Indiana Art Fair at the Indiana State Museum

This weekend we have our first show of 2012. It's the Indiana Art Fair held at the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis. We have new work and look forward to the year ahead.
Please join us and come see the artists that will be exhibiting this weekend.
Above is our new Tribal Mask Vessel. It will be in our booth this weekend.

Jon and Patricia Hecker
TattooDreams
Booth# 1-12 On the ground floor/Canal Level

What Valentines Day Means to Me

I love Valentines Day! I love that ~ in the midst of the darkness and chill of winter, a day is set aside for love.
For flowers.
For showing affection.
A day for love.
As a young girl, Valentines Day was special. My Mom found something, albeit small, to gift to my brother and I to remind us of her love. That is after all what Moms do, and my Mom was great at this kind of thing. It was also in February that I usually caught the flu and would miss my classroom Valentines day party. The parties where crayon decorated brown paper bags were made into mailboxes with white scalloped doilies and taped to the side of your desk to hold Valentines from classmates. Where the Room Mothers brought in cupcakes and punch and math class was halted.
Valentines. The small envelopes, some pink, some red, some white got deposited into your bag. Some with stickers on the back. Each with your name on the front.
Tucked inside, the small illustrated cards bought in cellophane packs at the supermarket the night before and hurriedly signed by the obligatory classmate. Then every now and then you'd find one that said "Guess who?"..... a mystery that made your day...needing to be observed more closely later that night in the privacy of your bedroom.

Now I have a new appreciation for this holiday of red and pink. I love seeing these colors come to stores after the reds and greens of Christmas disappear. It's in the February that I generally feel the full thrust of winters' cold. When flowers are not blooming and an assorted sense of cabin fever and general malaise sets in. The winter holidays are over, the anticipation of spring beginning. A feeling that things to come are not quite here yet.

Anticipation.

Love that was.
Love that is
Love that can never be.
Love that never dies.

The most beautiful of all four letter words.
A verb that magnifies our lives.
Because if love is not put into action, it's merely an adjective to describe.
Love must be put in action to become fully alive!

That's what Valentines Day means to me.

With love,
Patricia

••• Sara's Box •••

Every once in a while an artist is gifted a great commission. This box was one of those commissions. We met the woman gifting this box to her sister in Austin at the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar. When she saw our work, she knew that a box made by us would be the ideal gift for her sisters 40th birthday.
Ideas were shared and stamps were culled and so began the box. Jon crafted this elegant tapered box in cherry. A fitting and beautiful canvas for me to stamp the desired ideas that came our way. We were given a wide berth in which to create this box and that was appreciated. Giving an artist that freedom usually yields a finished piece that is pleasing to the person who commissioned it as well as the artist.
Such was the case here.
The box is adorned with a wide array of earthy stones. Turquoise, jasper, sea shells, chestnuts, glass and seed beads fall gracefully from the linen cords as well as beads we crafted ourselves. Atop the vessel sits a wolf.



We know that Sara's box will be gifted in the spirit it was made~ with great love.
An artist can ask no more than to give it their all.



Happy Birthday Sara!

Patricia & Jon

The Armadillo Christmas Bazaar

Jon and I are in Austin Texas doing the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar with our TattooDream boxes. Twenty six years of doing a myriad of various types of shows and venues across the country and nothing remotely compares to this! Booths are various sizes which lends a varied and interesting esthetic to what is already an eclectic show. Coupled with the amazing live music from class acts, we feel this is a real treasure and a gift to be here.
Every day we open our booth to the wonderfully fun and interesting people of Austin Texas. They are genuine and most welcoming to us, especially when they hear we came so far. Our hosts, Bruce and Annie have gone above and beyond to welcome us into this Armadillo family. Health issues as they are, we need to make some changes to our show schedule and we hope by doing this show that will allow us the ability to do just that.

To us, this is our Christmas gift.

This year the show runs 11 days. Open daily from 11 am to 11 pm right up to Christmas Eve. In it's 36th season this year. We've spoken to so many artists who have done it from the beginning as well as patrons for whom this has become a holiday tradition.
We've known about this show for a very long time but knew we didn't have the rigth work for it. Now to actually be here doing it it feels very cool!
Our dear friend Bonnie Blandford is here to help us for the first 5 days. Her offer to help us has been hard to quantify. She's given up time at home after a busy year to do this. We are forever indebted. Days are long and morning comes a bit too soon, but the energy within that hall is addictive.
Time away from the booth is good too. Our dear friend David Haun is taking Bonnie and I to the South AustinTrailer Park Eatery tonight for supper. Food trucks in Austin provide some for the best local fare around and this one is sure to please. Bonnies first night here we at at Chuy's. Excellent food and eclectic decor. Loved the ceilings full of hubcaps! Hmmm... I do believe it was here that the infamous Jenna Bush got arrested! (Some rich girls just need to know that laws are for everyone!) Hahaha!

If you are anywhere near here, plan a trip over to the Armadillo. We're in the Palmer Events Center. Plan to stay the day and into the evening! A dim hall, alcohol, fantastic live music and a great place to do all your holiday shopping!
Eat, drink, shop and fill your sleigh!!

Heckers TattooDreams are in booth B4. The one with the puple and blue LED lights and fun boxes!!

A Morning Haiku

Winters quiet light
Breath rises in silent fog
The days peace unfolds.

~Patricia Hecker

Featured box is available for free shipping from my etsy site.
$48.00

Artist Bunny Box

Woman is born to create...in creating she becomes herself, accomplishes her destiny. Her whole life is only an initiation into her creative power. To create is not merely to produce a work...it is to give out ones individuality. Woman becomes creator when, after the numerous stages of adaptation to alien influence, she finally grasps what is really her own, what she really receives, not from men, but directly from God as a special personal message.
Jeanne de Vietinghoff

This quote resides on one side of my Artist Bunny Box

This box and others available on my etsy site.
$48.00

Vegetarian Refried Beans Recipe

Killer Refried Beans

2 c. dried pinto beans, sorted and rinsed
bay leaves
3/4 c canola oil
1 bulb roasted garlic
2-3 tsp. kosher salt
tamari or Braggs Amino
adobo powder
cumin powder
1 can chopped roasted tomatoes

Sort beans for any stones. Rinse beans and add to pot with water. Cook with cover ajar for 2 hours till soft. Add water if needed, but doubt that will be necessary.
Keep the water level about 2" above beans.
(Note:DO NOT SALT beans till they are fully cooked.)
In the meantime.......
Roast a bulb of garlic drizzled in olive oil with a pinch of thyme.
Remove bay leaves from the cooked beans. cook beans until there's very little water above the height of the beans.
When garlic is done roasting, remove cloves and mash them slightly and add to pot of beans. Mash beans in pot with a potato masher or big spoon.
Add the canola oil to the beans.
Add the undrained roasted canned tomatoes to the pot.
Add tamari or Braggs, salt and adobo.
Add 2 tsp. of cumin

The longer you can cook this down with all the spices and things added, the better your beans will taste! Keep cooking them until they thicken a bit more and serve. You can add chopped jalapenoes and serve with shredded cheese or not.

This Day of the Dead Box is available on my etsy site.
$48.00