I have done two recent shows in Salina Kansas and Leawood, also Kansas. At Salina it was its usual, incredible, well organized show with the efficiency and marvelous energy of show organizer Karla Prickett.
The show runs like clockwork with all the volunteers and not only with the art, but also the live music in many different genres and the variety of foods and so many amenities like the booth for the children called "First Treasures" where they have the opportunity to enter alone without adults and inexpensively purchase artwork donated by the artists. There are the many installations and the many artistic adornments scattered around the whole park.
It is a joy to do and to be a part of this welcoming and "glad for us to be there" community.
The weather was cool - a rare happening - unlike the sweltering heat of past years. Lots of people showed up basking in the cool temperature with my many followers, admirers and buyers.
Also to make things easier a whole high school sports team was there to help us set up and also breakdown which was an enormous help and Jacob was great in doing so.
Leawood is a suburb of Kansas City and the art show encircles an affluent mall with many fancy stores. We were almost in front of Bravo, a very good and beautiful Italian restaurant and we used it to refresh from the torrid heat and to eat.
That same night a tremendous storm with seventy mile an hour winds came through town and wrecked a lot of the canopies and much of the art and so many artists had to pack up and go home to put the pieces together and salvage what they could. A real and very sad disaster. We were lucky. Barry puts eighty eight pounds on each leg of the canopy and it saved us. Our canopy shifted a few feet and needed to be reset, but we were very lucky by comparison.
The show was very slow, very few people braved the heat and we broke down a day early so I could create new pieces badly needed for the next show at Breckenridge, Colorado this weekend.
Traveling on the road we saw so many wild grasses, some tall and some hugging the ground and some patches of wild flowers like a pink and joyful carpet extending on the slopes. I loved the look of the blooms on both sides of the road and carry them in my memory like a sign of a glorious summer.
I am glad to be here safely in my studio where I have already made quite a bit of new work, including my latest offering to the Bead and Easel:
I call it the Neckform of Joy, and it is a complex collar with rhodocrosite, amazonite, amethyst, fresh water pearls plus silver seed beads. Sure to fill your cup and day with lots of joy. The pendant is about 3 1/2"w x 2 1/4"h and the strung portion is about 15", so it will lay high, close to your neck. To see them closer, simply click on them; and click here to purchase.
