Its been a while…
This summer I moved into my father’s old blacksmith shop. No one has spent a great deal of time in the building in years so I was living with lots of bugs and mice and other things that go bump in the night. I can say now that there were a few nights when I was sure there were very large animals crawling around in the walls and ceilings and they made ALOT of noise and gave me a good scare. Since I felt home for collage I have mostly lived in a city and so it was strange to be back in the quiet of the country and yet it was nice after an adjustment period.
I was in several art fairs in the early part of the summer and had a lot of fun and met some great people. I saw some great work with Precious Metal Clay (PMC) and really want to give that a try soon. I learned a lot from some of the artists who have been doing the art fair scene for years and made some good contacts. My favorite fair however was right in my town of Bloomington and benefited the Middle Way House and so I plan on definitely doing that again next year. Not only did I do well selling, and made new friends, they had great entertainment close to my booth that made up for the sometimes slow traffic.
On a sad note my grandmother, my last living grandparent and the only one I really had a chance to know as an adult, died this summer. I was very lucky and we knew it was coming and so the family was able to all come to town and spend her last few days with her and each other. She was an amazing woman who has been a great support for me especially in the last year and I still miss her a lot.
I was in California for a few weeks this summer visiting Bob and his family. I was lucky as my cousin Tyler who I had not seen in several years (due to him living in China for the past 4 or so years) was in San Fransisco interviewing for a job and so Bob and I drove down from Davis to see him. It was the 4th of July so we tried to see the fireworks but unfortunately SF being one of the foggiest cities that didn’t work out well. However I had a great time because it was one of my few 4ths outside of Indiana and as we stood on a pier and tried our best to see though the fog I was listening to the people all around us and most of them were speaking on other languages. It seamed kind of perfect to me that we were standing in one of the major port cities in a country founded by immigrants and I couldn’t hear one voice speaking English on the anniversary of our independence.
Back in Indiana a group of other Brown County artists and I formed a group and opened a shop in Nashville called Hand Made in Brown County. Unfortunately I had to leave before it really got off the ground but I hear its doing well and I cant wait to get back and see all the new work that has been added since I left. My work is on display for sale even though I’m currently out of the country so if your in Nashville stop by and take a look. Its located across the ally from the court house.
Bob came to Indiana at the end of August and helped me get things squared away before we left for…PARIS! I have wanted to go to Paris since I was 12 years old and I finally got to do so! We stayed for a week on our way to Cairo and it was AMAZING. I loved it so much I’m trying to talk Bob into living there at some point in the future. I don’t have any pictures posted here yet but Bob has them up on his so you can see them here. These are both of our photos so there a a lot, and for some reason they loaded last to first so the first pics you will see are of our last day.
I have been back in Egypt for almost 2 months and have lots to tell about that but in the interest of not turning this post into more of a novel than it is I’m going to stop for today. I am going to leave you with one more link to photos on Bob’s blog. Last week we went to the Harvest Moon Autumn Ball at the British Embassy and it was wonderful! I will tell about it later but for now…here are pics!
I also want to say that Bob and I are going to be working on this site some so if you have any critique or advise sent it my way!
