The Opening Reception

Cottonwood Center for the Arts

This in the entrance for the Cottonwood Center. It is a really nice venue.

Once again our weather challenged and snow was the prelude for the show. Fortunately, it was just cold and light snow, so that didn't deter folks from coming to the opening reception. There was a steady stream of people to view the work of the Glass Artists of the Pikes Peak Region (GAPPR), along with other glass artists in the area. I think there is some great talent in GAPPR and that definitely showed.

I'll let the pictures I took speak for themselves, although I will add a few comments here and there.








The center stained glass window of an elk with mountains in the background was my favorite piece of the evening. I had a chance to talk with the artist who did this piece and her work is lovely. She has a definite style with mountains and I think it is great.


I have two of my bowls in the show. Here's a shot of Winter on its pedestal directly below the stained glass window. My bowl, Autumn, was there too, but I neglected to get a shot of it.



I was really intrigued by this piece. The artist did a lovely scene of aspens in a fused work and then 'framed' it in aspen branches. It was a great piece in my opinion and won 3rd place, although if I had been the judge I would have given it first place in the fused glass category.



What's that? There appears to be a blue ribbon here.....


Yes, that is my wire wrapped glass jewelry and one of my earrings, Whisper, won first place in the jewelry category. A very pleasant surprise. And I had several opportunities to observe people intensely looking at my wire wraps. It was fun to be that 'fly on the wall' as people seemed to be captivated by them. I'm still not comfortable approaching people in those settings to see if they had questions. I guess I need to work on that.



These are only a few of the pictures I took. If you would like to see more, here is the link to the album I created on Facebook.

It was a nice evening, good to see so many people out and about. The show runs through May 21st and if you are in the area, I think it is worth seeing.

Until next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person.

Glass In the Springs ~ Opening Reception

Tomorrow evening will be the opening reception for the Glass In the Springs Show at Cottonwood Center for the Arts. I am hopeful that the weather will be kind and there will be a great turnout. I am a member of the Glass Artists of the Pikes Peak Region and this is their second show of this nature. I am very happy to be participating in the event.

There are a lot of wonderful artists that will be showcasing their work. I am quite happy that one of my seasonal bowls, Winter, was chosen as one of the representative works for the show on the postcard.

This is the first time I have had my work at Cottonwood Center for the Arts and I think it is a really nice venue. Dan & I will be attending the opening reception and I hope to have some wonderful pictures to share on my next post.

If you are in the area, please stop by and check out the exhibit. It runs until 5/21/2010.

Until next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person.

The Continuing Kiln Saga

My parts haven't arrived yet. I'm trying to find the bright spot in all of this. At the suggestion of a friend, I randomly opened "The Artist's Way" she had given me to this passage:

Recovering creatives commonly undergo bouts of fierce rage and grief over their lost years. When these creative kriyas occur, we desperately want to kick over the traces and get the hell out of life as it is currently constituted. Instead, make changes, small changes, right where you are.

That does sort of fit with my credo for now. The best thing I can do is work on those things I have available...my stained glass...my wire wrapping. And I told myself last night that it's just going to take as long as it takes to get my kiln operational again...it could be a week...a month....hopefully not longer than a month, but I don't have any real control over the time frame and setting deadlines is pointless given the circumstances.

I spoke with my Paragon representative this morning. Apparently UPS has no record of the previous shipment and he will personally re-ship everything to me today, UPS red, so that I have it tomorrow. He's upset with UPS, which I understand. I'm frustrated with wanting to work on all the new techniques I learned last week in Patty's class. Looking for the balance in all of this.

Tonight I'm attending a meeting of my local glass artist group, Glass Artists of the Pikes Peak Region. We are going to share examples of our work so the group will have some ideas of what to expect for the March 2009 show at Commonwheel Artists Coop in Manitou Springs. That should be a good distraction for me.