Mothers Day Show

If you are in the Olympia area don't forget to come by the wave studio when your out and about for the Wooden Boat Show this weekend.
It's sure to be a great collection of artist and crafters.  Look for me and my clocks!

Treasury Tribute to Pickling Asparagus

Pickling Asparagus

Every year my husband and I get two or three lug of asparagus it pickle them up.  My husband is from Yakima, WA and we get the asparagus pretty cheep when we go visit his folks on the other side of the mountains.

This year I made my own pickling spice

The LAST jar from 2010   Good timing

fresh fresh fresh

Last night we pickled the first lug.  I couldn't find my recipe from the previous year so I thought I would try something out of this Put em Up book we got this last year.  I didn't think anything of the recipe but I did make a few changes according to what spices I had on hand, nothing that would have a huge impact on the final product.  This morning I wake up to my husband saying we boiled the jars too long.  Now I remember boiling the jars for the same amount of time, I was positive of that.  But something did go wrong.  Upon inspecting his claim I found the asparagus to be stringy, limp, looking nothing like our previous years.

Jars just out of the pot

Next morning.... all wrinkled???

So I went on a hunt for my old recipe this morning and found it.  I also looked at a whole bunch of other recipes while I was at it.  All the recipes vary from 10 min. bath to 20 min. bath.  So I'm fine there.  No way would a few minutes cause such a deformity.  So I started to look into ingredients and guess what.  Every recipe I found has either equal amounts of vinegar and water, or either more water than vinegar.  The recipe I pulled from our canning book had us do a 4 to 1 ratio with vinegar being the 4.  And the vinegar they suggested was cider vinegar.  Here is a link to the page. 

We are expecting our next couple of lugs this weekend when his folks come to visit.  This time we will use our original recipe.

I just found this page that gives me a lot more information about our Yakima grass.   Link
It tell me that the wrinkling will go away after a few weeks on the shelf and it also touches on the subject of vinegar.  From what I can conclude I think this batch will be OK but we will use our old recipe next time.

Fantastic Mural

My husband and I live close to the Western Chehalis Trail.  It is a wonderful trail that goes for many miles accessible to bikes, roller skates, and walkers.  We have ridden our bikes out to the monarch sculpture garden; we have ridden to friends houses, and once upon a time before life got too busy I would ride ten + miles a day after work just for giggles.

The trail has had a lot of work done to it over the last few years.  There is one building along the trail that has been transformed to my liking.  When walking the trail to my husband’s work the other day I got a chance to take some great pictures.  Hope you enjoy.

Norman Rockwell Exhibit at the Tacoma Art Museum

I had the pleasure of going to the Norman Rockwell exhibit at the Tacoma Art Museum this last weekend with my good friend.  This was an extraordinary experience for me; beautiful weather, great company, and a revelation about an artist I hadn’t put much though into before.     

My favorite permanent installation
at the Tacoma Art Museum.

If you could not tell by my prints, I love to tell stories with art.  I have always adored Rockwell’s images for the stories they tell but I never once put any thought into what medium he used or how large the originals were.  That is until I found myself standing in this gallery looking at these large oil canvases and being struck dumb by the amount of work that went into each one.  Yet he did not consider himself an artist.  He preferred the term illustrator because of his lack of passion. 

There was one statement made by Norman that struck me the most.  I cannot quote it word for word, but it was the idea that he was envious of students who swooned over the Mona Lisa.  This was because he did not have that kind of passion for art work, he considered himself more analytical.

This idea makes perfect sense to me as I begun to see his process unfold.  It was almost scientific the way he would pose people, photograph them, collect data, take notes, and make numerous studies in charcoal and paint.  Every smile, every embellished eyebrow, every wrinkle, every detail was calculated out before the final painting was started.    

Even with all this exact science or analytical style of painting, I consider him a master of the art.  I know some don’t consider him an artist for the same reason he did not consider it himself, but I have absolutely no problem referencing him as a great.  Nor do I have a problem falling deeply in love with his work after being in the presence of his original oils on canvas.  It gives me a whole new perspective of his work, and the medium he mastered. 

   

If you are in the area, I do hope you make a point to stop by and visit this exhibit at the Tacoma Art Museum.  Not only did we see the Rockwell Exhibit but we walked over the bridge of glass and witnessed a bell choir performing the Phantom of the Opera.  It was a beautiful day that ended with us eating watermelon in the sunshine.  

If you have never walked over the bridge of glass you are missing out.

And the winner is....

Alessandra @Tribal Times!

Congratulations Alessanda you have won a free clock of your choice!
Thanks to all for participating in my giveaway.

Sketch-A-Day Resolution

I am very proud of my progress in my sketch-a-day resolution.  Yes, I miss a day or two, or perhaps a week when I'm slammed with setting up a phantom gallery or remodeling a room in the house.  But I'm always coming back to it and thats what counts.


 Click here to see my progress.

Art Walk Spring 2011

Thank you for coming out this weekend and supporting the local artist.  This was the sunniest Art Walk I can remember in years. 

The Store front in the white building was turned into a Phantom Gallery over the weekend with a handful of artist showing off their work.

 

The lineup was as follows;

HootCulture – Book Safes, Flask, and jewelry

Carrie Abbey-Franzen – Nature Photography and jewelry

Spindle's End- Handspun and knitted goods

Niki Bilodeau – Etched glass ware

Hallie Torrey – Original Watercolor Paintings

Rashel Inderbitzen – Decoupage Boxes for all occasions

LaurelsArt – Handmade clocks from upcycled Records and Original Printmaking

As far as I can tell everyone had a great time.

Front table with clock giveaway promotion.

My clocks on the new grid wall purchased recently from a closing scrap book store.

Some of my framed prints along with greeting cards and book marks

More prints

And more prints

Carries Photography and jewlery

These were the greatest easter item we had in our gallery.  I fell in love with them.

Carries Jewelry 

More of Carries Jewelry

My camera battery started to die and I didn't get any great pics of HootCulture's wares but you can find them on Etsy

Spindle's End wool

I thought it was fabulous of her to bring her wheel.  It was such a learning experience.

Hallie's Water colors I had a hard time capturing.  You can find them on Etsy also.

Niki's etched Glass

Sold like hot cakes

The platter was a favorite

Hallie's table with her watercolor prints

Rashel and her boxes.  Everyone adored these keep sakes and she had great ideas to make personal boxes with stuff you would usually put in a scrap book.

I had a jar of mustaches left over from my wedding I've been trying to get rid of.  I took them to arts walk and charged a quarter apiece.  They flew out the door.  Vendors down the street said there was a flood of mustaches down the sidewalk!

This year I used the front window for display of everyones goods.  It was a great use of space.

These gals played for us and is was absolutely wonderful.  I invited them and their mother back for next arts walk, perhaps we can even set them up inside.  I never got their names :(

The craft table was a huge success.  We had children and adults of all ages participating.  The theme was “make a prayer flag with your wish for the earth”.  We had some great wishes and the pictures tell all.  I will leave the flags up in the store front window as long as the building manager lets me so make sure you stop by to check them out

Our prayer flag collection the community helped us build.

I have set this Gallery up for three years now.  Wow, I didn’t think I had been doing this gig for very long.  Every time I set this space up I add a little bit more lighting and color, and it shows.


The next Art Walk will be in Oct. I'll keep you guys posted.