Finished work framed and ready for Superfine! Art fair...

So I just posted the progress pics from this last big piece I was working on, but they are from several weeks ago.  I just spent the last eight hours finishing it while watching Stranger Things.  I loved it, but why is Winona Ryder not aging?  Anyway, my husband spent much of my birthday documenting works in frames for Superfine!  All works will be for sale!

All of the pieces above are 8x8 inches in a 10x10 inch frame.

This piece is 18x18 inches in a 20.5x20.5 inch frame.  It is my favorite and I am afraid it is not going!  Not enough wall space.  

Stitching in progress

So I have one piece I am trying to finish for Superfine! in Miami in December.  I have been nervous to open up my color palette on the sewing pattern paper, but finally decided to do it.  I like how the violets, blues and greens are more bruise like.  I am also getting more brave in my thread color mixing which is making for some fabulous opportunities.  Here are some quick pics:

Glennen Doyle Melton, Elizabeth Gilbert, creativity and podcasts....

While baking some birthday goodies this week, I started listening to Elizabeth Gilbert's podcast "Magic Lessons" which is an extension of sorts of her book "Big Magic" which was published in 2015.  She has two seasons of episodes, and I just picked the last episode of this last season.  It was a sort of post mortem on the whole season of guests, and there was so much good stuff.  I had never heard of Glennen Doyle Melton, but she is a blog writer (Momastery.com), an author, a recovering addict and a truth teller.  WHAT A TRUTH TELLER.  I have got to see if I can find a transcript of their conversation.  Elizabeth Gilbert mentioned a quote by John Steinbeck, "and now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good."  Elizabeth said that Glennen went one step further with the thought, "but if you don't have to be good, then you can be free."  Isn't that the most beautiful idea?  Isn't that what we all want, to be free?

Superfine! art fair at Miami Art week 2016....

and I am going!  I had been looking at Emerging Fair venues during some of the major art weeks across the US to see if one might be accessible to me.  In my research, I discovered Superfine! and was really excited about the possibility.  Then comes real life in the form of basement water and mold, possible job status changes and coming cat dental bills, and I figured I better hold off.  But with the sale of my grid last week, I decided to go for it.  I applied, have been accepted and am starting to prepare my curatorial plan for the fair.  I am really excited about it!  I know many of the dolls will go, and I have some small framed stitched pieces I would like to include as well.  I am thinking about two bigger stitched pieces, but I don't know that I can get that done.  I am so excited for five days in Miami in December and ALL THE ART!  

The Thyroid is such a beautiful organ....

I finished this drawing recently as well.  You can find it as a print at Forager, or shortly on my etsy site...I am a little behind in getting things listed.  And cleaning.  All the cleaning.  

Skeleton hand drawing finished just in time....

So I have work going up in this beautiful local, Rochester, Minnesota restaurant called Forager this weekend.  I finished the text on the drawing yesterday and got it cleaned up in photoshop just now.  I will be selling this image as a framed print, along with prints of the rest of this anatomical series.  I can't wait to see them in the space.

The reception for the exhibition will be 10/23/16 from 4-6 pm.  Hope to see you there!

Sold!!!!

So excited to share that I sold the piece "Graft" at the Rochester Art Center Artbash 2016 auction!  It sold for $2500, the most I have ever sold a work for, and I am happy to share half with the Art Center for their 70th anniversary.  RAC, thank you so much for this opportunity.  I am looking forward to installing it in it's new home.  

new book, "The Untethered Soul: the journey beyond yourself"

just came in the mail from amazon a couple of days ago. I actually saw it in a girlfriends bathroom and I thought it looked really good.  I was looking at it last night before bed, and started on the first chapter "the voice inside your head."  I am so familiar with mine.  I have gotten good at watching it. It is just so amazing when you can observe all the buzzing in your mind; it is like a little movie running.  Since I have started to observe it, I have noticed it can be more in the background instead of drawing all my attention.  Michael A. Singer, the author, says "you are not the voice of the mind - you are the one who hears it."  The voice is incessant, it makes both sides of an argument, it can be hateful or kind, it is just a running narration...and when you realize you are not the voice, you don't have to figure out if the voice speaks the truth.   

So I was dawdling on Instagram a couple of days ago, and thejealouscurator (who I am slightly obsessed with) asked with an illustration, "what does your inner critic say to you?" She has a new book coming out about your inner critic being a jerk.  And the responses...well, our inner critics are just bullies.  But I think I am able now to see the inner critic (that voice that I notice) and let it be.  I don't have to argue with it, or wish it away, it just happens to be there and I can go about my work.  I am so thankful I am learning this skill.