Keeping promises

Once I finished up the washboard-mounted altered book series, I cleaned up the studio a little and realized... oh yeah... I promised a piece of art to someone.

Volunteers from Preston Kuppe Guild gave me that intriguing cigar box, back at the Fall Best of the Northwest art festival last year.

Visitors to the 2015 Best of the Northwest art festival. ©Lisa Myers Bulmash

The guild raises money for Seattle Children's Hospital during their "Art a la Carte" auction. They've asked me and other festival artists to turn the boxes into artworks to be sold at the event. The rocky exterior texture is giving me some ideas...

... but I have to make it all happen in the next few days. Preferably over the weekend. Hoo boy... send me some encouragement to keep me going, won't you?

This week in art: full house

I'm expecting a full house for Friday's Artist Trust At Large presentation -- RSVPs have been flooding my mailbox and I'm told several may be bringing their friends. You might want to dodge the holiday shoppers and find parking early...

And if I don't see you in Redmond, it's very possible you'll run into me tonight at Pioneer Square amid the holiday cheer. Look who's on the Hanson Scott Gallery home page for this month's show opening! Ahem.

Of course, I'd love to see you at both events. But you may just have to pick one...

Studio visit: up close and personal with my art

When you invite new friends to come over, you hope they feel comfortable in your space. So you clean up in a frenzy (or is that just me?), drape something over what can't be moved...

...then cross your fingers. That was me early this week: I hosted my first studio visit for some people who are interested in my work. Studio visits are, or can be, a big deal. They usually mean one of the following:

• The visitor is considering exhibiting multiple pieces of your work, or
• The visitor is considering buying multiple pieces of your work, possibly right then and there.

Either way, they want to see it in person. 

And the visit went amazingly well: one visitor compared my washboard-mounted altered books to work by assemblage artist Betye Saar. Dizzyingly high praise.

My washboard-mounted altered books, completed earlier this year. ©Lisa Myers Bulmash

I can't say much more about the visit, but I can tell you this: I'm going to spend the next 13 months making A LOT of work. I promise to keep showing you what I can. Are you ready to follow the mystery as it unfolds?