This little lamb is making an unedited appearance (honestly, I probably will never post if I have to be really perfect and edit photos taken by me.  It has almost been a year since I have posted!)  The title of this piece is Love Letters and it was part of the Minneapolis Love Stories show in February at Chowgirls in Northeast Minneapolis.  Currently, it is in a gallery in Lanesboro, Mn.  It is approximately 12" tall and backlit by a little orange LED.  It is hard to appreciate the LED in this photo. 
 
Also, below is another piece that I created for Minneapolis Love Stories, Heart is Where the Home is.   Some of you know that my career has been in health care as a sonographer.  I have a few specific disciplines (Ob/Gyn, Vascular and Adult Cardiac.)  I worked in patient care for many years and now I work in preclinical research, doing some very cool things!  I do miss patients though...I just had to say that and now I will get back on the rail.  There is an artist, Frank Netter, a physician/artist who illustrated anatomical volumes, that for some reason I connected with through his drawings.  So, what you see is a hybrid between two vocations in my life, inspired by Frank Netter.  Maybe three vocations, if you count the dearness of my family to me.

I have sweet, loveable friends who give me their junk.  The star looking things on top and bottom were given to me by Melinda, and I sawed it in half.  The tiles and the heart and birds are polymer clay.  The sides are bead heads embedded in black grout and the whole thing, the substrate, is a little wooden box I built.  The heart is illuminated with a pink LED and, here is another fine example of my photography skills (Mitch! Where are you???)  It is in the Laneboro Art Gallery also.  Below is a fuzzy little close up of the heart.

 

 

 

My last post, a year ago, announced that I would have a piece at the Polymer Clay Exhibit at the Flow Space Gallery in St. Paul, Mn.   My piece, Diary of a Firefly, was displayed next to artists I have admired and wanted to emulate for a long time, Kathleen Dustin and Laurie Mika.  I couldn't believe it!  And, I took second place in the Emerging Artist category.  Woohoo!   A really cool cowgirl bought it, the funky and intrepid Sarah B.

 

 

 

This piece incorporates part of an old stained glass window my sister Bobby gave me, with a little flickering tea light behind it.  It is approx. 10" high and 3" deep.  I made a ton of polymer clay blades of grass, some using the Skinner technique to add gradations of color.  There is also commercial tile from an old, broken pseudo-Tiffany lamp that the owners of Your Art's Desire gave me.  I had so much fun making this.

 

 

 

 

So, here is what is going on now...Art-a-Whirl takes place May 16, 17 and 18 is the largest open studio art crawl in the United States (Yeah!  Right here in Northeast Minneapolis!)  30,000 people attend this each year and I will be at the Northrup King Building in Studio 394.  I am joining up with some other great artists and I have been working on my Magnus Opum; a buffalo skull my husband brought back from Oklahoma that I have glued a bazillion glass and fresh water pearls on.  It has a Burlesquish-theme and I am inviting you to come and see it!