Friday, December 5, 2008
Art in St. Paul MN Tomorrow!
10:00am - 4:00pm
College of Visual Arts Gallery
173 Western Avenue (at Selby Avenue)
Saint Paul, MN
The sale features artwork by students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Select artwork from the CVA art archives are also included in the silent auction.
Proceeds benefit the CVA Scholarship Fund!
Please come to the CVA Holiday Art Sale and Auction and check out jewelry by Arsenal of Buttons! It is fine silver jewelry embellished with genuine gemstones and freshwater pearls, and is feminine, organic, and elegant. Arsenal of Buttons will also have her CozyCuffs on sale and there are only a limited supply!
Again- the CVA sale is from 10am to 4pm, please check it out!
Also, Arsenal of Buttons is the featured artist at Karma for the 2008 Grand Meander on Grand Avenue in St. Paul, VERY close to CVA.
From 4:00 to 7:00pm there will be a reception at Karma, so please go and check out FIBER ART by Arsenal of Buttons!
Karma is located at 867 Grand Avenue at Victoria St. right next door to Bread and Chocolate.
THANK YOU all for your support, and please come to the College of Visual Arts Holiday Sale and Auction, and Karma- TOMORROW!!
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
If you are in the St. Paul, Minnesota area this weekend...
THIS SATURDAY, December 6
10 a.m. - 4 p.m. at COLLEGE OF VISUAL ARTS Gallery
Support local artists by shopping at CVA's Holiday Sale at the CVA Gallery, 173 Western Avenue in St. Paul, on the corner of Western and Selby avenues in Minnesota
The sale features artwork by students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Select artwork from the CVA art archives also included in silent auction. Proceeds benefit the CVA scholarship funds!
Friday, August 29, 2008
I want this.
Autumn free association...
Pumpkin and apple picking.
Cordaroys.
Scarves.
Boots.
Hats.
Trick or treat.
Costumes.
Crunchy leaves.
bare branches.
Yellow, red, brown.
blankets, quilts.
naps.
breeze.
jackets.
electricity in the air.
spooky.
calm.
cider.
cinnamon.
brisk evening strolls.
acorns.
haunted houses.
nostalgia.
vintage glittery halloween house decorations.
abandoned nests.
pumpkin pie.
post-dinner naps.
fires in the fireplace.
bonfires.
smores.
stew.
wild rice and cranberries.
corn mazes.
hayrides.
I am the best version of myself in the Fall. I enjoy every single aspect of Fall. The cool air in the morning, layers of clothing, the colors, the sounds, the activities. I look forward to cider on the couch with my quilt, movies i love most in the fall such as Hocus Pocus, Bed of Roses, A Christmas Story, Matilda, Harriet the Spy, and the making of Michael Jacksons "Thriller", on VHS of course. I cant wait to put together my Halloween Costume, pass out candy, wear fabulous big bejeweled pins on my cozy scarves, corduroys with boots! I can't wait. This year i WILL go apple and pumpkin picking, I will go on a hayride, I will get lost in a corn maze. I will take brisk cool walks at dusk with my partner. I will cook warm filling food and feed my friends by pumpkin spice candle light.
tell me you love autumn as much as I do.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Friday relief
Birds.
At my desk at work I have a 4"x4" plate with a nest on it, a real peacock feather, a small nest containing my official magnetic name tag for my job position, a wooden twig picture frame, and three plants: a large Jade, a small Jade that was leaning but is now supported by three small brown coffee stir sticks, and one amazing Burros Tail plant. I love these things.
When I break for lunch I like to get online and Google "birds" and see what I find. I like this image, the cluster of bird silhouettes. I want to enlarge it, make stencils, and decorate my apartment.
My friend is currently making me a quilt with fabric I picked out. I could not be more excited! I am paying her for her work and I am also making her a pair of fine silver hand fused, hammered, and tumbled large teardrop shaped earrings with peacock feather pieces dangling inside. I will post photos when they are done. I love doing custom work, and trading. And, one of the best highlights of my new job is that not only can I pay all my bills on my own and on time, I can also afford to buy a little art from friends, jewelry, paintings, and now, quilts!
Today is Friday. I plan on spending the early afternoon sitting on a big couch venting out loud, then calling my landlord back about an email I sent explaining the upsetting issues about my building, then I plan on napping for at least 2 hours, 3 would be amazing. after that, dinner and a movie. It should be a wonderful Friday.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Staying busy, staying positive
I relish the moments when I am included in an important meeting; making it necessary to add an appointment to my calendar. I have color coded each part: Office, Personal, TV… without their own specific color they would be sure to get lost amongst themselves.
I am looking forward to traveling. I am being sent to various high schools around the state to preach the word of Art-School. I can hardly wait to go to the beginners seminar this coming week, where I will float amongst fellow counselors, finally learning the ins-and-outs I need. Once on the road I look forward to checking out local antique shops and cafĂ©’s, odd bookstores in search of Ray Bradbury books for my boyfriend. Maybe I will be so lucky as to find a Shelly China cup and saucer set in the lily of the valley pattern for my mother for her birthday.
I will be sure to take loads of photos, I can hardly wait to document each trip, minus photos of long stretches of flat land. Most albums can do without those. I just might have to visit the local Dairy Queen in each town I visit… and then perhaps the local gym.
One thing that I have been craving but have had little time and energy to do is make jewelry. I wear my jewelry to work every day, and I love the feeling when someone notices a piece. I have work to do for two people, and If I could just sit down for a couple of hours after work and crank it out, I would be so happy.
Right now I am working on a two-tone bracelet with black jet flat faceted beads. The bracelet is made up of ½ inch and 1inch hand-fused, hammered and tumbled fine silver hoops, which alternate with gold hammered 1inch hoops that I took from a piece of jewelry. The rest of the components, such as the toggle clasp are gold filled, and inside each hoop I have harnessed the flat, round jet black bead. It is a one of a kind custom piece, and I will be sad to part with it when I ship it this week.
The other pieces I am working on right now are a pair of hand-fused, hammered, and tumbled to a high shine, fine silver teardrop shaped earrings. They feature various shades of peacock feathers which I have placed in crimps and attached to the inside of the teardrop, giving the earrings the look of a whole peacock feather. The girl who these are for used peacock feathers in her wedding and wanted a set of jewelry to wear in remembrance of the big day. I will also be making a matching necklace with (hopefully) interchangeable feathers.
There are a handful of things that give me a feeling of being whole; completing a piece of jewelry or posting an item of etsy.com ( http://www.arsenalofbuttons.etsy.com ), completing tasks at work, walking up and down the stairs where I work (which happens to be my college), sitting on the couch with a bottle of water after a good workout, positive discussions with my boyfriend, and spending time with my mother.
If I can do any number of those things each week, I think I’m in good shape.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
But, after yesterday, I am feeling better- much better. I'm feeling optimistic, creative, loved.
Work is wonderful, although since I am new, I have to try to keep myself busy for 9 hours doing not nearly as much as I'd like to be. I can't wait until I reach a point where I get to give tours of the campus, review portfolios, and I'd even love to do a little more data entry. I have thoroughly enjoyed researching dozens of other art colleges, diving into each website, scouring the mass of information until my eyes are sufficienly exhausted.
I even enjoy waking up at 5:45, taking a piping hot shower, making lunch, picking out a piece of my handmade jewelry to wear that day, and listening to music I love in the car. I love getting to my desk, listening to the local commercial-free radio station, and doing whatever I am asked to do. The busier the better. Today I mastered the postage machine, the copier behaved, and I am a pro at printing addresses directly onto a large envelope. The best part of my day was signing a letter to a student with my name, my information. When they call the school to get a tour, they will ask for me.
I. Cant. Wait.
Thankfully, I still have time in the evenings and on the weekends to rest, make jewelry, cook, watch a favorite television show, movie, whatever Id like. Maybe even get a workout in. I couldn't be happier, this feels right. I am so grateful.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
I'm feeling a lot better now. it's 2am, and I just got home from watching my boyfriend play in his band. When He joined this band, I did too in a way. All the boys in the band are attached to a wife or a girlfriend, so I have been fortunate enough to make some new friends.
How it needs to be.
That feeling where everything is up in the air, and there is one or two things that are so nerve-wracking that they make everything else make less sense, that feeling makes me so ill.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Creative process
...I lay in bed ignoring that the half-hours are melting by, and I know I should peel my body out of bed and make things. I attempt to focus hard on my bowl of cereal so as to not continue to hunt and nibble on various things in my kitchen. I reluctantly attach myself to the elliptical machine I bought for myself so I would never have to go to the gym ever again, a machine that I will be paying off for another 4 years of my life. After I hop dizzily off the machine, and come to the dazzling realization that I have completed my 30-minute torture session for the day, I take a boiling hot shower, where I finally begin to feel like myself, and I am finally ready for my day.