To Italy and back home again...an awesome journey to a place where art is plentiful, often majestic and totally inspiring! What a blessing to have had this experience.

The Holiday Glow Art Sale & Show was a wonderful success. We are looking forward to next year's event the second weekend in November 2011. I was able to raise over $1200 for the Northlands Rescue Mission; other artists donated to their favorite causes, too.

Hoping your pre-holiday season is relaxed and fun. Merry Christmas!

Holiday Glow November Art Sale & Charity Benefit

Fused and stained glass, handcarved wooden Santas, Scandinavian decorative art, gourds, textile and fabric art, handmade soap, metal art, natural jewelry, mixed media...these types of art and many more coming soon to Grand Forks. November 12, 5-9pm and Nov. 13, 10am - 5pm.

All artists will be home to invite you in for holiday treats and to view the art in cozy, informal surroundings. A percentage of sales will be donated to the following charities: Kim Wilson (Mountain Brooke PsychoSocial Center), Marian Gates and Terry Kuntz (Community Violence Intervention Center), Sheila Dalgliesh, Karla Nelson, Sandy Johnson and Dianne Paulsen (ArtWise), Paula Kallinen (Fraternal Order of Police), Tom Johnson and Jean Westman (Salvation Army), Carolyn Meisel (Humane Society Circle of Friends), Tom Perdue and Pieper Bloomquist (American Cancer Society) and Jackie Uthus (Northlands Rescue Mission).

Go to: www.jackiesart.com for more information.

Holiday Glow Art Sale & Show Visual Art Grand Forks

Oh, my gosh, I can't believe the whole summer has happened! We had a wonderful time with family and friends celebrating our daughter's wedding in June, a grand daughter's baptism in July and lots of other fun but more normal summer time events: water fights, time at the lake, garage sales, etc. Monday I start with my weekly art kids!

I've created a whole series of 44 nostalgic paintings called "Whimsical Snapshots of Life on the Prairie". Included: a windmill, oil rig, small town bank, bar, jail, clothesline, horse, cow, chicken and coop, '57 Chevy, Model T, vintage farm truck, sunflower, wheat stalk, grain elevator, grain bin, dilapidated house, barn, night sky, milk truck, one room school house, school bus and many more. I'm listing them on etsy a few at a time...

I have the artists in place for the second annual Holiday Glow Art Sale & Show. The sale will be Nov. 12, 5-9pm and Nov. 13, 1-5pm. Fourteen artists will have 10 open houses to show their art in cozy and informal settings. Refreshments will be served and no admission charged. It will be a wonderful time to shop for special Holiday gifts!

How to use glass paint markers, Jackies Art, fused glass

Life since December has been a busy blur: Holiday Glow Art Sale & Show in December, grandson Jacob born February 3 in Morris, MN, a trip with my parents the end of that month, granddaughter Brooke born in Wichita in March with some post-birth complications that necessitated me staying to help for almost a month, a family meeting in Bismarck, Jacob's baptism, our middle daughter's wedding in MN in June, Brooke's baptism in Wichita last weekend...I'm still trying to catch up!

I've managed to make a few new art pieces, though. I had fun making pottery frames for felted whimsical houses, that I then embellished with beads and sequins. And I've given away many fused glass houses that I've personalized with names and dates. For example, Johnson House, Est. 2010. This week I'm designing fused glass guardian angels. I really like the little kiln we bought this summer!

A class I offered for kids this summer was painting on glass. At our daughter's wedding we didn't have a traditional guest book. Instead we had a large white platter that everyone signed. We used Vitrea 160 glass paints. After drying for 24 hours I baked it in our conventional oven for 40 minutes at 325. Now the new couple can actually use their guest book. It is even dishwasher safe, although I'd recommend washing it by hand.

For my kids' glass class we used the same paints and markers. Be sure to wash and dry the dish ware first, and clean with a cotton ball soaked in denatured alcohol if it is still greasy at all. Don't skip the 24 hour drying period - longer is better if the paint is applied thickly. Don't use a baking pan, just set the finished art on the oven racks. Turn the oven on, when the preheat light goes off, turn on your timer for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, turn off the oven, open the door. Remove the dishes when they are cool enough to touch. Viola! Lovely art to use, or to hang on the wall.

I'm taking a fused glass class in Winnipeg in Sept. taught by Patty Gray...hope to learn lots and get inspired for creating new art for the 2010 Holiday Glow Art Sale & Show Nov. 12 & 13.

1000Markets.com Pottery Art Sculpture

http://www.1000markets.com/users/jackiesart

I've listed abstract, simplified ceramic sculptures on my new shop with 1000Markets. Check it out! I also listed two other fun and funky pottery pieces - a 'flower bed' - it holds a little terra cotta pot that is perfect for a mini-cactus or a bedding plant. And I listed a frog plant stand - it, too, holds a little terra cotta pot. It is one of my 'Perfect NM (No Maintenance) Pottery Pets'. Froggy comes complete with a removable tag that promise good behavior!

I've also updated my website: www.jackiesart.com and my etsy shop: www.jackiesart.etsy.com. Cool, unusual and unique items that you won't find any where else. Happy shopping!

Time to Create Art? Fused Glass, Pottery, 1000 Markets, Etsy?

Two new grand babies - a boy on Feb. 3 and a girl on March 23 - have totally absorbed me the past several months. We've been blessed with healthy babies who are gaining weight and daughters who are recovering well from the child birth process...hooray!

I'm trying to get things updated on my website - I have about 100 art pieces, mostly fused glass and pottery, that need to be photographed and put up for sale. My hubby is helping me get on top of the situation. I'll be updating my etsy shop and starting a shop at 1000 Markets.com, too. I'm excited to try that venue for sales. Has anyone had good success with 1000Markets?

My art and pottery students have finished making the cutest clay rattles and whimsical houses. They are bisque firing at the moment - so next week we can underglaze, glaze and acrylic paint. It will be fun to see their work finished up. We missed several scheduled sessions because I was gone longer than originally anticipated to help with new babies.

After a June wedding, I plan to teach a few kids' classes in June and do some traveling during the rest of the summer. Aspen, Lake Sacakawea, Wichita and in November: Italy!!!

How to create kids' collagraphs

My art kids have been working with printmaking for a few weeks. They are making a limited edition of 7 to 9 signed and numbered, hand-pulled prints. Most of them are turning out really nice...here are my helpful hints:

1. Give them a piece of mat board, for their collagraph plate, to work on that is a little smaller than the paper they will print with...they will have a nice white border on the edges of their prints and space to sign, title and number them.

2. Encourage them to use lots of glue to hold their pieces in place...gluing right out to the edges.

3. Suggest they cut shapes and pieces from materials that are fairly similar in thickness...like string, yarn, cereal board cardboard (chip board), fabric, etc. If they cut one or more of their shapes from something much thicker it may cause some of the less thick shapes not to print.

4. Spray shellac over the entire collagraph plate, after the glue is entirely dry...drying overnight is best. Be sure the shellac is completely dry, too, before inking the plate. Don't skimp on the shellac.

5. Tape the inking tray to the table, so it doesn't scoot around, before the kids start rolling out the ink. Spritz the inking tray with a little water before adding water soluble ink with a flexible palette knife. Roll the ink and water to mix.

6. Add a spritz of water and a small dab of ink, roll to mix, before inking the plate again or before inking the next plate.

7. Center the paper over the plate, lay it on the bed of the press, adjust the pressure, roll it through. You may need to hold the paper to the plate as it comes through the press...sometimes it will slide around otherwise.

8. Have a bucket of warm, soapy water and some toweling handy so they can keep their hands clean. Prints, sans fingerprints, are much more attractive!

Happy Printing!

PS We have the most beautiful day blessing us...the trees and bushes are totally white with hoar frost. It is gorgeous!

Pro life centers YBL Your Baby Lives

I dream of establishing a non-profit that would build/set upYBL Alternative Choice Centers (Your Baby Lives) near abortion clinics around the United States.


I'm thinking of non-denominational places where women could go for free contraception (the 'pill' and 'rubbers'/contraceptive creams) and/or natural family planning advice; free medical services; emotional, job and financial counseling; adoption services and free housing through the term of their pregnancies, if that is what they need. I dream of a one-stop place that would support women, and fulfill all their needs so they have a real alternative to abortion.


In how many places near abortion clinics do such YBL places already exist?


What are the statistics that indicate the top five or ten reasons a woman chooses abortion over life? Financial, job, medical or a myriad of other reasons, I'm sure. I'd like to know what the top needs of a woman would be - what are the most important services to offer so that life would be a feasible option in more instances?

January art - inspiration from the cold?

Minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit! Is it possible to draw artistic inspiration from the cold weather? In North Dakota we try not to let the temperature restrict our activities too much. We go to work, shop and some people play outside...cross country ski, hockey, skate. I'll do my daily walk outside if the wind chill temperature is zero or above. Otherwise I head to the fitness center.

But what kind of inspiration can I or my young students or others with artistic leanings draw from the icebox that we live in? Everything is white - the ground, the roofs, the trees, the sky, the exhaust coming from our constantly running furnaces, the breath we exhale. Snow beneath our feet crunches and squeaks as we step on it. We hear the beep, beep of snowplows in reverse, or the grinding of our neighbors' cars or snowblowers trying to start. We keep our hands covered as everything outside is too cold to touch. The only smells are of gas and exhaust. There is little else to jolt our senses, to stimulate our creative juices. We need to draw from deep within - like Frederick the mouse in the children's story - to remember colors, sights, sounds and smells that we want to convey in our art. These will warm our heART until spring comes to the north...and it will, just not very soon!

Happy New Year!