Monday, January 25, 2010

Epic East Coast Recap

My time out East was fantastic. Like, super tops in all manners. Here is the quickest rundown possible of my 5 day jam packed trip. This is a long one....

January 15th, Day #1:
The show I curated "New Work by Merrilee Challiss and Margaret Oomen" at Craftland Gallery opened. Merrilee flew in from Alabama and we all got to hang out. The show looks amazing, the work is stunning and I'm glad my hunch for showing those two together was correct. Read more about the experience here.

Margaret Oomen, covered sea stones
Margaret Oomen, covered sea stones

Margaret Oomen, covered tea saucers
Margaret Oomen, covered tea saucers

Merrilee Challiss, Babylon Garden
Merrilee Challiss, Babylon Garden

Merrilee Challiss, Temple
Merrilee Challiss, Temple

NOTE:
Artwork is available for sale online HERE
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Read about Margaret donating her sale proceeds to Haiti on her blog HERE.

January 16th, Day #2:
I got to do some putting around Providence with Merrilee before I dropped her at the airport before my screening later that evening. Deb Dormody recommended we swing by Wolf E. Myrow. If you are curious about a magic place filled with amazing things read more about it here.

Wolf E. Myrow

Wolf E. Myrow

Later on in the evening I had my screening at Craftland, 2 sold out shows of 40!

Screening at Craftland in Providence, RI
Goccoed tickets by Heather Toupin

Screening at Craftland in Providence, RI
Craftland

January 17th, Day #3:
Said goodbye to Providence and drove through 4 states (this blows my mind since I live in the Midwest) in 2 hours to get to Portland, ME. I drove straight to Eli Phant (one of the event sponsors) to check out their store. If you get a chance go there the owners Sally & Peter have curated an amazing shop that has all sorts of perfect handmade goodness. I can't tell you what I bought or it will ruin someone baby shower surprise....

Eli Phant: Portland Maine

Eli Phant: Portland Maine

I got a chance to finally see Ferdinand in person, have some amazing tea, eat an incredible dinner then we all zipped over to Space Gallery for the screening. 150 people came out for the event. It was awesome.

Screening at Space Gallery in Portland, Maine
Space Gallery

Right after the screening I drove off into the night as to wake up at my friends house in Belfast Maine....

January 18, Day #4:
I have a group of friends who have decided to make Belfast their home. I was there for the wedding ceremony last year and my second time back was just as amazing, just much chillier. One of the best parts of touring with my movie is I get to stay in touch with old friends, this is the perfect example. So breakfast was had then I headed over to Waterfall Arts for my Sunday matinee.

Portrait
Belfast, ME

Feather
Feather, the three legged cat

Skunk Man
Skunk Man

Waterfall Arts is this rad space with studios and a gallery. I was excited that 50 people came out on a gray Sunday afternoon to watch Handmade Nation.

Screening at Waterfall Arts in Belfast

I drove for three hours after the screening since I was due in Boston the next day and there was supposed to be a big ol' snow storm. There was.

January 19th, Day #5:
I woke up to this:


Lucky for me I was only an hour away from Boston. I was extra super excited because I was on my way to meet up with the lovely Meighan O'Toole who does the art blog My Love For You. Meighan and I had never met, but we have had many online discussions so both of us were really excited. She was sponsoring the Boston Screening that was happening at 4th Wall Gallery that night. Needless to say Meighan & I hit it off super hard, so hard in fact I didn't take one single picture of her since we didn't stop talking the entire time.

60+ peeps came out to 4th Wall for the Boston screening that night, it was awesome.

Screening at 4th Wall Gallery in Boston
4th Wall Gallery

January 20th, Day #6

So tired from hanging out for a week straight, I had lunch with my uncle Hal & flew home to Milwaukee. Thanks everyone who came out last week. It's much appreciated. Mucho much.

The end.

{More photos from the trip are here}





4 comments:

Margie Oomen said...

What a great east coast trip!
Looking forward to the day when more than my stones will cross your path.
In other words looking forward to meeting you in person one day soon.
m

glam.spoon said...

I really enjoy reading about your trips as you promote handmade nation. I will admit to being more than a little jealous of the journey... just received my copy of the DVD from Buy Olympia!

Under The Root said...

Spectacular and I just noticed the Chicago screening March 20th. Beautiful, beautiful!

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