so... I have been wanting to write for a while but things have been very busy. I had so much fun at art-a-whirl and it was really successful show! I sold all but one of the paintings on display.... that was a first for me. thanks to everyone that came out and to the people that bought paintings... I would've loved to say thanks in person but this will have to do. thanks also grumpy's for inviting me to share your walls with some really talented folks. (and for buying the grumpy's painting... I have a secret hope it will be hanging behind the bar the next time I come in)...

after the whirl of art I experienced the week before and the weekend of art a whirl... I spent an entire week working on print materials at work for our annual pilgrimage to the International Trumpet Guild Festival... this year the show is in Michiga.n... I am hoping we get to take the Ferry to Grand Rapids... it's something I've wanted to do for a long time and this is the perfect excuse. This is definitely going to be the biggest year ever for us at the Festival. I still remember the first year we went... people laughed at us... isn't it funny how people always think innovation is goofy... why buy an automobile when you could just ride a horse. Two years ago the festival was in Minneapolis and we were invited to present... and this year they're doing a write up on us in the journal... some of the best trumpet players on the planet perform on our instruments... and we have a strict... no endorsements policy... which means we don't buy ANY of our clients... even the ones that could get us big business.. because you know what... they can afford to buy them... anyway tomorrow we're hosting an open house... our first in 2 years... and things are really coming together for that. It's sort of a send off before we head out to Michigan the week after next. After nearly 15 years of building a business... I feel I can say that things are finally coming together.. but... I have said that many times before... whenever a new it hit a new plateau... but... leaving today I realized... we have a real shop space filled with tools, employees, dealers, fans, friends and one giant lovely business that has caused years of hair pulling hard work and fun... happy to be where we are today... it's been a long long long and bumpy road.... and worth every second. 
 
if you read this and don't really know what I do... then I guess I should say that I am a partner in a custom trumpet company. one of the only of it's kind on the planet. now I get to use my art, design, networking and marketing skills... the ones I went to school for long ago... and the things I really enjoy.... when I first started... I literally worked in a closet... I have done every single task that was needed in a small business... EVERY TASK... if you've ever had a small business... then you will understand... I have spent more hours on the phone with "help desks" and "customer service" than I want to think about... I used to dumpster dive for boxes and packing peanuts... I know everyone at my hometown post office by their first names... and I would bring them brownies... our first camera equipment was held together with duct tape... and we took all of our photographs in a bathtub... because that's where the best light was. I have seen this business through more tragedies and small wins than I could ever tell you about. there has been fire, flood, mockery, naysaying, fights, theft, carbon monoxide poisoning, broken heaters and often times... no money. this was a business built solely on faith and sweat... and a love of one thing... music. I guess the reason I am saying all of this right now is that I am really proud of what I've helped to build with my own two hands... you'd be surprised how hard it is to keep going when it seems everything is working against you... or maybe that's just the magic of it... maybe that's what makes it easy... looking NO in the face until you finally get a YES. maybe I just love a challenge.

You probably won't be surprised to find out I also keep a Harrelson Trumpets blog... if you're interested in attending the open house tomorrow or listening to more ranting on my part... you can do so here: http://whyharrelson.weebly.com/jens-blog.html

after the push for the printing for the open house and the trumpet festival... I left town for vegas! I had a really great time... it was fun to revisit some places I used to know well and discover a whole set of new ones... I never get over how beautiful it is to be above the clouds....

after the trip it was back to art and back to work.... today was the big push for tomorrow's open house... but I would like to mention that as soon as tomorrow is over... I am going to begin a new campaign for booking art shows over the summer and fall. I have so much I want to do and it's been a long time since I've given my solitude the attention it deserves.

and, last but not least... I have started listing paintings for sale right here on my website.... you can watch the inventory grow here: http://www.jenniferdsandquist.com/buy-art.html when I have a chance to breathe... and today I discovered a great source for cheap/fast/easy prints... so those will be coming soon too... I guess it turns out hard work really does pay off.

“Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if
you work really hard, and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.”

— Conan O’Brien

I have had an exhausting couple of months (in a good way).... that have come to a crescendo these last two weeks. My day job has been insanely busy... at the exact same time I have been prepping for Art-A-Whirl... and in the meantime I have been traveling even more than usual... tonight I had planned to partake in the opening festivities of the weekend... but instead was sleeping in all of my clothes.... complete with boots... by 10pm... I awoke after an anxiety nightmare about my own show tomorrow.... heh...

I have a lot of Artist and Music friends showing and playing this weekend... and I want to make the rounds... so given the loose format of my show and the fact that I don't want to miss anyone coming out to say hello to me personally...  I thought I should offer up a schedule of sorts... I will be at Grumpy's intermittently throughout the day but I promise to park myself there from 2pm until 5pm... If you want to meet up at some point please feel free to text me also... can't wait to see everyone tomorrow!

https://www.facebook.com/events/142124599308911/

On a side note... If you read my blog on the regular you know I have a penchant for making themed mix cds... despite the fact that I am probably the only person left that listens to cds... but I can't hear the above song without knowing that it is followed immediately by this one... on one of my favorite said cds...

“Sleep, those little slices of death — how I loathe them.”  ~ poe

As I am always pushing all the way to the end... this was drying in the car on the way to drop my art off...

... I haven't seen the show up yet but a few people have reported things are a go! Art-A-Whirl commencing in 5...4...3...2...

https://www.facebook.com/events/142124599308911/?ref=br_tf

today at work I was finishing edges and affixing eye hooks to the backs of paintints... Oscar didn't even notice...

inside a giant industrial machine at work today these are brass shavings... it makes me want to push my face up against it... it looks like a head of curly blonde hair...

these postcards finally arrived today... if you come to the show... they're free for the taking :)

and at the bizness end of things... I finally have cards with the correct information...it's been a long couple of weeks and I am ready for the float down from that. see you this weekend Minneapolis!

it's 11:15 pm. I am exhausted. I can honestly say I have worked my butt off the last week... and not for one second did it feel like working. i am finishing up a few things in these photos and 2 more pieces yet. the basement feels like home now....

i also need to stop taking all of my art photos with my phone. i own a nice camera... why am i always too lazy to use it? it doesn't take that much extra time.

i did take Saturday night off...

gonna work on this one tomorrow...

i feel a little lucky to be a transplant to Minneapolis. i grew up in a small town west of here and for as long as i can remember i felt a pull to devour whatever was "out there" in the big city of Minneapolis. i probably only came to the city about 3 times in my entire childhood.... and those were ALL on fieldtrips. i always thought that living in the city would be wildly exciting and endlessly stimulating. when i first moved here just a few short years ago... i didn't know anyone. i didn't know how to get anywhere. but it really didn't matter because i had no idea where "anywhere" was or what i would find when i got there... i didn't know how to parallel park. i still remember the first time i tried to park in uptown and bursting into tears eventually thinking i was an idiot for ever thinking i could live in the city. but Minneapolis welcomed me in with open arms. the thing i remember most about meeting people back then was that i just kept thinking... oh my god... all of these people are so interesting! you see, i guess i was part of a little bit of a subculture... my boyfriend at the time was really involved in the music scene here and so instantly i was thrust into a group full of musicians, artists, music heads, photgraphers, hippies and all around good folks. back where i come from... there's like one guy that has a band... and guess what he moved here.... and you never meet artists....and if you do they paint wildlife (not that there's anything wrong with that) photography is generally of flowers...  quickly my spirit was overwhelmed with the feeling that i belonged here... surrounded by all of this collective experience.

now... i think Minneapolis is small. i have made a lot of friends and the feeling that the city is vast and thrilling has faded slightly... i will admit that... but now i feel like it's a city with a small town heart. i still believe that the people sharing this cool metropolis with me are some of the most interesting cats out there... and as much as i travel... and explore... i always find that this is my favorite city of them all. whatever secret recipe we've got going on here ... suits me just fine.

and, yes, i painted late last night... and early this morning... and i should be exhausted after this marathon week but i am bright eyes and loud music... loving this wave.

i often wonder what my life would be like if i could operate, always, as i do right before i hang a show. all of this week i have been up before 6 am. most days before 5. i paint for a couple hours when i wake up... then brew coffee... then head to work... after work it's straight to painting again... until i am starving... then it's food and sleep... repeat. i love it. it puts me in this sort of trance state... and there's nothing much i can think about when i feel like that. i was worried there for a while that i might not have it in me anymore. I've been on an art hiatus, unintentionally for many months. but, i am happy to report, i am still capable of being totally manic.

i made a facebook invite for the show: https://www.facebook.com/events/142124599308911/

I also ordered postcards for the show and new business cards yesterday. because, as my friend pointed out to me, I have been walking around handing out cards with the wrong email address for the last 4 years. not only had I not noticed.... but no one else ever has either. I guess no one has tried to email me...
I hope that jenniferdsanduist@gmail.com doesn't mind getting strange emails from total strangers :)

ok, time for work. and time to re-brew my coffee. I just poured myself a cup of hot water. when brewing coffee it's a good idea to remember the coffee part.

I spent the beter part of last night in the paint dungeon... I am putting the finishing touches on the new things for my show at grumpy's for art-a-whirl.

while I was working last night I kept thinking about something one of my teachers once said to me. I never took a painting class... but when I was going to tech school for advertising I did have to take a few mechanical drawing classes... which I hated. but...  I did aquire some worth-while lettering skills. ... anyway I remember him looking over my shoulder and telling me my strokes (with my staedtler) were too timid. he said I was sneaking up on the letters instead of drawing them. every now and then I notice I do it in my paintings now... and as soon as I catch myself I try very hard to broaden my scope. and use another technique he taught me... squinting... to get the bigger picture... I like that as a life metaphor also. I try hard not to micro-focus and hope I am getting better at recognizing when I do it.

"but it's so hard to dance that way... when it's cold and there's no music"  ~ waits

have you ever just lost yourself.?

not in the good way... because that I approve of...

have you ever lost yourself because you chose to forget everything?
only to remember in more vivid detail. like a lucid dream that you can't get out of your head it was so colorful?

welcome to my recent mindset.

I spent hours in a dungeon tonight. with paint and paste.

hours that felt like minutes. I love that time warp.

this tiny photograph of an army barracks sits in my paint cabinet ... next to avocado and spring green. it's much clearer and smaller in real life... I like the sweetheart photo in the middle and the way it seems lonely and somehow romantic... because we're not the ones experiencing it. also... my sister and I had an army issue footlocker just like these... sans the locks... that we had as a toybox as kids... it was black and you could only barely make out the "US" stamp on the top....

this has nothing to do with anything tonight... except I saw it in the gallery on my phone from a few days ago and it made me laugh again...

come see me during art a whirl at grumpy's!

this morning I woke up at 4am and started pulling out papers-photo-scissors....  at 7am I walked to the corner store because I realized that all of my decoupage had hermetically sealed itself shut. it's 10:30 now and I am just picking up all of the scraps off the floor. I love mornings like this.

I have a lot of work to do before art a whirl... but I am excited for it again. I spent 4 days with my mom in Chicago... I took her there for the first time. I've been to Chicago so many times that I can't remember them all... but I can remember many times very well. This was one of those times... it was fun to see one of my favorite cities through my mom's eyes. I just kept telling her how there was so much more to see... she said she understood... but I don't think that's possible. I've been there at least 15 times and every time I see a side of the city I never knew was there... but I am happy she got a taste.

Working on more collage pieces this week... I have no obligations and no where to go... for the first time in a very long time and I am spending some much needed quality time with myself and my art supplies.

a couple of my favorite photos from the windy city