New piece!

Big, exciting things, happening all the time!

How do I start?

Quirk is this fantastic gallery in Richmond, VA that specializes in fine craft, particularly jewelry. Every November since they opened they have an invitational art jewelry show called Sparkle Plenty. Quirk opened at the same time I moved to RVA for school, so the Sparkle Plenty show was one of the first fantastic things I came to love about Richmond. I've worked with Quirk on occasion, and I've always looked to them as where I'll have pieces when I'm finally an Artist (with a capital A.) Last fall I met the best jeweler-friends a girl could ask for during the fall concentration at Penland- Joanna Gollberg Stirling and Amy Tavern. They were my teachers while I was studio assisting, and their influence and enthusiasm lit that fire that made me finally believe I could do this Art thing. This all comes together when Quirk has Susie Ganch curate the Sparkle Plenty show, and her system was to choose 5 artists, and have them choose one artist that they'd like to be in the show as well. Joanna was one of the 5, and Joanna chose ME! So come to Richmond on the first friday in November, and see this thing!

Here is a small preview of one of the pieces I'll have in the show- come see it in person for the full effect!

I'm making 6-8 pieces for the show, and very few of them will actually be wearable jewelry. This piece is for the wall, and measures 5"x6" and 3" deep.

This is the first piece, and I'm all tingly about it. I've struggled for years trying to think 3 dimensionally. I have forced myself to do it, but it tends to lean toward stacked silhouettes and layers of 2d pieces. Maybe, though, all I needed was the right inspiration. All my pieces for this show will draw from my sketches of Guatemala, as I've been working for a while now, but instead of limiting myself to architecture I'm working hard to include more of the life of the place. I want to highlight the little non-important bits that blend into the scenery, and spotlight them in their gritty, rusty, complicated glory. My plans and half done pieces include pigeons, house plants, and window bars of course.

The Carnival comes to Choteau- movies

I suggest muting your volume, it's much more magical without the hum of diesel engines.

Excitement in Montana

Here in God's Country, we love America. The July 4th celebration in Choteau was bigger than anywhere I've ever seen, from a town of 1,500. It was entertaining, exhausting, and really.. REAlly bizarre at times for this city girl. Here are just a few photos of the last two weeks, before, during, and after America's birthday extravaganza.

Apparently I have to upload these things in backwards order, and I'm just too lazy to fix it... so we're going to go backwards.

Mountain goat family in Glacier National Park. 7/9

Dude riding a cow in the parade 7/4.

boxing match- "the Smoker" with local guys beating the ..er.. tar.. out of each other.
Beer keg hockey- 6 guys, 2 fire hoses, 1 empty beer keg. 7/3
Rubber duckie race- winner gets $400, 2nd place $200, last place $25. 7/3
On top of priest butte 7/1
Homeland security helicopter above our house. The two guys hanging out the window had machine guns. 6/31
Drug bust right off my front porch. Narcotics agents pull a motorcyclist over with pulled guns for what turned out to be negligible amounts of marijuana.

I swear I'll start talking about art soon again!