1) the beautiful spring weather

2) my new friend running (See why? This is the glory I see on my epic runs!)

3) the end of the school year (check out my independent study student Julie‘s excellent projects from her solo exhibition!)

4) gardening (look at our tomato plantses!) and planting/repotting and

5) A wee bit of traveling (isn’t Chicago pretty?  We also got to hug our friends’ new babies and see my folks)

5) other blogging I’m doing over at Irreverent Vegan.  Why don’t you stop over there and see what we’ve been up to?  Here’s a hint:

I’ll be sure to resume blogging in June when I arrive in Iceland in June for residency #1 for the summer (please think positive restful volcano thoughts).  That will be followed by residency #2 in August at the Philadelphia Art Hotel.  Then, I will be in the studio all fall working on a solo show to take place in Chicago in October.

I am fortunate to have been granted a Faculty Research Fellowship for the fall semester, which means I don’t have to teach or advise so that I can concentrate on my current body of work.  I will be at school periodically for committee meetings, but the majority of the fall is dedicated to preparing for that exhibition and applying for tenure.  Wish me luck!

From my bro, a bottle of Crystal Head Vodka (the bottle is uber sweet!)

From ma mere, a sweet quartz crystal candle holder:

And from Mark, a ceramic skull with glazed teeth and a gold tooth!  I have been wanting this skull from Mudpuppy’s Etsy shop for a long time now.

Thanks to my amazing family for indulging my strange fascinations!

I moved around a lot as a kid and lived as far south as Georgia, where I was born, and as far north as Buffalo, NY, where we moved when I was six or seven.  After five moves, my family settled for the rest of my growing-up years in Rockford in northern Illinois.  As a disgustingly rebellious high-schooler facing college, I wanted to get as far away from home as possible.  I made it as far away as…Dayton Ohio (I know, I know).  I returned to the Rockford area to attend grad school at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.  I applied to a bunch of schools all over the place, but that’s what ended up working best for me.

Throughout and since grad school, I have wanted to participate in the Rockford Art Museum‘s Biennial juried exhibition.  I saw one of them in grad school.  The space is amazing and the work was excellent that year.  Counting back that must have been either 2002 or 2004.  I applied once or twice since then and didn’t get in or the application date would inadvertently pass me by.  Well, this year, I both applied and got in: TWO major accomplishments!    I applied with some pretty big work, and was prepared to haul it out there if need be, but am grateful that I got a small piece in.  Here it is!

All That's Left, oil on panel, 11" x 14", 2008

detail-- photo credit Susan Tusa from the Detroit Free Press

What a difference lighting can make-eh?  Can you tell which image was shot by a professional photographer?  I guess I gave it away.  If you happen to be in snowy Rockford Illinois on January 22nd, you can attend the opening.  I have an opening in Rochester Michigan that night; equally snowy, but much closer.  To see the dates and times the Rockford Midwestern Biennial will be open, visit RAM’s website.

School has been very stressful lately.  S-T-R-E-S-S-F-U-L.  When all of my time seems dictated by meetings, appointments, grading, committee work, etc. I often forget to take care of myself.  Unless Mark puts a sandwich in front of me, I forget to eat.  I make my tea for the day in the morning and forget in on the shelf at home.  Yoga, studio, reading books, all of the things I love to do that define my happiness, fall to the wayside.  I am trying to remember, amidst all of the stress, to live with more intentionality, to summon the energy to do these things instead of functioning on autopilot.  Yesterday was great for that.  I got my grading done during the day, and thus was able to spend my afternoon and evening cleaning up the house from a week’s worth of neglect, and was able to draw and listen to music for the whole night.  Man, it rocked.  You know it’s a good studio experience you find yourself drawing in silence with headphones still in your ears, long after the music has stopped, and you didn’t even notice.  This morning, I jumped out of bed and ran straight into house studio to check on last night’s work.  I love that feeling!

unicorn girl drawing in progress for The Beautiful Ones series

"the fates" drawing in progress for Afterlife series

I’d love to hear the things you do to “remember yourself.”

Here’s one of the pieces that spurred the change.  All pieces framed in white are part of the art makeover.  This particular piece made the greatest transformation.  Formerly, it’s glass was old and dusty and it was in a thrift store frame.  Now this vintage butterfly mosaic is much happier. Here are a bunch of images of the new living room set-up with art in place.  We’re fixin’ to paint the walls gray and the trim white.  What do you think?

Here’s the Mike McFalls sculpture installed in its new home in the dining room.  For the the time being, this is where it lives.

So in short, buy or trade for some new art.  Or invest in some frames for your art.  Your collection needn’t be extensive or expensive to spruce up and I think you’ll like the way it makes your space feel!

Then we did some browsing and window shopping.  I was dismayed to see palmistry model hands in URBAN OUTFITTER.  That’s right.  I sort of detest how their marketing people prey upon people’s genuine interests, then mass-market reproductions of vintage objects to college students.  However, this very occurrence is the inspiration for much of my artwork, so such finds just fuel the fire.  Observe:

To purge my disgust, I was prompted to look online for an authentic palmistry model hand and found one!  It’s on the way to my house from the UK as we speak.   I will surely be using this in the Amelia work as reference and have a drawing involving palmistry in the works.  Isn’t she a beaut?

We passed by a record shop and I snapped a pic of this sweet album cover.  I think hands, skulls, crystals and the like are following me.

We snooped in an antique book store and had a great dinner at one of our favorite A2 establishments: aut\ BAR.

In other news, an article I wrote on eating vegan in Budapest got published in the Nov/Dec issue of VegNews.  Mark Blogged about it on Irreverent Vegan.

]]> http://blog.amysacksteder.com/2009/11/day-in-a2/feed/ 2 http://blog.amysacksteder.com/2009/10/because-i-can/ http://blog.amysacksteder.com/2009/10/because-i-can/#comments Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:41:47 +0000 amy http://blog.amysacksteder.com/?p=565 If I’ve been remiss in blogging, it’s only because I’ve been blogging.  I’ve been helping Mark with Irreverent Vegan a lot lately.  There’s so much food-related stuff to do this time of year, what with putting the gardens to bed, buying up boatloads of tomatoes at the farmer’s market for canning, making pesto from end-of-season basil, etc.  Mark made swoon-worthy pesto and tomato pasta and baked green tomatoes last night.  Check out our action on that blog and let us know what you think.

So, some stuff has been happening on the art front as well.  Mark and I stretched this monster last week:

Though sadly it was a rainy day when we stretched it and the humidity affected it.  It was tight as a drum when I left the studio last Thursday.  When I returned to the studio, it was as wrinkly and saggy as all get-out.  Great sadness ensued.  For me.  Then after about ten minutes of moping, (and since I have a painting due for a show in December) I got my stuff together and started painting on a different canvas.  I altered my Photoshop mock-up to be suited for a vertical rather than a horizontal format and shazam! I’m back in business.  This painting involves big circles, for which I fashioned a very high-tech compass out of a brooch, some string and a sponge brush.  Macgyver,  eat your heart out.

I also co-curated an exhibition at EMU called Contemporary Painting, which I’m really happy with.  More on that later.

And, because our cats have been so dang photogenic lately, a bunch of cat photos.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

]]> http://blog.amysacksteder.com/2009/10/because-i-can/feed/ 2 http://blog.amysacksteder.com/2009/09/peace-out/ http://blog.amysacksteder.com/2009/09/peace-out/#comments Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:27:20 +0000 amy http://blog.amysacksteder.com/?p=549 With the hectic beginning of the school year, I am finding that I need certain elements in my life to keep me sane.  These are constants, but somehow I always forget about them in the chaos of life and keep discovering them when I need them most.  I need quiet time, space to think, space to make, and to remember that there’s a big beautiful world out there beyond the little ruts I dig in the ground on my daily routine.

Today, we had the pleasure of hosting good friends for brunch (tofu Mark-muffins, potato pancakes with cashew creme and apple sauce and peaches), then headed out to some hiking trails with them.  This time of year is blissful.  Before the hike, we found a strange and amazing house out in the middle of nowhere that happened to be for sale.  We walked around the grounds and checked out the old musty outbuilding:

We hiked at Cherry Hill Nature Preserve that Mark and Chad found on a recent bike ride.

Studio time, reading, hot baths, tea and yoga have all been very restorative to me lately.  During the summer months, we can use the three-season room as a yoga studio.  It’s nice because it has tall ceilings, a skylight that looks up into our black locust tree and the cats like to be out there with us.

But with the coming of the Michigan Winter (which deserves to be capitalized), I recently reclaimed the guest room as a space for us.  After all, guests are only here 3% of the time, so why have a room that is completely dedicated to people who don’t live here?  I have been  inspired for awhile by the yoga room created by the author of the blog Beauty That Moves:

So I decided to fold up the old futon (only to be unfolded when guests visit) and make the space into the winter yoga studio. 

I don’t know what’s going on lately, but I am really drawn to sleek, white household items and natural accents.  So, the new studio reflects that.  There are plenty of candles, an old laptop that doesn’t work for much, but still plays music and videos, blankets, room for yoga books, dvds and blocks.  And it turns out that the folded up futon is actually a great place to relax with a book or take a nap.  I just need a lampshade and it will be complete!

Of course I was inspired by the people I was with, but since I am always mesmerized by other peoples’ spaces (thus my infatuation with sites like The Selby, Apartment Therapy and magazines like Dwell), I thought I would post about it.  Jen and Todd (and even her parents) worked hard to make their basement into a space where Jen would want to have a studio and where the boys can play year-round.  They sealed the walls, cleaned up a lot and spray painted the heck out of the ceiling.  The result is a clean, crisp space with painted walls, floors, beams and trim that coordinates with the rest of the house.

Jen's studio with completed and in-progress paintings

Jen's latest painting

To see more images of her work, visit her website.

The boys' "studio"- I love the colorful art lining the walls!

The occasion for my visit was our friend Kelly‘s exhibition at the college where Jen teaches and runs the gallery.  I got there too late to attend the opening, but did get there in time to: attend (even help out with)  Kelly’s mural painting workshop, go to the farmer’s market, do some thrifting ($25 pair of Lane end tables- score!), enjoy several delicious meals, play soccer with a pair of squirts, partake in raspberry AND lemon sorbet at a sci-fi/horror themed ice cream parlor (Eye-Scream anyone?).

farmer's market flowers

Indian corn

Saturday night we were awestruck by a breathtaking sunset.

sunset in the Q

Here’s my attempt at one of the photos that inspires Jen’s paintings:

Even with 18 hours on a train, it was a very complete and restoring weekend.

Lauren and I like a lot of the same kinds of vintage clothing, though her scope is much larger than mine.  Her tastes never fail to inspire me.

We have been thrifting buddies for awhile now.  I think the reason I like thifting so much is getting so much for so little.  Thifting allows one to find seemingly unique items, often in very good or excellent condition, for a low price.  I really like purchasing previously owned pieces that have a history, and in doing so, I am not encouraging the manufacture of new goods, or so I tell myself.  I know I am not alone in this practice (which, if you’re not careful can border on obsession).  And it’s not just clothing that I find in this way, but also house stuff.  We have a thoroughly thrifted house.  What isn’t thrifted is often from craigslist, garage sales, or antique stores.

Of course, buying from Dear Golden means that I am buying thrifted items, but it’s even better because I am getting hand-selected, often carefully mended clothing, about which Lauren knows the historical context.  And I’m supporting a friend too.  I model for her from time-to-time and am happy when she sends me home with “payment” in an especially cool skirt I modeled that day, or a pair of shoes.

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