Rockford Museum Acceptance Letter

Rockford Museum Acceptance Letter, originally uploaded by pejnolan.

Can you believe it? All three of my pieces were chosen for the Rockford Midwestern Biennial! (I'm swooning!) My work will actually be hung in a real museum! I just cannot believe it! You might remember my first attempt to enter this show didn't go quite as I had hoped. But that was when I was starting to get back into art after a decade and a half hiatus. It wouldn't have been right for me to have been accepted then: it wasn't my time.

Silly or no this was to be a litmus test showing me whether or not I should continue pushing as hard as I have been with printing. I guess the answer is, "YES!" Thanks, God, for giving me a sign as to what direction I should head in.

Now I am excited to make more woodblocks! I have one picture in mind, but I want to try Aquakolors to give it a softer look like Moku Hanga and this time I WILL match my registration! Forward Ho!

Thank you to Al who is my teacher and all the inspirational artists I've met online thru Printsy, Etsy, and Flickr - THANK YOU!

I am happy right now!

So, if you are in the Rockford Area on Friday, January 22, 2010; there is an artist reception from 6pm - 7:30pm with an awards presentation at 6:30pm. I would be thrilled to see you! The public opening is January 23rd with a gallery walk at 11am. To find out more information or for directions, please visit their website at rockfrodartmuseum.org.

My First Thrown Cylinder

My First Thrown Cylinder, originally uploaded by pejnolan.

Mark the date: October 27, 2009. Not only is it my 19th wedding anniversary, it is the date I made my very first piece of thrown pottery. I was so nervous, but in a good way. It is the unknown. I like that feeling: frightened, anxious excitement.

I took the class though the local Kishwaukee Community Collage. It has excellent community classes for non-students. More people should take advantage of resources like this.

Michelle is a fantastic teacher, deliberate, yet attentive to your questions and very helpful. She seems like a person I could easily become friends with.

I'm certain this will not take over printmaking, but I am so glad I am trying it. It is so much easier than I imagined. Frequently I imagine the worst-case-scenerio. For example I have crazy thoughts like what if the clay is going around too fast and I end up flinging it across the room, hitting someone or knocking over something and breaking it! Everyone will snicker behind my back and wonder why I would be taking a class anyway. Because I'm such a visual person, I can see this scenario played out over and over in my head.

I'm taking it with my friends Connie, Elinor, Robyn, and a new friend Erica. So I really need not worry. They've all thrown before at one point or another and it was neat to sit back and watch them go! Their items are so wonderful. I said that we will all probably end up buying one another's work.

The next class is on Thursday and we will see if our pieces are dry enough to do the next step... I don't even know what that is... there goes the exciting anxious feeling again!

I love learning new things, don't you?

Winter Cardinal

Winter Cardinal, originally uploaded by pejnolan.

So this is the finished product. I still haven't quite figured out the art of using more than one block. I'll keep trying. My registration is horrible. If anyone has tips, I'll take them! This was handpainted from the back with watercolor in red and blue. Red Graphic Chemical In was brushed on top with a stiff stencil brush. It is available in my shop at a very reasonable price :-). I tried to make it look more "Snowy by giving the white branches a subtle blue bleed into the lower portions.

5" wide x 3.25" high. The key block is shown here. and the original sketch is shown here. It was flipped and cropped from the original sketch.

Is doing your passion work?

Above: key block for Winter Cardinal. I have to carve the red block, then I'll make a proof.
I went back to an early post where I made my very first block print. That was just April of 2008. I look where I have been since then. It has been a whirlwind. I am joyful and blessed that I have the opportunity to do what I feel so passionate about. But with having some measure of success, I am finding that I need to allow myself to say "no" a little bit more often. I'd really rather spend time with my family. I'd really rather do work that I initiate. I'd really rather have time just to "be" and not always "do." I need to set my priorities and reevaluate my goals. Where do I want my artwork to take me? What do I need vs what do I want and more importantly, what does God want of me? Do I want to lean towards commercial art and hire a licensing rep or do I want to try to find a gallery to promote my work? Would it be better to push forward and start an official business or would I be better to scale back and just do it for fun? The decision is more difficult that one might think.

I've been taking fewer walks simply because I do not have the time. What the heck?!? That is what my work is about - taking the time to notice the details of nature and listening to the messages it is trying to tell me.

I will finish all the projects I have in front of me. Then, beginning with Christmas, things will slow down again and I'll have a moment to ponder these things more clearly. In the meantime, I'm having a great deal of fun. Thank goodness I have a husband who only minds SOME of the time...

Cardinal sketch: flip&crop

Cardinal sketch: flip&crop, originally uploaded by pejnolan.

Just thinking out loud:
Possible print for Christmas Cards? Red, black, navy on Goyu washi to get nice whites? Maybe Unryu washi - the strands of fiber to add interest? The bird looks more like a kingfisher because its head is too big, or is the tummy too big - maybe both? This drawing was flipped and cropped from the original to create a stronger composition. Print to come.

Trip: National Museum of Mexican Art; Chicago, Illinois

Purchased!, originally uploaded by pejnolan.

The day didn't start off too well. I was literally 10 seconds late for the train. It was pulling out right as I drove into my parking space. Crap. The next train didn't leave for 2 hours. We thought we could get to another station and beat the train there, but that plan didn't work out either and we ended up driving anyway. Crap again.

Once we were there, the museum was wonderful and we just happend to arrive during the annual folk art festival where Jacobo and Maria Angeles were selling their work! I can't believe it! Last year at my solo show at the DeKalb Area Womens Center, Jay Paul Bell and Julie Kiefer-Bell said that my acrylics were similar to the artists of Oaxaca, Mexico. I thought that was strange because I was studying the work of Australian Aboriginals at the time. Now that I see the Angeles' work I completely understand the comparison. You can view his work at: http://tilcajete.org Michael and Elaine Bennett were there purchsing a large piece as well. They come every year specifically to purchase from this artist.


The Women of Jurarez exhibit was very powerful and elicited strong emotions including anger that this wasn't being reported in the mainstream news sources. This is a tragety for women everywhere. The artists definitely did their job to enlighten the viewers of the subject as well as making the viewer want to scream out at the injustice of it all. I am going to do some more research to see how I can help.

The second exhibit, Dia de los Muertos, was just plain fun! My favorite pieces were:
1. a life-sized paper mache sculpture showing an old lady skeleton wearing a huge red hat and crazy earrings between two laughing skeleton men. An adorable skeleton dog was wagging its tail at their feel. It just made me smile!

2. A print that was created with a steamroller. It was of a skeleton (of course). I wasn't allowed to take photos in that room.

3. An "alter" to a grandmother complete with her favorite coffee in her favoriate porcelain cup. A piece of cake, her favorite books and chair waiting for her. I guess Dia de los Muertes entices the spirits of the dead relatives to come home by leaving out their favorite items. It is like a homecoming.

After the museum, we took the pink line into Chicago and walked over to the XOCO, a new restaurant by Rick Bayless. We waited a long time, but the food was delicous! Chef Rick Bayless was there and we took photos. I hope we didn't break protocol, but what the heck?!? We decided that had we made the train on time, we most likely would not have see Chef Bayless or have been able to sit together. All things have a purpose. We laughed alot during dinner. It felt good to sit down and relax.

Then came the long drive home. Thank you to Nancy(!), Al, Elinor, Maria and Emely for making memories with me today!
"It is always an adventure."

Photography Field Trip: Architectural Tour of Chicago

Photography Field Trip: ArchitecturalTour of Chicago, originally uploaded by pejnolan.

My son's photography class took a field trip into Chicago for and Architectural photoshoot assignment, so my husband and I took off work to chaperone. I am "geographically challenged," so my group of kids stayed with my husband's. It worked out pretty good. He led while I made sure everyone was accounted for by counting from the back every few minutes.

It was a regular Chicago day: rainy, cold and windy; but it could have been much worse! At least it didn't snow! And the rain was just a drizzle. It never came to a pouring, soaking rain. The kids were wonderful, well-behaved and polite. My worst fear had been that my group of kids was going to be a bunch of BA's. We had just a few minutes at the end, so we treated them all to hot chocolate which we drank under "the bean" while everyone took last minute photos.

I took photos, too. This one was my favorite, I think. This is the reflection of the city buildings on the black marble tiles of the Millenium Park fountains. I liked how the lines of the marble tiles created perspective lines for the buildings. The photo is displayed upside down.