Ants in My Pants

I'm at the Bellevue Arts Fair in Bellevue, Washington this weekend. It's a a great festival, surprisingly in the parking garage of the mall! This year both Mike and I have booths that are separated just a bit. The separation gives us something to talk about during the day! Although it's always a nice show, the hours are EXTREMELY long; 9:30am to 9:30pm. So at one point or another, twiddling ones thumbs comes into play.

I'm so anxious to get back to work on SE Atelier. Before I left for Seattle, new carpet was installed in what will be my office and VIP Lounge! Electrical bids are in the works, floors are getting prepped for refurbishing and moving day is being scheduled! With a lot of sweat equity, it's starting to come together.

The beginning of the painting!

I'm envisioning myself in the space and wanting to broaden that vision to include a community of artists. It will be a space that will be warm, comfortable and inspiring for others to be in. I hope it is an empowering space. So much great energy has already come from it and the ideas are pouring in. What would you do in it?? If you have ideas, I'd love to hear!

It's Official!

 

Ok...It’s official! After returning from Denver, I signed the lease on a 2500 square foot space in Milwaukie, Oregon. I’m opening an atelier where I’ll have ongoing classes for adults and high school students, workshops and of course, my own studio will be on the premises. I'll be inviting workshop instructors from around the country to conduct workshops in various media and plan to add life drawing sessions in the future. The space can accommodate 20 plus students.  This is an opportunity to be part of the community and to open a creative and dynamic space to many more artists! I'm so excited!

After a TON of work!

It’s a superb location in downtown Milwaukie where a little nexus of restaurants, shops and mixed use housing makes for a fun and energetic feel. There's public parking, it’s a quick 8 minutes from Portland and a few short blocks from the bus transit station. 

We've been working non-stop, putting lots of sweat equity into the space, thus the infrequency of blog posts. Sorry! 

Here's a hint of initial offerings. I'll be adding more as I get my legs under me a bit.

Open House, Sunday September 9th 10 - 4

 Free demos, studio open house. Please come and join me in celebrating this new endeavor.

1926 SE Scott Street, Milwaukie, OR

 

Ongoing Classes

 SE Atelier, Milwaukie, OR

Tuesdays 6-9pm Drawing Basics*

Thursdays 6-9pm Painterly Painting*

*Class sessions begin October 23rd 2012. Ongoing class sessions $45/ea*

(Purchase 6 sessions, get 7th session FREE)

 To register or for more information, contact Marla at 503.329.5117 or at mbaggetta@comcast.net

Three Day Workshops:

Feb. 8 -10, 2013 - Loosen Up Intensive

Mar. 15 -17, 2013 - The Figure in Pastel

(Please check online for additonal dates or at SE Atelier).

Ommm!!

Working on being peaceful in the face of relative chaos! Early this morning, woke up, made a strong pot of coffee and headed out to strike our booth before the show opened. It wasn't raining and we had plenty of time to dry things off a bit before we put more wet stuff into the truck along with the waterlogged art. With just one booth to deal with, we had it done pretty handily within an hour.

Then off to a hot breakfast at a local spot called Wild Eggs; a great, cool, Jetson's-like place with super friendly staff and a hardy morning staple. Back to the hotel for yet another hot shower and a much needed cry and rest! I allowed myself a bit of self-indulgent crying for about 2 minutes before I turned my head and chose to "just be happy"! Just like Wendy's niece said, you can just be happy or????

I make art. I can make more. I love to do it. PERFECT!

I'm looking forward to getting home and setting to work on my atelier! More to come on that later in the week as I have pictures and updates. It's gonna be great! Check back soon!

Cherry Creek and Lots of Water

We found out the hard way today that art festivals and massive amounts of water don't really mix.
A flash flood hit the show around 4:00pm and our booth happened to be at the confluence of two alleys. The water rose to knee depth and started to bend poles, and move the panels to the point that they were leaning and in danger of collapsing. We had no choice but to remove all the artwork from the booth as quickly as possible from the panels. This meant exposing them to the heavy rain. We stacked all the work against the side of a building. Kind bystanders helped form a fire-line and moved it all pretty quickly. All the work that was stacked in the booth off the walls is lost. Some of it we actually pulled out from under water! It was wild!

Final artwork damage won't be counted until tomorrow, but so far one macbook pro bites the dust as well as a stash of chargers. We'll head to the site in the morning and remove the booth, then take stock, try to dry out and head on home! Bummer! Wish we had pictures. In the chaos of it all, we didn't think to take any. Might have been good for insurance.

Wish us luck!

BTW, I apologize for the empty post the other day. My mistake!

How Computer Savy Does an Artist Need to Be?

I consider myself a fairly proficient user when it comes to the computer. I can usually navigate my way around software and figure out the basics when I'm having a bit of trouble; things like restarting, force quitting etc. I keep my files organized and I know how to download, make zip files to send large files, put things on disc,  things like that.

Beyond that it gets tougher for me. I don't know html. So if I need a big change or something goes awry, I'm kinda lost and need help! If I want to start a new website or something big. I'm kinda lost.

Spending time on the computer is really a love/hate thing for me. It's satisfying for me to master a tidbit from a different world and it's an opportunity to step away from the demands of "starting" a painting. In other words, a terrific excuse to procrastinate!

A few musts:

Be able to organize and manage image files and provide them to shows/galleries in both good high resolution  and web formats.

Know where your domain is hosted and keep track of  renewals.

Be proficient in Photoshop or similar

Be proficient in a database program like Filemaker or similar

Know how to navigate the web

Be able to set up a blog and use it.

Be able to use Facebook even reluctantly!

Know how to get images on a disc, how to send them as compressed files, and upload them to third party sites likes Yousendit.

Anything else I missed? Please add on to this list!


I really try to spend the majority of my time doing what I do best, painting and teaching painting. Going too deep into the world of computers doesn't really serve this agenda, but is a necessary part of doing business.