January 2014

Jan 23 2014

Seeing Spots

By melissasasichambers Everything Else

There are good days, and there are bad days, and today has been one of them.

–Laurence Welk

Today I made myself just go do something. Anything. As long as it involved paint and was cheerful and had the potential to drive back this gloomy inversion which is weighing all of us in Boise down. Down. Dowwwwwnnnn.

And all I saw was spots.

At least they were cheery spots. Kind of remind me of sprinkles on donuts. No wonder we crave carbs in the winter. We really just want a cheerful little spot of sunshine and instead we head for ….sorry my mind wandered there for a minute.

Gotta run. Hope it’s sunny where you are!

Jan 22 2014

Inspired By: Barbara Bowling

By melissasasichambers Inspired By

I love it when I can get out of my studio and into another artist’s. Especially if the other artist also has a really cool house and a sweet dog (who is very tolerant of Lula careening around in her space), and the artist makes me lunch, and we spend all afternoon yakking.

I’ve mentioned Barbara here before. We’ve got that 1 degree of separation thang going on that runs rampant in Boise. I love Boise.

Anyway, Barbara’s studio is top notch. She has a separate space for metal smithing…

where she makes covetable jewelry like this beautiful brooch…

Barbara is on a mission to bring back the brooch. (Get them while you can, she may be moving on to tiaras next!)

She also has another room especially for enameling.

There were several enamel pieces displayed throughout the studio, many of which featured images of beloved canine family members, both past and present.

This is Lacey, canine family member, present. Such a sweetie.

(Lacey found Barbara, like Snug and Lula found me — at the Idaho Humane Society — they should call themselves Best Friends R Us.)

But I digress.

Barbara has a PhD. in Horticulture which means she can tell you’ve been cheatin’ if the leaves on the blackberry bush you painted wouldn’t leave teeth marks if they bit you — how’s that for esoteric botanical humor?

Actually it means many of the pieces she fabricates are botanically correct. Which isn’t nearly as dirty as it sounds. Dang it.

She also fabricates enamel jewelry using the technique called cloisonne which she explains on her website.

In fact, Barbara is teaching a sold out class on enameling for Community Education for the City of Boise right now. Another will be available in the Spring (3/31 – 5/19, 6:30PM – 9:30PM Mondays) and you can find out more by calling (208)608-7680.

Thank you Barbara and Lacey for letting Lula and me spend the afternoon with you. We are inspired!

Jan 21 2014

Field Trip: India Foods on Fairview

By melissasasichambers Field Trips

Logan ate everything as a tiny tot, Lina was the picky one. That’s totally opposite now. Lina even puts together a curriculum which involves introducing 3 year olds to foods like purple cabbage, eggplant and lavendar — which they love!

Whereas Logan, on a recent visit home, requested meatloaf for dinner which surprised me as I have never considered myself a plain Jane sort of cook!

Now that it’s just Mike and me, and the wee wolf pack, we can eat whatever we want, whenever we want — which is oddly guilt inducing and yet liberating at the same time. After all, I’ve put a proper meal on the table for up to three meals a day for twenty plus years, but now if we feel like having Jalapeno poppers and Kaliber for dinner, then I just make sure there’s enough sour cream for dipping.

Today we were hungry for Indian food. Luckily Boise has several very good ethnic groceries, and India Foods on Fairview is one of them.

Besides being well stocked with every kind of rice, spice, simmer sauce, canned good, packaged sweet and salty treat…

chutney, pickle, yogurt drink, naan ready to warm in the oven, and frozen ready made dinners, they also stock fresh vegetables.

Some are familiar. Some are grown on another planet and shipped in specially.

AND, they stock cool stuff.

Clothes…

Containers for your tea and treasure…

Little altars for your minor deities…

For an artist and collector of “raw material” there are interesting things like this lovely item…

which unwinds into this — undoubtedly useful (once I think of a use for it) length of dyed and twisted fabric and paper. Um hmm.

I also got this little beauty…

which I will leave and love just the way it is, and another…

that I intend to have a lot of fun painting. I’ll share the results with you in a future post. Now I’m going to go make dinner, Butter Chicken tonight, Tikka Masala next time. Oh yeah!

Check it out! India Foods 6020 W Fairview in Boise. They are open 11:00 AM – 8:00 PM Monday through Saturday and 12:00 – 7:00 PM on Sundays.

Jan 20 2014

Second Helpings: Cowgirl Boot Reboot

By melissasasichambers Second Helpings

For this installment of Second Helpings I shopped my own closet. I have been buying “garments with history” since I cut my sartorial teeth as a teenager in New Orleans shopping at Yesterday’s Clothes and Matilda’s in the French Quarter. However I draw the line at footwear. Shoes, slippers, boots, I buy new.

These boots were new about 20 years ago. They have been resoled and reheeled twice, so I figured they qualified as a Second Helping when I painted them a year ago. I’ve worn them a lot as you can see…

It was time for a Cowgirl Boot Reboot!

I polished the unpainted leather first being careful not to touch the painted parts. The polish would resist the paint and I didn’t want that.

Then I retouched the paint where it was starting to flake or fade.

Finally I gave all the painted parts a coat of sealer with my trusty Minwax Polycrylic Sealer, and these boots are ready to get down, turn around Cowgirl boot scoot’n boogie!

Jan 19 2014

HeARTy 175th Cezanne!

By melissasasichambers HeARTy Birthday!

On January 19th, 1839 Paul Cezanne was born in Aix-en-Provence, in Provence in the South of France.

Lucky smack.

Today he would be 175 years old! Go Paul!

Lookin’ Gooood!

If the Cezannes were in town I’d invite Paul and his wife Hortense over to celebrate.

I’d serve wine. And probably fruit — though Paul may have been quite sick of fruit as apparently Hortense was quite careless in her housekeeping and left fruit lying around all over the place. At least that’s what it looks like to me.

I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t you think maybe that skull was a little hint that forgetting to put away the fruit might be getting a wee bit old?