artist of the month!

come one, come all! come to frederick! i've said it before and i'll say it again... if you haven't been to the muse, in frederick maryland, why are you wasting precious time reading this blog? the muse is this totally amazing little shop featuring great work from all over the country AND this saturday i will be the "artist of the month" for the main street first saturdays gallery walk. that's somethin'! i will be bringing new work to add to whitney's collection of pieces to sell, and doing demonstrations right there before your very eyes. wanna watch me paint? well...

zeen

i'm thinking this little gentleman will be one of the lucky ones going to Plush You! this October. if you're just now meeting him, track back to the beginning of August to see how he was made!

it starts!

painting outside is a funny thing. with permission, it's a mural... without, it's graffiti. unless you don't have a permit, in which case its a mural but it makes a lot of guys in suits very unhappy. this is my way of saying that the project was delayed slightly while the people involved (everyone but me) re-organized and got their t's crossed. so the OFFICIAL start date was today, the 17th. the theme of the mural is, naturally, the health department and the services it offers & the roles it plays in our community. there are 6 panels in this piece, each with a different "role" portrayed: immunization, homeless services, emergency preparedness, health & clinic services, animal services and senior services. in each image, the "service" offered by the health department will be depicted by a small glowing heart (the pictogram kind, not the anatomy kind). this will eliminate me having to figure out how to tactfully show "needles" and "drugs". ... enter, THE HEART! i'll be painting, hopefully, Monday, Tuesday and Sunday each week, so i'll keep you posted with my daily progress, ok? if you live in baltimore, come see it in person... 210 Guilford Ave. xoxo dana

introducing riley (and smeredith, wolliver & grambell)

one of the things i love most about my "job" (ha! job... that's rich), is the amazing people i get to meet and interact with. and one of the things i love most about THAT, is seeing how totally and completely these people involve themselves in my work and the active pursuit of COLLECTING it. and what i love most about THAT, is when those people are barely out of elementary school. its with that graceful introduction that i say: "meet riley". now, i don't have a picture of riley, but he's CUTE (trust me). and smart. and clever and has a very active imagination. he's also the proud owner/roommate/collector of 3 knitimals. you'll notice in the picture he sent me that smeredith (the first knit friend to join his family) is wearing a very cool knit sash of sorts... riley made that. i think it makes smeredith look very "smart". i have also heard that these three have a very swanky loft in riley's room. occasionally i get emails from wolliver, who has the perfect stubby feet for typing (just not legibly). grambell joined the family at the columbia festival of the arts, back in june... and you better believe that when it came time for a new friend to join the family, smeredith and wolliver were right there (in riley's backpack) to help pick out the right friend. we can't take these things lightly... afterall, this is a friendship we're cultivating. it's also an art collection we are building. and how COOL are WE that we can have and do both of those things at the same time? so, thank you riley (and all you other totally amazing, totally strange, totally wonderful collectors, adopters and fans) for all your words and pictures--- funny, bizarre and the like. keep on being cool! xoxo dana

farmers market done

here it is ladies and gentlemen! the second of two murals down at the farmers' market is complete (this is what it would look like if you could roll it out flat... which you can't because it's concrete) and get THIS... i've been asked to paint yet another mural downtown. SO, starting very soon i will be working on a mural (6 panels) for the health department over on guilford. let's hope it cools down just a smidge.

farmers market day 2

its almost done! just another day, i think... this would be a heck of a lot easier if there weren't cars pressed up against this column.

farmer's market day one!

so, many of you have probably heard that i am doing another mural at the site of the farmers' market downtown (under the 83 overpass). its a really cool project and really, who wouldn't want to look at a more spruced up pillar? if something is going to hold up the highway, why not paint it? those of you who live in baltimore know that it was 100 degrees here today. and who wouldn't want to spend the day standing on a ladder with sweat pouring into their eyeballs? not me! i am all over it. the columns are about 18' tall, so i spent the first day of painting, priming and getting the base color for the sky and water down. i wanted to get all the images drawn on too (actually painted on... i didn't even sketch it first... i'm daring like that) but my neck starting getting all cramped and cricked, so i went home for the night with a little less than i had planned completed. that's what tomorrow is for.

harbor east fine arts & music festival

just a reminder that this is coming up... don't worry... i'll remind you about it at least 50 more times. but, i wanted to check in real quick because look how cool! 'maryland family' used one of MY illustrations to advertise this fine, family friendly festival. i've only seen it online because none of the places that supposedly carry this publication (in my area at least) actually have it, SO, if you see one in the flesh (er, in the paper), please grab it for me! xo. dana

maryland family magazine: hot dates

old friends in the summer sun

here we have a photograph sent in by natalie (hi natalie!) of the two newest members of her knit family--- there's lorena (the smallish one) and sven (the viking-ish one). they are enjoying being woolen in the hot, humid, baltimore sun. ah. also in their family, but NOT pictured, is the trend setter, irving (the first "human" knitimal). thanks for the picture natalie. and for any of you who take pictures of or with your knitimal friends, please don't be stingy. send those babies in! i love pictures, and i miss those little guys. xo. dana

a-waitin to be sewn

a pile of the aforementioned "lumps"... knitimals waiting to be sewn into knitimals!