Special Places: Open Studio

It has been 4 years since I have stepped foot in Ketchum, Idaho.  I was with my husband, 4 month old son, and tween step daughters then.  We were invited to stay in the home of Frank and Susan Ward so that I could teach summer clay camp for two weeks while my stepdaughters swam in the pool and became to understand how Sun Valley got it's name.  Since then, 5 people that were important in my time here have passed away.  One former roommate and friend, two who had beautiful voices and spirits that captured the community theater stage, and one who taught me about early morning coffee and baking.   And then there is Susan.  She introduced me to the joys of teaching ceramics and I returned to the valley this time not to share time with her but with a heavy heart.  I was there to celebrate her life with family and friends at Boulder Mountain Clayworks.  

"Do you want to teach the after school kid's classes?"  Susan asked.  I remember the first time I spoke with Susan.  It was the year 2001 and I was using the old, tan phone attached to the wall in my parents' bay house kitchen.  We had just celebrated the holidays and I was about to make the solo drive from Alabama to Idaho, moving to a place I had never even visited with my boyfriend who loved cross country skiing.  Even though I was full or trepidation, I remember the feeling after I spoke with Susan of knowing that everything was going to be okay in my new home.  

When I pulled into Ketchum,  I parked in the middle of town and put on my Banana Republic, knee-length, black, wool coat.  There was fresh snow already piled high next to the parking spaces, recently plowed.  It was February and this Alabama girl felt like she was in a dream land.  I floated around town with hope.  When I stepped into the studio for the first time, I remember feeling that same hope and sense of home.  It was instant.  And every time I entered the "open studio" door since I have felt that same world of belonging.  

"This is what Susan wanted."  Susan's husband, Frank stated as he addressed the 100+ people who gathered to celebrate her life last Sunday.  "She wanted people to come to this place that she created with love to celebrate community and share stories.  She didn't want us to be sad." I saw people that I had not seen for 10 years and we hugged each other knowing that we were happy to see each other but also sad under the circumstances, trying to stay strong for Frank and the rest of Susan's family.  This place, Boulder Mountain Clayworks, had brought so many of us together.  For me, I became an adult here in my mid-twenties and stayed for 4 years full time.  But when I left to go to grad school in 2006 I couldn't seem to really let it go.  In the summers, I returned to teach summer clay camps.  Susan was always there, beyond the open studio door, to greet me with a smile and support and even offered me a free place to stay each summer with my growing family.

As I think about this space that has been so special to me, I contemplate my attempt to create special places.  I realize that in my classroom I want students to walk into a community where they feel a sense of belonging and know that they are always welcome to return.  Maybe one day I will honor Susan's spirit and create a place inspired by Boulder Mountain Clayworks, with an "open studio" sign attached to the door. 

Is it really the end of June?

I am finishing up my grant cycle from the Regional Arts and Culture Council.  I have one last (on-location) photo shoot scheduled and my artwork is standing by, ready to be framed and sold in my online shop.  The grant cycle is the end of June so I need to be done with all of the work by then.  Where has the time gone?  

For the photo shoot, I decided to use my house to stage my artwork.  It has been a great excuse to get a few things for my son's room and my bedroom that I have been wanting for 5 years since we moved into our current home!  I finally found some great old matching twin bed's to go on either side of Stuart's window and I will frame several of the airplane, sailboat, and train designs to mount above each bed.  His response was amazing when he saw his new artwork.  "You mean I get to have ALL of those in MY room?!"  For my bedroom, I scored a beautiful solid wood birch countertop from the clearance section at IKEA to use as a headboard!  The varnish is drying as we speak.  Above the headboard will be a triptych of three different flower favorites, framed in these pretty linen frames from Pottery Barn.  

Planning the location of the headboard and frames by measuring and posting paper up on the wall. Just a glimpse of what my bedroom will look like.

As for the online shop, it is still a work in progress.  I decided that I will choose the frames that I think the artwork looks best in so that I can showcase them in the shop and have them ready to ship pronto.  I have a lot of squares that need frames. Now I just need to find the time to frame them!  

I am also wrapping up the grading for my online Digital Photography class so be on the lookout for a beginning of July shop opening event.  Summer is here!  Now, if the sun would just come out.  

E-Commerce. Not what I envisioned.

I had no idea that it would be so difficult to sell my art online!  I mean, people go to school to get degrees in E-commerce.  I had no idea.  It has been a process.  One that I want to make sure I document and am totally honest about.  It has not been easy but I am still convinced that it will happen and I will be selling my work online in no time!

But simply getting the art ready to place in an online shop is a feat.  The professional photographer I worked with in February suggested that I scan my artwork instead of photographing it which was the best recommendation I could have gotten.  Not only does scanning keep the artwork in perspective, it also keeps the colors pretty true (except for that bright pink?!).  But that is just step one, scan.  Then I need to crop, edit with photoshop, choose a framing option, and place them in a digital frame.  Those steps add on at least 30 minutes for each product.

Photographing artwork...

Scanning artwork...

Then on to product additions.  After I sent all of my edited photos to my web designer and wrote up blurbs about each piece, I told her exactly how I wanted my shop to function.  (This was after I was shot down by two web designers with the idea that I really want to do; mix and match layers :))  So she worked for a few days on placing products and descriptions into a shop, with various colors and framing options under each product.   When I looked at my shop, it was really not what I had envisioned.  I want the customer to be able to make choices.  And then I saw that in the cart the product image is not even the correct image that the buyer placed in the cart!  It is always the image of the first photo under each product.

 Come on Squarespace.  This seems like an easy fix.  Just have the image match up with each SKU!   I sent them a review and then began to problem solve.

Maybe I should just use Etsy?

Maybe I can just have one product in each without color choices but with framing options?

Maybe I should just have one color choice for each design?

Maybe I should just ditch the online shop?

It seemed like the best way to solve this problem is to reduce the buyers' choices.  So, I went from wanting to give the customer complete control in mixing and matching their layers and colors and custom design their artwork to now them not even being able to choose what frame they want.  I am limited by my options in technology and time.

So, it's not what I envisioned but it will have to work for now. And I have gained some appreciation for all of those Etsy artists.

Energy.

Lately I've been applying for jobs.  Taking a leave of absence from my public school teaching job has been a blessing in so many ways.  I've had energy to spend with my family, create my own work, learn new skills, and even train for a triathlon (that's only a few days away!).  I've developed some skills that would greatly improve my teaching and I am anxious to get back into the classroom.   I feel energized.  

I am looking to see what options I have since the job that I left last year was reduced to .5 FTE.  I want to be in a school that believes in the visual arts and supports a solid arts program.  Two jobs have come up for next fall that would be ideal jobs for me.  After 20 years of teaching art, I feel like I have the knowledge, skills, and the right to be picky.  I interviewed at an all-girls Catholic high school.  It would be an amazing place to work, with motivated and talented teachers and students, and I would finally be in a high school.  I have always envisioned myself at this point in my career teaching at a high school or upper level classes.  So, this was my chance.  I got an interview but I did not get the job.  After feeling a bit disappointed, I moved on and applied for another ideal job at a local arts focus elementary school.  If any job is a great fit for me, it's this one!  I have a huge amount of experience in the elementary art classroom, shining letters of recommendation and I know I could continue a legacy of visual art excellence.  This time I did not even get called for an interview.  

It is interesting how at this time last year I was so ready to take a break and step away from the classroom, maybe even not returning.   Now the time has come to think about going back and it seems that the universe might not want me to.  

Why does this have to be such a difficult profession?  As art teachers, we not only have to teach but we also have to convince the people that make all of the decisions that reflect our lives that providing a space for students to be creative is highly important.  I'm not sure I have the energy to do it anymore.  Maybe it's time for me to put that charge in another direction?

On location.

When I was growing up in Alabama, I spent many nights in grand homes in the city of Mobile, in Gulf Shores, or on Mobile Bay that were thoughtfully decorated.  There is something about the culture of the south that focuses on beautifying.  Southerners make sure their clothes, homes, faces, and feet are pretty at all times.  My mother spent hours of her time browsing antique stores and purchasing oriental rugs to fill our living room floor and artwork to adorn the walls of our den.  Most women also did not leave home without their makeup and hair done.  This is the environment I was raised in.

These bookshelves are a perfect place for a 4" paper cut at my friend's home in Auburn, Alabama. Melissa even bought one of my favorite Beth Bundy Designs, the doug fir cone.

So, when I started thinking about going "home" for spring break I began thinking about all of the manicured homes that I would be visiting and envisioning my paper cuts adorning their walls, bookshelves, and mantels.  I lugged a carry on full of only my artwork and frames and began by asking one of my college friends if I could place my art in her home.  Lucky me, her living room could be on the pages of Pottery Barn it is so perfectly put together (and she has three sons, ages 4-8!).  Another one of my best friends just cleaned her home to put it on the market so it was also staged and ready for a raid of Beth Bundy Designs!  

A lavender lion looks perfect in the beautiful baby room at Barcley's house in Birmingham, Alabama.

I will be continuing to visit homes in Birmingham, New Orleans, Mobile, Tallahassee, Panama City Beach and Georgia over the next couple of weeks, which gives me quite an array of locations to infest.  It is a good thing that I grew up in the south where people know how to take such good care of themselves and their homes!  My artwork approves.