird family members - just going to scribble bears!

Therein lies the Magic of Metaphor. HUZZAH for metaphor! The bears can represent and express almost anything!!!!! And yet they are not as they appear - at least some of the time. Once in a while they are simply Bears. More often they are Us. Whether we like us or not. The bears don't care. they are too busy Representing. This gives me a wee tad of artistic freedom - because as long as I don't pun the bruins will usually gladly play along. (During the first months of drawing the furred ones they warned: If you pun - we will not come. I've heeded this bit of growling ever since.)

In "In Just North Enough," my first book, one bear peers out from under his dunce cap. Caption: "Soon, yes, they'd learn to fear the patient fool..." I don't know this bear. I don't know his plans. I know that he definitely is no dummy, has plans, and WILL carry them out. But for now he remains playing the fool. His time will come... his time will come...

This new Jester seems to be playing The Fool well; it's just not his life's ambition. Doin' the job, but wanting much more. My problem, as an artist, is what to do with the guy. I sort of am in control of his destiny and I, too, don't know his path.

I like his presence. His willingness to carry on - for the time being. I enjoyed researching styles of jester's caps. But now the decisions start to pile up. Add some color with the Prismacolor colored pencils.Enough? Enough for now. Words? No words? (No words were coming out of brain or Sharpie Marker - O.K. - let that go for time being.) Background? Plain white? Something inside or outside? (No thoughts there...) But that weird stripe at top of page must be disguised. O.K. - I still love scribbling a "crocheted" line of semi-darkness. We will go with that. Plus, drawing this scribble is almost a Zen practice for me. Production with some thought but more simple free-arm repetitive movement. Another decision decided. Whew.

(color distortion due to lighting)

This image shows result of "crochet" scribbling. Defines a space - in a way. Hides the odd mark. Makes the air come alive. More decisions.... I ask Facebook sorts for opinions. Most who post like the spareness of the drawing. Huzzah? Less work for me? O.K. - for now this Jester, like many of us, is biding his time. He may or may not be "finished." So few of us seldom are -  and that's not a bad thing.

There is space in which more may develop. This piece has yet to be ruined by overworking or being over thought. We will allow this fool to perhaps relax for a few weeks. Did Jesters get vacations from amusing their royal rulers?

On to the day's real work. Prepping for Shell Lake, Wis. art fair on Saturday, July 5th, but also planning the sneaking away (Thanks, Todd, for allowing me this) to attend my hometown celebration of Gurney, Wisconsin turning 100 Years Old this year! Our tiny town (7 miles from Lake Superior, 3 miles in off U.S. 2 - on Wis. State HWY. 169 (our childhood "playground") - no sidewalks, no store/gas station, NO BAR!!! -  will be The Destination for the day. Hard-working locals (almost all are relatives - ha!) will have mowed the ball diamond where our dads and we played, figured out the parade sequence (the route is EASY - Go down the hill on one side of the road, turn around at the bottom, and head back up Gurney Hill), and made the community center ready for the odd assortment of interesting folks who will come to our favorite "World's Smallest Thriving Metropolis.").

Our 30 Bear Challenge on our Sue-Rowe-Studios Facebook Page is coming to an end. One bear to go, and some semi-lucky winner will get an original of one of the thirty pieces!

Happy Birthday, to our son, Tyler, today, and Happy 4th of July! to everybody tomorrow! No Foolin'!!

Fare-thee-well,
Sue

Subtle Changes

Ruts can be comfortable. Created  little by little or in a burst, they, never the less, provide paths to travel or in which to rest. I know my ruts and you know yours.

But sometimes the longer we stay in our rut the deeper it gets, till one day it's become so deep that we can't see over the sides. New day. Same rut. Decision time. Decision time. Time to have a chat with the brain, and for me, also the right hand. Is this rut leading in the direction we want to go? do we dare climb out and head into a whole different world? Is it O.K. to make it to the least deep part and simply veer off toward a slightly new adventure

I was comfortable with the bear-moon-words format. Especially in pastels. Bear facing toward moon. Symmetrical. Solid. Serene. Vary the colors. Vary the background.  Some "better" than others, but most sell. Life is good. But art is starting to become lovely cliche. I've never wanted the bears to become cliches. They have always been meant to be individuals, each living it's own life, on a different night, looking at the same moon, but each in it's own way...

This piece started out with the same format, but I wasn't happy with the image and couldn't figure out why.... This bear wasn't an individual. It was a shape painted in the middle of a picture. Life was not good.

Time for daring to change the direction of the rut - just a bit. Acrylic paint on board is slightly more forgiving than pastel on paper. The many starts, stops, wipings-out, adding ins are not evident, but eventually they added up to a piece that I can consider finished. I like the slight twist of head and body. I like the asymmetric shape. It's somehow a tad more alive. This bear might be done sitting pretty soon. It might be deciding right now to head in a new direction.

All because of a few subtle changes.

 Dare to make a few yourself today??

This bruin, and many more, will be heading to the Spring Green, WI Art Fair this weekend.

Time to quit sitting in comfortable couch "rut," talk myself into ignoring "loudly" chiming head, and get on with the packing. The garden is starting to look like a garden, but... ahem, for gardens, fields, and art fairs alike: WE DON"T NEED THE COMING RAIN.

Craving some Summer sunshine -
Fare-thee-well,
Sue

Fog

Head is in fog today. No ambition. Too much to do. Not even energy to pick up pen to make that List of Too Many Things to Do Today. Argh. this is NOT how I want to feel. I want to feel frisky, perky, on-the go!!!!!! Nope. In the recliner - in a head-chiming heart-thudding fog. I am a Fog Machine. Oh goodie.

So....to lighten the mood and pretend to have accomplished something -  here are a few images of lovely fog (find your art where ever you can):

Hoping the personal fog will lift soon. Hoping your brain is sunny and bright!!

On to prepping art for the Spring Green, Wisconsin, art fair this weekend. A well-juried show in a lovely town. Frank Lloyd Wright Country. Get up, Susan, make yourself a cup of Happy Tea and get on with the best June 25, 2014 that we will ever have!

Fare-thee-well,
Sue

More Cup Thoughts

A paper cup is a paper cup. Tea is tea. When the tea is gone the cup remains. A plain paper cup. Now I have a habit. The cups are not so much containers for tea but containers for play. Playing with paper. Me? Play with paper????        hahahahahhahaha.

Here are two recent goofings-off:

This one has  red Higgins drawing ink brushed liberally over much of it's surface. USING UP ART SUPPLIES! THAT'S OUR MOTTO!!! Well, sort of. Used up some. Did color before planned text. That's a lie. I seldom/never plan text. But it's good to have a theme. Plan your words and images around a theme. Pick a Theme! Any Theme! Lines are a thicker Sharpie Marker. Colors, other than red ink, are Prismacolor pencils.

Recently Tara stitched me a many-pocketed pencil carrier out of some nifty fabrics. This is A Good Thing. Roll out the colors! Sorted to rainbow theme, with extra pockets for colors we can't see in rainbows. Little time needed to sort through choices. Sorry, clear plastic bags - we have a winner! Inspiration was make-up brush bag. My two are custom-sized - one for mostly colored pencils, another for special pens and other drawing pencils and the like.

Have I mentioned IT'S BEEN RAINING? On track to break all-time rain amount for June in Minnesota. Not a record farmers, boaters, and folks who want to play on weekends care to see broken... Did I mention vegetation is quite GREEN????? All green all the time???? Thus, this cup:

Again, thick Sharpie and Prismacolor pencils. It doesn't take much.

Still trying to decide how to create a coherent group out of all these once-cups. For now I will probably punch a hole in upper left corner of each and put them on a metal ring. Can't have them all running wild in their slow flat way.

If you can - take 5 or 10 minutes to write a thought, draw a flower, or scribble "breathe enjoy look up look down look across" on a small scrap of something. The day might be better for having done it.

It's time to "accomplish something."
We will be doing the Art Fair in Spring Green, WI, this weekend. Booth 105B. (I would wish for two nice-weather days - yup, I would.) Come by and say Hi!

Fare-thee-well,
Sue

30 Thankfuls Again

Greetings -

In no particular order, this warm pleasant sunny Monday  morning I am Thankful for:

1) living on top of high hill in Stillwater, MN
2) being able to eat breakfast in dry patio
3) seeing a bee
4) blooming delphiniums
5) head not being quite so "loud" as yesterday
6) Minnesota Public Radio - Classical Station
7) You Tube audiobook offerings of "Moby Dick" complete text (Thankful AND Excited...)
8) Very gren baby basils, lettuce, kale, tomatoes, sunflowers, etc.
9) being "lucky" enough to be able to type this before going to work 30 feet away
10) sunlight on damp ground all around
11) having a "free" weekend the past two day - to semi-refresh/get more work done on acrylic paintings
12) family and friends - forever and always
13) the Masterpiece Theater Mystery episode starring David Tennant ending the way it did.
14) the color Scarlet Red
15) kale
17) broadband internet
18) Sharpie Markers
19) fences
20) Lyle Lovett
21) JEAN SHORTS THAT FIT
22) tennis racquets better than last year's ( not that it matters)
23) caring about living life again (yes, the opposite happens)
24) Coconut Rough herbal tea (Thanks, Karen O'NZ!)
25) the Beautiful Cat That Is Not Ours (unless it get to "our" squirrels)
26) pecans
27) a semi-clean work desk
28) a mostly-weeded vegetable  garden
29) the new watch
30) crows

Fare-thee-well,
Sue

* Oh, and of course, this bear showing up (Yup - work in progress):

Fuzzy

This is not a post about Warm and Fuzzy. It is going to at least start out about being Flawed and yet Somehow O.K. And will end up were it does.

Last week I set some peanut butter out for whoever got to it first. Tara and I eat only almond butter these days (health reasons), Todd eats Skippy from grocery stores. We found some out-dated, opened stuff in box from a storage locker buy and didn't feel urge to finish it. But, re-use recycle - put some in feeders and other places out doors and see what happens.

This is one thing that happened:

This crow wasn't messing around. Grabs large clump of drying peanut butter, pauses a moment, and flies off. To make toast? Find a cracker? Mysteries remain.

Yes, it's a "bad" photo. Yes, I've taken many focused photos of "our" crows. But when it came to possibly deleting this one.....  I still can not. There are enough story lines here to keep my little brain entertained and enough abstract crow shape and color to keep my eye entertained. You will make your decisions about the image. That is how life should be. I will not waste time defending this picture as a "good" picture. But it is good enough for me. At least for now. That is what is important. Feel secure enough to make your own value judgements - regardless of popular views, regardless of topics.

This can be difficult to do. I love the movie, "Animal House." During college days a friend and I went to see it. The dead horse scene sent me into hysterics. Friend was not amused - at all. Perhaps because I'd dealt with actual  deaths of ponies and horses, as well as a number of other animals (farm family...), and had gone through all the many emotions that go along with these experiences, for some reason I found the "Animal House" doings truly FUNNY - in a "hey, this is a film that is a COMEDY" way. In a horrible way - but Funny, none-the-less. We walked out of the theater writing completely different reviews in our heads. We'd made our judgements - and were true to our selves.

We make judgements all the time, every day. This crow judged this peanut butter Fine and Dandy, and came back for more later.

It's time to quit typing and get on with a walk. The brain has to de-fuzz. We have an art fair in Grand Forks, North Dakota this weekend. I am not prepared. But am trying to be O.K. in a Zen way. My sister's attitude is most often: Things are the way because that's the way they are supposed to be.

I'm not quite there yet. Strive and Lazy are my personal Yin Yang. Too many ideas, plans. Too much time spend on Facebook or sorting things that might not be Priority One sortings. And always judging and then forgetting to judge (prioritize). Yup, this brain is one weird glob of dried out and/or too oily nut butter. Hoping that a crow won't be picking at it soon.

"We find what we expect to find, and we receive what we ask for." - Elbert Hubbard

And on to we all doing something today worth crowing about!

Fare-thee-well,
Sue