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