This is what kept my head twirling since 3:00am…

 

Dear tina (& friends),

So I have been up since 3:00 am with my head still twirling from the weekend and wanting to share it with you before it fades into my memory. As you know I was in Hartford for the weekend for their annual Open Studios. It was a A LOT of hard work driving up to Hartford and back three days in a row but truly worth the effort. Joy & I spent Friday setting up and Saturday & Sunday meeting a lot of lovley people. Last year we were on the second floor of ArtSpace and this year we were relocated to the first floor which made it MUCH easier to lug our many bins in and out. Thank goodness Joy can pack a car because this is a skill that is lost on me! Even taking trips I leave the packing to Brett as he will inevitable reorganize my chaos. It is funny because I am pretty organized when it comes to decorating, display or rearranging things but not spaciously fitting everything in a car!

Upon arriving I realized that our space to set up was right outside my friend Balam Soto’s studio. Balam was also chosen as a RAW artist and participated with me this past September for RAW Hartford. Let me tell you, his work drew people in! It is SO COOL and edgy and everyone wanted to try creating their own sound and light. It is described as “merging existing and custom digital technology with artistic concepts and aesthetics to create exploratory works, including interactive art installations, murals, art video and performance.”

For a large part of the weekend Balam’s lovely daughter Quetza sat at a little desk in his studio and drew.

She had her work for sale on the door and I couldn’t help but buy one of her originals! Didn’t she do a great job! I was drawn to the energy and the color. It just made me smile!

I was also impressed with Joyce’s work of JaDivaJoy. I met her the first day and immediately fell in love with this painting:

I am happy to say that it came home with me and will proudly grace the walls in my house (which are under construction by the way, more on that soon). There was something about it that drew me in, maybe it was the saying which reads, “seeing all that is possible in a world filled with hope”. At first I thought it felt sort of sad the way the figure was hunched over but when I asked Joyce about it she told me that she thought of it as a majestic figure looking down from above thinking about how the world is filled with possibility. As you know this kind of optimism I look for in each day which made me love the painting even more! I want to encourage people to ask the artists what they were thinking about when they made the work. You just might be surprised at what they have to say.

For example, I hadn’t had an opportunity to talk with Joy about her new tree series and was intrigued by the new acrylic technique she was using that looked like encaustic. In fact everyone who passed by her paintings stopped to ask her about them as they were so layered and rich. I appreciated being so close so I could listen in and learn.

I have more I am excited to share so check back for part two of this post. I will leave you with a few pics from my booth…

Thanks for taking a look and sharing in my journey!

love, Laura

p.s. Please save the date for MY Open Studio, my favorite place to share my work! (see below) SO MUCH GOODNESS TO COME I can hardly stand the wait!