Screwing Puppet Heads or Friday Night in the Swing Room.Do You know Where Your Puppet is?

Its 10 o’clock…do you know where your puppet is? Well tonight after a very full day of working with artists, museum directors (printed up promo card for First Friday to go into the Applarians packets for Apple Blossom) and gallery board members and directors as well as the Bear Chested Potter, Terry Johnson (delivered his 500 pounds of clay and showed him his new promo cards) it was off to the Wenatchee Valley Museum and  Cultural Center Swing Room to work some more on the Giant Puppet Project with Bill Reitvelt. Bill and I and later another guy (didn’t get his name)  worked on screwing the backpacks to the PVC pipes and attaching the 1x3 wood boards that will be the shoulders and hips of the giant puppets. All was going pretty well till we got to the part about screwing the tops of the heads to the wood caps on top of the PVC poles inside that connect the heads to the shoulders and hips. It almost went really bad a couple of times there. We were all glad the puppet police were not there. Nuff said about that. We got a bunch of stuff done on the support structures for the giant puppets. Tomorrow it will be more of the same and a lot of work on the costumes. Martha took her sewing machine down there today, so that there will be one more machine to work on the outfits. I think it is all finally coming together. We shall see.

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Seattle Urban Landscape, Mosaic Mural, Art Openings and Tap Tap Buses

Well, today for me it’s Seattle for clay and gritty urban / industrial photos while Martha is taking a class for instructors at the Neighborhood House in a part of Seattle near MLK Blvd. I got a hundred and fifty pounds of Raku clay for Terry Johnson and a hundred pounds of Vashon White clay for Martha. The area where the Seattle Pottery Supply store is located is perfect for getting industrial photo shots especially with railroad tracks and railroad cars.  I got some shots of graffiti. My son Austin will like some of those graffiti shots.

After a nice Caribbean lunch with Martha and the ladies from her class and after taking some pics of the mosaic in the downstairs lobby area of the Neighborhood House I headed out again to get some urban pics. After driving around for awhile I found myself up on Beacon Hill near Forest and 12^th St where I got the urban industrial landscape of Seattle from above. From there I thought I could see the Seattle Pottery Store. So for the heck, I zoomed in as far as I could to see if I could get a shot of it. I could also see Alki where I have dived several times with some of my dive buddies from Wenatchee and Seattle. So; of course, I did my best to get a decent shot of that area too from up on the hill. Once I downloaded them into my laptop, I could see more clearly what it said on the side of the building I had been photographing only minutes before. Was it the Seattle Pottery Store…you bet…right on the money. And, I got some decent shots of the port area and of course the Alki Cove dive site.

Having finished with taking photos from up on Beacon Hill, I found my way over to Tully’s Coffee House near The Old Rainier Brewery where I could sit and write this blog. Once online, I got a msg. from one of my nieces about one of my blogs on facebook. While checking that out I found she had also posted a link to a really neat piece on the Tat Tap painted buses of Port –au- Prince Haiti that had aired on NPR:   http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/weather/jan-june10/haiti_03-30.html . It was very enjoyable to watch…I totally get the value of painting the buses with artwork as a means of showing the worth and quality of the driver and how he takes care of his machine.

Just as I was about to write the above bit on Tat Tap buses I got a call from Artie Bowman at the Cashmere Arts and Activities Center. The latest update there is that the Cashmere High School Seniors and the third graders will be exhibiting at the gallery all of May and will likely install around the 6^th of May. The May Clay class will be postponed at the center and Scott Allen will install his exhibit at CAAC the first week of June… busy, busy, busy.

Over in Wenatchee, Two Rivers Gallery will be changing out there artwork this coming weekend and be ready for the May First Friday event on May 6^th. Lynn Wright Brown is set to be the featured artist there and that looks to be a really good show. Martha Flores will be installing three large oils at the Performing Arts Center on May 4^th and will have another 12 to 14 smaller pieces there for  first Friday and all of Apple Blossom Weekend. What a great bunch of art events for May. As soon as I know more about what’s happening in may at the other galleries in Wenatchee I will post that information.

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My Girl Friends Back Hey Na Hey Na - So Much To do and So much Fun Doing It

Well, finally Martha is back... yipi!  Picked her up last night on the last flight into Wenatchee  - near midnight. Meanwhile, I got great news for her that she will not only be able to install three large paintings at the Performing Arts Center, but will be able to install many more for the  May First Friday and keep them up through the Apple Blossom weekend. I went through the store of paintings we have on hand and picked out about 14 framed pieces that are good to go. The pieces I selected will show a broad range of Martha’s talents and the various themes styles and materials that she expresses herself through.

First thing this morning she was off to a meeting with regard to a summer educational program she will be involved in which lead to the planning we need to do with regard to the mural she is to do this summer in Wenatchee. The ideal project for her and the need of the city will be to involve the kids in the mural and really make it representative of the community it will be in.

For me, after I finished my reports for work, it was off to the Two Rivers Gallery in Wenatchee, to put several more art books up for sale on Amazon.com for the Gallery sellers account. That done it was back home and endeavoring to figure out how to do a remote feed for the livestream.com channel Art News Network. Without remote feed it will be much more limited as to what I can do for the live streaming of First Friday at the Two Rivers Gallery as they don’t have wireless internet. It’ll be a different story at the Second Saturday events at the Cashmere Arts and Activities Center as Artie Bowman had wireless internet installed. That should make the opening for Scott Allen this coming Second Saturday a real online event. Can’t wait to do it and see how it comes out.

On another front, Terry’s cards are in the mail and should be here this week, and tomorrow, Martha and I go over the mountains to Seattle… Martha to do a training and I will go to the pottery store to pick up clay for her and Terry Johnson. Hopefully I’ll get some good photo ops while over there, perhaps some gritty urban shots and or some good nature shots by the shore. We shall see.

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Wine Soaked Wood Pellets, Antiques, Coffee and B-B-Q

Well, a busy couple of days for art. Yesterday I showed the work-ups for the art marketing mailer to Terry Johnson that is to promote his ceramics primarily but does showcase a couple of his two dimensional pieces as well. We made a couple of minor adjustments and today I ordered the final version. They should be here in three days. Terry asked me to pick up ten boxes of Raku clay for him to, as I will be heading over to the coast with Martha on Thursday – she returns tonight from Texas – and will be picking up some clay for her from the pottery store over there. I’m happy to do that for Terry.

 Also, this morning I was successful in getting my art News Network channel at Livestream.com to work in a test run. I’m so glad that I got that figured out and working properly. So, that this coming month I should be able to live stream the First Friday at Two Rivers Gallery and the Second Saturday event at the Cashmere Arts and Activities Center. Before Martha left Texas I was able to tell I got it working and she was very pleased about that as well. Once I get the first live event successfully live streamed on location, then it will be the next step to connect to the art News Network by mobile phone and be able to do a roving reported kind of thing for these events going to the different venues and showing what each is exhibiting etc…

Having completed the mornings tasks of ordering post cards for Terry and getting the live stream thing going right, it was time to pick up Artie Bowman the director of the gallery at the Cashmere Arts and Activities Center, to go around downtown Cashmere and do the ‘meet and greet, walk and talk.’ This so we could promote the gallery, sell some business memberships and add space for in the bi-monthly news letter of the gallery and get other locations to participate in the Cashmere Second Saturday events, which would entail staying open till 8pm on those Saturdays.

We were so please that right of the bat Gary at Eva’s Antique Mall bought a $100.00 membership and gave us some readymade copy for the newsletter that will go in six bi-monthly Newsletters. We really liked the Antique Mall and were very impressed with the quality merchandise that he and the 26 or 28 participating vendors had in the store. Gary was a real pleasure to talk to and was very interested in the Second Saturday event and was more than happy to put up a couple of easels and display some additional artwork.

After meeting with Gary we stopped at another co-op antique store up the street and met with a fellow named John …didn’t get his last name, who was also interested in all of the above. Then on to the Cashmere Cottage Yarn store. There we talked with Jan Evans who also was very interested and wanted to finalize any plan with her partner Judith Jorgensen. We are really looking forward to getting them onboard with Second Saturday and with a business or individual membership to the gallery. This is really starting to take shape we thought, as we continued on to the Junkyard Gypsies antique gallery.

 Junkyard Gypsies is another place that would be great to have participate in Second Saturday. It’s on Mission Street, where a lot of new trendy places have popped-up and are continuing to pop-up. There we met with Christy who also was very interested and who spotted a nice picture of her own daughter taken at the CAAC gallery in one of our Newsletter photos. We couldn’t have planed that better. She was really nice and had some very interesting stuff in there. When Martha is back in town and we have some time I really want to take her there. Christy recommended we try to catch the owners of the Smoke Blossom restaurant next door as they are in the process of moving in and are planning to stay open on Saturday and Friday evenings.

After meeting with Christy and checking out Smoke Blossom (no one there) we went to Snap Dragon Coffee shop which is also there on Mission St. right next to the Horan Estates Wineries that is already supporting the gallery.  There we spoke with the owner Courtney Schill, who seemed very excited about all the marketing possibilities with the gallery, the newsletter, the up-coming web presence of the gallery and the Second Saturday plans. She also shared that she could not only stay open for second Saturday, but that she is planning to have a mobile coffee trailer down at the river on Sundays to sell coffee and food items to the river rafters as they get out of the river at the park. We, will definitely want to have our maps of Second Saturday participants and gallery brochures there for those folks to pick-up so they know there is more to do in Cashmere than just get out of the water and head back to Leavenworth. Courtney was so nice, as we were just handing out some materials Barneys in Cashmere, she called to let me know I had left some wine soaked wood  B-B-Q pellets on her counter. It was a pleasure to go back and pick those up later. I’m really looking forward to using those the next time I B-B-Q at home.

Our last stop of the day was at the Country Boy’s Southern style B-B-Q. We gave Anitra, the owner copies of our materials and she showed us where we could place our brochures and the maps of the Second Saturday locations when those are ready. Thank you Anitra, we look forward to trying some of your great smelling B-B-Q the next time we are in town for lunch.

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Rod Daut and Martha Flores Art Blog: Puppets, Antique Contraptions, making videos and "...

Rod Daut and Martha Flores Art Blog: Puppets, Antique Contraptions, making videos and "...: "Well, it was another fine day for the arts in Wenatchee Saturday. In the old Swing Room of the Wenatchee Museum and Cultural Center, we all ..."


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Puppets, Antique Contraptions, making videos and "I'll Follow You in the Dark" at the Park

Well, it was another fine day for the arts in Wenatchee Saturday. In the old Swing Room of the Wenatchee Museum and Cultural Center, we all worked tirelessly on the Giant Puppets. Don Collins and his Wenatchee High School art students painted away on the heads and hands of the puppets that still needed some detail. One young art student painstakingly glued hair made of vinyl furniture decoration onto the head of one of the puppets, while myself and others lathered sealer  onto completed heads and hands. It was a humorous bit when Bill Rietveldt tried on the frame for one of the giant puppets out in the alley  only to find, as his wife Cindy was so clear to point out, that it bowed just a bit too much. The rest of the day for Bill was spent trying to redo that design problem which entailed another trip to the big box store and still more problems.  “It will get done on time” he insisted as we slowly crawled from one floor to another in the antique elevator of the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center.

 As these things go, the holes I had drilled for the wooden portion of the puppets frames were measured to the original pvc pipe and once we were using larger diameter pvc these had to be redrilled… no drill bit big enough to do the job...to the store one more time. Try to use the contraption of a drill press that Bill has had since High School… ahhh… another issue, and still the pipe would not fit. So; to the router tool. Finally to screw the new pvc piece to the old school aluminum backpack frame…. The two boxes of screws already opened… now too short for the new pvc pipe. At about that point Bill was done for the day.

None-the-less a good time was had by all and Bill supplied the all beef franks well before we were finished and we all really needed a break at that point. Thanks to Don Collins for the really good but maybe not so good for us honey glazed peanuts.

Upon leaving and passing through the alley behind the museum, I spotted a number of young musicians and volunteers for the Red Cross Club of Wenatchee High School out in Centennial Park just behind the museum. As I was parked right there, I stopped to listen as a young acoustic guitarist  named Bruce Richardson played “I’ll Follow You IN The Dark” and did a nice job of it.  He was followed by two young country performers Bree Hoffman and Mallory Gillin.

Upon arriving home I preceded to make a video of the day added some music and preceded to create a new Youtube account as my old one no longer works. This is apparently a common problem since Google got involved.  That done I posted the video to Youtube at : http://www.youtube.com/user/56Daut?feature=mhum . I’m still having some difficulty with my livestream.com account…arrrghh!!! Oh well, as I often do, I can just fall back on the fact that “I am old.” But learning all this technology stuff can be said to be keeping me young… I dunno. It sometimes makes me feel really old especially when I can’t get stuff to work the way I want it too. A bit lit Bill and his antique drill press I guess. Hey, maybe I don’t feel so old after all.

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Finnish Table, Knuckle Rapping, Deadly Spores and Cutting the Bias

Well, it was another fun filled Thursday night in the old break room of the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. Cindy and Bill Rietvelt, Don Collins and Mary Joe Bartholomew and a great bunch of High School kids were all there painting and detailing the giant paper mache’  heads and hands. I went a little too far in detailing a head that was already on the finished table… which later was the” ‘Finnish’ not Norwegian “ table… hahaha … Bill you are a card.

After, having my knuckles rapped for putting too much detail on a miner, I was put on ‘bias’ detail. That is, along with Mary Joe, an artist and Massage therapist who lives in Leavenworth but grew up near Seal Beach in California, I was to cut a large roll of silk ‘on the bias’ meaning at an angle to the fabric. This so that it would not fray. You see the things one learns on a project like this. I for one would never have known that. Any ‘seamster’ or seamstress persons out there I’m sure are thinking everyone knows that…but I didn’t. Anyway, cut away I did and before I left the strips of silk were being put to good use adorning the hats and attire of some of the puppets as they are coming together. Shortly therafter, as Bill was throwing away some moldy looking stuff in the bottom of a bucket, I snapped a couple of pictures of the modern artish looking stuff. Hopefully it wasn't deadly stuff.

It was all good fun and I now know that the giant puppets will certainly be done in time for the Apple Blossom Grand Parade in May. Besides, a miner, a lumberjack, an Indian, a railroad worker and an explorer Bill hinted at a secret puppet character, that he almost told me of. But then, he would only say, that as it is not possible to do all the important historical characters of the early history of Wenatchee, that there would be this ‘secret’ entry….hmmm what/who could it be. I really wouldn’t have told in the blog what or who it would be, but as I said to Bill before I left, I will write about the fact that there is going to be some kind of ‘surprise’ puppet representation.

All-in-all it was great fun, and don’t worry Cindy, my feeling really weren’t hurt..reeeally they weren’t I mean it…hahaha. Seriously, it was all good and a great time was had by all. The snacks weren’t bad either…keep ‘em c’mon.

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I think i got it


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A test


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Mobile Blogging

Well, I just went through the steps to set up  mobile blogging to this blog. Am presently waiting for something to show up on the right side of my blogger dashboard that will let me start blogging from my phone. We'll see how I am able to do with that. I am mostly interested in being able to post a picture or two from live art events to the blog. At this point I'm not sure if they will then be stand alone blog items or if I will then be able to integrate the pics into a blog I write later on my computer. Does anybody reading this know from experience how that works?

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Rod Daut and Martha Flores Art Blog: IntoThe Muck, Mud and Thorns With Birds,Voles and ...

Rod Daut and Martha Flores Art Blog: IntoThe Muck, Mud and Thorns With Birds,Voles and ...: "Well, having consulted with colleagues about gallery stuff and having completed my professional work for the day, I preceded to go through m..."


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IntoThe Muck, Mud and Thorns With Birds,Voles and Beavers

Well, having consulted with colleagues about gallery stuff and having completed my professional work for the day, I preceded to go through my photos and order some prints. I’m eager to see how those look enlarged and framed. I was in a real Orange mood I guess as orange was common if not dominant theme in these  photos some being abstract and others not. Having done this it was time to go out on a photo safari.

I decided to go to the Entiat Fire Breaks hiking (walking) trail as this is supposed to be a good place for birding. And, so with camera in hand it was off to Entiat. Once I walking around the trail I marveled at how much more foliage, flowers and trees there is there than I had ever noticed in the one thousand and one times I have driven past the Fire Breaks Trail area on the highway.

Once out of site of the road there were lots of trees, mostly Ponderosa Pine I believe, and lots of natural stuff to enjoy. I was so engrossed with it all that I was slow to get my camera to the ready and missed a perfect shot at what must have been the biggest Magpie I have ever seen. I did get some pics of some other little birds and some voles, but I missed the big prize to be had there today.

Walking around I couldn’t help but think what a great place it would be for any plein-air artist with trusty easel, paints and canvas or photographer with camera and tripod to spend an afternoon or a whole day for that matter.

Having done the trail I headed back home, but kept my eye out for any photo opps. Not too far south of there I stopped to take some photos of Canada Geese in an open field.

Continuing on I stopped at the estuary where the Entiat River meets the Columbia. This is where I got the best pics of the day. I got some good pics right off the bat at the side of the road. Some of those I may print and frame. But, but not being satisfied with that, I preceded to hike down the slope and traipse off into the thicket. While I was down in the muck, brush and thorns, I could see that the beavers have been quite active down there, though I didn’t see any myself. Even so; it was great fun getting pictures of Great Blue Heron in flight and in the water as well as ducks, geese and those wonderful little black birds with the brilliant red tuft on their side even if I did get my feet wet and a lot of debris in my clothes.  Any birders out there please feel free to comment if you know the proper name of those black and red birds. All-in-all it was a fine artistic and creative day.

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Meetings, Spray Chalk and the Bear Chested Potter

Meetings, meetings, meetings. Yesterday and today have been full of art related meetings and planning sessions. In the morning yesterday, it was a meeting of the Wenatchee First Friday planning group at 8:30.  It was great to get together with a great bunch of artists and art supporters and community minded folks. There is no budget for anything so all printings and supplies be paper, ink chalk for the streets or just time is all donated by those wanting Wenatchee’s First Friday art walk events to be a success. We were fortunate to have someone from the coast Hotels who has worked with art walks elsewhere – like Portland’s massively successful Pearl District First Thursday art walk. The numbers he quoted as to how many people attend First Thursdays there were just incredible. We would be a great success at just a fraction of those numbers of participants. Having checked out the Portland Oregon First Thursday web site http://www.firstthursdayportland.com/ , I can say that if I’m ever in Portland during one of their First Thursdays, that’s where you will find me.

As to our own planning it was all coming together as to design of the new brochure and maps and there were clearly more  venues coming on board all the time. I can see this getting really big. One of the members will be creating stencils that when sprayed with spray chalk on the sidewalks of downtown Wenatchee, will direct folks to the various venues. More individualized chalk art can be done by participating site personnel or clientele. Sounds like a fun and unique way to get the people moving around to the various First Friday sites.

 Mc Dee’s Art Center will be doing both printing and supplying the red balloons that each site will fly outside their gallery or storefront. And, Pak-it-Rite offered to sell wine to any of the venues serving wine for First Fridays at wholesale…NICE!

 Some time spent discussing how to get people to end at the sites that will provide live music. In the end it was found best not to try too hard to make people think of a particular beginning or ending place –that it’s best to let people be random and determine where and when they end their adventure.

After the meeting I learned that the book I had listed for Two Rivers Gallery on Amazon.com had sold. Of course I had forgotten the password and such and had to spend time between other obligations around town getting that and then getting book off to its destination. Success all the way around on the amazon.com thing. It looks like more books will be listed now that Two Rivers knows that that is a viable way to sell.

Today it was another meeting this time with the planning group for the Two Rivers Gallery subcommittee on the possibility of a Saddle Rock plein-air paint off event. We all had a good time watching the video of the bare- chested potter, Terry Johnson making raku pottery online at http://www.tinynet.com/terrysigns.html . Also, the idea of a Two Rivers Gallery Face Book page was brought up. So; I started working on one http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Two-Rivers-Gallery/202718556425459  , but didn’t have any artwork on a thumb drive with me to finish it up right; so I’ll have to get back to that later. All-in-all a busy couple of days and that’s not all of it but, that is all I’m going to write about for now.

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Stars and Stripes, Beaver Pants and Coyote Prance

Well, yesterday was a real mix of the humorous, joyful, hopeful and frustrating. In the morning, I went first thing over to the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center to help Bill and Cindy Rietvelt put on their giant puppet outfits for the’ Kids Art Day’ at the museum.  Bill was so happy to share with me that he just got word that the story about the Giant Puppet Project was picked up by Stars and Stripes and has been a hit with service personnel in Afghanistan and I would assume Iraq as well. It was pretty hilarious watching and helping the two of them get into these contraptions.  And, then when Cindy started putting on her Beaver Pants and doing a little beaver pants dance, it was a bit too much. Then walking outside in the alley behind the building and around to the street in front of the museum was a hoot as well. The giant coyote is so tall that it was a bit precarious for Bill waking near trees and signs. The two of them acting it up on the sidewalk was priceless. Inside the museum kids were already taking part in the art activities offered for the’ Kids Art Day’. I really enjoyed meeting up with Sherry Schreck, founder and director of the Short Shakespearians, and a recent recipient of one of Wenatchee’s highest awards for all the years she has devoted to kids and the performing arts here in Wenatchee.  She and a couple of her young actors were down in the giant puppet workroom when I met up with them. They were there to look at the puppets in progress down there, as they are looking to use some of the puppets later as stage monsters and gargoyles…now that’s going to be a site and a performance I am really going to want to see. I had other commitment so; I wasn’t going to be able to stay for the Ugandan Orphans Choir which was to perform at 1pm.  After visiting with Sherry and taking more pictures, it was off to buy a new laptop as my five year old machine is about to die and I sure don’t want to lose all the great photos and blogs and such I have stored there. Having accomplished the computer task it was off to the Cashmere Arts and Activities Center to docent for the afternoon. There were only a few visitors in the hours I was there, so I was able to configure my new laptop, get it onto the wireless network at the gallery and other such things, and still have time to take a few pics with my camera. Now, I need to get all the art related materials off the old beast and onto this new fangled machine and It’s off to the races. Well, off to Lowes to get what I need to plant my Cabernet cuttings which are screaming out to be planted today… yahoo!!!

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'We're Just Lumberjacks' Working with High School Girls and Creamy White Stuff

Well it’s been a busy and full filling last few days for Rod and Martha’s Art. Over the weekend…Sunday to be precise, I drove over to Seattle to meet with our good friends Daniel and Xine, who have been holding Martha’s Painting titled “Women Screaming” that was exhibited in the foyer of the Off Jackson Theater awhile back. They have been so helpful in picking it up from the theater wrapping it so nice and keeping it for us. They both thought the painting was so ‘important’ but it gave Xine nightmares. It’s a piece that speaks powerfully to some and really isn’t what most people would want in their living room day after day, but would go more in a themed exhibition or museum. Having met up with these good friends, we went off to Tacoma for the Dive and Travel show at the Convention Center there. While there I got some really good new ideas of what to do with my Dive photos and artwork. More shall be revealed about this later.

Having my sleep schedule thrown off by getting up early to go over the pass to Seattle and staying up late after returning with having drank so much coffee while driving, I was up at 3 am yesterday and so on a whim created a Livestreaming channel that I titled Art News Network, that will present livestraming of our First Friday and Second Saturday and other art events here in Washington as well as the Hip Hop dance scene in Fullerton, CA and thereabouts for those talented Kelly dancers.

Yesterday, I spoke with an artist who is currently showing at a gallery locally about being the featured artist for the CAAC gallery in Cashmere. He was very interested and I gave him the contact info for Artie Bowman about that. His work is excellent and I look forward to seeing him exhibit there. I also spoke with a Geography professor in Oregon, who had set up the web site that features the ceramics of Terry Johnson and took the video of Terry making raku pots that is on Youtube. He is an old friend of Terry’s having grown up in this area. He is an artist himself, though it sounds as if being a professor is taking up a bit of his time right now and likely keeping him from doing as much art as I’m betting he would like to be doing. An interesting fellow, I am looking forward to meeting him the next time he is in town. Together I think we can help Terry get his artwork better known as Terry doesn’t do computer let alone the internet… or cell phone/email for that matter… he’s just a crazy artist… gotta love that about him though.

Yesterday I went through many many photos on my computer to find the ones I want to print and ordered a bunch of large prints…gotta have something to put in all those frames I picked up in CA last month –right? After that it was designing postcards to promote Terry’s Art and Ceramics. That was fun and they look great and I hope will do well for him locally for it will be a limited mailing. After that is was quick run over to the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center to work on Giant Puppets with Bill and Cindy Reitvelt, Bill Laymen and a bunch of high school girls. We were all getting that creamy white goopy stuff all over us as we paper mache’d the large heads and hands of the puppets. They are really coming along and with working on them twice a week now I’m sure they’ll be done in time for the Grand Parade. And as we took note of how well the Lumberjack is coming, Bill R. and I couldn’t help but to TRY to sing a verse of “We're just lumberjacks and that’s just fine…” I emphasize the word TRY… Oh well…singers we are not. All in good fun though.

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Giant Puppets, The Wall Street Journal and Kids art Day

Tonight was a productive night at the Museum. Bill and Cindy Reitvelt were accompanied by Bill Layman and a number of Wenatchee’s fine youth who were all there to work on the Giant Puppet Project for the upcoming Apple Blossom Grand Parade. The heads and hands are all getting there second and third and in some cases fourth layer of paper mache.  Cindy who came to work on the puppets straight from the  Board Meeting in which they were making plans for this years Icicle Prize up in Leavenworth. This year all the art for the Icicle prize is to be created from some sort of recycled material….hmmm what kind of stuff do I have lying around that I could make something out of.  Well there is time to think on that. The submissions will be sometime this summer and the prizes awarded in September from what Cindy could tell us.

Bill Reitvelt was proud of the fact that the Wall Street Journal has picked up on our little project here of making very big puppets. And, all the museum staff from what he said were very pleased with turnout for the Awards Gala and Silent auction that happened Saurday night. As of course we all are very happy for Community Activist/Artist Ruth Allan who received the Wenatchee Valley Living treasure Award.

And, on another note, this Saturday will be the first ever Kids Arts Day at the Museum. Kids will have ten different activities from which to choose from making a fruit sculpture to a Picasso cubist mask. Sherry Schreck will lead kids in other games and activities as well. At 1:pm there will be a performance by the Ugandan Orphans Choir. What a unique musical and cultural experience that will be. The whole event runs from 10am to 4pm. What a great all around experience for the kids, and adults for that matter, who get to the museum this Saturday.

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Coyote Wine Crawl

Well, it was and artful and enjoyable evening in Cashmere at the  Cashmere Arts and Activities Center Second Saturday Event.  The wine was excellent – provided by Crayelle Cellars, Waterville Winery and the Horan Estates Winery. People came, they enjoyed the art and some folks bought pictures of coyotes and the hillsides above Wenatchee. The new art was exquisite. Cashmere is really turning into an enjoyable and happening place to spend and evening.  There was talk of getting Scott Allen who is presently showing at the Robert Graves Gallery at Wenatchee Valley Community College to show at the CAAC Gallery perhaps over the summer. We shall see if that comes about. That would be quite a coo for the CAAC gallery and really help to put it on the artistic map of central Washington. Let’s hope that that comes off as hoped for.

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