New and Improved

Here are my last posts for stuff I'm trying to sell..then I"ll get back to more interesting posts. Here are my new line in Aprons. I re-vamped the vintage apron with heavier ,more modern design fabrics . The straps around the neck actually button instead of tie. I think the knot behind the neck is not the most comfortable in closures. I also made some really nice reversable, heavy duty bib aprons. The reverse side is made of denim, in either dark gray or blue. Two front pockets and an adjustable strap with the old over-alls clip. I'll be selling these along with my paintings and bags at the Mill Center in Hampden on November 18 and 19th. from noon to 5 each day. Look for me and my friend Tricia Lane on the second floor. We'll be out in the hallway somewhere.
Again, let me know if you're interested in any of these or would like to commission a bag , apron, etc.

Brian Bags

Allison Bags

All $45 bags have interior zip pockets with complmentary color siding and zippers, 3 accessory pockets and exterior pocket. $35 bags has 2 accessory pockets.
Email me to order by clicking envelop next to comments.

Flowers, Quik Boy and Lucienne Bags

The flowers bag has an interior zip pocket, as well as 3 accessory plus one other inside pocket. Outside flower design is also a pocket. Quik Boy also has zip and 3 accessory pockets as well as outside pocket. Red Lucienne Day tote has interior zip and acessory pockets.

Elsy Totes for Sale

Elsy Totes : The one that is sold is a two pocket design, A red pocket with the black line drawing of Elsy is on the reverse. Can be duplicated for $45. $35 totes only have the three inside accessory pockets. The $45 also has a zip pocket along with the 3 pockets. The two Elsy prints are also pockets.

New Jenny Jen Products

New from Jenny Jen...the attractive utilitarian tote bag. Tall bags with zipper inside pocket and three accessory pockets. Wider bags with three accesory pockets. Silkscreen favorites: Allison, Brian and Elsie. Olive green, cardhardt gold and silver gray. More to come!
Put your order in today. Up coming shows: MAEA c conference at Towson University’s Fine Art building: October 20 and Open House at the Mill Center: November 17 and 18th.

Also coming: apron made of heavier fabric! Aprons and Pillows are still for sale at the Women’s Industrial Exchange on Charles Street. Or anytime: Special order: 410-206-8400 or email me at j.mcbrien@verizon.net

more picthas

Had to post more of these. That strange guy with the hand motioning stop was the photographer.
Next post...Vegas!

Wedding Season

September begins another wedding season. Our great friends Chris and Emily have made the big jump into matrimony with a big shindig of an event. The ladies started the weekend with karaoke down at Cross Street Market...the big pick-a-me-up a rowdy college dude territory. Horrible for bad flash backs of the 80's college days. Anyway, the night was full of Emily's female friends and relatives. Many from the protest days of the feminist days, anti-Regan and banning the bomb era. Great bunch of gals singing songs like "The Age of Aquarius" and Emily's best rendition of "War, ugh! What is good for"? I don't think those college types knew what to think about us! Unfortunately I did not bring the camera but hoping maybe someone will forward me some.

The big event occurred on Sunday at the Cloister's. A beautiful setting for a beautiful event. Great group of people! Lots of dancing. I truly found my partner in the cheese ball dancing troupe! I actually married him.

Here are some great pics that cheesy dancer. Enjoy

In the Recoup

I always seem to forget about the big let down. The depression that occurs when you work so hard in your studio. Working towards a show, working day and night, and then….its done. Out of the studio, out of the house. Hanging in some stranger’s house. People drinking and eating and saying god knows what about my work. Or worst, not even noticing it. You don’t know.
You have the big opening. The cheese plate and the wine and the beer that you have to drink to cover up the nervousness. The fact that you keep thinking of all the invites you sent out and who said they were coming. They don’t all come of course. I am guilty of that one, so I can’t be angry. I am very happy by my guests. Even some wonderful unexpected guests! People from many different period of my life. The ages ran from 4 months on. The babies were wonderful! I think we made the owner’s mother a little nervous. We took over the bar and ordered dinner. I wish I remembered my camera before then to take more pics. But here is the left over gang! The work looked terrific. I know if I painted really bad landscapes or portraits of cute children I would have sold out. I took a closer look at the clientele of the Salt Tavern. A strange hip older crowd.
The work will be up until November, so go see.

Aprons for sale at the Women's Exchange

The Aprons are now for sale! Along with pillows and sock monkeys. Wendy and I put up the window today,for the Women's Industrial Exchange on Charles Street in good old mobtown, for the month of September. I really love the premise for this place. Check its web site at http://www.womansindustrialexchange.org. And go by the window on 333 N. Charles Street. The window will be set up with our items until October 9th.

more aprons

The studio has now been converted back to the sweatshop. This friday, Wendy Wu and I will be doing the window for the Women's Exchange on Charles street. My aprons, pillows, and sock monkeys will be offically on sale at the Womens' Exchange. Here are three of my newest aprons that I completed this past weekend.

The Show is UP!!!!

Patrick, Beth and I hanged the show at Salt this morning and it looks great! The colors go so well with the green glow of the lights that hand from the ceiling. We got to hang more than I thought we would. There are eight of the new paintings, i snuck in a self portrait too! Four of the pieces that I completed Spring of 2005 and then some flag paintings that I framed from 2004-05. They look good in that environment. Now I have stark walls in my studio. I had Elsy hanging in my living room and it really looked great there. So I priced it at $1200 , as well as Brian (see first blog entries in June) figuring that is the price I could let them go without too much heartache. So if you want an early peek, head on down to Salt for dinner or just a drink. Don't forget your pockeybook though.

THE SHOW IS COMING! THE SHOW IS COMING!

One more painting to go. One more contour line drawing. It maybe a self portrait, it may be Patrick. We shall see. Anyway, I am quite happy with the results. Here's a quick peek of the studio in present state. So, hope everyone is coming! Check out the new web page for salt at www.salttavern.com. Don't forget to save the date...September 9, 3-5. The show will be hanged this Saturday. It will be up for two months. Going to try to work on some tee shirts for the opening. Will post when ready!

Feelin' A Little Canadian

There is nothing as awful as having to teach in a sweltering hot classroom. Two horrible humid days with schedule craziness and 40 kids in a classroom! Who ever's idea it was of having kids go back to school before Labor Day needs to be shot! However, today was very gracious and brought us some cooler air. It reminded me that cool air of the Canadian summer. I finally got some pics from our trip way back when. So I thought I'd reminisce a bit today. Once one goes to cafeteria duty, you feel like you never left. So I really wanted to go back and look at these pictures of happy days.

The Good Old Days

Tomorrow is the big day. The beginning of another school year. I am excited to see what new students I will have to deal with and mold. Last week was a week of meetings and schedule hell. Tomorrow will also be the same schedule hell. But I am optimistic and know that all will smooth itself out. This weekend was great! Started it out by going to see Little Miss Sunshine! An absolute must see. The characters are exactly what you want them to be. Strange and quirky and very realistic in a strange sort of way. Steve Carell is probably what I’d imagine him to be in true life. Sometimes his character in the Office is so obnoxious I like seeing him in movies like this one. I must get out and see and then own when it comes out on DVD.
The weekend continued with massive house cleaning and a party in Roland Park. With people I don’t know. Friends of a friend sort of party. Ran into someone I met not too long ago. In conversation we realized we have been to the same places and know a lot of the same people. Its more reunions with people from the Baltimore Punk Rock era of the 80’s. Oh yeah..a big treat, I also ran into another person, Patty from Marble Bar days at the freshman orientation at Parkville. Looks like I will be teaching her son. I loved the fact that her Husband Pierre remembered me as the girl who drove the Yugo! Yes that was me! I had it for about 10 months before someone hit me in the rear and totaled the car.
I wanted to post pics of my paintings in their finished state but my battery died. Maybe tomorrow. So I decided to post pictures from the very early 80’s. That’s Missy and I in the stairwell at the Marble Bar. My Mohawk was growing out..How Punk Rock? . Milly and I are on the Bridge on Maryland Avenue right around the corner from the Club Chuck. And then that’s Billy Stevenson jumping his skateboard off of my 1971 Dodge Dart! That’s on Charles Street on the Bridge by Penn Station. You used to be able to park on it back then. Anyway, these are more than 20 years old. Enjoy

Baltimore SUCKS..but I guess it's OK if you're a painter

So what does one do when cooped up in the studio for days on end? One gets tired of listening to the same old songs programmed into their itunes. Plus sometimes, you really get lonely and you need to hear some human voice periodically. I am very thankful that I only have my computer in my studio. Forces me not to listen to local radio. Makes me search out into the world to find that perfect radio station. And I think I have come close to finding such a station. A station that has convinced me that Baltimore surely SUCKS when it comes to our cultural side. If we have one, its hiding in some old warehouse space in which one must be In the know, in order to know what’s going on. We use to collect flyers back in the 80’s. That was how we knew which punk rock band was playing, and in what bad part of town we would have to venture out to see. Or you simply hung out on the corner of Franklin and Eutaw to see who was playing at the Marble, the galaxy ballroom, or Jules’s loft. Ahh, those were the days. Anyway, you never heard about them on any radio station. Maybe WCVT, Towson’s radio station back then that truly rocked! Today’s station, wtmd, seems to play the same people, the same songs all the time....keeping it conservative with the alternative music of today. John Hopkins’s station in the early 80's, played great music late at night, around 10, but you had to be in Charles Village to hear it. They would also play local bands as well as artistic eclectic punk rock music. WHFS was out of Bethesda then. They were probably the best. I believe they were commercial free. They use to read off lots of useful lists. Like who was playing where…got lots of the load down on the DC scene from these guys. My favorite was the list of who was going west and needed a ride, or was willing to give a ride. They also read off employment opportunities.

Anyway, why all this talk about when Baltimore had decent radio stations? I found this station off of itunes. 90.3, out of Seattle. It is commercial free. A public radio station out of the University of Washington. I have become a big fan of Seattle. We get to travel there every summer to visit my in-laws. We never really get to spend enough time there. But I digress. Really you have to listen to this station. Tonight if I was in Seattle, I would have many choices as to what to do and who to go see. Check out this list of events:
BALTIC ROOM
Dead, Goly Grim, Penetration Camp, Slicing Grandpa (9pm)

CENTRAL SALOON
Seahorse, Princess Johnny & the Sex-Changes, The Sacred Dice

CENTURY BALLROOM
The Solomon Douglas Swingtet, the Ham Carson Quartet (9:30 pm, all ages)

CHOP SUEY
Demo-Listen Derby: Two Loons for Tea, Monkey Grunt, Sweetjuice

CROCODILE CAFE
Floater (9pm)

this is small sampling of the list.
I love the names of the bands. And get this, if you’re under 21, most clubs are smart and have all ages shows. I also found out that I could go listen to Eric Fishel speak, one of my favorite Artist. Last week I could of seen Etta James for free at the Zoo!
So check out this station. They are currently playing old vinyl records of a local hard-core band from 1981. You can find them on the web at www.kexp.org. Just remember they are 3 hours behind!
But I guess if I shouldn’t be distracted and only work on my paintings. I guess it’s a good thing I live in Baltimore.

THis is my last day of summer

Today was my last weekday of summer vacation. I spent it with my best bud from college and one of my teaching colleagues: Mildred and James, along with their two tag-a-longers: Phoebe and Ivan. Off to D.C. to go look at Art! We first descended on the Phillips collections. I had only been there once when I was in undergrad. I completely forgot how incredible that collection is. They have this amazing collection of Bonnards, Diebenkorns, Gustons, and the Rothko room. I am amazed by how color, and its strengths, dimensions and layers can be so effective. This collection is hanged in such a way that all paintings are beautifully complimented. It was well worth the $12 to get in. I will not wait another 20 years before I go back. In fact I must take my students.
After traveling to Dupont Circle, we jumped back onto the metro to the Smithsonian for $12 salads at the National Gallery Café and quick run through the Rousseau exhibit that was good for a silly laugh. How was it that this untrained artist got famous?
Then to the show that motivated me to spend my last day of vacation in DC: Anselm Kiefer ‘s Heaven and Earth exhibit at the Hirshhorn. Pictures in books do not do this man’s work justice. You have to experience them. In their grand scale and multiple layers. One images this 60 some old man in his German factory studio space. As I stumble over piles of pictures and books in my studio to reach my paints, I am so jealous of those you have massive spaces to work in. It is a dream of mine. Maybe when I am 60 some. Anyway, the show ends September 10 so go down there NOW and see it.