August 4, The Big News!

SO...
Here's the big fun news~

Well, a story first, anyway-

great friends go to the lake with you!

mina at brighton beach

So on Wednesday, my dear friend and fellow art-car and art -bike artist and art teacher Mina, was kind enough to ride along with me up to Tettegouche State Park Visitor Center to pick up my otters and bears that were hanging up there all month.  It was the only slot of time I've had available this week, and I didn't want to subject my 8 year old son (or myself) to the trial of a one-day North Shore run, as we weren't able to go up on Tuesday and stay over, and I had to teach a class early on Thursday, so the only option was a one day run.  Mina and I talked non-stop the entire way there and back, catching up as we needed to do.  And we were able to meet Jan Sivertson on time at the park!  Jan runs the Sivertson Gallery in Grand Marais and the Sivvis Gallery in Duluth, and I am a huge fan of her sister Liz Sivertson's paintings.  Jan had e-mailed me a few days prior to say she'd seen my otters at Tettegouche and loved them and would love to have them be a part of Sivertson's Gallery, and I said heck yes!  And we'll be there on Wed!  And so Jan met us and ran off with 11 paintings, most pretty big, nine otters and two bears, with plans to nab a few more another time.  We haven't nailed down too much in terms of dates or anything, but I should be up at the Gallery for September 30th to do some kind of a painting demo!

two of the paintings
 that will be at Sivertson's

mom and me at the opening!

And I am proud to say I am now Officially represented by Sivertson Gallery in Grand Marais! Wahoo!

This has been a dream of mine since childhood.  We spent a lot of time in Grand Marais, and still do, and I remember seeing Liz Sivertson's art at Sivertson's Gallery long ago and loving it and understanding that a woman can be an artist and paint fantastic gloriously colorful paintings of animals, and that's what I wanted to do too.  And now I am!

the LOVE TREE by Faith Lowell

I also should mention that it was at Sivertsons' where I made my first "big" art purchase.  I saw a Faith Lowell painting of a tree, a single tree, blasted by wind and storm, standing alone with a low horizon and a big sky behind it, titled "Love Tree", I thought.  It was actually "Lone Tree" but I read the handwritten label as "LOVE Tree" and I identified immediately with this tree, by itself, beat up and alone, but still full of love, representing love, and I wanted it.

It was more than I could afford, of course, $400 or something around there, but I talked to the staff at Sivertson's and they said they would hold it for me and I could make payments on it, $50 a month, and when it was paid off I could get it, no interest charged at all.  Well, that made a big difference to me!  And I have come to realize that most galleries AND artists would prefer to sell a work to you for payments, and most do not charge any kind of interest either.  SO think about that next time you see a larger, more expensive piece-  or even a small, not terribly expensive but out-of-your-range-right-now piece, and ask the artist if they'd accept payments on it.  I know I do!

Thanks for following along!  And come see me this weekend at Powderhorn Art Fair if you can!  I am around the lake at the ceremony site for Mayday!
XOXO!
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