a surprisingly good show

Hard to believe it's almost mid-December. Both weekends of our collective Open House are now concluded. We headed in Saturday morning and it was cold and stayed cold all day. We had the heater on driving in and everyone had their little space heaters going throughout the day at Kathy and Dick's studio. This was the weekend we added four more artists (and hopefully attract a more varied crowd instead of just glass enthusiasts)

Thomas Irven

V. Chin

Leslie Ravey

Barry Perez

but alas, the turnout was so dismal (and it was so cold) that Chin and Thomas didn't even try to do their demos which, if you remember from last June, were throwing clay on a wheel and wood turning respectively (although they did on Sunday). Some sales were made throughout the day but none by us. We had had a good total from the previous weekend and so I was happy even if we didn't sell anything else.

Sunday, it was so warm that we had the AC on in the car on the drive in and we opened up the bay door of the studio and eventually Kathy turned on the shop fans. Only in Texas. Heat on one day, AC on the next. We had a bit better turnout which isn't saying much, some sales were being made (I bought two things myself)

  

but by 4 PM, still none by us. Then a man came up and asked Marc if he was the Marc Leva that had lived across the street from him back when they were growing up and yes, indeed he was. So they talked about the past and catching up for about a half hour or so and then his wife came up whom I had seen looking around at all the offerings but she had never seemed to have been overly interested in our work, nor did he, but then he asks her which is her favorite and they settled on the Bumblebee with Wild Rose and indicated it was just the first piece that they would acquire over time. Turns out they make a lot of money and collect art. Then, as we were starting to pack up, an acquaintance bought the Swept Away piece. Those two pieces alone were more than we had made the previous weekend so all in all, we had a great show.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten to photograph Swept Away. It was the last piece I readied for the Open House and I was busy getting everything organized for setting up. Fortunately, I know who bought it and next May when we do our next group show, I can ask her to bring it so I can get a better picture than the fuzzy cropped image I have now (it's on an easel because I didn't have room on the board to hang it).

Swept Away was originally going to be a box and had four panels but my idea of how to construct it turned out to be way more work than I was interested in doing so the four panels have sat here for years waiting for me to figure out a way to use them. I have arranged them and rearranged them over and over until finally I took out the other bigger panel and voila! I glued them to a board and slapped a hanger on the back. The title refers to my days as a river guide, things that the river washes away...cliff swallow nests, cane that lines the river bank, heron footprints in the sand, and me. The 'me' panel is the one I took out but here it is...

I have about 6 weeks to get a few pieces ready for a show at Kittrell Riffkind in Dallas next February and a shop full of equipment and glass that needs reorganizing but today I'm doing nothing.