Back from break & sunflower time approaches

Howdy y'all... back from break. I even took an e-mail break. A combination of heat and psychic art fatigue. Besides, summer shutdowns are s.o.p. many places. I cannot even claim to have used hiatus to start the great mntnr novel. Chalk it up to combined heat and anomie.


I did read a lot, in particular about Wellington's peninsular campaigns during the Napoleonic wars. Symbolic significance? Who knows...

Sunflower Babies, Uncle Walter's, 2005

This may be just as well: surely non-stop, unstinting sunflower agitprop would have driven all of us as around the bend, creating a veritable advance sunflower backlash (as opposed to the usual post-sunflower downer reaction).


I've changed the header picture - a local sunflower from Geree McDermott's garden. Is anyone besides Geree and Kristine L. growing sunflowers? Send me a picture for the header. My best intentions (do bear in mind proverbial paving): to keep sunflower anomie at bay out by changing out sunflower images frequently.

I also made some changes in blog settings - no more anonymous postings. Someone tried a scurrilous one that did not pass moderation but did convice me that it was time to change posting requirements. If you wish to post anonymously or without having to register, you can send me your message to post for you. This is standard practice on many blogs. You can be anonymous to our reader but not to me.


Anyway, here's yet another quick rundown on sunflowering.... somewhat by location. We're missing music, although there will be music at the Poets & Writers Picnic.


Shaffer Hotel and Garden

• Poets & Writers Picnic
  
• Sunflower Poetry Writing Workshop - download brochure - this one is a real memory hog and takes up more than its share of online file space. Look for replacement by an easier on your ink cartridge BW version
• Sunflower ATC Display and Trading Day at the Pavilion in the Shaffer Garden (behind the Gazebo). The ATC artists are preparing original sunflower ATCs for featured readers at the Poets & Writers Picnic as a gesture of appreciation
  

Sunflower ATC

The Shaffer Pavilion will also host the following:

• Handpainted sunflower dishes, household items, and glassware at Straw Mountain Studios or whatever Judy Mowris is calling it these days.St
• Stacia Robin's handmade goddess dolls, some with sunflower themes
• Megan's anti-sunflower sunflower art. Post modern irony run amok (we hope)

Community Center

• Sunflower Hat Contest awards (judging last I heard will take place on the street) - downloadable BW flyer - contact Ruth Ballen for more information. Ruth does not have e-mail and loathes answering her phone (I feel the same way), so keep your eyes open for a loudly attired & somewhat older eccentric with a taste for bizarre headwear waving to all & sundry on streets. It's probably Ruth. If not, apologize and try again...
  
• Sunflower Cook-off - downloadable BW flyer - e-mail Kristine for more information. She won't be back from San Diego until the end of the month but promised to be checking her mail. More on this later - including links to sunflower recipes for you to try out. Just remember that it's not really your recipe unless you make some changes.
• Sunflower Quilt Raffle - tickets available at Cibola Arts; quilt on display at Mountainair Grocery
  
• Sunflower Face Painting - Joan Page
  
• Booths and vendors @$20/table (contact Mary Schultz and Joan Page for more information). We're not sure just yet what will be there. Rather than make something up, we'll wait to post that information until someone lets us know)

On Broadway

• Children's Sunflower Art in shop windows up & down Broadway - created by Mountainair students
  
• Cibola Arts exhibit "Sunflowers and More"(wasn't this the same as last year's sunflower offering?)
  
• Sunflower window and other displays such as last year's "Sunflower Babies" at Uncle Walter's and Abo Trading's colorful and outstanding collection of Mexican Sunflower Folk Art... and we hope, much much more. Personally, I'm hoping for an ice-cream creation from the Meds & More soda fountain... yellow (maybe with a touch of green) & garnished with chopped sunflower seeds instead of nuts...

Elementary School

• Retablo Show. The sunflower retablo by Nicolas Otero commissioned for this year's Sunflower Whatever is currently on display at Cibola Arts. Someone is supposed to send me a picture. When it arrives, I'll post it here and maybe even give it a turn as blog header image. Depending on numbers & entries in both locations, the Retablo Show may end up at the Community Center. Read more about retablos...
  

ATCs at the PWP!

Hi Everyone!

I hope you are all planning on coming to Sunflower and the Poet's & Writer's Picnic (PWP) on August 26 and stopping by the ATC (Artist Trading Cards) table. We'll be on the covered patio behind the gazebo from noon until 4 pm. We expect at least seven artists and maybe more. We'll have cards to trade and to sell. If you haven't started your collection yet, this is a wonderful chance to pick up affordable mini artworks of several local artists.

If you have been producing ATCs, you may be thinking about offering sets. Because the cards are meant to be collected in collector's trading card sheets that hold nine cards per page, it is suggested that sets be in 3's or 9's. I have been working on sets of 9 and I even sold one already! If you would like to see the sets I plan to sell at the PWP, please visit page 2 of my site at: www.GereesStudio.com.

Hope to see you there!

Geree

Jubilee, Dedication & Other

The Mayor dedicated the mural Saturday after the parade, officially named it "Looking Back." Shirley distributed bright orange bandanas for volunteer painters to wear and be easily identified. All present were in the official picture. Not all painters and significant volunteers were present. Judy Mowris and Megan Lemcke come to mind. If you know other painters who missed the dedication, please let me know so we can credit and thank them here.

The mural still needs a final UV protective coat, a cost not covered in grant money for materials. This coat can be sprayed on but is expensive. Shirley called for and is calling for donations. She and Wray are still researching finish coats. The one that the city of Toronto uses for its outdoor murals costs something like $49/gal, just to give you an idea. So slap some presidents in an envelope and make sure it gets to Shirley.

Unfortunately, the dedication ceremony did not appear on the printed Jublilee schedule. The downtown crowd there for the parade dispersed by the time the dedication cast asembled. Primarily artfolk attended the dedication and reception, tailgate refreshments. Too bad there were not more townfolk in attendance. I know the mural has struck a deep chord and widely. Drive-by gawkers giving muralists the thumbs up. Reference to the mural invariably brings smiles all the way around. Not making the dedication more inclusive squandered social capital.

Saturday was also a Cibola Arts show opening day, but no one sent me anything about it. Hence, no blog entry. Since there was nothing on the Cibola site either, I won't take it personally. Reports from the last meeting have set me to thinking about Mountainair 's web presence and promoting the arts online. Research too. Google ranking - the gold standard, to coin a cliché - consistently puts The Art Center of Mountainair in #1 and #2 slots. Usage stats for the MMAC page would surprise most of you. Those presented at the last meeting were laughably bogus but surprisingly swallowed by the web illiterati. The Chamber page ranks high too. Anyway more anon.

During the dedication, Vel Gilley announced plans for another mural - this one on the city maintenance building on 60W. Roberto Morales has offered to coordinate - be mural honcho. The city will buy the paint. No mention of designer or painter stipends. Maybe the town will at least spring for lunch on occasion.

Saturday's mural pictures don't show much of the dedication gathering, so we will have to wait on Tom Willmon for those. Just parade pix for now. Soon too we'll be changing out the mural picture in the header for the ubiquitous & eponymous sunflower.

The next event will be next Sunday afternoon's (2pm, July 9) Chautauqua performance at the Shaffer Gazebo - "Storytellers," to be blogged separately. The following Sunday: guitarist Michael Chapdelaine, repertoire from classical Spanish guitar to bluegrass - same time, same place.