Upcoming Hoilday Shows

Here is what is coming up next for me. Two great shows!

December 12 (Sat) Designing Women Woodfords Congregational Church, Woodford St., Portland 9am-4pm

December 10th - 30th Holiday Sale at Artascope Studios 352 Cottage Road, South Portland, Opening Sunday, December 13th Daily 9am-7pm

Also, my etsy shop is always open. Go to www.suzannedrown.com for more info.

Help Support Preble Street

As an artist, it is always exciting to find ways to help my community. It's even more fun to do it with other Maine artists!
This week, I have joined the Maine Etsy team in a promotion to support the Preble Street Resource Center, a local agency that provides services to homeless members of our community. From November 13 to 19, I will be donating 15% of sales from my Etsy shop to Preble Street! Come visit my shop and support the good work of this organization. (For a list of other participating shops visit etsymaineteam.blogspot.com.)

Making Preparations for the Holiday Season

Here is my show schedule for November and December 2009! I am really excited to be participating in these great shows!

November 14 (Sat) Waynflete "Hands to Art" 360 Spring St., Portland 10am-4pm

November 20-21 (Fri-Sat) Zaz and Moe Studio Show 37 Hawthorne Lane, South Portland Friday 2pm-8pm, Saturday 9am-3pm

December 12 (Sat) Designing Women Woodfords Congregational Church, Woodford St., Portland 9am-4pm

December 10th - 30th Holiday Sale at Artascope Studios 352 Cottage Road, South Portland, Opening Sunday, December 13 Daily 10am-7pm

Also, my etsy shop is always open. Go to www.suzannedrown.com for more info.

What a Beautiful Day

I have been living and working in Maine for awhile now, as the days grow shorter we know that cold will follow. I have been wishing for some more warm days before the temps drop and the snow flies.

I got my wish Sunday! I walked the beach in Biddeford Pool Maine with two dear friends. The sun was shining, the temperatures were warm and the beach was lovely!

Words to Live By

It started in college and continues today....collecting quotes, phrases and words that have meaning and bring inspiration and focus to life. I have already created a number of batik hangings that feature these words.

Recently, I asked friends to suggest words or phrases that were meaningful to them, and got some great ideas. Over the last couple of weeks, I have been working with these ideas to create new work to add to my collection. Here is the first of many to come.

Thank You Art Quilts Maine

This past Saturday I had the pleasure to conduct a batik workshop for members of the Art Quilts Maine quilting group in Augusta, Maine. During the two hours we had together, they quickly learned to paint with wax and dyes. The results were beautiful!

Last Morning of Summer 2009

On my morning walk I took these photos. It was beautiful! I came home inspired!

Picnic Music & Art Festival

I am a last minute participant in the Picnic Music+Arts Festival this Saturday, September 12th. I will be sharing a booth with my good friend Sue Hellier of Zaz and Moe. Booth # 97. Come say Hi!

The festival is held rain or shine and it is free! For all ages and from 11am to 6 pm @ Lincoln Park (Congress Street and Franklin Arterial) in Portland, ME.

100 vendors & live music!

For more info picnicportland.wordpress.com

The Sunflowers

I love sunflowers!
This year my neighbors grew these beautiful flowers! How lucky I am I that I see them everyday!
What great inspiration and a reminder that even as the kiddos head back to school there is some summer left to enjoy!

Sidewalk Art Festival this Saturday

This Saturday, August 22nd I will be at WCSH Sidewalk Art Festival in Portland, ME from 9am-4pm. I will be located on the sidewalk near Longfellow Books. Stop by and say Hello!

Featured @ Fiddlehead Center for the Arts in Scarborough

I am pleased and honored to have had some of my batik art work hanging for the months of July and August at the Fiddlehead Center for Art in Scarborough. Fiddlehead- Scarborough is located at 383 US Route 1 in Scarborough, ME. If you are not familiar with the center I encourage you to go to their website to check out their great fall class offerings.

Art in the Park this Saturday!

This Saturday, August 8th I will be at Art in the Park held at Millcreek Park in South Portland, ME from 9am-5pm. Stop by and say Hello!

Summer Continues

What a wonderful week I had teaching the Fabric Art Camp at Fiddlehead Center for the Arts in Scarborough, Maine. I had a group of nine very creative girls that enthusiastically attacked every project or process I gave them to try! The unexpected highlight of the week was the creation of imaginary fabric creatures that the girls worked on in their free time all week. They even created an imaginary worlds for their creatures! Sometimes the best things in life are the unplanned surprises!

Home Again!

I've returned from a wonderful week of fun and experimentation as artist-in-residence at the Schoolhouse summer camp in Vermont. We made art flags, tie dyed t-shirts, printed marbled fabric, started a weaving using an old door frame, made 3-D puppets, and created a batik hanging with glue and paint.

A big thank you to the great staff - Jessica the director, and counselors Jevin and Kelsey - and all 20 campers for making my week a fun learning experience! Thanks, too, to my friend Tana for arranging it all, and to my other Vermont friends for spoiling me with fun dinners and late night conversations!

Next week, I am on to teach at the Fiddlehead Center for Arts in Scarborough for a week of Fabric Arts Camp!

Off to Vermont!

The summer is in full swing! The sun has returned and life is good! I just finished my first teaching gig of the summer! It was with a super great group of campers who created some cool art! I think the highlight of my time with them was making edible books (aka. cakes!) on the theme of travel! They had a blast using cakes as a canvas and frosting, candy, etc as the paint!
Next up, I head to Vermont tomorrow to be the artist in residence for a week at the School House Summer Camp in South Burlington. I am excited and little bit nervous too! I have what think will be a great week planned! Hope to have some photos to post at the end of next week!

Enjoy this much needed sunshine!

Finding Some Balance

Life is very full right now! I am ever so grateful!
I am wearing a lot of hats and am trying to remember to breathe and enjoy all that I am doing!
Teaching, making art, working, preparing for a 50th anniversary party (my parents), watching my beautiful daughter leave middle school behind and move on to high school and finding time to spend with family and friends, all good things! I am feeling very lucky and trying to remember to be in the moment and not think too much about the future or the past.
I am finding time to make art (see A Piece of Art a Day Challenge, June 1, 2009), not everyday but most days. Here is one example!
Hope you are enjoying your summer and remember to breathe and enjoy!

Summertime is Calling!

Summertime means summer camps - a rite of passage for so many kids and families! So my focus for the last few days has been planning and preparing for summer camp...well camps!

This summer, I am expanding my teaching horizons with two new opportunities and I am very excited! I get to play and teach and watch great kids come up with some really cool creations! Does it get better than that?

July is camp month for me. First, I will be at Summer Stage in South Portland. Next, I will travel to South Burlington Vermont for a week.as a teaching artist at the School House Summer Camp. Then, at the end of the month I will be teaching and hopefully inspiring another group of summer campers at the Fiddlehead Center for the Arts in Scarborough! The last two camps feature the fiber arts so we will be batiking, marbling, painting, embellishing, playing, making masks! For more information check out their websites!

Are you a grown-up looking for some summer fun? Check out the classes at Artascope Studios! I will be teaching classes there in June, July and August and they offer many more classes with many talented artist / teachers. Check them out on the web!

A Piece of Art A Day Challenge

Creating a new piece of art everyday, I know that this sounds like a simple thing to do especially for someone who make their living as an artist! I have felt like lately creating new work is getting a bit lost! Between what I need to do to promote my business, teaching, taking care of my family and working a part time job I have not been working on the new as much I would like! What to do?
I am going to challenge to myself to create a piece of art a day. Draw, paint, batik, big, small, does not matter, just that I create something new! My hope is to change my focus and develop a new habit. I will plan to post some of my favorites in the future. Want to join me? Let me know!!
Interestingly enough I just found this great source of inspiration for my challenge while reading the Design Sponge! The Museum of Pocket Art which features business card size art promoting the idea that everyone should be able to carry great art with them to inspire and share! Check out both sites! Stay tuned and get creating!

Dance Design

It is that time of year when the slower pace of winter melts away and life becomes very busy! End of school year events like concerts, dances, art shows, recitals, drama performances and parades absorb my attention and time. As busy as it gets I do love this time of year!
Recently, I have been working on a new design that I will use to make pins and necklace charms. I will be selling the pins and necklaces to raise some money to go towards recital costs for my daughter's dance school. It is one of the favorite things I do during the year.
Here is hoping you also get to enjoy a performance or art show of your favorite dancer, musician or young artist!

Dreaming Of My New Garden

Every year in the spring I start to spend a lot of time outside in the garden. First I clean it up, pull off the leaves and then discover what of my perennials are going to make it back for another season. Next I plant the seeds, taking a casual approach with a loose plan. This year I am hoping to find the time to expand my garden and create a back yard full of lilies, sunflowers, morning glories, marigolds, columbine, nastrium and maybe even some veggies!

I took these photos at the recent Portland Flower Show, it was a beautiful show. Hopefully these photos will inspire my imagination so I can create a new and colorful oasis for me, my family and friends! I also think in these photos and later the growing garden there will be inspiration for a painting or two! Happy Spring!

Next Steps for Design 2

I am starting to work on the fabric with design number two. I have painted the stars with a yellow dye. The next step will be to paint the stars with wax to protect the yellow. Then dye the fabric in a blue dye bath later this week.

Painting with Dye

Back to work now that spring vacation is done! Spring has arrived so I can work outside!
Here are the photos of the next steps of the batik process. I am painting on the dye today. Here is the waxed fabric before I start to paint.





I have started to paint with yellow paint that I will mix with some blue to create green.







Adding some green paint now to fill in the leaves.









Now I am painting the back ground with the bright blue paint.









Here is a close up of the finished piece of fabric. After drying for 24 hours I will rinse it out with hot water to remove the soy wax and excess dye.










The finished fabric. More steps to come soon!

Painted with Wax

Here are some more photos of the waxed fabric featuring design number two.

Next Steps

As promised, here are the next steps in creating a batik.

Here is my work station: tools, melted wax and cotton fabric.








Getting ready to paint with the melted wax.






Here I am painting the fabric with a sumi brush and the melted wax.











More progress.











This piece of cotton is ready for dye!








Check back soon to see my progress.