Articulated Chaos

I have been so neglectful of my poor blog this year. So little time to call my own these days.
     Life has been throwing curve balls these past few months.  Schedule revision at the good old J.O.B. - I am now working 10am to 630pm.  Not to bad, but trying to get a doctors' appointment. .. what a pain that is.
    The best, and most exciting,  curve is that my work was accepted at the Gallery of Ocean Shores. I was very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.  Being artistic,  one of the first things I checked out when deciding to move to Ocean Shores was the art community.  I had gone into the gallery several times during our trips there (car fully packed with moving boxes). One of the times I happened to be wearing a Chris Friesen inspired fire lizard pendant. The artist on duty that day really liked it and suggested that I bring some work into show the jury committee.

 Boy, was I nervous!
 But I got lucky ... they had just lost their jewelry artist AND had decided to expand the range of art exhibited at the Gallery.
   I set out my display August 1st and have sold several earrings already. A HUGE thank you to Marie Segal who taught me to make her bullseye earrings  (and graciously allows me to sell what a make using her techniques). They have been my best sellers.
    Another great thing about the gallery ... it is an artist owned 501(c)3 non-profit. That means am surrounded by artists. It is so inspirational!  NBAG (The Northshore Artist Guild) was invited to set up an exhibit in Aburdeen  (sorry, can remember exactly where ... too new to the community).  I challenged myself to try something completely different and paint with polymer.  I was originally told that the theme was Articulated Chaos and was to be  abstract in nature.  I had never done abstract before (unless Mokume Gane counts).
    I discovered I loved freedom I felt when creating this piece.  I had a sliver of an idea when I started. .. and  it grew from there. Started with several Skinner blends and my handy Christi Friesen clay tools .... I am very happy with the results. I hope that time allows me to explore this aspect of polymer more.

  After finishing my piece,  I was told that the theme had been changed to Oceanic. Luckily the painting looks like a storm at sea

Articulated Chaos

Chance meeting

Life has been so busy, so my poor blog gets totally neglected.  What with purchasing a new home, sorting out what to keep and what can go (and arguing with hubbie as to why I MUST keep most of my stash), slowly moving stuff to the new house and trying to plan for retirement. .. my life has hardly any room for my clay. I have had one clay day with the cladies at the Puyallup grange and was able to attend the annual Clay Camp in Goldbar last month.  Hope to attend the clay day next weekend, if we aren't taking another car load down to Ocean Shores.
      But I just had to share a wonderful gift the universe gave me yesterday.
      A bit of background is in order.  As some of you know,  I have a few cats. And with cars, come a few problems. This year has been the worst ever for flea issues. Apparently the pests are getting to be immune to most  treatments out there. We have been fighting them for months and it seems I am one of the lucky people that react badly to flea bites.   And they  just LOVE my blood! My feet and legs are covers with bites and they itch like mad. I try very hard to keep my nails away from them, but sometimes I wake up at night to find that I have scratched myself silly in my sleep.  Anyway, I read up on line what can help keep the buggers from biting me ... discovered certain smells they don't like. So happens that a hand cream we used at work contains ingredients that help keep the buggies away. Unfortunately, they stopped ordering this cream (guess it cost too much), so searched the Internet and found a store at a nearby mall that carries the cream.
   Now, I am not one that likes malls. I much prefer small, privately owned stores where unique items can be found. So, I hardly ever go there. That is what makes what happened so amazing.
    As it was on my way  to work, hubbie and I decided to have lunch there too. Standing in the food court, decided I would like to have Ivar's fish and chips.  Walked towards Ivar's and noticed a familiar looking lady walking towards me. I did a bit of a double take .... what on earth would Christi Friesen be doing at Southcenter mall!?!
    Sure enough, it was one of my very favorite polymer instructors and all around great person. She was in town on her way through to visit her daughter. We only had a chance to visit for a few minutes, but it certainly was a bright spot in my hectic life.
   Got to practice taking selfies and got photo bombed.