Looking Forward....

Yesterday I learned my TattooDreams work was juried into the online portal TrunkT. I have also joined Indiepublic to encourage sales of this alternate body of work. It takes a multi- faceted money stream to survive as an artist these days.
The end of the Bush era will sound a bell to passion resumed and (hopefully) a needless mess of a war and occupation of Iraq ended.
One can only hope at this point.
I have the countdown clock on my blog for good reason.
I want to have my country and livlihood back!!
I beleive this will happen when this resident president leaves office.

Out to the studio to make art!

Pat

★ Cosmic Star Box ★

★´¨)
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(¸.*´ (¸.*`¤~ This box is my ★Cosmic Star Box!★ Featured on etsy.com, it measures 5 1/2" wide and 5 1/2" deep and 5" tall. Trimmed in handpainted red feet. Reminds me of the circus and those star-laced platforms the elephants step onto. I think this would be a great box for a birthday gift! I like gifting things for occassions that will be memorable! Top to this box slides on and off allowing for full access. So cosmically delicious!
A great box to entrust memories and photos of trips and artifacts be they real or of our own making. Inside the box it's lined on the bottom with sexy black velvet. A great box to enjoy as an art or conversation piece.
★
$42.00
http://www.tattoodreams.etsy.com
★
Patricia

A Bizarre Observation.....

Over this past very cold, very dark weekend, two 'emergency runs' became necessary.
One for tequila on Saturday night.
The other for ice-cream on Sunday afternoon.
In Indiana, heaven forbids the sale of alcohol on Sunday........Why I don't understand! Cant buy a car on Sunday either, but I digress....
I grew up with Catholic grandparents who referred to alcohol as 'Holy Water' and bought it on sale
and stowed it away along with other useful items on sale. My Pop-Pop, the greatest guy in the world on so many levels, left a major imprint on my impressionable self as a young child. "You buy things on sale." He bought top shelf Vermouth, Dermasage moisture cream and Listerine by the case. Bought them at Webb City. A huge old destination of a store in downtown St. Petersburg Florida. There long before mega stores or malls, this place sold everything!

Anyway, this emergency ice-cream run over the weekend took us to our local CVS drugstore. Jon headed for the ice cream and I perused the cosmetics. Not that I buy much of that stuff, I much prefer the face paint I use so little of to be from companies that don't test on animals.( I use Body Shop.) Anyway........I do love the array of choices in a store like this. For whatever reason, I do love the collective smell of drugstores! I was struck by all the cosmetics on sale. By sale I mean half off or more on almost everything...........what does this say?
That these items are luxury items and in such horrific financial times the only way to sell them is to discount them?
Or does it say, for the love of God, if the world is going to hell, we might as well all look good........... I dunno, but it struck me as interesting.
Definite blog fodder I stowed away to share on this frigid 20 degree day.

So have a nice day, paint your face and buy stuff on sale!

Patricia

Shaman Spirits TattooDream Box

This box is 7" square and 7 1/4 deep and 5 1/4" high. Trimmed in handpainted desert teal with matching feet and two tone teal fringe. Reminiscent of the spirtual desert and cliff dwellers' petroglyphs that still exist in tucked away places. Some of the first most primal art that gave modern man a glimpse into the life of these early people.
A great surdy box to entrust memories and photos of trips and artifacts be they real or of our own making. Inside the box it's lined on the bottom with lucious black velvet. A great box to enjoy as an art or conversation piece.

If this box tugs at your soul, go to my etsy site (link on the right side of this page) and buy it!!

$75.00

Patricia

The Wigwam Motel, Holbrook Arizona

Sometimes the places we stay linger in our minds long after we leave. We find ourselves on the road, traversing this amazing country living intermittently out of a suticase for half the year. This takes us to hotel rooms that meld and look like one another after a while. Then again, some are very different and strike a cord that alligns with the people who seek them out for their unique appeal. The Wigwam Motel on Route 66 was just this. Located in Holbrook Arizona, this old motel is from a byegone era. An era when folks drove all day in un-airconditoned autos, stopped for the night, had dinner and began again early the next day. The art of the journey. The stopping early and having sit down meals versus drive through fast food lent more interaction with the local folks and left a flavor of the place you've been on the palette and the mind.

Those days are gone unless one makes a conscious effort to recreate them. Last Halloween we did just that. We stayed in a cement wigwam. 14 feet in diameter. You could lock out the world in your cement confines, complete with an ac that blasted refrigerated air and heater that blew warm comfort, this self contained room was modestly decorated with period tramp furnishing and echoed of the lives who spent time there.
We ate dinner at a local establishment and continued our dirve the following day spending the following night at a place that looked like everywhere else except the place we'd just been.

To find the unique, you sometimes have to look a little a harder.
But when you do, it's worth it!

The road calls and soon we'll be traversing her again.
It's in our blood.

Patricia Hecker

100 Square Feet

On any given weekend across this country, my artist friends and I are
setting up shop in our portable gallery of a 10x10 white tent and showing our work
I wrote the following poem and presented it at the NAIA Directors Conference
held in Lancaster,PA last fall. I share it with you here:

"100 SQUARE FEET"
by Patricia Hecker

We criss cross the country
in our vans of white-
to sell what we've made
at an art fair site.

This is the life
we've chosen by trade-
to sell to the public
things we've hand made.

The booths we fill
with displays 10 feet wide
are secured in our vans
for a long distance ride.

Created by day
and driven by night
to arrive in town
at your art fair site.

This gallery we build
in our 100 square feet
can withstand mild wind
but not snow or sleet!

The sun and fair weather
are art fair friends
as we hope for blue skies
and upward sales trends.

The consumer is fickle
when stock markets dive.
Collector confidence
keeps art fairs alive.

With jewelry and pottery
and paintings so bright-
we offer our best
for the publics delight.

To future young artists
we meet in our booth-
imagination and crayons
are part of their youth.

We might light a spark
by something we say-
and meet them again
as artists some day!

To share and inspire
are what we do best.
'Making a living'
is put to the test.

We want to feel safe
in our 100 square feet.
It gives peace of mind
to all that we meet.

Booth fees oh my-
And jury fees too...
We pick and choose
by what shows we'll do.


We too are consumers
of this thing called a 'fair'
to decide to apply
with the art we will share.

These shows stay alive
by the art we all do
not just white tents
but advertising it too!

This dual commitment
for artists and shows-
To give it our best
as everyone knows.

This isn't a hobby
or part time thing.
This is what fuels us
and thus what we bring.

We've supported ourselves
and put food on the table.
Sent kids to college
and donated when able.

We've seen each other
at our worst and our best-
and keep making art
with an undying zest.

We're in this together.
We've accomplished great things.
Artists and directors-
the art that it brings.

This tight knit group
is why we're all here
to hold securely
a lifestyle so dear.

Proxy exhibitors
hurt what we do-
by faking all out
on just who's who.

With imports off shore
and buy/sell so cheap-
it's the honor of our trade
we fight hard to keep.

This is our life
its critical to see
that I respect you
and you respect me!

❤ Valentines Day ❤

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
There was a time when Valentines Day was about bringing my Moms decorated cupcakes to class
and having made small post boxes placed on our desks for our Valentines.
Then there was the time it meant hoping a boyfriend would remember and buy you a flower from
the fundraisers in high school.
Then there was the most wonderful Valentine of all.
The guy I was dating in art school made a Valentine for me and brought it with flowers to my apartment.
I was in love!!!
Real love.
This man and a I now share our life together and have for 25 years!
I wake up beside him and know he'll always be there.
That's the best gift I could hope for!

This is my favorite holiday of the year.
It arrives in the midst of dark cold February and brings flowers and love
and hugs to the focus!
Does it get any better than this?

Patricia

✺ Friday ✺

Good Morning!
We have sun! To a former Floridian now a midwesterner in winter...this is huge! We've gone about 4 days, maybe more with little or no sun. Ughhhh.... This watercreature can do without water but needs sunlight to function. Depression and lethargy quickly set in without the solar goodness streaming down on me.

Today I'll be in the studio working on commissions and work for my etsy site. I love the anticipation of a weekend and the quiet they bring. This weekend I'm off to jury a show. I am one of the jurrors for a show that will take place in late June/early July. When this show goes on, it's usually near 100º. In stark contrast to the temperatures when it gets juried!! The jury will convene at a ski resort and the roads getting there are hilly and hopefully clear. This will be a nice diversion and quick get away for Jon and I.

Todays photo is of our sweet tiger Oreo beside one of my TattooDream dressers.

✺
Patricia

☆ The Lovely Frida Kahlo ☆

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(¸.*´ (¸.*`¤~This box is dedicated to the amazing Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo. An icon, a treasure and an immense talent who lives on. Her life and art have inspired me. How she continued her creative life despite such physical pain. Amazing! This upcycled cigar box is 7 1/4" square and 6" high. Trimmed in handpainted bright red with charming red feet and purple fringe. Reminiscent of the bright colors Frida wore! Inside the box it's lined on the bottom with sexy black velvet. A great box to enjoy as an art piece, conversation piece or for storage of your preciosos!

These look old and new at the same time. I think this is what lends such an artsy air to them!
Another piece from my TattooDreams collection available on etsy.com Price: $75.00
(Photos by Jon Hecker)

♥

♪ Mardi Gras ¤ Tattoo Dream Box ♪

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(¸.*´ (¸.*`¤~This box is dedicated to the carnival of Mardi Gras. Today being (Super Tuesday) as well as Fat Tuesday, and the culmination of Mardi Gras, Lent begins tomorrow with Ash Wednesday. Today, all hell is had and embraced, for tomorow you fast!!! It's 7 3/4" wide, 5 1/2 deep and 4 1/2" high. Trimmed in the 3 traditional colors of Mardi Gras and her mystic crews, green, purple and gold. Handpainted green festive feet adorned with gold ruffles and and purple fringe. Reminiscent of the floats, beads and garlands thrown about on Bourbon Street.
•May New Orleans rise up and shine, this is her party!•
A great box to hold your memories, photos and beads from Mardi Gras past. Inside the box, the bottom is lined with with sexy black velvet. A great box to enjoy as an art piece or conversation treasure. Please look at all the photos to see the various images I've used on this collectible.
These look old and new at the same time. I think this is what lends such an artsy air to them!
Comes to you from a non-smoking home. Only thing I burn is incense and occasionally dinner!
To make this box yours, simply go to my etsy site and add it to your cart.
$50.00
(photo by Jon Hecker)

♥February♥

♥´¨)
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{¸.*´ (¸.*`¤~Happy February!
I'm one of those people that love Valentines Day! There are few holidays I like as much. it comes at a time of year when an injection of color seems vital. The doldrums of winter are upon us and spring not yet around the visible corner. It's also all about love. This painting is available on my etsy site for $30.00 http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9183987
♥ Patricia