#wip wednesday: introducing my index-card-a-day collection . . .

(my #wip: #icad2015 . . . . what are you working on??? xxx)

card#1: breakfast al fresca  _ pen and ink #icad

this week I am on the road to the chicago area to check-in with my parents, so I am away from my studio and my endless access to all things art supplies.  But it is all good because I am using this time to play catch-up with an exciting endeavor that I learned about last month:

The 2015 Index-Card-a-Day Challenge June 1 to July 31, 2015

hosted by Yellow Daisy.  

For anyone who knows me and/or follows me you know that I am a daily challenge junkie!! Love the idea of producing art everyday and sharing it.  I love this idea because it removes that 'precious' element of the end product, because you are just making art!!!  And this idea is one of the main points in my current reading book,

  "Show Your Work" by Austin Kleon.

I thoroughly enjoyed Austin's book,

Steal Like an Artist, and so far I'm loving 'show your work'

Both books are inspirational is their message to just WORK!!! 

stop getting in your way, stop being stymied by do's and dont's 

(or at least the message that I get)

work!! work!! work!!

card#2  thank you Vincent  _ pen and ink, marker #icad

and now he speaks of sharing;

 I LOVE sharing!!

share, share, share!!!

this is my banner for my dailydress intentions group on FB  

Reading this book has been quite encouraging in that it champions the practice of sharing!!! and I can NOT tell you how many times I am writing a dailydress inspiration blog post, or editing an instagram post and I get thrown into a tornado of inner nay-sayers criticizing my uses of my time and question the validity of sharing. 

card#3 tray table still life  _ pen and ink #icad

Though Austin Kleon does caution:

"of course, don't let sharing your work take precedence over actually doing your work."

and for those of us that seem to get sucked into the wonders of the internet, he suggests: 

"If you are having a hard time balancing the two, just set a timer for 30 minutes.  Once the timer goes off, kick yourself off the internet and get back to work."

And with that suggestion in mind I am going to wrap up today's post.  

card#4: breakfast remnants   _ pen and ink #icad

Just want to share the few cards that I have done for #icad2015.  

This is a perfect project for me right now, 

as I am doing a lot of talking and waiting on phones and waiting in waiting rooms.    

card#5: lunch on the patio with mom and dad  _ pen and ink #icad

In fact this challenge reminds me of my dailydressjournal from 2011 and my subscriptioncard series, both of these series were results of the demands of life keeping me out of my studio, however I used whatever I could to create - the scraps of everyday life andor the endless supply of subscription cards found in every waiting room.

card#7: long day . . . pencil #icad

so introducing the start of my #icad2015 collection.  I will be sharing more here but you can also find my #icad cards on Instagram and on my Virginia Fitzgerald, art and design FB feed, on a more regular basis.

card#7 prompt14: salt and pepper  _ pen and ink #icad

Happy Wednesday!!

what are you working on???

peace and thanks for visiting, va

some pondering on how things connect . . .

As some of you may know I have started another 'blog' called 'daily dress inspirations' (ddi).  for the past few weeks every day I have posted an image with a good intention and/or quote, and I am loving the entire process.

It has become almost selfish; a morning ritual, a 'meditation' of sorts.  As I am going through my morning routine ~ girls to school, dog walked,  to-do lists and accessing the pending day,  I take a moment to quiet myself and listen to what kind of good intention I need and that is the intention I put out there. I then find an image and a quote and post them.

dressmat

This blog started, as many of my projects/ideas do, from my need to learn about something. This time I needed to figure out FB groups for one of my social media clients, and for me, the best way to learn is by doing. So I created a FB group in which its members would get  a daily post, and I have always thought that my dresstags were a perfect vehicle for a daily message.

Now I didn't want to be exclusive to those not on Facebook so I started posting the same dress/quote of the 'ddi' blog.  So that is the story behind the starting of the ddi blog, which I am sharing here today because there is a story behind today's posting, that I want to share.

Haney, can't hear you

It is nothing major but I thought, interesting. It highlights an 'inter-connective'ness of things.

dailydress for Lisa
Barthelson birthday

This morning, working Scruffy (my early bird dog) I was pondering the day and stressing about my pending gallery show, this October at Fountain Street Fine Art.  The opportunity of exhibiting it awesome and this space is beautiful.  Also I have asked a wonderful artist, Anne Gilson Haney to exhibit with me (LOVE her work!! I  own 2 of her pieces!!).  So this is all good! However I am not sure if I will be ready!!!

Lisa during her artist talk

Some may know, I am in the process of getting divorced (yes, I am still  not officially divorced) And with this new state of affairs I have needed to get back out in the paycheck world to support me and two teen-age girl$$$.  So I am juggling 4-5 hourly jobs, mothering two amazing girls, and making a home for the three of us.  This is all good ?!?! :) 

but I have not had time for my art.  My studio has become a storage unit for the overflow of stuff when moving from a house to an apartment.  So when thinking about my up-coming show I have can freak out!!

the daily dress journal began as
a flat moleskin plain book

However I am blessed with amazing and supportive friends. This week I sat down with awesome artist, Lisa Barthelson, and she talked with me about my show.  

She just had a beautiful exhibit last month at FSFA, and offered to give me some guidance.  I laid out the 'work' that I have been able to to do between the hustle and bustle of my current life and she saw a show?!?! One that is based on the work I am doing NOW; similiar to my daily dress journal that I  did in 2011 when I was substituting at Dana Hall and working to keep a marriage together.  The daily dress journal was based on my daily activities - using receipts, wrappers and whatnots that caught my attention during the course of the day.

the journal once I filled each page

I have been playing with this idea myself, it makes sense! And I love the work of artists who have documented their daily lives: Danica Phelp and Kate Bingaman-Burt and her Obsessive Consumption series. Yet I had y doubt, yet with Lisa's encouragement and in her presence, I felt inspired and capable.

daily dress #16

However a day or so later (yesterday) I was back to discouraged and confused, in comes another dear friend.  and as good friends do she gave me another perspective; she suggested seeing if I could move my show to a later date, when I may be more prepared and better able to produce work that won't raise the authenticity critic?!? A novel thought?! One, that in my busy, what-is-next mode, I hadn't considered.  I am not one to pass on any opportunity but maybe this is the time?!?!?

So this morning, during my rainy walk with my boy, I was working through all these possibilities and knowing I was heading to another job at 10 this morning.  As my head whirled I thought about my daily dress inspirations ~ another task that I have added to my day, and one that does even pay?!?!? But as I said above it is helpful to me.  So I stopped and meditated on what aspiration I needed today and what came was 'clarity'.

Clarity in the decision to do the show or not.

Clarity about what I will show if I do exhibit!!

Clarity on how I spend my time.

Yes clarity was what I needed today.

So my wet dog and I came home and  I looked up clarity quotes. There are many out there.  

But the one that struck me as so totally appropriate is by Melody Beattie:

Live your life from your heart. 

Share from your heart. 

And your story will touch 

and heal people's souls.

And this is the reason for this entire blog post - how interconnected things can be. Here I needed clarity about my show and decided that clarity would be my daily intention.  

While looking for a 'clarity' quote I find this one that speaks so profoundly to me about my art work and the issues that I am struggling with about my show!! 

My art is my life! My art is my heart. My art is sharing, sharing my vision of the world.  I love to highlight the simple beauty in our everyday.  I have always been drawn to the beauty is what many people cast aside ( I had a business for 7 years using used bottle caps to make jewelry).

Yesterday I read an article about age and artist and saw this quote by Faith Ringgold:

 from ART news: ‘You Become Better with Age’ by Hilarie M. Sheets

“Being an artist is a way of life,” says 82-year-old Faith Ringgold...“It’s not about ‘I’m going to major in this and get my degree, and then I’ll go to work, and then I’ll retire.’ It is something one has a passion for, does, and then becomes—and can do it literally until they pass away. ..."

 I could not agree more - art is my life, my passion. So that is my story that I will share in October, my current story, my daily story. Now how it will present itself . . .well, stay tuned.

The dresstag story, installment #2

the dresstag story continues . . .

the first official dresstag, made at Me & Ollie's cafe, Portsmouth, NH

from my daily dress journal
click here to see more

first dresstag placed

4. when did you start dresstagging?

it was Labor Day of 2011. I was in Portsmouth, NJ with my daughter, Maya when we had stumbled upon a package of charming origami paper. In the past months I had mastered the act of making an origami dress, using the folded dresses in collages.   I was also had been intensely working with different size origami dresses with my daily dress journals.  It seemed a natural step to start leaving them in different places!!

as i folded a dress Maya made this lovely cicada

some i hide in books . . .

When I started ‘the dress project’ back in 2006, I saw the dress as the mark of Virginia, like the mark of Zorro.  I built dresses to celebrate something beauty or protest an injustice. Years later the origami dress was a smaller, more manageable dress to leave behind.  But as i played with the origami paper in Portsmouth I liked the idea of using the dresstag as a vehicle of good fortune.

i made this dress in protest
for  the crazy amount of fencing
and 'stay down' signs

while visiting my hometown I came across an old path thru a ravine that I took many times as a kid, to get to the beach.

the idea that they needed to put up this many fences, creating such an eye sore, really irked me. 

5. why are they called ‘dresstag’s??

From the first dress that I left behind I was hooked. I felt that this new endeavor needed a name.   

may this dress bring u a smile

hope this dress keeps you warm ~ put on a car with the bumper sticker saying, "hate is not a family value"

may this dress bring u ur dreams come true ~ placed in an ice cream shop in the bershires

There was a street art/ graffiti aspect to this act of dropping dresses, even though they were small and carried good fortune.  Looking to the jargon from the graffiti world I considered dressbombs/ dressbombing. However I didn’t like a violent, destructive word attached to these dresses.  There is much literature about how using violent language adds to the negativity and violence in our lives.  My aim was to add positive energy, so with the aid of many friends I decided on dresstag.  This name alluded to street art as well as to the dresses that are made, sold and worn. 

dresstagging makes it to the MOMA!!!!

 6. how do you come up with the ‘fortune’??

I usually don’t have any preconceived idea about what I am going to write.  By the time I finish folding the dress I have an idea of what fortunes I will write.  I have noticed that many times I make a dress with the intention that I myself might need at that moment., like courage, clarity, strength.  Interestingly those dresstags usually get the most responses on FB?!?!?  maybe on those day there is a more universal need for a certain intention?!?!?

may this dress bring u satisfaction 

Next installment will be about the places that the dresstags have gone and the directions that these treasures have lead me.  Also if you have any questions about this practice , or any questions about my art either leave them below in the comment area, or on facebook or email me . . .

thanks for reading!! 

peace

Have the vision to recognize a good thing . . .

while writing a new blog a came to realize that I don't think this one ever got posted?!? so if that is the case - here is a post written a few months ago . . .

lucky penny

I am happy to announce that I am one of the 6 participating artists in 
Fountain Street Fine Art's recent endeavor ~ 

Community Supported Art or CSArt.

This is a inspired way to collect some 

great, original ART 

at easy on your wallet prices :).  

The idea is similiar to Community Supported Agriculture but instead of getting shares of a garden's output you get a share of a gallery's selected artist's output.  

Below you will find a more thorough description of this program, as well as links to each artists' web/blog and a special CSArt blog with artist's statements and more. (click here for my page)

I have been very excited about this prospect from the first time I was ask to participate.  

My mind has been spinning with different ideas for my 'share' of the 'shares'.  

One of the circling thoughts is to make individual Daily Dresses pieces, not in a book :0 (say it isn't so).  Many people have suggested that I should take my daily dress journals apart so that each piece can stand on its own.  I can't imagine doing that, BUT I have been playing with the idea of making these mixed~media snapshots of my daily going-on on separate pieces of paper or board?!?!

'dress of installation' (6/3/12) mixed media on mdf

I experimented this weekend with the detritus of a day that I helped a friend install a sign.  I call this piece, 'dress of installation'. The jury is still out about how I feel about if these pieces can stand on their own?!?! 

But I do like the idea of some kind of mixed media piece for the CSArt.

marker on mdf ~ medium density fiberboard

I have also thought about pulling out my inks, rollers and brayers and do a woodcut or such!?!? or drawings or little dress collages ~ the possibilities are endless. 

But as u can tell this idea of creating a special treasure  for the lucky share holders  thrills  me    !!!!  

strata ~ mixed media on canvas

So if you have thought about investing in 'local' artists, 

or want to ‘grow’ you art collection ~ 

this is 

for you!!*

(*you will al$o be helping out some wonderful & worthy artists)

Fountain Street Fine Art starts

Community Supported ART (CSArt@FSFA)

Many local residents are familiar with community-supported agriculture, (CSA) a popular way for consumers to buy seasonal food directly from local farms. With the same buy-local spirit in mind, many arts organizations have started a similar endeavor to support local art, artists and collectors.  Fountain Street Fine Art is starting its own CSArt to put original art from the hands of local artists into the hands of thirty lucky locals!

 CSArt@FSFA is modeled on wildly popular programs throughout the country, including a successful Art CSA program adopted last year by the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. 

The six artists participating in this year’s CSArt@FSFA are Lisa Barthelson, Cheryl Clinton, Marie Craig, Virginia Fitzgerald, Kay Hartung, and Jeanne Williamson, all Core and Associate members of the gallery. Find out more about the artists at csartfsfa.blogspot.com

Here’s how the CSArt@FSFA works:

-Each Share costs $360.  ONLY 30 shares will be sold, to keep the quality high.  

-Each shareholder will receive six works of art at an "Art Harvest" party in the fall, one by each of 6 different artists.

-Each work of art will be a unique, signed original piece. Artists will decide what to make; each piece will be about 12x12 inches or smaller.

Shares are selling at a steady pace, and will be available through the end of June (to allow the artists plenty of time to create the work) or until sold out.

We've attached a press release and FAQ with more information, as well as jpegs of example pieces by our participating artists. Please contact us for additional photos of the artists at work and examples of their art.

Thank you,

Marie and Cherie