Art & Drink in Denver ...

Fantastic night out last night with friend I have seen in years. First stop - The Hamilton Building at The Denver Art Museum. The building opened in October '06 and was architected by Daniel Libeskind ... no right angles anywhere. Felt a bit like I'd wandered into a Dr. Seuss book.







We lucked out and didn't get too much rain while dining on the rooftop of Tamayo.

Life's Too Short to Stay in Stuffy Hotels ...

That's it - from now on I want all of my hotel stays to include a heavy dose of humor. I'm in Denver this week for a convention (part of my stamp crafter alter ego) and will now be telling everyone that they really have to stay at The Curtis when visiting the mile-high city.

Why? Where do I start ...

The 'sundries' counter next to the front-desk counter features rubber chickens ...



The print material in the room take the form of a single complete with "45 adaptor" images ...



The associated restaurant/bar, The Corner Office, serves amazing food and cocktails. Might I recommend the Bee's Knees (complete with rock candy) ...



And did I mention the color orange is everywhere?

More pics on my Flickr site.

Dinner with Friends ...

The perfect way to spend a Friday night - sitting around the table with friends, food and drink for hours. Music for the evening included: Grant Lee Phillips, Magnet and Air. And the only art that evoked a bit of a creepy feeling (at least the only one commented on) was my Bartender Bunny ... exactly the response expected for the bunny.



I made The Bartender in Liz McGrath's class at Artfest 2006.

Rebecca, Lolita, Veshawn & Dawn ...

Flashback Moment: Heard this on the radio while running errands on Saturday. When was the last time you heard 'Double Dutch Bus' by Frankie Smith?

The Art Journal Project Begins ...

Finally got started on Sunday. I have no idea where this is going ... but the challenge is to just trust the process and see what happens.

Of course first step, for me, was choosing something to listen to while creating. I opted for Andre Ethier - a CD I picked up at Waterloo Records in Austin - it was a recommendation by one of the Waterloo employees. When I go into a cool record store, before heading to the counter, I make it a point to ask one of the employees what they're listening too and/or what they would recommend that I probably haven't heard. It's a great way to find the obscure, the local, the independent ... but I digress.



Next step was to start working on a 'sign-in' sheet. For this journal project we are each to pick a theme ... ahh, but we're keeping the themes a secret so that each person who receives the journal to create their page(s) will be surprised. To that end, I will say nothing of my theme ... nor will I show full pages ... don't want to spoil the surprise for whoever might get this journal next.

So, with that ... here's where the sign-in page started ...



And then ... it made it to here ...



Still not sure where it's gonna go next ...

Must Start Journal ...

I really need to get going on my art journal project. My original plan was to spend all day creating last Saturday but when I went to the studio, the clutter and chaos was too much so I ended up cleaning & organizing instead.

I did get started on the journal on Sunday ...

Look What Put Me on the Schmap!

Hey, kinda cool! One of my photos was selected for the Portland Schmap! So bein' creative and having fun a while back paid off with a lil' surprise & byline now. Sweet. The photo is from the Doug Fir Lounge (probably figured that out by now) ... my good friend, E, and I were staying at the Jupiter Hotel next door to the Doug Fir for a Portland weekend getaway. E's sister works at the Doug Fir ... might I say, very nice bartenders there, too.

*my photo's on the Schmap site and in the photos tab of the widget.

The Journal Project ...

Sometimes I need a deadline (or some other such kick in the tush) to start creating. Well, said deadline will be here soon enough ... I signed up to participate in a journal swap hosted by the amazing Deb (she organized the 'Thank You' journal project for Teesha & Tracy Moore). This time, the challenge includes creating pages that incorporate four senses. Each artist chooses a theme for their book, creates the cover & sign-in pages and then off it goes ... I have to get my book ready to send by the end of this month. I'll find out in a week who I'm sending it too.

First step, find a journal to start with ... took a trip to University Art today.



Second step ... well, ok, not really a step ... more like enjoy a lil' shopping spree at University Art. In addition to the Dr. Ph Martin's watercolors, I also picked up some white & white pearl liquid acrylics plus some or (gold) & argent (silver) by Encre Sennelier. Haven't used any of these before so should be fun playing ...



Third for today ... play with the new inks & paints. I decided to drip some colors over an incomplete sketch from my Artfest trip; a fun way to see what the colors would do.

Secrets Revealed ...

When the 'straight job' takes over and there doesn't seem to be enough time (or energy, or brain power, or whatever) to create, I make sure I'm at least reading a good book.

The latest? Totally hooked on 'The Secrets of Rusty Things' by Michael deMeng.

I pre-ordered a copy (sight unseen) after taking a class from Michael at Artfest earlier this year ... so worth the wait!

I've always been a fan of mythology. When I was a kid, and it was time for our class to visit the school library, while the other kids went for the latest on sports or ponies, I went for books on mythology (Greek, Roman, Norse ... whatever I could get my hands on) or books on the Beatles (but that's a different post). So, imagine my joy to get a book full of insight into using found objects to create cool things inspired by various myths and legends. Not to mention the fact that the artist has a great sense of humor and it surfaces in his writing (ah, pop culture references, thank you very much)

It's late, I have work tomorrow ... time to go read more secrets ...

(you can also find 'secrets' on amazon ... but you won't get the extra cool goodies you'll get when ordering from The Artist Nook)

A lot going on ...

I said I was going to create something this week and, since the 'straight job' starts up again tomorrow, I count Sunday as still "this week" ... plus I opted not to do any 'straight job' work today so that this truly was a weekend day. Next challenge - what to create? Sure, I did some paper-crafting card stuff earlier in the week - but I wanted to really create something from scratch.

Last night, I went to see a friend's band play which meant sleeping late today. That, combined with warm weather led to a generally lazy disposition. So, creating anything that required energy was pretty much out of the question.

I received my copy of Teesha Moore's fabulous 'Art & Life' zine a few days ago, so decided to embrace my low energy and nestle into a butterfly chair outside and spend some time with Issue 8. One of the articles was a taken from 32-page handwritten book created by Theo Ellsworth for his students at Artfest 2007. The piece "The Mystery Play Inside You" explored how to meet your inner characters and get on with drawing & creativity.

Perfect.

They say if you want to draw, do it. A lot. I need to force myself to remember that. And, with that, I created a sketch.