Your 2019 #LocalArtLoves

You guys found — and made — some great art during Local Art Loves earlier this year!

As you may recall, Local Art Loves is about sharing the art you love from your community. (It can even be your own work!)

This time, there were submissions from across the United States that included oil paintings, digital illustrations, sculptures, and more. I’m featuring those artists here, as well as adding a couple Arizona artists I love.

Painting of vintage Skips Hamburgers neon sign — Skips by Kristen Nyberg (in progress).

Kristen Nyberg

City: Marblehead, Massachusetts
Medium: Oil painting
Shared by: Sarah Moore (a.k.a. “Saguaro Sally,” vintage sign enthusiast)
Subject: Neon sign for Skip’s Snack Bar in Merrimac, MA

Lora Barnhiser

City: Phoenix, Arizona
Medium: Acrylic on “rescued” wood blocks
Shared by: me

Notes:

I’ve been a fan of Lora Barnhiser’s work since I saw some of her reclaimed wood art on display during Phoenix First Friday a couple years ago.
When she was in the process of moving her studio to prepare for the birth of her babies, she announced a flash sale, and I called dibs on these adorable little cacti!
More about Lora in her Instagram introduction.

Beck Lane

City: Sarasota, Florida
Shared by: artist

Beck Lane’s portrait of singer Lauren Mitchell was one of last year’s Local Art Loves.

Later, the artist shared a couple more of her vibrant paintings – 16 (or makin’ a way outta no way) and Kandi Dishe, Starman.

Beck Lane painting — “16 (or makin’ a way outta no way)” by Beck Lane.

• 16 (or makin’ a way outta no way)

Medium: Oil and oil crayon on aerosol on two 60″ x 72″ canvas panels.

Notes:

The title of 16 (or makin’ a way outta no way) refers back to the first group of Africans brought to the U.S. to be enslaved. We don’t know the names of the individuals on that original ship. We just know that there would be eventually millions more, and they were the first 16.
Coincidentally, the painting took 16 months to complete and was inspired by the events of 2016.
The woman in the center of the painting was modeled after Providence artist, dancer, and model Melanie Moore.

Beck Lane portrait of Kandi Dishe — “Kandi Dishe, Starman” by Beck Lane.

• Kandi Dishe, Starman

Medium: Oil on aerosol on two 48″ x 60″ canvases.
Subject: Portrait of Worcester, MA drag artist Kandi Dishe.
Where to find it: Chasen Galleries

betta fish painting — Painting of Frida by Caitlyn Ann Thomas. Photo from my house.

Caitlyn Ann Thomas

City: Tempe, Arizona
Medium: Watercolor
Shared by: me
Subject: Frida the Fish

Notes:

After hearing that our betta fish had passed, our friend Caitlyn asked for photos. A few weeks later, she surprised us with this beautiful watercolor portrait of Frida. It was such an incredibly kind gesture and a lovely way to remember a little fish with a big personality!
Caitlyn and her husband Alex also make films as CharismaJinx Productions.

Realist painting of Apex sign. — “Apex” by Stephanie Schechter (in progress).

Stephanie Schechter

City: Providence, Rhode Island
Title: Apex
Medium: Oil on canvas, 23.5″ x 40″
Shared by: Sarah Moore
Where to find it: You can see the final painting of Apex on the artist’s site.

Gary Lee Price

City: Richmond, Virginia
Titles:

Green Thumb [girl with pigtails, foreground of photo]
Green Thumb Too [boy, partly obscured in photo]

Medium: Bronze sculptures with planters
Shared by: Susan Willis
Where to find them: In front of Chasen Galleries in Carytown, an artsy neighborhood around Cary Street in Richmond, Virginia.

Painting of Haverhill, Massachusetts liquor store sign — “Liquors” by Debbie Shirley.

Debbie Shirley

City: Haverhill, Massachusetts
Title: Liquors
Medium: Acrylic on panel, 18″ x 14″, framed
Shared by: Sarah Moore
Subject: Street outside ChrisPy’s Liquors + Lottery in Beverly, MA.
Where to find it: Available for purchase. Contact the artist for more information.

Notes:

Debbie Shirley describes her painting style as “contemporary realism meets roadside retro.”
You can read more about her process making the painting.

Wayne Smith

City: Ocala, Florida
Medium: digital sketches
Shared by: artist

Wayne Smith participated in Local Art Loves by creating new digital sketches almost daily! His varied subjects included Rocky Mountain wildlife, a series of funny “advanced yoga” poses, portraits, and dessert.

• Swedish princess cake

Delightful-looking prinsesstårta (Swedish princess cake) on a gold tray.

• Killdeer sketch/study

A killdeer bird the artist photographed at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park.

Advanced Yoga by Wayne Smith. — Goat yoga sketch by Wayne Smith

• Goat yoga

A meditation on why pets aren’t helpful for yoga poses.

The next Local Art Loves will be February 2020, and I’d love to see art shared from across the globe!

You can participate anytime by posting photos of art you find in your community (or create) using the hashtag #LocalArtLoves.

Keep supporting artists wherever you are!

February 25, 2019February 15, 2019

January 2019 in Photos

I’m changing up My Photo of the Month series to be more of a recap of the last month, instead of focusing on just one Instagram photo.

1. Getting out of the Holiday Blanket

Getting back into a regular routine at the beginning of January feels like emerging from a holiday cocoon. Or, as Quijote illustrated, peeking out from the snuggly blanket my mom made me (us?) for Christmas.

2. Museum Date Day

Phillip and I had a couples’ counseling appointment (we go periodically — I recommend it!) and decided to make an afternoon of it.

We dropped Quijote off at doggie daycare, went to therapy, got lunch at The Coronado, and then went to the Phoenix Art Museum, so we could see the Teotihuacan exhibition before it closed.

We also took at quick look at a few other exhibits while we were there, including Scandinavian Pain + Other Myths, José Guadalupe Posada and the Taller de Gráfica Popular, and Mexican Photographers, Mexican Views.

Also, I did a double take on the way to the elevators when I spotted a particular neon color combination that I thought I recognized from the Seven Magic Mountains installation we saw in Nevada. I don’t even know what exhibit it was part of, but, yep, it was a single Ugo Rondinone sculpture — in travel size, I guess!

3. Park Snacks

We’ve been trying to be more consistent in Quijote’s training, practicing things like coming when he’s called at the park. One day, I thought I’d give him a break since I didn’t have his usual reward treats with me, and he seemed (hilariously) annoyed.

How is your 2019 starting out?

February 12, 2019July 15, 2019

Love the Art Where You Live! #LocalArtLoves

From now through the end of February, share your local art loves!

Take a photo of art you’ve purchased from a local artist, made, or see around your neighborhood.
Share it on social media (and follow along!), using the #localartloves hashtag.
You’ll also be able to see what people shared from different places when I round it up here on Travelcraft Journal.

For inspiration, check out what artists and art lovers submitted last year.

Your 2018 Local Art Loves

P.S. Post title is a bit of a nod to Kristin Tovar’s fabulous site, Why I Love Where I Live. Based in Tucson, WILWIL encourages everyone to find things to love wherever they are and get involved in their communities.

January 11, 2019January 11, 2019

House of Glass

House of Glass Paperweights

For the past eighty years, the St. Clair-Rice family has been crafting art glass using techniques passed down through generations.

Craftsmen working at House of Glass

I remember seeing this St. Clair Glass on the kitchen counters and shelves and window sills of my dad’s side of the family since I was a kid. It comes from the same place they do: Madison County, Indiana.

Madison county, indiana

Of course, the people and the glass have made their way across the country, moving for better jobs or better weather or bigger cities. Our family’s business used to be farming, but, even the relatives that stayed in the region left the farms years ago.

road in madison county, indiana

Every so often when I was growing up, my family would make kind of a pilgrimage from our home in Arizona to visit our Indiana family. Sometimes we’d visit the St. Clair glass factory (The House of Glass) in Elwood.

St. Clair Glass in madison county, indiana

The showroom had shelves and tables stuffed full of lamps and vases, and so many paperweights — palm-sized sculptures shaped like birds, bells, baskets, apples, and angels with a landscape of colorful glass inside their clear exteriors. Each one was made by hand in the on-site workshop.

My parents would buy gifts to bring back for the friend who collected apple things or the one who was dog-sitting while we were away.

elwood indiana

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You could see new pieces in progress, molten glass glowing from the heat of the furnace as the artist turned it and added color and shaped it into something you could recognize. It was like magic.

And it still was when we visited Madison County a few years ago. The store shelves were more sparse, but through the back door in the sweltering workshop, artist-owner Joe Rice was still firing the glass by hand.

Even then, he was concerned that he hadn’t been able to find an apprentice. Like my great-grandparents’ farm, there wasn’t anyone willing and able to take on the work long term.

As he used a long metal pole to heat up the liquid that would become a teapot-shaped ring holder, Joe Rice (who sometimes signs his work “Joe St. Clair,” using his mother’s maiden name) explained how it wasn’t just that he didn’t have a successor, there were few glass makers out there who could match both their production numbers and commitment to flawless glasswork.

And now there are even fewer.

mounds park in anderson, indiana

Joe Rice announced last year he’d be closing up shop at the end of 2018, limiting his work to only select projects.

I still hope that one day soon someone will have the passion to learn his trade and fire up the furnace again.

House of glass

December 10, 2018

November 2018 Photos: Vintage

1980s Cassette Player

I saw the tape deck buttons on this vintage stereo, and it gave me one of those deja vu-y moments where you’re transported back in time for just a fraction of a second, like remembering a flash of a dream. They looked just like the buttons on the stereo my parents had when I was a kid, so I had to capture it.

It’s funny how objects from childhood leave such a strong imprint on your memory. I think it’s because kids tend to look at things more closely with fewer preconceived notions.

1580s Cartography

Speaking of capturing things that are strangely familiar, I’d seen reprints of this map of Italy long before knowing it came from the Gallery of Maps (Galleria delle carte geografiche) in the Vatican.

Seeing it in Italy felt a bit surreal, and I had to take a photo. And so did Phillip. Apparently, at the same moment. So he became part of my picture.