Rocking Colorado

Vibrant desert set for Tucson

Wow has it been a while! I knew we would be taking a bit of a break with the baby but we were surprised with a new job for my husband in a new city and state. We are loving Colorado but will always miss sunny Arizona (maybe just not this summer heat). My last piece before the move was this vibrant 5’ desert trio for a lovely couple in Tucson. I absolutely love the proportions on the 5 footer and will be using them again!

With the knowledge that we had two moves coming up (rent for a year to find out where we want to live), we sold our increasingly shabby tent and displays as well as a good chunk of Matt’s woodworking studio. In truth we sold, donated and discarded as much as we possibly could to consolidate our sh(tuff) for the move. That has left us a little high and dry (Denver pun not technically intended) in our small rental but our (hopefully) permanent house is going up and due to be finished in August. I’m assuming it’s going to be another few months or a year post-move before we’re equipped and settled enough to start up again.

I’m currently working on new ideas, colors, and patterns to start work on my next season of work. It’s going to be very Colorado-based (for obvious reasons) but should be a lot of fun! I love that each year we expand and discover new opportunities. It would be a blast to see where we are in a decade but then I’d miss all of the surprises!

My goal before our grand re-entry into the professional art world is to share my quarantine art. These are not pieces for the wall but stuff I do on my off-time. They are vastly different from my normal work (quilts and busy books and the like) so this is my warning. Stuff is about to get weird.

Hopefully by the time we’re ready to soar again this whole crazy COVID age will be long gone (all of the fingers crossed). We are lucky enough that the worst we have encountered is lack of zoos, parks and family visits but I know so many others have been affected in so many worse ways. I hope you all stay safe, stay happy, enjoy art and the world around you.

Lots of love, Tara

Summer Slumps & Baby Fever

It has been a quiet summer on the art front, but I have my excuses. With a new baby on the horizon in less than a month, we have held back on all fall shows due to the reality that with a newborn and a two-year-old (and the fact that my husband really does have a job), a slew of art festivals so soon after baby #2 may make the whole experience hectic. So, sadly, we will be withholding until spring (which is anytime after New Years for my Phoenix brain). 

I had a few custom orders from the spring festivals, and I do have some pieces that are waiting patiently for our festival circuit to start up again. I had fun creating some work with images for the spring, so have a few more of those prepared. I've worked on pieces with cacti, succulents, koi, and whales. I have some new ideas for finishing and framing that I'm excited to test out on some of the new pieces. I'm also excited to try out a few new color palettes and some paints I bought on vacation that I haven't worked with yet. It should make for a fun fall and winter.

Any other free time my sweet little girl gives me was used on different artwork (and quite a few sewing projects that aren't going to make it on here). I completed a giant STEM-related painting for a local charter school, a unicorn for a friend's daughter, and some artwork and a mural for my upcoming baby's nursery. It's been a nice change of pace to play with some of my older mediums. I'm excited to continue working on my work for the next festival... but first, let's get this baby out of me! Less than four weeks to go, but who's counting?   ;) 

Fruitful Spring

As the spring is nearing an end (at least for those of us un AZ as 100º threatens our near future - pretty sure we didn't have a winter here... fall fell right into spring), things are simmering down for some much-needed catch-up time. 

The spring was a busy one, if calm compared to the fall. Two more art festivals, some custom orders, finally enough time to get the house together (though not finished yet - but Frank is FINALLY parked in the garage), and news of another baby girl Polson that will join our clan in the fall. 

The thicker acrylic (we've switched to 1/2" for our long pieces in order to get rid of the epoxied back) is working wonderfully. It's hefty but the extra thickness brings in even more light and extinguishes any issues we've been having with epoxy and the heat of outdoor AZ festivals. After years of teaching expansion and contraction to 7th graders, who would expect it to become my nemesis? I thought we were friends...

We're trying out some new ideas, but have so many in the pipeline. I'm excited to see what we have in stock in the fall. We're going to experiment with outdoor art (that may be a year before you see it - I want a nice Sonoran summer to attack the plan first). We have all types of designs for molding (melting), and ideas for usable art (which is mostly based on items I currently need in the house ant want to make my way). My desert scenes have been a hit, so more of those will be coming. I'd also like to start with some animal pieces, which is really how I started painting (cue circle of life music in my head). On another bright side, now is the very best time for custom orders because I have materials to prep for the fall and this new thing on my hands... some call it time... it's so very glorious. Still more rare than I may like, but it's occasionally there. 

As for now, I'm going to wrap up the current custom order, then begin work on my new girl's alphabet set. Nora's nursery is finally complete after the move and havoc that ensued (and absolutely adorable if I may say so myself). New baby's nursery is going to be a mixture of astronomy & science. Some babies are born nerdy, some achieve nerdy, and some have nerdiness thrust upon them. My apologies, baby Polson.

Post-Holiday

Happy New Year! I am pretty much shocked at how long it's been since my last post. (I did actually manage to make a post in between but forgot to hit "save & publish" instead of just "save," so by the time I published it, the post made no sense so I killed it. You'll never know. Mwah hahaha.)

Anywho, it's been a crazy busy winter. Today has actually been my first day of "rest" for months. ("Rest" because I spent all day cleaning our mess of house and planning, purchasing, and cooking  for out new diet. Hello, New Year!) You've missed a ton though. We are five festivals in now. Each festival was a good experience and we are ever-changing. I can't believe how far we've come. We have so many ideas and plans for the next season. I'm so excited to see what is coming in the spring!

I started playing with melting and bending the plexi right before Tempe this fall. I've been wanting to bring more third dimension into the work. The changes in the viewing angle also help make the colors and interference paints pop! I love the change. We have many more ideas in the pipeline... this spring should be great!

The Great Migration

Phoenix is gorgeous in the winter. It is absolutely fantastic. However, wood working in August at 110º for five hours is less than ideal. On the bright side, Matt & I were able to cut and route frames for the 60+ pieces that I have prepped for upcoming festivals (and we probably dropped a few lbs of water weight). I'll be taking the art and wood up to St. George, UT to finish them up while we wait for the new house to be renovated. Sadly, I will be leaving my paints behind for three weeks. That's an eternity in painting time. With all of the sanding, oiling, and epoxying that needs to be done, I don't think boredom is going to be an issue. That and the fact we will have five dogs (F.I.V.E!) and a baby. 

The move starts tomorrow. Dun dun dunnnnn.

The Joys of Moving

The house is probably over half packed (so long as you don't look in the garage). The good news is that I paint as stress relief, and have been getting a ton done. I'm even venturing out to experience with some new shapes. 

Partway through some new formats... still my Prague pallet. This has been my month. I love how you can see the mess, the moving boxes, the baby jumper, and subtle dog paws in the lower left. 

On to news: All of the juried results are in for the fall festivals. Here is my fall line-up:

• October 7-8: Sedona Arts Festival
• November 3-5: Carefree Fine Art & Wine Festival
• November 10-12: Fountain Festival of Fine Arts & Crafts
• December 1-3: Tempe Festival of the Arts
• December 8-10: 4th Avenue Winter Street Fair Tucson

It's going to be a crazy fall! I'm trying to get as much painting as I can do before the move (which is only about a week and a half away). I'm taking the baby, dogs, and a whole mess of wood bases up to St. George for a couple of weeks to work on finishings while we wait to close on the new house and get some renovations done. Then the fall fun will begin... can't wait!

Tempe & Astronomical Clocks

The fall festival jury results are pouring in. I will be showing at the Tempe Festival of the Arts in December! 

I returned to one of my favorite color palettes yesterday. I just have a thing for blues, golds, and copper. This palette is actually based off of an old (OLD - installed in 1410) astronomical clock in Prague. Matt & I saw it a couple of years ago during our tour through central Europe. The other color palette is a return to all things bright. The dog is a photobomber. 

Prague astronomical clock, June 2014

Today's adventure: Grays... hey, not everything needs to be a rainbow to be interesting, right? And is it gray or grey? Either way, I'd better start painting before the little miss wakes up.

Summer Sweats

It's been a jam-packed summer! After a relaxing holiday in Northern California and wine country, we returned to clean up and pack the house to put it up for sale. My sweet girl, three dogs, and I headed up to mom's house in Utah so we were out of the way. On the bright side, that gave me a ton of free time to experiment on a whole new set of pieces. I'm very excited about them - they just keep getting better! Luckily for us, we got an offer within five days so I'm back in Phoenix working on the move. 

In other summer news, we have two art festivals lined up so far. I will be showing at the Sedona Arts Festival on the 7th and 8th of October, and at the Carefree Fine Art & Wine Festival from November 3rd to the 5th. I'm still waiting to hear back from a couple festivals... I'll keep you updated!

Welcome to my new blog!

We have been working on preparing our booth and artwork for the fall festivals. With over four months to go, I think we're in great shape! We are overflowing with ideas of different designs and shapes for some larger pieces. I'm excited to try some of them out. With summer basically here and Phoenix gearing up to turn into an inferno, I'm looking forward to spending some of my time experimenting in between peek-a-boo, spit-up, and dirty diapers (by the way, I have a six-month-old).