About a week and a half of studio work for me, then on to four shows in a row: Salem, Bellevue Museum Show, Park City and Sun Valley. I hope to see some of you there!
Yep, that pretty much sums it up. HOT. Seems like the whole city turns out for this festival, which includes not only a good fine art & craft show but good music of all kinds every evening plus dance, poetry, art & sculpture demonstrations and kids' activities. In their promo they say it's a festive atmosphere & they are not kidding. The festival runs for four days, from noon to 11pm. There's something kind of magical about people strolling around in the dark park, sipping wine & chatting with the artists. The show was not without its challenges - it was really, really HOT. The last two days the temp was around 103, which just is not right for a pale Northwest girl of Norwegian descent like me. But we had electricity in the booths & most of us had a big fan, hat, dishpan of cold water to stand in and a spray bottle to battle the heat. I was lucky to have a spot under a huge tree (sycamore?) which kept me in the shade all day. I had a very nice surprise - the board of the Utah show gave me a best of show award, which means I am automatically in next year's show & get my booth fee paid. I feel very fortunate; it's great to know I'll be back next year. Also, two of my favorite neighbors were close by: Brett Cleveland and Erin Pietsch. Good company makes the time fly by. Plus, you have to agree these guys make for great scenery.
About a week and a half of studio work for me, then on to four shows in a row: Salem, Bellevue Museum Show, Park City and Sun Valley. I hope to see some of you there! It's amazing how much stuff can fit in a dinky mini van. This was the first road trip of the year and as usual it took a few hours of fiddling to figure out how to get an entire art fair booth (plus personal luggage) fitted together like a Chinese puzzle. I had to take photos from every angle before I left. I knew I'd never remember how to get it back together again after the fair and it's embarrassing for your fellow artists to catch you staring into your empty van with no clue how to begin.
We made it to Spokane fine and in a few hours a miracle occurred. Hard to believe that whole booth was crammed into my poor old vehicle. I had a great show and met some new artist friends. With the help of my trusty photos we managed to get it all loaded back in. By the end of the summer I'll be able to do it in my sleep. Off to Salt Lake City next, at the end of June. I've heard it's a great show and I'm excited to be back on the road! Hope to see you this summer. Well, this is a good surprise - when I went to pick up my work from the Art in Bloom fine art exhibition, I found that I'd won the Patron's Choice Award! Thanks to everyone who voted for my work, I really appreciate it. It was a great show and I'm looking forward to next year.
The tulips are splendid this year in the Skagit Valley of Western Washington. Thousands of people come to walk the fields, surrounded by a sea of saturated color. As beautiful as it looks in photos, standing in the field with color as far as you can see just transports you to another place entirely. As part of the yearly tulip celebration the city of Anacortes (gateway to the San Juan Islands) presents a fine art and craft exhibition, Art in Bloom, in the old train depot. This year I had three pieces in the exhibition and I was in wonderful company. Twenty-nine of us showed our work. The opening on April 11th was lots of fun, seeing artist friends and meeting a few new ones. Here's my back, hanging out with Dona Reed's impressive carved & painted gourds. And here are new paintings from Cathy Shoenberg, perfectly large and luminous. They seem to sit just fine next to all the old train station waiting room graffiti. What a beautiful way to welcome spring to the Northwest. Netherlands, eat our dust.
I'm in the midst of applying to art festivals and waiting to hear which shows will invite me to attend. All the top festivals have juries who decide which artists will be accepted and you never know which shows you'll get into from year to year. It's kind of exciting, really, waiting to venture off into the unknown. After a winter of studio work I start to dream about setting up my booth, wondering which of my show buddies and collector friends I'll get to see. I'm happy to realize that I still love meeting new people and talking about art. What a joy. Naturally, that also sets my mind to wandering back over the experiences of last year... Here's a photo of my lovely corner booth, first day of the Sun Valley Arts & Crafts Festival. The sun was shining, smiling people were strolling by in sandals, shorts & sleeveless tops. Another day in a mountain paradise. Then, about two o'clock, something new started slipping over the hills... do I hear rumbling? Here we are about halfway through the weather event. Marble-sized hail is falling (heavy) at a 45-degree angle. It kept up for about an hour - all this accompanied by bone-rattling thunder & lightning (you can see ceramic artist Gail Pendergrass across the way, taking it all in stride). By the time it was done the ground was solid white. The ground was still nice and warm from the morning sun, so the hail melted into ice water. We finally had to close up early (wading around in an inch of ice water) and run for cover, considering the lightning & those lovely metal-framed tents sticking up all over the open field.
So, remind me again why I like doing this? I'm thinking the good old American Pioneer Spirit might be overrated. Ah, spring... we're in high gear here at the studio. Jerry has the assembly line thing down, as you can see by the huge stack of display panels - ready for me to give them a coat of primer. I can't believe it's been warm enough for him to work in the carport. Here he is cutting moldings with his nifty little Japanese saw. The last of the 6x9" pieces are done, ready to mount on panels. That makes 17 pieces since December, which is pretty fast, believe it or not. All those layers take time to build and fire. As the pieces get thicker, they need to be heated and cooled slower to prevent thermal shock. The last firing (shown here) was over 23 hours. You can see how each piece is dammed with strips of old kiln shelf. That lets me build the thickness of the piece & keeps it from spreading out over the shelf.
Last year house hunting and moving took a lot of time away from studio work. This year I'm trying to get a head start and get plenty of work done for upcoming shows. It feels so good to spend long days surrounded by piles of glass and tools. Since the holidays 17 pieces have come out of my hardworking old kiln, which has barely had time to cool off between loads. This week I'm just finishing up the last layer of some 6x9 landscapes and my very helpful hubby is cutting birch plywood in the carport (all bundled up) for making panels. It's always non-stop production this time of year. By June I'll be doing shows and there will only be a couple studio days between them, so it's important to get the bulk of the glass work done while I've got the time. I'll post some more images as soon as I get panels painted & pieces mounted. I love getting that first look at them when they're finally mounted on the panels, with the perfect amount of light seeping in behind them...
About six months ago we decided a change was in order and we found a nice little place on the island. It took us 40 days to move the contents of 2 darkrooms, a workshop, 2 studios and a house. How biblical. Thank heavens for family help. Later, there were lots of naps. Well, I figure relocation presents a good opportunity to change some things up, recommit to the art career and hopefully pick up a few new habits. Here are some before & after (life) images. Here's my sadly empty old studio, all cleared out - and its beautiful view of the Tolt river. Lots of great ideas were hatched in this studio and you can see how inspiring it was looking out at that mossy world. I'll miss my old place but I can't wait to see what the new life will bring. This is what the new studio looked like once all the glass studio stuff was moved across on the ferry & summarily dumped in piles. It is actually bigger than it looks - lots bigger than the old studio. It will be a lovely place to work once everything has settled into place. I spent the end of the summer nestled among the piles, working with the big door open, watching the birds & deer go by. And here's a pic of my new inspiration, just a five-minute walk down the road.
Life is so different here - lots of light, tons of other artists and musicians in the area... and then there's the beach. I've been practicing "just walking" down the sand - no internal chatter, no future/past fussing, just walking in the cool salt air. That's the state that led me to make the glass landscapes in the first place and what I hope will make my work better as time goes on. |
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Steph Mader is a full-time glass artist living on Whidbey Island in Washington State. Archives
November 2022
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