Wednesday, October 27, 2010

One of my favorite artists, Melinda Beck

One of the greatest things about working at Washington University is that each year the school brings in artists from all over the country to speak at our Visiting Artists lecture series. At one time I was involved in selecting and entertaining the artist who was brought in for my department, Communication Design. I love meeting, as I call them, the celebrity artists especially if they were one of my favorite artists. I would be as nervous as heck to meet them and tried not to swoon too much or get too tongue tied over them when they were at school.  About five years ago, Melinda Beck, illustrator most fabulous, was our department’s visiting artist. When I asked Melinda what she would like to do during the day before she spoke in the evening she said she would like to go junking and did I know any good spots in town....well duh this is a no brainer....do I know junking spots....that is like asking a frat boy if he knows what beer tastes like. I meet Melinda at the airport and took her for a big day of junking...we had loads of fun...turns out she likes to buy the same kinds of stuff as me.....plastic letters, trinkets, sewing items, vintage books. Only she said she cannot buy too much because she has no room to store extra stuff because she lives in a small apartment in Brooklyn. Of course, my husband Gary would say our house has no room for extra stuff but does that ever stop me from bringing stuff home.....no way. You can barely walk in my basement or my garage without tripping over all the stuff I have bought home to make more stuff. You can never have enough treasures. My daughter Annie is looking forward to making a lot of money off my stuff when I am gone because there is no way she is keeping all of it. She can probably travel around the world on the money she will make.


Some of my favorites of Melinda’s work





Monday, October 25, 2010

Produce from the garden

Okay, now remember I said there would not be much posting about food on this blog. That said I have to feature the big harvest of tomatoes my husband reaped from his tomato plants. We have a beautiful garden in our yard thanks to my husband. It is a cottage garden, lush with lots of color and texture in the plants. People in the neighborhood always stop and look at it on their daily walks. However, for some reason that no one can phantom, he can not seem to win a neighborhood gardening award. We suspect it is because his garden does not have a lot of the same plants...hostas, impatients, and Japanese maples, all of these plants in rows with mulch showing in between the plants in along with grass that looks like you are on a golf course. What fool wants to spend their weekend time maintaining a perfect lawn with no weeds!


So here is one of Gary’s tomato plant


And here is the yield



Good thing he gets a laugh out of this. He always posts his tomato photos on his facebook page.

And here is his pic. I know all of your artists out there always want to have visuals to go along with any story. I call this his Christopher Meloni pic (Elliot Stabler on L&O SVU....one of my favorite shows) because his muscles look big.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

I am on my friend/stalker’s blog!

My friend Corinne Blank always says she loves my work so much that she wants to be known as my personal stalker. She has been trying to get me to write a blog for years. She recently started her new company Goodness Recycled www.goodnessrecycled.com as well as a blog. Each week she features artists from St. Louis and several weeks ago she featured me and took lots of shots of my art and my studio. Here is the link to her site with the blog about me.

http://goodnessrecycled.blogspot.com/search?q=linda+solovic


In Corinne’s blog about me she mentions a heart I made for my house that is hanging in my hallway. Since Corinne does not have a picture of it on the blog post here it is. It is made out of old thread spools glued into a old drawer I found at an estate sale. I am always bringing home wooden boxes planning on using them to store stuff in my studio. I am a sucker for any old box with a great patina or old wire baskets. The idea for this piece came from a similar heart done for Country Living or Martha Stewart...I do not remember which magazine.


I shared on my facebook page about Corinne’s blog post and my sister commented on my post that Corinne failed to put in one of the most important features of my studio.... Mr.Perry and Mr. Percy, my gerbils. My boys are so handsome...I love to talk to them during the day and watch their antics. They can really chew through the toilet paper tubes! Here are some pics of them.


You must admit they are adorable!

Thanks so much Corinne for featuring me in your blog. And my very talented friend Annie Scheumbauer is featured this week...check her out too.




Monday, October 18, 2010

Finally a video game made with fabric



A former student of mine, Chi-Wen, sent me a link to the trailer to the new video game Kirby’s Epic Yarn. I used to play Kirby with my daughter so I already have a soft spot for Kirby beyond the fact that he is cute. Image my surprise when I played this trailer. The artwork is all done with fabric, stitchery, embellishments and yarn. Kirby is darling....not sure if he is made out of pipe cleaners or yarn. Now I want the game. Time to buy that Wii system I have always wanted!

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Homespun Magazine




















Many of you have asked where you can buy Homespun Magazine. The magazine is available all over the world, not just Australia. The magazine distributes through the following channels:

USA Distributor
Stonehouse Publications
Phone - 1.800.461.1640

UK Distributor
The Cotton Patch
Phone - 44.121.702.2840

Manor House Magazines
Phone - 44.167.251.4288

New Zealand Distributor
Needlecraft
Phone - 64.6.356.4793

Singapore Distributor
Car Kit Pte
Phone - 65.6.282.1969

If you can’t get a copy of the magazine from the above sources, you can always contact Universal Magazines in Australia. There contact information is:

Universal Magazines
Phone - 1300.303.414