A little poetry for my artist friends on thanksgiving

i found this book at DOGSTAR. my friend Lhaw's (my thai neighbor that i love) husband owns it.

it was autographed and everything!

and the recipes make you barf. German yuckiness. i am part German so no offense. German food in this particular book is absurd. BUT the manner in which it is written will have you in stitches. notice the artist's breakfast is served with beer. the chapter is called "A Snack With Your Mid-Morning Drink".
Classic.

Coalition Reminder and Christmas Album

Just wanted to remind everyone that December 1st is the first gathering of the We're Just Artists Coalition. Come around dinner time and we'll either order vitamin P or we can potluck it. I'd like for us to hang out and share what we're doing artistically and what visions we have for the Coalition.

ALSO did you know that the Make and Send Website contributors are making their 2nd annual Christmas Album??? Well they are. You can download last year's songs AND the album cover artwork (all art done by Russell, the best artist brother i ever had) all for free on the site.

my "stitch" effort

I bought this book "sock + glove" to use for my art club after school. It shows ways to create little stuffed friends from socks or gloves. An old pair of blue socks I had had stuffed in the back of my drawer since college were perfect for the elephant. This is my feeble attempt... not quite like the book, but still sweet, I just need some practice!

I also broke out the crochet needle for a new scarf. So far, so good.

support this bill...

check this out...support it if you see fit.

thanks and good day!

RJM bracelet

This is offering one to the Radial Jewelry Makeover. The beads are some shell seed beads and some real seed beads(as in from a real plant). Both types of bead were sourced from donated necklaces. The body of the bracelet was also donated. I took the ends off unraveled it, and rebuilt it using the beads. It came out fairly well. Here is how it looks while being worn. I like it.

a trade

here is another Melly & Me (name of the pattern maker not my sister) bag. I think it turned out good. i am going to trade it for a piece of pottery which I will in turn give away as a wedding present next weekend for Beth's wedding. i like this bag but here's the thing. IT TOOK FOREVER! like a whole day. I'm just slow i guess.

THIS IS IT- DECEMBER 1ST, 8PM at the LANC.

ok. the mix party is still happening but will be most likely in February. SOOOO December first is on the Calendar. Save the date now. The first Coalition meeting with an old fashioned critique, some selling of your wares if you so decide and of course some wine and intelligent conversation. SAVE THE DATE. Serious Coalitioners best represent.

cheila...

do these work for ya?

Liliana Arias had an art show today!

Here she is and lookin' good too! these are a few of her new pieces.

A Halloween Treat from Russell

please comment. let him know you give a hoot.

Philosophical Epiphany

Today I was thinking about my philosophies of art education, and I came to a realization. I place an incredible importance on community, and I feel that as an art educator my goal is to pass that on to my students. Which brings us to the point of "What is community?". Community to me is, broadly, anything that is larger than self. We are not here to solely better our own existence. We are here to make as much of a positive impact as we possibly can. We have each been given gifts and it is our responsibility to employ those for highest good. As a more narrow definition, community can be anything from helpng your neighbor jump start their car to volunteering to serve in a soup kitchen to running for political office or spearheading an environmentsl movement. In art specifically the theory translates into working with students in ways that increase awareness of local, ethical and global issues. I hope to inspire my students to be good citizens, first and foremost by being one myself. Much love artists.

I made some things

Hi all... I have not had time to make much, but am working on samples for my art students.
Watercolor with pen + a possible after school club idea to make our own version of "Ugly Dolls"

NEW SONG by cheila

check make and send OR music i make

WGAL

Guess what avreage neighborhood student teacher got his mug on television tonight. He was interviewed for bringing the Radical Jewelry Makeover to Hempfield High School. He looked stupid on TV, but for a student teacher to be on TV is pretty good I think.

RUSSELL MADE A STICK GUITAR

i made a stick guitar today. my own design. i used the strings you got me that broke my guitar, and the extra tuning machines i got to fix my guitar. the black bars are pieces of a comb i put knotches in. it has some major drawbacks though, like, its not in any kind of real tune. not sure if it even can be..... stand alone it sounds like an unpluged electric guitar. but if i press it up against various things i can get varied effects. coffee can sounds neat with a twang to it, when i press it next to the tambourine it almost sounds banjoish, and when i press it on the body of guitar and ukelele it gets louder with the box to resonate in. it should be good for a song or two in the future. i had a better piece of wood that i was going to make it out of but it requires more sawing and such and the piece i ended up using was perfect width. so there you have it.....stick guitar.
(*text taken from an email)

just the same damn thing, with a mat

 

Nothing new, just with a mat now.

new music from me and russell

http://makeandsend.googlepages.com/home is the home address but you can click HERE to get to the music faster. Listen to all four of the "I dunno" versions (done by 3 of us) including the original by Russell titled "Don't read letters"

what's going down with just artists

i heard tell that nobody checks this dang site. well guess what. that has to change. i know we're all creating SOMETHING. ALSO...if you have not checked my brother's video out please take a quick moment to do so. i reposted it bc it was having technical problems playing. I am also going to announce that there is another music mix party buzz going around with different players wanting to co-host which i think is great. I'll be posting my crafty biz-naaaas on here from now on and I suggest we actually plan our first meeting. let's keep it real. i mean dang.

self=-portait

This is what my drawing 1 kids are working on. This is, unfortunately, one of the uglier students. Really though, this was quite a fun project. I had them draw a modified contour line drawing on acetate, and then fill in the background with symbol, line and colored papers. My wife says it makes me look overly hispanic (she doesn't like hispanics).

Russell Huettner Video and Matt musician

hand painted and everything! This brother of mine is off the HOOK!

six years ago...

this day inspired the founders to create something inspired by the events of the day.

maybe we should all think about putting something out there, not necessarily for nine eleven...but, something to inspire a little creativity.

what do you think?

look what I made!

do you like the bias tape on here? i do.

an apron for the hubby and probably for me too.

dang it he's hot and i can make aprons now!

Porcupine and Amber Necklace

Here is one of the fruits of my Maine trip. Porcupine quill and amber necklace. Porcupine harvested by moi, Vintage amber from my personal collection. What do you think?

LET'S set a damn date

alright. everyone is going on vacation in august but let's not let this blog go to hell. Let's plan something here. how about the dinner in September? Where should we have it? we'll set a date. I vote for September 15th. and what.

Awesome

$2.40. Enough SAID!!! (note quarter for size reference)

glass vessel workshop part II.5

The individual firing could be an issue due to length of time needed to heat, and then cool without shocking , sooo-if any of you have access to a large kiln with a "kiln minder" it would be much better.

glass vessel workshop part II

So, I'm going to have to work out the process for myself also, but don't foresee any problems. I will shortly be placing an order for enamels for window glass. The one major issue we might have will be kiln space. I only have a small enameling kiln(compared to a clay kiln). This would mean only one person could fire at a time. This may not be an issue dependent on the annealling process needed for the glass I end up using. If any of you have a clay kiln it may be much better as we could all fire at the same time. There could , however, be advantages to firing individually i.e., different levels of melting etc. Finally, anyone who wishes to is strongly encouraged to make their own slumping mold and kiln wash it. Keep in my that my kiln dimensions are 8"x10"x3.5".

P.S.: srong words used in previous post were, of course, all in jest!!

Plate workshop idea

Fellow "just artists",

I have an idea for a future workshop held in my studio(aka "the shithole basement"). It would be for a glass slumping "vessel" that would also incorporate color (enamel for glass). Any interested parties would be submitting a materials fee so that supplies could be ordered for everyone. I estimate the cost to be less than 20.00 per person. Basic tools, like a glasscutter, would be strongly suggested. If enough people are interested we could make this a go, if not go fuck yourselves.

check THIS out!

My brother just put up a music site for our make and sends. AWW HELL YEAH. it looks really sweet. he designed the art on the main page. check it, then check yourself. oh yeah and he put one of my new songs on there which some of you may or may not have heard.
http://makeandsend.googlepages.com/home

Food As Art

Hey,
this is just an idea but since we are starting this coalition, we might as well cook too. how bout a first meeting/dinner of the coalition members? maybe everyone could make something artistic to eat and or drink.
please and or thankyou(s)
con carino,

connie cheila huettner maria josephina abejita honeypot (jr.)

What are we gonna do here?

well today i am just going to comment in a post about how great our craft assemblage was yesterday. It felt great to "get together and make stuff" (which i might add, would make a great T-shirt) It also felt great to be around creative people and to appreciate other artist's work at first friday including Matthew Grannells who had a really awesome grocery cart chair (see photo below) and an excellent wine rack in the Candy Factory among his other awesome pieces.
I would also like to throw out a few questions for the now 7 members.
1. when is the next art circle meeting?
2. what should we do on this blog?
3. Ya wanna make stuff again soon?

this evening...

the founders and friends will be visiting a few galleries in the lanc....yeah, baby! first friday here we come!

we will be visiting matt at the candy factory in the keppel building! good stuff!

what i'm thinking...

well this is a grassroots effort to show the world that there are some people walking among us that are "just artists". you might not know by the shoes we wear or the lingo we speak, but you may by the amazing work we create on a daily basis.

back in the day, nate, chei and i sat in the dining room on east orange street and began to talk. talk about our work and how since college we hadn't really been critiqued. we were falling off into a world of shitty jobs and our passion for the process of our art was too. we needed to be accountable. so, we decided that every thursday evening we would get together and bring "something" to be critiqued. we did it too. we faithfully would get together with our work and talk. there were weeks, well most weeks that we were scrambling around wednesday evening trying to have something ready. but, nonetheless our minds and hands were immersed in art again - at least on a weekly basis.

i can remember one night so vividly - it was 2001. not long after september eleventh - our "assignment" the week before was to work on something inspired by the events. it was great...we were laughing, crying - actually alot if i remember correctly, and our work was so raw. it felt great.

after a few months of our "art circle", we decided that we should invite any of our friends or acquaintances that wanted to join us. there were weeks with still just the founding three, many weeks matt joined us and there we times we had a party and invited practically any person any of us knew who was "creating" something. from poets to musicians to artists...you name it, we had a mix. great times.

all of this being said, i never felt judged. never felt like i had to be a certain type of person to be in this group. so...that being said. i say, well...cheila and i said that it's time for the next level of art circle. we are all creating, working in our medium on a very regualar basis and we need each other. this time we're coming in loud and proud with a new name...the "we're just artists coalition".

i love it...cause that's what we are...just artists!
we are educated.
we are embracing.
we are talented.
we are each unique in our own way.
we are dancers.
we are friends.
we are open.
we are curious.
we are trying to make it as artists.
we are eclectic.
we are passionate.
we are important.

we are just artists! now let's just get out there and just create!

what do you say? is it time for a meeting all of you peeps that helped start the first art circle?