Watertown Arts Festival...soggy but what fun!

I showed my pressed flower art at the The Watertown Arts Festival that was held this past weekend! Even if the weather was drippy, cool and a bit windy there were many smiles on faces I saw. I think most of the artists were glad that they attended, as I sure was. From noon til the end of the show I offered folks a chance to make their own, free pressed flower bookmark. Who can resist flowers?! Young and old had a blast and went home with a new little treasure.
I would like to extend my heartfelt 'thank you' and also my congrats to the Watertown Business Association for a wonderful job in organizing this show. The committee, led up by Kay Solberg, did an excellent job with setting up this affair...the advertising was the best I have ever seen for events like these and everything went very smoothly in spite of the weather! We are all looking forward to next year's event and are encouraging all local artists to join us next year.
This year, as part of the Festival, all of the artists were invited to place one of their artworks in the Redlin Art Center in Watertown, SD. This is a hugely popular art center and features only the work of nationally know artist, Terry Redlin. To have our art hanging for the month of June in this prestigious art center is truly an honor and wonderful opportunity to share what we love to do with many more people. Julie, at the Center, organized a wonderful Artist's Reception on Friday night. Thanks so much, Julie! You made us all feel so special.
In addition to the wonderful opportunity at the Redlin Art Center the public was asked to vote for their favorite piece. There was an Award's Dinner on Saturday night at the Goss Opera House and we learned of the results of the voting! I am so pleased to say that the piece I entered, my window box piece titled 'The Front Porch of Life', was awarded First Place in the Mixed Media category! I received many kind remarks about it and was so thrilled that some were even able to tell that it was made of pressed plant material. It is my dream that one day there will be a specific category in all shows for 'Pressed Flower Art'!
One of the best parts of this show was getting to meet so many talented and passionate artists! I look forward to many new friendships.
Thanks again to all who helped to make this event a success for us all.

My art made it into the South Dakota Magazine!

Well, you can sure imagine how excited I was about getting my work in this magazine!! It is the most popular magazine in SoDak. You can find it in the May/June 2010 issue...and, of course, I bought several! All the folks at the magazine were so wonderful and helpful. I want to especially thank Katie Hunhoff for all her efforts...she was a delight to work with.
I also want to thank Brenda at Expressions Art Gallery and Frame Shop in Watertown, SD. Brenda volunteered to take the photos to send to Katie. I am still just clueless when it comes to this kind of technical stuff. She did a wonderful job with the photos. And I can't say enough about their excellent framing...all three pieces that I have entered in competitions were framed there. I have to think that the presentation these frames created added to my work...all three won ribbons! And now the best part...Dianna, at Expressions Gallery, asked me if I wanted to display this piece in the gallery! So I have finally reached my first goal...to get my work in a gallery. Dianna has it displayed with the magazine article. And it is right next to one of my favorite wildlife artists...Josh Spies!! This wonderful artist won the national duck stamp contest recently. He also has many of his pieces at the Goss Opera House in Watertown.