Saturday, September 4, 2010

September Scrumbles

I'm feeling a bit exhausted from a rockin' and rollin' summer making little things to sell as fast as my fingers could work. I'm saying right now that I need a bout of Fantasy Houses, etc - drawing and painting. Yes! New focus. Some NEW art work... All good...

Friday, August 20, 2010

August Scrumbles

I'm having a blast with Scrumbles - though they continue to go as fast as I make them... a fun dilemma! But my mind is busy with new ideas for Fall. Stay tuned!

Saturday, August 7, 2010

New Scrumbles...

Scrumbles ... another fun time seeing what Scrumbles would come out of the sewing room. I get so distracted in there with all the fabrics and buttons and stuff. If I don't hold myself steady, I start 20 projects and finish none. This time I had a goal of getting at lease one Scrumble to the gallery for the evening Art Walk yesterday. Two made it outta here...

Thursday, August 5, 2010

August Lucky Fish Go to the Gallery

I love making these fish! Though sometimes I feel crazy over the little details that take so long. I begin to doubt my sanity - the question pops into my mind, "is it worth it?" and I start listing time VS money VS practicality in list form. Then I shake my head and keep going. The giggles in the fish corner of the gallery are pure joy!

I think the batik fabrics look great on fish.

Lucky Fish are 12+ inches long and go for $20 each.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Windwalker's Newest: The Portal of Morning

Windwalker is in the process of painting a series of watercolors of sacred places. This first piece is title, The Portal of Morning. Enjoy!

Friday, July 30, 2010

New Scrumbles...

Scrumbles go to the gallery and leave the gallery pretty rapidly. In other words, its tough to keep any on the shelves. They seem to make others smile as much as they make me smile!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

The Zephyr Voyager

"We’d been admiring boats, exploring the notion of Inside Passage adventures. It would satisfy any number of dreams we’d treasured all our lives. One sunny Saturday found us in a small harbor town scoping out sells at the local marina. That’s when we found her with a “For Sale” sign and a low low price. “Bruce’s Folly” - an ugly name for an odd but pretty little boat. It was quite different from any boat style we’d ever seen. Strange, too, that we felt so moved to call the owners and arrange a meeting. What was up that the price was so low? Shortly after we found ourselves listening to the rantings of a most unhappy couple, chronicling all the reasons the boat didn’t work for them. Behind them the little thing began to float into the air! Our eyes must have popped and our mouths dropped open, but the couple never noticed. We felt an overwhelming desire to have this treasure, to protect it. You can guess the rest – we bought her as the people smirked thinking they’d pulled one over on us. We changed her name, took classes in water and air navigation, found ourselves falling madly in love with our new family member. You won’t be surprised to hear that we discovered delightful cubbyholes that we hadn’t noticed on our first inspection. Spaces seemed to shift in size with our needs. Magic as well as a sense of safety flowed over us each time we set foot on her deck. We literally stepped into a life we could never have imagined."

5" X 6" Watercolor, Ink & Acrylic Original, framed

Monday, June 28, 2010

Treasure Trove Cove

I did it! At long last I sat myself down and finished painting one of my favorite drawings. I realized I'd set it aside (for over a year!) because I was afraid I'd wreck it when I painted it. GEEZ. Every time I'd run across it, it begged me to see the light of day. So... DONE DONE DONE. And I'm most pleased.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

New Handspun, Handwoven Purses!

Windwalker has done it again. He's spinning his own yarns having fallen into a new love: wool and plying commercial yarns. Imagine how he feels to be weaving a new line of (gorgeous!) purses of his own spun yarns. Enjoy!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Birds are calling

I'm getting a nudge to paint birds again! Not surprising as they've been pure entertainment outside our windows for the last month or so. The trick is to sit down and BEGIN. After that its easy enough to get into 'the zone" and thoroughly enjoy the process. Here's the first result... MJ

Monday, May 10, 2010

Spring flowering

We declared ourselves the Show artists in our Gallery for May. Then we promised new "out of the box" work in our newspaper press releases. Call it throwing our hats over the wall Big Time and having to follow. I've thoroughly enjoyed the "urgency" that has pushed me into focusing and producing a variety of new work. One piece in particular - my "Meadow Magic: for the Love of Wild Meadows" - a large acrylic - was a stretch for me. Its one of those magic pieces that just turns out. I look at it and think, "who did that?" The other pieces are sweet and I'm pleased. However... (did you feel the however coming?) other than that piece I wouldn't call anything else 'out of the box.' The whole month is ours with promises of new work weekly, so there's still time. What will the out of the box look like? Stay tuned...

Sunday, May 2, 2010

May Show

Glorious May to all of you!

We feel like a couple of kids playing as we rise to the challenge of the theme we created for our May Show. As much as we love making art, over time we find ourselves doing too much of what (now) comes easily. At that point there’s a persistent yearning for something different, fresh, new. And the only way we’ve found to access that place where the new happens is to allow ourselves time to play, to mess up, to not watch the clock, to not worry that we’re “wasting time.” So there’s been much chuckling (and cursing) behind closed doors with flourishes of, “Look at THIS!” excitement. You’ll see the results at the Gallery this month. Hope you get a kick out of it!

Grinning,
Mary Jo & Windwalker
--------

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Spinning...

This weekend is The Spin-In in Oak Harbor, the largest city here, located at the north end of our beautiful isle. Yesterday was my day to attend, sit with friends, hear about what makes a good sock and to soak up yarn sights. Today Windwalker is going to spend the day and he'll be spinning with the dozens and dozens of other spinners. All these folks in one spot turning wads of sheep, alpaca, goat, etc., fibers into the most gorgeous yarns you've ever seen. THIS is the way fiber has been made for we humans for thousands of years. Its impressive. And the colors of hand-dyed/hand-painted yarns - oh, my! It took a good hour for me to catch my breath and settle in. I suspect it will be the same for Windwalker. Many thanks to Katie, for feeding me at lunch time and wrapping me up so that I felt at home. Of course a quick visit to the ice cream shop in Coupeville on the way home finished the day nicely.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Inspirational Clay Plaques

Thanks to a friend I get to play with clay in a small way. She kiln fires my little pieces and then I paint them with acrylic paint and inks, add beads and a wire hanger and Voila! I love inspiring words and this is one way I slip them into Life. They are so much fun to make and paint - its playing in the mud, I think. So on this blustery March Sunday, a lovely stash of them have made their way to the Gallery - Yahoo!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Favorite Blogs

I'm becoming more one with this blog site. For instance, I (finally) discovered how to put a "Favorite Blog" listing up. Its something I noted on other cool blog sites and finally discovered the (very easy!) thingy to hit to create my own. NOW I know what to do with all those fine blog sites I discover and don't want to lose track of. PLUS, their work and words are so inspiring to me. They trigger new art pathways that keeps my work is fresh. Enjoy!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Scrumbles...

At long last a gang of Scrumbles and Scrumbles Bunnies went off to the gallery - YAHOO!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

March Madness!

Admitting to ADD-ness, its easy for me to spend the day on the computer surfing other people's amazing creative endeavors, hopping up and down to do odd chores, feeling the boredom of the dog and taking her for a walk - you get the picture. Eventually the creative energy moves me to jump up and do something of my own. Yesterday I played with clay and made many little wall plaques with inspirational words on them. After my friend, Kathy, bakes them in her kiln, I'll paint them, attach a wire hanger and put them up for sale in the gallery. Possibly on Etsy.

This afternoon I have some Scrumbles to finish as well as more Fish to add to the school that's developing at the gallery. There's more ideas bubbling, but I think I'll wait 'til I have pics. As much fun I have in randomly starting new projects, I want the satisfaction of COMPLETION. That takes determination and focus on my part. Let's see if I can bring that to bear today.

Oh, speaking of bears.... but that's another idea!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Gearing up for the Love Month!

We're gearing up our favorite month: February! The Month of Love! (No gagging, please.) It took us so very long to find each other, that this month only illuminates the gift we have in each other. So its all about hearts and love, magic and cherishing each moment together. May you all be blessed with much love in your lives!

Monday, January 11, 2010

New Year 2010

Happy New Year to all of us!

As we look back over 2009, we're wearing big smiles. We made important commitments last January to 1) refuse to entertain any notions that the financial struggles around the world meant that our gallery would fail (our premise: money didn't fly off the planet, its got to be out there somewhere and some of it will easily find its way to us); 2) we would create the most beautiful, peaceful, varied gallery that we could imagine and 3) we would draw in "our people" who would spend some money, bring others and talk lovingly about us far and wide; 4) we would help each other to avoid streams of worry-negative-anxious-talk and we would be rigorous about it; 5) we would fill our worry-susceptible minds with positive information in the form of cds we listened to while driving.

So! We did that AND IT WORKED! Raven Rocks Gallery has had the most successful year on record, with enthusiastic fans/supporters and two gallery owners (that would be us!) who were more creative than we've ever been. Evidently less worrying means more creative juices flowing :) Dah! Add in (a bit more bragging, ok?) we sold other people's art and our resident artists/friends received checks in the mail and had their creations go off into the world.

We're still in the process of creating our goals for 2010. What we do know is that we need to get off the Island for some away vacation time together. 2009 was lots of fun, focused work, but we need some new scenery and down time. Windwalker has started spinning and he's throwing himself into that ancient art and into the local community of spinners. He wants to paint more, especially for his "Ravens in Love" series. I want to play more with my creative time. I want to try out different methods, views, art materials using the art of others that I'm strongly drawn to as inspiration. There's a whole world of possibilities inside that goal. As we kicked up the well-being and clarity of our minds last year, we both want to tweek, tighten, align up our bodies this year. Lucky for us we have a little dog who loves to walk - we want more of that. And - you know - maybe a little less of those items that make for heaviness later. We're also cranking up our dreams for a home of our own with a large and functional Studio. That's a big dream, but if all of you would send a rousing "YES!" toward it for us, that would be The Best!

Thank you so much for your support, interest, appreciation, encouragement and well, LOVE! We love you right back!
Mary Jo

Blue Cubette - Go Your Own Way

Blue Cubette - Go Your Own Way

Dark Blue Cubette-He Thought He Could

Dark Blue Cubette-He Thought He Could

He Travels For Work

He Travels For Work
Mary Jo's latest print

The Stunning Vistas of the Volcano Tahoma

The Stunning Vistas of the Volcano Tahoma

Wind Blow Us Home...

Wind Blow Us Home...

Fuzzy BindleBird Collecting Huckleberries

Fuzzy BindleBird Collecting Huckleberries
Sighted behind our tents in the huckleberry bushes.

My Eternal Love ... and Pal

My Eternal Love ... and Pal
Windwalker's Ravens in Love Series

Fairy Gardener's Hat

Fairy Gardener's Hat
Spotted on the Naches Trail, Chinook Pass, in huckleberry bushes.

Old Growth Islands

Old Growth Islands
Caretakers' Isle

Beach Fire Bag

Beach Fire Bag

Rumble Stream Home

Rumble Stream Home

Hazy Lake Days

Hazy Lake Days

First Love Song

First Love Song

Beauty Way Chant

Beauty Way Chant
Mixed Media on Canvas

Sunrise House

Sunrise House

A Garden of My Own

A Garden of My Own
Windwalker's Woven Purse

PrimroseMorning - Scrumble

PrimroseMorning - Scrumble
Nickname: Bounce

Daisies Dreams

Daisies Dreams
Acrylic - SOLD

The Sun's Blessing

The Sun's Blessing
Its already sold!