Moving

I can't wait to move out of my apartment! things are looking good for my new lease in September. Can't wait to live with fun girls who I grew up with!

following S.O.S.

Somerville Open Studios went really well! We had a steady stream of visitors...more on Sunday than Saturday, most likely because it was sunnier. I got to see a lot of people I don't get to see very often, which was nice. And now I can proudly say Sagel Friendsmith is a sold artist! When all was said and done, I sold 7 paintings....5 on the spot and then my great aunt Janet commissioned me to make 2 more - the seahorse and the little gecko (the gecko is gonna be larger). It's cool to think that my original artwork is going to be hanging in other people's houses! I went into the weekend with 12 paintings completed (I technically had 13 but I only showed 12 because the last one was a stupid daisy and it ended up coming out kind of cheesy), and I returned home with only 3. I traded my mom 4 paintings (3 flowers and the gecko) for her amazing "Dogwood" wall hanging. It's a lovely piece of weathered wood embellished with rusty, lacy-looking flat pieces of metal and beautiful pink dogwood flowers. I immediately came home and hung it on my living room wall. I hung two of my remaining paintings on the bathroom wall and one in the kitchen.
It's fun to hang lots of original art on my apartment walls. I have lots and lots of original art in my apartment - several small assembleages and dioramas my mom made, 4 original photos my mom took in Bolivia, my mom's beautiful Dogwood piece, 3 of my own little paintings, 2 decoupaged chairs my mom made, and 3 great black and white photos my mom took on her hippie travels in the 70s. As I get older, I appreciate original artwork more and more. I think I'm going to start taking art classes at either MassArt or UMass Boston in either the summer or this fall. I can't wait to learn all sorts of tricks of the trade! So far, anything I know about painting I've pretty much taught myself.

That's it for now.

awaiting open studios!

Somerville Open Studios is getting closer! it's right around the corner. We've been running around the house for days trying to get stuff ready...hanging paintings, creating sculpture placement design, hanging wallpieces, brainstorming what to do with all of our pieces. My sister's handmade earrings came in the mail today, and they look great. We're expecting a huge crowd...much moreso than previous years. I pray that my mom sells some items and makes her money back on the extraordinary floor cloths she's been working so hard on (and spending an assload on too)! Hopefully we'll get a big turnout.

Excited for Somerville Open Studios

Sometimes I feel so, soooo computer-illiterate. I just tried to sign up for Twitter and couldn't even do it, and that's supposed to be really user-friendly. I are smart, I guess, lol. I'm excited for Somerville Open Studios next week. My mom is an amazing artist. She assembles all these "found objects" that she hauled out of the dump or found on the side of the road, then she paints them gold, glues all these baubles and rusty pieces of crap to them, puts a little light inside, and welds them and wires them to drift wood and other found stuff. Most people would think of the individual pieces as junk, but when all is said and done, the pieces are incredibly clever and beautiful. I am her biggest fan. So this year for Open studios, she has decided to open their house up to the public, and has included 6 other artists from the family to show their work. My sister Augusta, is showing her handmade jewelry. She made many earrings out of jacaranda seed pods that she picked up off the ground in Bolivia and painted with intricate patterns. She also made very clever earrings out of the cardboard from cereal boxes and images from magazine pages that she glued together and varnished. Beautiful and creative! Then there's me, Sagel, the second daughter. I made a variety of small "charming" paintings as my mom calls them. I did simple images, like flowers, hummingbirds, fruit, flamingos, geckos, etc. I spent a lot of time on them, so they're colorful and intricate. I'm pleased! My aunt Celeste has wonderful handmade sterling silver jewelry. My aunt Julie has made adorable handmade aprons, and my aunt Gwen has lovely handmade pottery. I feel so blessed to come from such a creative, talented family! I'm very excited for Open Studios, and will hopefully have a lot of friends coming through the gallery!