Upcoming Holiday Shows

Hello Everyone! Now that the holiday season is officially upon us I am officially inviting you to these great upcoming shows that I will be participating in. These shows are the perfect opportunity to get a little holiday shopping cheer in a unique way by supporting local artists. Stop by and say hello!

This Weekend, Saturday December 1st
Punk Rock Flea Market
10 AM to Midnight
The Underground Events Center, 2407 1st Ave
$1 Admission – all proceeds benefit the Low Income Housing Institute

This show was a blast last time I did it. Don’t be put off by the “punk rock” – all it refers to is that it isn’t your typical flea market. Come to find a little something for everyone on your list!


SWANK, Saturday December 8th
10 AM – 4 PM at Magnusson Park
Free Admission

The SWANK show will feature an elite selection of Seattle area artists, designers and crafters so this will be the perfect place to come find an innovative gift for that person who has everything or just come to be inspired! Hourly drawings for gift certificates will be featured throughout the day.


Crafty Wonderland Super Colossal Holiday Sale

Sunday December 16th
11 AM – 5 PM at the Norse Hall in Portland, OR

This show is going to be HUGE! If you happen to be anywhere near Portland that weekend I would recommend you not miss out on this one.
100 vendors, a full bar AND recycled gift wrapping – what more do you need?

In addition to these shows I also will be available for custom orders up until December 20th. Check out my shop at http://www.rekoj.etsy.com/ for ideas!

Have a safe and happy holiday season!

Sara
Rekoj Design
http://www.rekojdesign.com/

Glue on my Fingers

And thereby I managed to get glue on my camera as I took this photo. Yep indeed, those be book makin's on my worktable. I'm in the process of preparing 10 hand bound Rekoj sketch journals to sell at this weekend's Punk Rock Flea Market. (Saturday 10am-? at the Underground in Belltown)
I've had a long intermittent affair with bookbinding. It is a skill I learned almost 10 years ago and for many years after my bookbinding skills made them a staple of holiday gift making. Also I have the personal annual ritual of hand making my own sketch book, each year getting more and more elaborate.

These will be my first ever series of Rekoj journals for sale however and I'm pretty darn excited about them. Just the process of choosing the fabric, cutting the mat board, brushing on the glue and folding countless pages of paper has gotten me eagerly anticipating holding each and every one of these little journals when they're finished. What I really love about bookbinding is that to me, more than any other hobby or craft, it feels like I truly am bringing a creation into being. Something solid and substantial you can hold in your hands. Something that will continue to evolve once written in. Like taking on a life of it's own as it travels in a purse and is filled with drawings and notes over time.

A shirt or a bag or a pendant or a painting doesn't give me quite the same tactile sense.

Or maybe I just love blank books. All that unspoken possibility. Poetry waiting to happen.

Pumpkin Pie Day

Happy Thanksgiving! May you all enjoy the best of homemade food, family, friends and laughter.
Happy Thanksgiving

This little e-card got to the animation student in me. Yes, I used to be an animation student. Why am I not in an animation career? Because at the time I thought it meant I would have to move to LA and I didn't want to move to LA. I like Washington too much.
Now? Do I feel silly? Yes. Yes I feel silly.
To pursue it again I would need to hop back into school for a bit because the technology these days changes the second you blink ... but in the meantime I will enjoy all the creative things that Flash artists come up with.

I'm off over the mountains and through the woods to see Grandma! Along with about 40 other members of my crazy large family of Aunts, Uncles & Cousins... I'll return (quite fat I'm sure) on Friday to get back to work in the studio. Happy Pumpkin Pie day everyone!

Illustration Friday - Superstition

"Duende"
Coffee stains & Watercolor
19" x 27"

Duende may refer to:

• Duende (mythology), a fairy- or goblin-like creature in Spanish and Latin American mythology
• Duende (art), a difficult-to-define phrase in the Spanish arts that connotes emotion and authenticity

service for my college teacher and mentor, On Saturday, the day after the IF assignment of "superstition", I attended a RemembranceDoranne Crable, who had passed. Part of that service was a screening of the film "When the Road Bends". In the theater, in the dark I wrote down a single scrawled quote.
Duende. The spirit that moves you. The chills, the spark.

It captured the essence of how I felt that Doranne lived her life.
It holds the essence of how I want to pursue my own.
I came home Saturday evening filled to the brim and this... just happened. The true first in a series I've felt coming for a long while. The spirits. The Duende.

Shanti Shanti Shanti Doranne

Where I Sit

studio1
Originally uploaded by Rekoj Design

This is where I'm sitting right now, typing this. I've had such a joyous studio morning of painting and coffee and coffee painting. Now that I'm taking a little break, letting some of the painting dry, I wanted to share my space with you. It is in a state that I would say to my mother is a "complete mess"! But that mess didn't stop me from feeling a gushing amount of love and thankfulness to my studio space - my home.
When I stood up to stretch the light was just so and art was scattered everywhere in various stages and I felt just so... blessed. Grateful to this space and the time I have had yesterday, today and previous days to work on my daydreams here.
My paintings on the walls and on the floor and in a wet puddle on the studio table and all of it surrounded by things I love and cherish.
This is where I work. This is where I Live.
Welcome to my studio.

More studio pictures can be found on my flickr page.

Illustration Friday - Scale

"Inspiration Battles the Overwhelmed"

Watercolor & Coffee stains, unfinished

This week has been insane. For 3 days in a row I didn't have a lunch break to myself. And every single evening was booked with something. Let it be noted here and now - I will NEVER do that again unless I absolutely have to. I am NOT allowed! Because the outcome of it all was that the week left me cranky without any studio time.

Somehow, in stolen moments, I was able to partially paint my illustration Friday piece for the week's theme of "Scale". It is not finished. Here is my post of lame excuses and shame.

More than anything I'm just bummed that I couldn't steal enough moments this week to finish it. And apologies for the sub-par photo. Even today's lunch felt like stolen moments.

I decided to use the theme of scale in a way that expressed some of my emotions from my previous post "Inspiration Battles the Overwhelmed".

The pigeon is there because the sound of pigeon wings is what partially inspired the inspiration and frustration in the previous post. And pigeons are everywhere here and I've wanted to paint one for quite some time. Lovely slate blues and shimmery greens. Oddly enough despite they're dislike by the general public, they can be pretty gorgeous. And the sound of wings stirs my soul on fall days such as these.

Frog Creek Lodge Retreat Photos

frogcreek10
Originally uploaded by Rekoj Design

I finally uploaded my favorite Frog Creek Lodge photos to my flickr page!
The lodge was amazing - there was so much art everywhere in the house . It made me think about how I envision my future home someday. A little bit like this. Cozy, inspirational, relaxing, artful and fun.
If you ever have the chance to go on a Retreat or meeting of any kind at Frogcreek Lodge, I do oh so very much reccommend that you go!

Inspiration battles the Overwhelmed

I'm near going out of my skull lately. I am over-brimming over flowing excitedly INSPIRED by everyone and everything these days ---- yet I continually manage to NOT have studio time. I know that part of the inspiration comes from this yearning. This longing. But how am I to ever feel satisfaction if I constantly am just looking at my studio table on my way back out the door?

These things I do are important to me - otherwise I wouldn't be pursuing them. Connections with my home-mates and battle strategies to save it. (I'm sure there will be more on this later - but the co-op is under threat from development.)
Making sure I still have a home and a studio for the future is taking so much of my time away from my home and studio right now. I'm really feeling challenged and frustrated.

But in the meantime here are a few things that are inspiring me.

- The Anthropologie seasonal display. I want to nest and decorate!

- Reading this interview with http://www.paperiaarre.blogspot.com/
Interviews usually inspire me but this one in particular rekindled my passion for bookbinding. A whole slew of Rekoj books burst forth in my mind just from admiring the pictures of her work alone.

- This painting my Cathy Nichols and following the progression of it on her blog. The content and the color both got to me and struck a spark in my heart. I just want to walk home and start painting this VERY INSTANT!

- Illustration Friday and my new desire to participate every week. It gives me an "excuse" to find the time to let myself play every week! I'm wondering if that is part of what I need. To schedule and book myself for myself just as much as I do for everyone else.

There is so much more but sadly as is the theme of this post I no longer have the time available to continue! More soon - and I also have some beautiful images from my weekend at the Lodge to post!

House Retreat

My oh my has this week been busy busy! It's a good thing I got some art out on the weekend because I haven't had a free moment in the last few days. Or if I did have a free moment it was spent tuckered out and sleeping.

Silly daylight savings time.

A whole lot of my time this week has been filled with lots of work at the day job. Funny how that makes the week just whizzzz by. It's whizzed right into being Thursday already - which brings in some serious weekend preparations tonight.

This weekend, commencing tomorrow, is the long overdue, much anticipated infamous Apex Retreat. It happens once every 3 years or some such. As a household we'll be going to this lovely lodge out in the woods to spend 2.5 days of cooking, cleaning, eating, sleeping and talking together.

We'll be working on our Cooperative skills like facilitation, communication, active listening and beer drinking. Er... wait - is that a co-op skill?

Just kidding - actually I think the journey and the weekend will be quite recuperative for the group of us as a whole.

I'm one of the few members who own a car so I'll be driving part of the caravan tomorrow eve and on top of that I get to take part in a trip to Costco. Not a place I frequent so it should be ... um... fun?

Too bad I'm totally ready to do everything but any of this. That's the way it goes sometimes.

The muse has struck so I'll be bringing my sketchbook and watercolors with the intention of stealing away for some creative time throughout the weekend.

I'm sure it will be nice to spend a couple of days in such a comfy looking lodge no matter what. A rare and privileged treat.

We'll be back to our regularly scheduled art ponderings next week I'm sure!

Sheep in a Mexican Hat Shop

"Sheep in a Mexican Hat Shop"

Coffee, Watercolor

12" x 14"

My very first entry to Illustration Friday and I had such a fabulous time making it! This week's theme was "Hats". Almost as fun as making this piece was the creative journey I took to get there. The one word of "hats" immediately called to mind a very fuzzy memory of a beloved children's book that I couldn't remember what it was called or even what it was about really, but I did remember the imagery of all of these stacks of hats. A leaning tower of head adornment!

So when I decided to go ahead and play with this week's challenge I knew that I wanted to incorporate a stack of hats.

Working with coffee stains is something I have wanted to experiment with ever since I came across the work of Stella Im Hultberg. So I knew I wanted to play with coffee.

Stacks of hats and coffee stains.

How the sheep got involved I still am not quite sure... but I must admit, I rather like them!

*Bonus! I ran a brief google search to see if I could find the children's book:

"Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys, and Their Monkey Business" and it was one of my very favoritest of books.

Wood Peck Work

The Etsy Kick Off the Holidays sale last night at First Thursday Arts Walk was a whole lot of fun. I was late and a little frazzled from having my day job eat into my art job time a bit but I suppose that is bound to happen sometimes.

Arrived at Stir to a crowded, happening scene which continued late into the evening. I'm quite sleepy today actually! Lots of good talks with Marlo of IMakeCuteStuff, Rosalie of bARTerSauce and UglyBaby, Norm of ArtByNorm
Dawn of ScaryWHiteGirl, Katy of Sycamore Baby and so many more. EmmaKat came, Tyesha came, I spotted Ambika though the crowd was too thick to say hi (and show off my earrings of hers that I was wearing!)
All in all it was a lovely, inspiring evening.

And I even sold this painting! Thanks bunches Amber - I hope it will be well loved by the birthday recipient as you hope!

Today finds my fingers near twitching with the urge to get back to work in the studio. Was it all the crafty goodness? The conversations? Or the mere fact that FINALLY I have some time to play? Or perhaps it is just a big ol stirred dough result of all the above.
Happy weekend everyone!

I finally got the elk to print out somewhat okay on my lunch break today. I have been trying for a few days now but just couldn't get it to turn out right. The sky kept turning out more green than gloaming. Ultimately, I think the answer will be working with an outsourced printer. I'll keep you updated when that happens!

For now and the show tonight I'm going to offer 5x7 prints for $10. And little cards with teal envelopes for $2. Come on by to say hi and pick one up - I'll smile brightly if you do! =)