A Smile in the Making

Carl dreams about the day he will be able to wear a 10 gallon hat.

Illustration Friday topic this week is "Hats".

Just got a note from Linda Dubin Garfield of Smart Business Consulting.
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Join Linda on NOV 12 from 5 to 7 PM at 707 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia for a Networking/Information Session!!!
Free hors d'oeuvres and hour cash bar...

She will have lots of free information available on topics of interest like: building an internet presence, specific steps to creating a great artist statement, steps to make your artist resume work to your advantage.

BRING YOUR BUSINESS CARD!!
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Today my neighbor and I drove up to St Peter's Village. She had visited it many years ago and thought it would be nice to see it again. It is located off of Hwy 23 west of Hwy 100 north of Exton and south of Pottstown.

We got there early and found a nice little antique shop open with a friendly proprietor. The bakery across the street was open also. It had a walkway and deck built out onto the back of the building which is built on the banks of the French Creek. The creek was filled with huge boulders and I could imagine the flowing waters would be rather spectacular after a good rain. There also was a cute little artisan run jewelry shop Blue Stone Jewelry and a wonderful art gallery St Peters Art & Framing with a yoga room in the back which looked out over the same banks. While neither my neighbor nor I are into yoga, we thought the room would be very conducive to meditation.

Our trip back took us through Unionville where we discovered a large red brick historic building housing the Unionville Gallery, Three French Hens and Zarrika. We decided this was a place to return to. While alot of the inventory is market pieces, I thought that the selection was quite unique. So often you will see the same thing in store after store -- almost like they bought a packaged deal. But this place really felt like each product was picked by an individual.

I had spent the previous day in Philadelphia visiting my friend Kim Senior. We stopped at the Print Center to see the current exhibit by Doug and Mike Starn. The images of dessicated leaves were printed on wide lengths of photographic paper which were tacked to the wall. The process which was done with digital exposure using traditional developing methods (ie, chemical process as opposed to a computer generated print). While literally paper thin, the result produced an image with quite a bit of dimension -- which become more apparent viewed from different angles.

There also were some prints done on a thin transparent paper (which I neglected to find out what it was, or the printing process). They also were displayed in 12x18 (approx) sections of 4-9 tacked to the wall. There were at least two layers of the same print adhered together with encaustic wax --not unlike the result of ironed fall leaves between waxed paper. The paper had an amber cast which almost made it look like puff pastry. They were quite delicate looking and we were not sure how often they could be displayed in such a manner.

We stopped by the Philadelphia Art Alliance and saw an exhibit by an ceramic artist, SunKoo Yuh. While I found the pieces to be somewhat disturbing, the glazing was absolutely beautiful. Multiple layers of glaze were applied and then wiped off in spots to expose the colors beneath.

Kim then took me to Pearl Art Supply on South Street. Three floors of art supplies. One could easily spend a day there.

Kim and I talked about color management and color profiles with regards to our computers and getting good prints. She had had some work done by Cathy's Profiles, which she highly recommended.

All this art and inspiration the past few days of course makes me want to get going on new work. I will have some new pieces in my Etsy shop once I get the photos edited. Then of course there is the next Illustration Friday topic. Scale. So watch for that one.

Okay, so I am taking some liberties this week with the Illustration Friday topic - Scale.

I started doing these fish images because the scales on the backs of fish can have an abstract look. The thing about abstracts is that you can see things in them. So I just took it a step further.

The scales on the back of this fish is a musician --- practicing his scales. Well, I know -- a bit of a stretch!

New work in my etsy shop. Take a look.

Creature Comforts USA - Art

From Jafabrit's blog.

Got a nice little write up in Ivy Arts blog.

Check out her cute items in her Etsy shop.

Got a note from Terry Stanley director of the art school at Richesons Art that the deadline for the Richeson 75 Still Life & Floral competition has been extended to Dec 10th. Look for the Artist's Choice entries to be posted soon.

Roberta & Libby's Artblog has a nice write up about Etsy in this post.

Fluffy contemplates whether or not it was a good idea to take over his cousin Oscar's nursing home gig.

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Superstition". Enjoy.

Dont forget to stop by my Etsy shop.

Right after I moved, I came across a blog by Dr. John. He would write about this miniature railroad village that he had set up in his backyard. What caught my attention was a pink sweater wearing rabbit that would show up in town and wave to everyone. That drew me into his daily stories of Pigeon Falls.

The 22nd is his birthday and one of his blogger buddies, Margaret, has requested another roast by his readers.

Every day, he also posts a link to a different blog and requests that his readers stop in, leave a comment and mention his name. So today, stop by his blog and leave a comment in honor of his birthday. And tell him I sent ya.

BTW, Margaret did this neat YouTube video

Monkeys and Rabbits Steal My Coupe.

This week's Illustration Friday topic is the Zoo. Here are a few escapees.

Check out my post on Karen Hetzer's murals.

And for cyber Monday, my etsy shop.

Karen Hetzer just finished some murals at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital located at 34th and Spruce in Philadelphia. They are located at the basement level that connects to the Children's Hospital next door.

Here are a few photos.

You can see more here.
You may recall I interviewed her a few months back.