Entangled: An Installation

I can't wait for this up coming First Friday showing. The artist this month is Katie Ludwick, aka, Lady Pajama. I think she's awesome! She is one of my favorite local Missoula artists. Here is a sample of her work and what she has to say about it.

In this fresh and insightful installation ladypajama weaves together collage and drawing. Caught in a web of string and lace the viewer will certainly be intrigued by these fragments of ladypajama's mind -- each piece is a window into the artists inner blundering.

What is entangled here? Memories, pieces of the past, hopes for the future, evidence of life -- lived and loved.

Showing March 2nd - 30th. Opening Reception: 5:00-9:00 Friday, March 4th.

Prints by Elizabeth Claire Rose

I have a love affair with Etsy. I am always looking for new things to make me "ooooh" and "awwww" and Etsy is a great place for finding that.

So, one day while browsing Missoula artists I found Elizabeth Claire Rose. I was so impressed by her prints and photos that I asked her if she would like to bring a few by for the gallery. She said she would (yay!). Just yesterday brought me a huge assortment of prints: photographic, block, and intaglio. She has some greeting cards and magnets made of her work as well.

I would have asked her to write a bio like some of the other artists here in the shop, but she's on her way to Eastern Europe tomorrow and just a little busy getting ready. Maybe later.

Till then, you MUST come see her work in person.

Call to Artists!!

Ok. It's time to get this new year rolling along.

I'm looking to fill spots in the gallery for the First Friday art walk from February till June of this year. If you or anyone you know has an itch to get their art out into the world, please email me with three or four .jpeg images of the art that you would like to display to artsiehorse@gmail.com under the header: First Friday!

Any medium will be considered, though I have a special affinity for mixed media and fiber art...

The display area is 15' along one wall and 12' along another. The face of the wall is brick and mortar. If the work is 3 dimensional we have ways to accommodate a limited number of pieces.

Kelly Smith, a.k.a, Stella Latwinski

Just last May, Kelly finished graduation at the University of Montana, Missoula with a master's degree in Economics. She quickly found a job at an environmental consulting firm and her career was on its way. But, just months after her graduation, Kelly let go of her new career and chose to be a full time freelance artist and illustrator. She hasn't looked back since.

She has changed her working name to Stella Latwinski -in honor of her grandmother- in order to separate her artistic side from her Kelly-ness.

One of her characters, Unconventional Ida, has had a loyal following and has inspired an entire world of unconventionality.

Kelly's, er... Stella's, usual artistic M.O. is Sakura Pigma Micron pens and Prismacolor colored pencil on recycled wood block or board that she gets as leftovers from her father-in-law's cabinet shop. She has recently been expanding her canvas to include jewelry and Moleskine Journals.

Artsiehorse Studio & Gallery is ecstatic to be able to carry some of her wood mounted prints, Journals, and Greeting Cards!

Visit her at her website:
stellalatwinski.com

Spotlight on Pam Cozby

These beautiful fabric bowl sculptures are the work of Pam Cozby, another member of the TARTS fiber artist group out of Hamilton, Montana. Her work is entirely her own. With the help of a computer, Pam creates the patterns on the bowls from photos. Then she prints them onto plain white fabric to create one of a kind designs and finishes off with intricate stitching.
The result is absolutely stunning!

Every piece is a unique creation. There are boxes and vases, bowls and platter shaped designs. Some are fuzzy, and some are sleek. They all beg to be held.

Stop by and see what she has done lately...

Anita Mistry–Itsamistry Design Studio

Anita Mistry is a friend, as she would say, from the other side of the pond. Anita harks from Ashton-Under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, England and has graciously sent some of her divine handmade jewelry for sale here in the States.

Itsamistry Design Studio specializes in hand crafted jewelry, made mainly from sterling silver, combined with semi precious stones, artisan or glass beads, Swarovski or Czech crystals. Anita designs and custom makes a unique range of her own designs, where no two pieces of jewelry are the same or designs pieces incorporating client’s ideas and themes. The product range includes necklaces, rings, earrings, bracelets and hairpieces and is now being diversified into cake jewelry.

Anita was also invited to submit a craft jewelry project recently for a National Craft Magazine about the Ananta Bead Necklaces (which are stocked in the Gallery!) and was subsequently asked to run a workshop in the USA and is further developing a series of workshops at her studio for adults and children from age 8 upwards.

See more of Anita’s jewelry, paintings, greeting cards and other artsy creations on her website. http://www.itsamistrydesignstudio.com/

Naked Va Vang! Jewelry

Terra Hanks is a wild child who designs wild awesome jewelry! This is what she has to say about her art and herself:

"My Biz:
Naked Va Vang...Naked & Golden ( in Vietnamese)

"Terra Marcella Hoon Hanks is my name and I am the big (and only) boss/worker of the aforementioned business. I am eclectic and erratic but always emphatic. I have forever loved to make things with my own two hands...

"One of the first projects I remember doing is sewing Christmas presents-underwear topped off with a Santa stencil (for the males) and lavender drawer sachets( for the ladies). I think I was 8. I too, think it was for the entire extended family. I am not sure who's idea it was-whether my mom was embarking on cheap child labor or just trying to impregnate me with creativity-either way i started using the hands to do creative things and it just kept going.
"My inspirations used to live in about a two mile radius. I grew up with a twin sister. We were home-schooled on a farm-with horses+-in Iowa, so we would venture out collecting wonders of nature, daydreaming, spying on ghosts, horseback riding, pretending, and living freeeeeeeeeee. My collecting has definitely not stopped. I have piles of rocks and seeds and pods and leaves and bones and teeth and fur and feathers and even beautiful garbage. I love to make things with other found things. Always have. However, now that we have the world wide web and i have some years of travel under my belt, i have found global inspirations in the following in no apparent order....

*Cleopatra
*Sea Slugs
*Tribal Namibian Women
*Science
*Natural History
*Barbarella
*Mineral Oddities
*Old Black & Whites
*Jacques Cousteau
*Barnacles
*Make Believe
*Animal Patterns
*Fabric
*Geology
*Native Americans
*Yellowstone
*Carnivorous Plants
*Netflix
*Bikes
*Coral Reefs
*Clouds
*Recycling
*My Gran
*Crinoids
*A Certain Gypsum Shoe

"These various inspirations evolve and morph into others before my eyes. One leads to another to another to another....another....other...an....but chiefly, the ocean and geology send me crazy creative.

"I am fiercely independent, so I strive to bring individuality to my jewels & osmotically instill the same within its wearer. I am also a huge fan of reusing, recycling, reconstructing, revamping, redoing, resurrecting, resurging...re-ing pretty much anyway it can be done. I think we've got enough stuff on this planet to keep us all busy for awhile-so i do what i can to change old forgotten wonders into fresh hits. I hate using capitals when I type but I am fighting that hatred, because you see, I am also a fighter. And a lover. And a dreamer. Pretty much like everybody else. Ha! I have two jobs. I am a wild land firefighter for the big bucks and when I can't do fire I do jewels...I find the balance of femininity through my jewels. And at the end of a long summer in the woods with 20 dirty boys I need it! I am in love. I am fearless of everything except rejection. I long for the beach-always. I am a good friend. I look forward to meeting you-the reader and wearer of things created by my hands. I thank you.


"You can find me at:
nakedvavang.etsy.com
and naked va vang as my fan page on facebook
nakedvavang on twitter

*if you mention having read this i will hook you up with treats*"

Heidi Zielinski - Fiber Artist

One of the first artists to include their work in the gallery was Heidi Zielinski. She found me through the TARTS, a fiber art group based in Hamilton, MT when I put out a call to artists through them. Being a fiber artist myself, I wanted to be sure and include some of the fine work of other Montana fiber artists. Click to link to her website, or her blog here.

This is what she has to say about her art:

"I am a fiber artist using fabric, beads, and thread to create art quilts that reflect the beauty and joy of nature and life. I use color, line, and texture to make abstract images that invoke feelings and memories. I am inspired by color and pattern in fabric and sometimes by interesting beads or fibers to create art that is exciting and unique.


"Although my quilts reflect a variety of techniques and styles, my most frequent composition is a collage type background using machine piecing and machine applique. My work is made up of layers beginning with the fabric, enhanced by free motion quilting, and finished off with beading or other embellishment. I use each layer to create paths that help to move the viewer's eye around the piece to discover the details I have put there. I love to combine unusual colors and textures creating interest and sometimes an unexpected result. I am inspired to use stone, bone, horn, and glass beads of many styles, as well as the traditional seed beads and bugles. The beads are a wonderful compliment to the texture and pattern of the fabric and the threadwork.

"I create depth, texture, and movement on my work with intensive free motion quilting and by using cutouts, layering, dangling beads/fringe and fabric (often leaves), and whatever else works to bring the quilt out from the wall and grab your interest. My passion for my work can be seen in every piece I create and I still marvel at the beauty of it."

Re thinking Re organization

I'm redoing this space. Cleaning house, updating and freshening.

I'm hoping for this to be a new era in my life and as such, I'm refocusing. I will still have posts about my goat and my kids. I'll still talk about home renovations (which are going to slowly for my taste). But, my main focus is going to be my lovely shop and the artist who grace it.

Check back to find out more.

The Artsiehorse Studio & Gallery

We're open!

This has been quite the crazy ride.
Getting a small boutique gallery open for business is not a simple task. It involves begging and pleading with tired kids and husbands to help wrangle furniture, multiple submissions of DBA paperwork because I can't fill out forms correctly, tons of phone calls, emails, mailings, and lots of support from friends and neighbors. (thanks friends and neighbors!)

Well, we're here now, we're full of fun things, decorated, and the doors are open should anyone happen by.

This is the window display done by one of the local artists here in Missoula to help support the Missoula Storefront Art Project.


Some views of the beautiful work by me, a few local artists and a few great friends strewn across the globe.





We'll be joining the First Friday festivities every month. This first First Friday has been grabbed up by a great local watercolor artist, Kim Shirley. Kim's work usually focuses on western life, horses, cowboys, and old pickups and buildings. This time Kim gives us a more exotic flavor with images from her recent trip to Italy. Thanks Kim!

Holiday Bazaar

I have been working my fingers to the bone to get ready for the Ceretana Holiday Bazaar. I've been knitting, felting, quilting, making papercloth, painting, drawing... yup, to the BONE! It is on December 4th during the ususual Missoula First Friday events. I figured that I had so many extra art and craft supplies around that I had better start making something out of them and maybe even try to make some dough from them.

But I'm not the only one working hard to have tons of pretty things ready for the Bazaar. Kim Shirley has made cards and posters from her wonderful original watercolors, Patricia Thornton has tons of artworks and her lovely Manny pillows ready, Don John Linton will have some of his amazing photo prints for sale along with so many other artists and crafters!

There's going to be an art raffle and a Cheap Art Salon for artists to sell their "mess ups" and "practices" on the cheap. All art in the Cheap Art Salon will be $1 - $20.

Here's a preveiw of what I will have for sale:a smattering of fingerless mittens,

a few warm scarves (this one's camelhair/wool!),

a dash of papercloth in the form of ornaments,
a couple cute felted purses,

and more to be seen!

A new hero

"Randomizing" on ArtBreak recently I came across a journal maker extraordinaire. Her name is Bunny Mazhari (caution! Adult imagery). She has brave feminine visual imagery and text that makes you think and laugh. She definitely seems like a feminist of the highest order, but her work shows a vulnerable side as well. I so want to do journals like her! Quite a few of her pieces are centered around birth/motherhood, love/lust and the futility of life. She mixes imagery in a way that is nontraditional but works well. I envy her audacity.