The Year in Review.

This is the time of year I love. Post-Christmas, and just before the new year turns.

And this year, how exciting! We're entering a whole new decade, even!

I have high hopes for 2010, with some interesting possibilities (and certainties) in the making. These include two small solo shows (the third got moved to 2011), more community teaching for awesome area arts organizations, and an online teaching gig with the Art Institute of Pittsburgh! I am very excited about this. I just got finished with the required facilitator assessment course that was the final hoop before being assigned my first class, and received notice that I will begin teaching with them on January 11th. Newbies can only teach one class in their first session, but it is possible that I could teach two classes for each of two sessions per quarter, eventually. I've never taught art online before, so this will be an interesting experience, to say the least! I am looking forward to it.

I'd like to take the rest of this post to reflect on the all the things I managed to do in 2009. I am so thankful for all of the opportunities I've had so far—they've really helped me grow as an artist and as a person!

Here goes, in the order that I think of them.

1. My first solo museum show at the Castellani Art Museum at Niagara University.

2. Scheduling three more smaller-scale solo shows in 2010 and 2011.

3. Teaching! Thanks to the Buffalo Arts Studio, the Burchfield-Penney Arts Center, and the Western New York Book Arts Collaborative for including me on their roster of instructors. Also, two pretty great private lessons.

4. Artist presentations at Starlight Studios, the Castellani, and Alden High School.

5. An honorable mention award at the Big Orbit 2009 Members Show.

6. Winning an SOS Grant. Twice?

7. Having work selected for group shows at Artstream Studios in Rochester, NH, and at Nahcotta in Portsmouth, NH.

8. Having work chosen to appear in the Winter 2010 issue of Calyx Journal.

9. Having a studio visit with some prominent area curators as part of the selection process for the Beyond/In WNY Biennial (I didn't get selected, but having the visit was still pretty amazing).

10. Being Gordon's on-site artist during Buffalo's annual Garden Walk. Even if I did forget my paints. I made due with the colored pencils I brought with me as an afterthought.

11. Tabling with my pal Jan Nagle at the WNYBAC's Holiday Panic Sale, meeting lots of cool people and selling a few things.

12. Being accepted into the art education teaching certification program at Buffalo State College for fall 2010.

I feel like there are more achievements that I am proud of, but that will do for now. In 2010, I hope to have more time to dedicate to the studio, and I hope to get one or two artist residencies, too. As I said before there are other possibilities but for now, I will leave them as that and secrets, too.

Here's wishing you and yours a very happy new year!

Christmas Frida

This probably qualifies as more crafty than arty, but I finally got finished making my ornaments for the swap that was organized by my co-worker Nicole over at her freshlyblended blog and Swap-bot, where I have been pretty active as of late. For the longest time I just could not come up with anything clever or overly cliché for my ornament and so kept putting it off and putting it off, until I found myself way over on the deadline to send them. Frida Kahlo ended up being my muse and I found a great black and white photo to use to make a neat paper ornament.

In Photoshop, I cropped out Frida's figure (you couldn't see her feet in the original photo, either, which I really liked) and then selectively colorized it. Then, I printed the image out on cardstock, and glued it to a brightly colored piece of Canson paper, while inserting a loop of embroidery floss in between for the hanger. (This took some expert manouevering, by the way!) Finally, I carefully snipped, snipped, snipped away and came up with Christmas Frida! On the back, I stamped the phrase "Feliz Navidad." Incidentally, she is smoking a cigarette—so apropos!

*sung to the tune of The 12 Days of Christmas*

TEN FRIDAS SMOKING...



And what she looks like, front and back. The color is more accurate in this photo:


By the way, I'm really not that into Christmas... it usually makes me more depressed than anything. But really, who doesn't like a little Christmas Frida?

Where Will I Be Today and Tomorrow?

Why, the Western New York Book Arts Center Holiday Panic Showcase, that's where!

I will be sharing a table with my good and talented friend, Jan Nagle, who makes clever jewelry items. I'll be selling the dozen or so little books I made for the event, as well as some of my art -- mostly framed collages and mixed media-type items.

I feel woefully unprepared for this, but I'll be there and I will have stuff to sell. I guess that's enough. I hope it is, anyway!

Maybe I will see you there?