A surprisingly Art-filled weekend

For the past 3 years my friend Michelle and I have taken the long MLK weekend to go and visit her daughter in Madison, WI. The weekend has always consisted of visiting yarn shops, eating out and drinking wine and knitting. We found a place which allowed us to knit in front of a set of massive, 30 feet at least, windows which overlooked the farmlands of Wisconsin. It was stark Midwestern beauty...alas, her daughter has moved away from Madison ...so this year we had to find a new venue for knitting weekend. We decided on Milwaukee, WI. We also invited a few more friends and it turned into more of an art gallery and creativity shop inspiration weekend.

Thanks to the encouragement of many friends and family members, I am pursuing my dream of a community art/craft studio. I am taking baby steps, BUT I am putting my ideas out into the world. I have my mission statement which is:

The Creativity Shop/Studio is a public space which promotes the exploration of the creative process. We believe that the creative process allows individuals and groups to experience an art/craft energy which in turn creates a "creative flow"... making our world a better place!

The next step is to explore what the space will look like. I got lots of ideas this weekend!

Before I left for my girl's weekend Billy, George and I had dinner at our friend's home. This planter was outside their front door. Friday night we had a dusting of snow-the sparkle is better than glitter! 

My first unexpected art experience was pottery made by Teddy. I use to change his diapers-now here he is posing with his ART!

Saturday and Sunday were filled with gallery visits, eating and drinking too much wine and chit-chatting about art. This picture was of one of the galleries we visited

Don't you love this idea for an "OPEN-CLOSED-BE RIGHT BACK" sign for a shop!

The Creativity Studio/Shop will have lots of messy projects...I am collecting ideas on how to organize the space.

 

Of course the weekend was filled with amazing art as well. These wall hangings were made of wool and tapestry NOT quilted. The boxes below were created out of tar paper and had pin holes in them and were illuminated by white lights shining from the inside.

 

 

We stayed at the Pfister Hotel which has an artist-in-residency program housed within the hotel. This program supports a different artist each year. Quite a wonderful idea for a hotel to promote!

 

Hope you are all staying warm and moving forward, if just a little bit, on your dreams!

Just LEAP!

Lucy