There is only ONE

 It is ART, right? You gotta have places to mix paint and put the yogurt cups!

The old wood decking has five coats of urethane sealer on it.

Three in a row!  Pedestals designed for flower pots.

 2 x 6 cedar from an old deck, no rot just weathered and old.
Make a great garden table, a place to put the bounty picked from the garden. 

 Steel covered in slate flower pot. I like these and wouldn't mind keeping this one.

 I have these all over my garden, slate on steel, a place
to put my coffee, the clippers, or something just picked.
The cucumbers use them for a trellis. I admit I make a
lot of these and sell them from $15 to $45, depending on size.

Almost everything I do, there is only one of.  I find bits and pieces, interesting steel or a piece of wood and set them aside until they call me.  Most of my art is useful, decorative, unusual, but you can sit on it, use it for a table or allow the plants to grow around it.  Here are some recent pieces:

An Oak plank about 3 feet long with 100 year old iron castings.

Life is Fantacy!

After rereading my last few blogs I realize that life is fantacy.   We never see anything or anyone or any situation standing by itself.  Our view of life is clouded by the lense of our vision.  We filter everything, we bring expectation, our very perception changes everything.
   I could have made "in-fill art", little easy to carry baubles, shiny  things  to catch a passing fancy.  I can make fairies too.  For me the problem began months ago when I was first invited to this show and requested that I send a CD of my pieces I intended to bring.  I don't have an inventory;  I don't have boxes of butterflies nor any standard repeated product.  When I do an art  show I create specific pieces just for that show.  It is a one time event and they are one of a kind creation.  If for some reason something doesn't sell it then comes back to my garden/studio and finds a home here.  Under no circumstances does it return to another show.
   I did produce a list, an inventory of 31 items I intended to bring and I mentioned this was two pickup loads of work.  I suspect the accounting department got this list as they were mostly interested in the itemized pricing, an accounting of their 30%.  The production people, the choreographers of this event had no clue as to what I was bringing.   What we had here was a failure to communicate.  So sad in this era of instant communication.
   I actually feel emancipated.   Three days/nights of this show, a day to move in and a day to move out is exhausting.  My studio and gardens are looking good and I have very seldom actually had an inventory here for clients to actually purchase.  So, good things have come from this experience.  I will start taking pictures tomorrow.

I Did Not Do It!!!

At the very last minute, two trucks loaded to the gills, I went past the entry gates, got my passes and paperwork completed and I kept on driving right out of the park!  What happened?  I don't really know, a lot of deja vu, seeing the same displays as last year, the very same dragons and fairies, everyone setting up as vendors selling the very same wares as last year.  Reality clashed hard with my anticipation and in an instant my fantasy imploded.
   I did Home Shows for 25 years, twice a year, the Fall and the Spring Show.  I had a policy of never, and I mean absolutely never, bringing the same stuff back to a show.  From season to season and year to year I never repeated myself and tried my best to outdo the previous show.  Always dealing with the issue of how to make the next show better than the last.  I developed a "following", loyal customers and curious attendees who came by just to see what I was up to that year.  That to me is what shows of this type should be about.  The progression of an artist.
   As I am driving my truck with my friend behind me past the areas of deployment, seeing the displays, I thought I was driving the aisles of Walmart and was reminded of why people hate Home Shows and the row after row of Hot Tubs and window displays, everything too much the same as last year.
    There is always, although it has never happened before, a single  incidence to abruptly pulling out of
a show and for me it was to discover that I was not allotted a space at all, not even a place to unload my two trucks!  This was literally two tons of steel and slate creations that I was expected to scatter as in fill, willy nilly around this two acre site.  Yes, I discover they want me, they want my art pieces, they want the 30% commission and extra sales for their coffers, but no, they don't have an area for me
and I am expected to drag my art all over the park.  No method to connect my art to me, no station to talk with potential clients.  That was it.  I left.
  Today I will unload my truck here at my studio and garden and make it look as pretty as I can.  At least there will be lots to see as customers drop by to discuss a project.
   Temperamental artist.  Yes.

Move In Day!

Move in day is stressful and anticlimactic.  My scheduled time is 2:30 in the afternoon and since I am a morning person and it will be close to 90 degrees, I am not looking forward to it.  More hours to stress before "The Show".  My truck is loaded and a friend will drop by at noon and we will load his truck, go out to lunch and to the Garden Show for unloading.  I have done hundreds of these in my life and have a check list, but each time is like the very first time.  I really shouldn't worry because the Maude Kerns art people are truly professionals and this is their 30th time they have put on this show.  I know from my experience last year that I can pretty much dump off my stuff and come back a couple hours later and it will be perfectly choreographed and decorated with hundreds of flowers.  They call it "garden art" for a reason and they are professionals.
   The entire "Art in the Vineyard" is huge encompassing the entire City Park and covering many acres.
It will draw over 75,000 paying visitors and hundreds of Artists from all over the Northwest.  You can rent your own booth and man it and keep the proceeds of your sales or you can do what some of us do,
display your wares in a communal setting.  The "Art People" do the sales, decorate and make everything look like a wonderland and the artist does not have to be there for all the hours of the show.
We pay a commission for this but it is like hiring a team of professionals and a whole theater cast crew for a pittance.  My art looks better surrounded by other's art and the entire couple acres, the "Art in the Garden" section is a walkable wonderland.  I really have nothing to worry about, just the hours between now and then.
   I keep saying that this is my last show.  I have said that for over five years now, yet I keep coming back.  I really like them, like my stuff and me on display, the anticipation and stage fright.  I like watching the audience, people as they move about this theater and I wonder whether they realize how much work from all of the Artists and Production Crew went into this event?  Some people will look at every piece and other's will walk right past not giving it a glance.  I think that is why I like making one of a kind art, pieces and concepts not seen before.  Still some will walk right past and not even see it.
Interesting.

My Garden Today

Just Pictures