My first art show!!!

















My, oh, my! Today was an artist's dream (OK, I really don't consider myself an artist - I just love to take photographs of interesting things...)

I went to the Quady Winery to check out the art exhibit - it was a judged event and I was very honored to be a part. That's my barbed wire photo - submitting that photo was an afterthought - I had submitted my florals, but at the last minute I thought this is an agricultural area, why not submit the rusty barbed wire. A couple weeks back, I mentioned grabbing onto that brass ring and now I'm adding to that "hold on tight" and "let go of the outcome" because the surprises that come your way can be soooo incredible.

The artwork was absolutely outstanding! The dress is actually bronze. I bought a Raku piece that's stunning - in addition to the colors used and the beauty, it had my "symbol" on it - a butterfly. I chatted with the artist quite a while because he had used a Duncan ceramic glaze on one of the pieces. He told me about the interesting process of Raku and the amount of work involved and how you have to alter the temperatures - it's not done in a traditional kiln so the process was fascinating to me.

The Quady Winery sign is all mosaics - it's beautiful up close.

So back to the day - the wine was awesome (that's really strange for me to think about since I'm not a wine person), along with decadent chocolates and finger food. I was admiring an interesting photograph - it was of the Sierra wilderness and was 12" x probably 60". The artist started talking to me and after a few minutes of chatting about photography he invited me to be a guest artist at an upcoming Arthop - it's a monthly event where a ton of galleries are open across town to the public - the name, Arthop, means to check out the art in one gallery and hop (not literally - but that could be interesting to watch!) on to the next gallery. Where I'll be exhibiting is an old church - I can't wait! Now, to think about what photos I want to exhibit.

While I was on the wine trail (there were 9 wineries participating), I took the opportunity to get some vineyard shots, some 'paint peeling' shots on an old building and a couple shots of leaves on some moss. Opportunities are out there every minutes - not only in photography, but life in general.

Now, to get to some crafting...

Mark's Winery!!!

Wow! I really am apprehensive to say 'you never know' because I've been saying that so much lately, but what an experience today was...here are photos from the Chateau Lasgoity - I went to this particular winery because I work with Mark (yep, that's him with the wine bottles) -his wife and her brother run the winery. I walked up to the winery, got a big hug from Mark and looked over the sea of wall-to-wall people. Just as I was about to leave, a guy walked in front of me and for some reason I checked out his name tag. Oh, my gosh!!! It was my soon to be ex husband's college roommate. It was because of Jeff that Paul and I got together - my roommate was dating his roommate (convenient!)...come to find out, (and here ya go about the 'you never know') Jeff is Mark's brother-in-law. I hadn't seen Jeff for 30 years - yikes!

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the girl eating a strawberry artwork. It was incredible!

















People were waiting to get in to the winery. There were tons of cars and limos lining the roads to the wineries.

I'm finally ready!!!

My photo is framed just in time for the dinner, wine and chocolate tasting for the artists tomorrow night. It was a bit nerve racking since I've never exhibited anything at a fine art show and didn't know if what I was doing was "right".

So, I had taken the photo to a frame shop and was quoted $500 to have it matted and framed. I knew there had to be a better way - so I came up with the idea to get an antique frame since the barbed wire was old and rusty. The first antique shop I looked at - there it was! My boss suggested taking it to a shop her husband uses for his framing. It turned out to be a VERY expensive venture, but it wasn't the framing.

I had a very knowledgeable gentleman help me in the selection of the mat and glass and was happy to hear they could have them cut for me in an hour. Well, the shop is in a busy shopping area that I don't get to very often. My one hour turned into 3 hours of shopping and purchasing! Yikes! I had been looking into getting a down comforter since I feel in love with the one on my bed on my last vacation. My parents had given me money to buy it for Christmas and the more I thought about it, the more I kept thinking that Winter is almost over and after that it's definitely not a down comforter place where I live.

I stopped at a bedding shop and fell in love with a comforter set - to my amazement I got a comforter, bed skirt, two pillow shams, sheets and pillowcases for $99. I also got a down pillow. When I got up to the register the pillow rang up at the wrong price and I asked the cashier about it. She had a coupon and she took the 25% off of the comforter set - so now it was only $75!!! What a bargain...

I'm really not fond of bed skirts, so I am working on transforming it into a canopy. It's a plain gold color, so I got some Tulip fabric paints this afternoon and I'm going to trace the swirly pattern on the comforter onto the bed skirt and suspend it from the ceiling. I hope to do that this weekend and post pictures.

My evening is drawing to a close, but I am relieved that my photo is ready to be hung and am looking forward to tomorrow night!

Joan