Where I've Been = Manic Art/Work Mode

So, I've been a pretty shitty blogger lately, but I have been writing like crazy elsewhere. My new gig as a freelance arts writer for our local indy newsweekly, the Boise Weekly, has been fun and demands lots of evening interviews and late night sessions with my laptop. I've been producing 1-2 stories a month for them this fall, writing about anything from Iraqi refugees to improv comedy.

I'm also thrilled that my first pieces came out in Treasure Valley Family magazine, our local family publication, in the December issue. My regular monthly columns include "Shop & Tell" (a local gift/purchasing guide based on different themes), "Park Playtime" (highlighting different outdoor wonderlands in the area), and "Somewhere Over the Laundry Pile" (a sort of end of the day personal story about motherhood as I see it). I also occasionally write specialty pieces, like this one about local kids theatre auditions. Soon, I'm to be the featured mommyblogger on TVF's revamped website, so stay tuned.

Right after my layoff at the Boise Art Museum, the city of Boise Department of Arts & History snatched me up to consult with them on a pretty regular basis. I work on a number of projects devoted both to public art projects and history related ones, in addition to serving on two different committees for the organization. Lately, I've been tasked with working with local signmakers on getting appropriate labels and signage made for quite a few projects, like this one by Stephanie Bacon, a collaged installation making the Collister Branch of the Boise Public Library a really cool place:

Since June, I've been organizing an exhibition with 21 different local artists for the Trey McIntyre Project (TMP), a world-renowned contemporary dance troupe based here in Boise. Each year, Trey, the artistic director, asks a group of artists to create artworks inspired by each of the 9 dancers + 1 artistic director as a fundraiser. This year, I was asked to come on board as the project manager/curator of the event and exhibition. There was much to be coordinated, and the work load more than tripled as our opening date, December 2nd, quickly approached. Not to mention that Trey asked me to participate as an artist as well. Here's a peek at my artist webpage as well as the piece I created for the show:

Amy Pence-Brown, What you see is not all you get., found fabric, thread, frames, shelf, 2010. SOLD!

Moscow, Idaho, ceramic artist Marilyn Lysohir's plates and cups

Rachel Linquist made these fantastic fabric dancer dolls. Check out her Etsy shop for more cuteness. Plus, she's a helluva a gal.

E.J. Pettinger writes this quirky cartoon called Mild Abandon and did these paintings of the dancers holding a fundraising carwash. He turned the paintings into calendars, that sold like hotcakes.

Amy O'Brien + Kerry Tullis make up Unit Eleven Design. They use reclaimed wood and steel and made stools with heights based on each dancer's inseam.

Susan Valiquette is a photographer who mounted her photos of each dancer after rehearsal, sweat and all, to really cool lucite boxes.

BSU printmaking professor Jill Fitterer made tiny etchings with chine colle on wood for each dancer.

The exhibition is still up and, in fact, I'm hosting a recycled arts project for kids this Saturday in their warehouse space. Whew. So far, this holiday season has been fun, but a bit exhausting, and not with the normal stuff like shipping packages and hanging holiday lights, but with work/art madness. While it's been interesting and fulfilling, managing these four part-time gigs with full-time motherhood has been a bit challenging lately. I've missed too many dinners with my family and Lucy's totally out of clean pants as I type. I'm looking forward to more nights by the fire reading books with my girls, digging my way out of the mountains of laundry, and baking up some goodies for my neighbors. Oh yeah, and a little sleep might be nice, too.