Mexico!

What inspires me? Mexican Folk art. All the yummy color and outsider art appeal. I was lucky enough to visit once and it was delicious! Even the homes and buildings make you smile with their vibrant hues. Growing up with an uncle from Mexico may have influenced it a bit as well. My cousins would come home from their yearly trip to Nino's hometown and have such great stories and candy! We would play Loteria all the time with kidney beans as markers and before my Auntie Mary (Nino's wife) passed away last year I was lucky enough to get the set we played with. The best were the visits from Nino's mom and sisters. They spoke very very little English so instead of talking they would just cook. There is seriously nothing better on this planet than tamales made by people who know what the heck they are doing. Glenn made them a few years ago for a party we were having but they were different. Still good but not as good as the pros. Now I collect Mexican Folk art and when the mood strikes me I create art with my own personal flair but heavily influenced by my past and love for the art that is created by the wonderful people of Mexico.

Where has my art taken me?

Oh the places my art has taken me. I decided it was time for me to create an art resume and as I look back on the last ten years it makes me smile. My creativity started to come out in 1999 when I opened a little consignment craft store in Baraboo Wisconsin with 3 other creative ladies. I quickly discovered through that wonderful learning experience that I would work much better alone and after 3 years broke off on my own. After only a year of successfully running my store alone Glenn and I decided to make a major life change and move back to my hometown to be near family and make some career changes.

Once in Manitowoc I was feeling lost and unsure of where I would fit in. I started making things. For hours and hours I would spend time in my studio in my parents basement and spending the other hours of the day working at a bank...yes a bank. One day while walking downtown I noticed a for rent sign in a store window. My curiosity peaked and I got home and called the number. The rent was so affordable I decided it was time to resume the business I loved so much in Baraboo and so Persimmons Manitowoc style was born.

Having the shop made me realize that our community needed more opportunities for local artists to connect and network so I talked to a few of the artists I met through my shop and my friend Jolene Funk and we started Art and About. It really allowed artists of all ages and mediums to meet and support each other and since that day in 2004 our group has raised thousands of dollars to further the education of young artists in our county. We also host art tours to open the community to all the wonderful creative spaces of the 40 or so artists that make up Art and About.

My store Persimmons has changed a bit since opening in Manitowoc in 2004. I have moved to my current location at 314 N 8th Street in Manitowoc. The building is a 1890's brick beauty with an original mosaic tiled floor and even more amazing original tin ceiling. My open studio was recently featured in CPS Studios and I was honored to be featured along with so many talented artists and craft people!

My art has taken me on a path of so many wonderful journeys. In the last few years I have been fortunate (well kind of fortunate but mostly because I work my butt off) to be published in so many wonderful art magazines! If someone would have told me 10 years ago when I was first published in a little blurb in ME Home Companion that someday I would be regularly published I don't know if I would have believed it. My work has been in Somerset Gallery, Somerset Holidays and Celebrations, Somerset Studio, Bead Unique, Cloth Paper Scissors, CPS Studios, and Belle Armoire! Actually putting it on paper made me go wow! I am a lucky lucky gal.

I am really excited for the future and hope that maybe someday all of my hard work will allow me to actually make money...he he. Which is why I am working on my little art resume. Putting down all of my accomplishments on paper has made me realize that I really have accomplished a lot in just a few years that I am really proud of.

I am surrounded by a wonderful network of wonderful artists and friends that support me and who I love supporting as well and that is by far the best result of my art journey. There are so many amazing and talented people in this world and I am happy to have quite a few of them in my life!

So get out there and put yourself out there! Share your art and enthusiasm with the world and I promise in 5 years when you look back on what you have done you will smile.

Don't forget the color.

As anyone who knows me knows I love color. All my walls in my house are painted bright vibrant colors like apple green, Caribbean blue and bright orange. I get so inspired by layers of texture piled with colors of all hues and shades. I search out vintage pieces with that color I crave to reinvent into something a little over the top and vibrant. Like this rag rug placemat I found at my local thrift store. Some of you may have seen my art bag but I decided to let you all know a little more about it since it will appear in the next issue of Cloth Paper Scissors in the muse flash section. That makes me as happy as a giant rainbow.

I created this bag with a standard placemat that I folded in half and then crocheted the sides in the end loops. I added straps by simply cutting a small hole on each side of the bag and tying long pieces of fabric strips and even a vintage Peruvian belt as handles. I then took more strips of fabric and ran them through holes in the bottom and to the handles to create fringe. I hung some ATC's from the fringe and a few supplies like a scissors, sharpie, wire and ruler from the strap fringe so I am never without these staples of my craft arsenal. The bag is big enough to fit a nice assortment of supplies on a trip so I can journal on the go.

The wonderful color in the placemat also made for a nice background for a few of my new pendants that are now at Persimmons!

Studio.

I am honored to be featured in the latest issue of Cloth Paper Scissors Studio magazine! This fantastic issue also features the studios of some of my art sisters like Jodi Ohl, Pam Carriker and Risa Tritabaugh. There are so many great ideas for storage, organization and color in your studio. Us artists are so very clever. This fantastic issue comes out on May 18th or you can order it on the Cloth Paper Scissors site. Big big love to my super talented friend Nikki Nishke for taking fabulous photos for the article ... she is a picture taking pro!