My 100th Blog Post

Fittingly, my 100th blog post is of my favorite art museum which I visited yesterday, The National Gallery of Art in Ottawa, Canada.

It was an incredible exhibit of Bernini's marble sculptures--there were a few bronze ones as well. Hard to imagine how he could get such detail. Apparently he was already an accomplished sculptor while still in his teens.

And as a special treat, I purchased a book of tree paintings by Tom Thomson.

Great way to end the year and get inspired for the next one.

Scenes from Ottawa, Canada

Looking out of the National Gallery of Art in Ottawa at Parliament and the National Library.

Wow!! Such a beautiful city.

Last Christmas Tree for the Year

Happy New Year.

Fun Zoo

Here is a great shot of the zoo we visited over Christmas.

Art at Christmas

While away for Christmas we visited the Burchfield-Penny Art Center which recently openned( Nov. 22, 2008). We have been watching it develop over the last several of years and were so pleased to be inside. It is very beautiful. Wonderful exhibition space. And I love Burchfield's paintings. If I were a painter I would paint like him and Thom Thomson.There was also a nice acoustic effect that somehow muffled the sound of the other visitors and gave me the sense of being one on one with Burchfield. There was also a very interesting exhibit of Western New York artists. And a very intimate view into Burchfield's studio.

Across the street-Elmwood Ave.-- is another wonderful art museum--the Albright-Knox Art Gallery .

Today to finish off our Christmas art visits, we are going to the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa to see the Bernini exhibit.

Happy Holidays

I wish you all Happy Holidays and a wonderful New Year filled with joy, good health, mindfulness and creativity.

A Charming Exchange

A Charming Exchange by Kelly Snelling and Ruth Rae

I first became aware of this wonderful book because I was participating in a charm exchange organized by Lynn Davis ( see December 1, 2008 post). I checked it out on Amazon and now it is in my ever growing library of jewelry making books. The theme of this book is collaboration, a theme that embodies much of my life. I love the energy and creativity that collaboration can ignite. And so it is always with enthusiasm that I join in on collaborative ventures. As the book points out, you don't need to live in an artistic community to have opportunities to collaborate with other artists: the internet has many online art groups for you to join, with many different media to choose from. Ah! And the best part of collaborations is that you find new talents and new ideas inside of yourself that you might have never discovered otherwise. The authors refer to this as "creating fearlessly."
What has really endeared me to this book is the wide range of techniques that have come together in such unusual ways. Although the book is not a step-by-step instruction manual to the projects described, it does highlight some of the unusual techniques the artists have used to combine disparate objects into jewelry. Since I am always looking for ways to make non-jewelry objects into linkable entities for jewelry, this book has been a treasure trove of ideas for me. Some of the unusual links they give detailed instructions for that really intrigued me are : coiled jump rings, capacitator charms ( I had some of these lying around, i.e. the capacitators), making a wire basket, eye of god links ,wrapped stone links, bar loop links, baby swing links, decorative swirl links, wire orb links, and I promise you, many more that I haven't mentioned.

Below is a photo of some of the charms that I created especially for the Blessings Charm exchange that I have been participating in. I had never made hand built ceramic charms before so I am so pleased that I dared to "create fearlessly" and came up with these.

You can purchase A Charming Exchange at Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. You will love it I am sure.

Counting Blessings

I received my amulet bag from Lynn Davis of Expedition D and am so excited to receive such a wonderful collection of charms. The theme is counting blessings which has been so important this year. I will be making a piece of jewelry with all of the lovelies that I received. Here is a photo and names of those who sent me their blessings.

Blessings have been sent by

Lorelei Eurto

Gaea,

Lynn Davis

Erin Siegel

Heather Powers

Cristi Clothier (2ifbysea)

(Lucid Moon Studio). Lisa Harrington

Heartfelt thanks to all of you.