I’m back after a long break!

A great deal has happened since my wife died. I only participated in one more art fair in Auburn Hills the end of July. My heart wasn’t in it so I cancelled the remaining events. Figured I would try again in 2019. I applied and by the end of 2018 I had 5 events already scheduled.

January 2019, I went in for emergency surgery, February, the 16 1/2 year old family dog died, March, I contracted pneumonia and went into congestive heart failure, April, visited my oldest daughter for a week, in California, May, came down with the flu and suffered a cardiac block, June, the 17 1/2 year old family cat died, July, I had a pacemaker implanted to prevent any further cardiac episodes. As a result I had to cancel all 5 events I had accepted. I figured 2020 had to be better.

WRONG. 

Covid 19 came visiting.

Michigan in a three month lockdown! The slow reopening caused one show to reschedule to 2021, all my June shows cancelled, all but one of my July shows cancelled. Then a surgical procedure scheduled for September was moved up to July And the doctor told me he wouldn’t clear me to drive until the end of the month, forcing me to withdraw from my only remaining show in July.

I now have just 2 shows in August. Benton Harbor the first weekend and The Arts in the garden at the Sonenberg Estate and gardens State Park in Canandaigua, NY the second weekend.

I am waiting to hear from Covington Louisiana for a show in November. Their application deadline is July 8.

Farewell Gail

The end of May pretty much crushed me. My wife of 36 days short of 30 years died. I had to widthdraw from Art on the Grand, Art on the River and am uncertain if I will be able to participate  in Appetite for Art.
I had been her 24/7 caregiver during her nine year battle with cancer. It is hard to be positive and upbeat now. I have to find my new center of gravity. We were friends since 1966 and married since 1988. Our three kids check on me almost daily. I tell them that I am used to being single, we didn’t marry until we were both over forty. The hard part was losing my best friend, mother of our children, and wife all at the same time.

A new season approaches, in the last few years I had to bid good bye to several favorite art fairs, Warren and Lathrup Village among them. Therefore, it is time to apply to new art fairs, which I have done this year. Below is a list of tentative art fairs awaiting jury confirmation-

Accepted.

Accepted.

Accepted.

Accepted

Accepted

Accepted.

I await the juries' decisions.

It has been too long since I last posted. I am approaching my 71st birthday and continuing to slow down my  art fair attendance. Since my lung collapse I no longer have the stamina to do a full summer season. The energy is just not there anymore. In the last two years I don't think I have made more than 6 new jewelry pieces and only a few winter weight ruana and shrugs. Below is a necklace set with a slice of an iron pyrite geode as its focal element. The necklace is strung with 4mm bicone and spiral faceted metallic coated beads and accented with larger faceted crystals in a non- symmetrical pattern with a lobster claw clasp. The necklace is 24 inches long and the pendant is an additional 3.5 inches, with complementing 3.5 inch long earrings on surgical stainless steel french wires

Pendant detail

The Hazel Park Art Fair treated me very well, I had excellent sales, the crowd was well behaved and the music was loud. Of course I was directly in front of the bandstand and fifty feet away.

This time the majority of my sales were fabric creations. I could have had more sale if I had cell phone purses for the larger Galaxy and iPhones. I am going to have to get on that. I may have an indoor show in November. I am waiting to hear. I will make sure I have some larger cell phone purses before that show.

I have been busy serging new ruana, ponchos and shrugs, making necklaces and of course appearing at summer art fairs,

 

Hazel Park Art FairLathrup Village and Utica are over and Hazel Park to go, I had to skip Oak Park because we will be in Maine to watch our daughter present and defend her masters thesis, so we decided not to try and squeeze that in as well.

So, today was laundry day. Which meant, laundry plus food shopping for my son's lunches, return and pick new library books and audio books, stop for prescriptions and meal prep. The usual stuff. When my son gets home from work he is blowing up about the sparrows nest above the driveway door and the eggs and dead baby birds he keeps finding and how I have to fix it. Mind you I have yet to master levitation to reach the roof peak where the birds are obviously failing to keep their nest, etc. secured. Also, I have no ladder which will reach. Minor details my son overlooks.I am much less worried about it than he. He further informs me that the peaches in the refrigerator are mushy and inedible. I check and they are extremely ripe, but no yet spoiled, so I decide to make peach pie. Not just any peach pie. Sort of a pecan pie, but with peaches. Epic fail! I did not allow for the juiciness of the peaches so the custard never set. Oh well, I'll just have to get more peaches and keep trying. However, in between things I did get several ruana, ponchos and shrugs done and a bunch of stretch rings. Take a look see at the rings and the pie.