Local "creative-class" parent get-togethers, playgroups, and collaborations?

"Once upon a time, a whole class of creative types moved to Portland...Creative coupling followed. Then came creative children...."*

Thus begun a recent article in the Oregonian newspaper. And it is a topic I have thought about a lot over the past couple of years.

The main focus of the article was on "YouWho!", a new all-ages variety show that showcases local musicians and entertainers. It was created by several local musicians who are also parents. And I hope that "YouWho!" will be the first of many, many things to cater to one of Portland's newest demographics, those many "creative children".

But I would also like to see more activites and opportunities for all those creative parents! There is a lot we could share with each other, including advice on balancing parenthood with our creative careers, and child-care swaps. And kids playgroups and other social activites could help build a great creative community. Which is something I hope could lead to even more creative collaborations between parents who are artists, musicians, performers, etc., to cater to all-ages audiences.

If you are a "creative class" parent in Portland, let me know what you think about all of this. Are you looking for a community of "creative class" families? As a creative parent, do you already feel connected to a creative community? Or has having kids caused you to feel disconnected from the creative community in Portland?

* "Rockin' the Cradle (And Then Some), Ryan White. The Sunday Oregonian, November 15, 2009. Pg. O1,O6.

It looked like Goblin Art was back, but then where did it go?

Cancelling a show is a strange and unfamiliar thing. Goblin Art has been selling masks at shows and events for ten years now, and over that decade I have only cancelled my booth twice, (first due to car trouble, second due to my foolishly scheduling a show for when I would be 8 months pregnant).

But then this rather disorienting month came along, where I have had to cancel not one, but two events that I had lined up!

I think this is yet another lesson that comes with parenthood. As an adult without a child, I had almost complete contol of my schedule. But as part of a dual-parental unit, schedules become fragile balancing acts, where event the best laid and most seemingly important plans can evaporate at a moment's notice. That isn't neccessarily a bad thing, it is just a case of finding oneself wandering in a shifting landscape where the ideas of what is important keep redefining themselves. Unfortunately however, that does make running a business a lot more complicated.

So to summarize....

Goblin Art did re-open in Janurary '09, but after a 10 month run seems to be temporarily closed again.

This most recent closure is due to a big change in the dual-parental unit schedules, i.e. I am currently the primary stay-at-home parent to our 2 year old son.

Goblin Art will probably/possibly/approximately re-open mid Janurary 2010, sooner if I can figure out some clever childcare solutions, or later if Rick's employment outside the studio continues.

I am still open to the discussion of special order masks and wholesale horn orders, but don't plan to schedule anything that would be needed before Mardi Gras 2010 (mid-February).

And in the meantime, I'll be at home with my wonderful son, making many wonderful new art pieces with crayons, markers, construction paper and playdough.

No Goblin Art booth at the school play this weekend.

"Burnt Offerings", a fantasy-themed play with Goblin Art masks opens this weekend at the DaVinci Arts Middle School in Portland, OR.

I will not be selling masks and horns during intermission, (as had been previously announced). My inventory was already very limited at the start of October, and then Halloween cleared out what little I had left.

But do have a good time if you are planning to attend the show!

More info about play can be found here

Portland mask shop with Goblin Art masks

I finally have an official retailer in Portland! Mystique Handcrafted Masks & More recently opened in the upscale Pioneer Place Mall downtown.

They also have masks by my maskmaker friends Dianne Trapp (Illusionary Designs) and Connie Trapp (Masks & Things), and a selection of art glass creations, ceramic work, paintings, photography and jewelry by local artisans.

I have a mere dozen masks and headdresses on display in the store as of this afternoon, but I'm working in the studio at a frenzied pace and plan to bring them regular deliveries of new work throughout the Halloween and holiday seasons.

Mystique
Pioneer Square Mall
340 SW Morrison St, Suite 1435
(On the lower level, next to Fossil Cartel)

503-224-5725

Hours Mon-Sat: 10am - 8pm, Sun: 11am - 6pm

Goblin Art events in Portland this Fall

I have updated the Goblin Art shows and events page with my Fall schedule. There is an interesting variety of events lined up this season--an art show, a science fiction convention, masks in a school play, and some work on display in a museum-themed haunted house.

Summery summary

Often I have the urge to share something here, but time does not permit me the luxury of plugging cards and cameras into the computer, or of sorting through photos to find pretty pictures to accompany my thoughts. But a shortage of words makes a web-log go stale even faster than a shortage of pictures!

Summer is here already, and it finds us in the midst of much frantic preparation for Faire Season! Newly finished masks assemble about the studio in colorful piles, and loose bundles of elastics and ribbons and fabric trimmings scatter across most work surfaces. Fresh wearable horns hang from the ceiling waiting their turn to be sorted and packed, and the new selection of extra-affordable felt masks grows bigger with each passing day! (I'm so happy that the felt mask experiments have been a success!)

As each event races towards me, my biggest concern is always reining in as many unfinished pieces as I can, so we will be sure to have plenty of pieces in the booth that are ready to sell! The inventory did seem a little thin this time, so I have finally decided to dip into my personal mask archives and sell some of the very first masks I made. Perhaps a lucky collector will enjoy the chance to have "Curly Masquerade mask #1" upon their living room wall?

Also, I have suddenly become very conscious of how much space ten or twenty years of accumulated art can occupy! There is a lot of stuff there I should sell--and some I should probably recycle, donate or give away! If I'm sufficiently organized, I'll start putting a "Make an Offer" trunk in the booth at shows full of random arty items in search of the right home.

I'm really excited about Faire Season this Summer! Part of that reason is that we didn't do any faires or markets during the Sproggling's first year, and I have missed the chaotic but interesting life of the traveling merchant. The other part of that reason is our new set of wanderlusty-wheels! The cab of our little pick-up truck was never intended to fit a family of three, so for the sake of practicality (and for the sake of my ability to be able to feel my legs!) we'll be cleaning it up and helping find it a new home. And the replacement vehicle for our faire-related travel is a big chevy camper van! It is older than the truck but has an excellent engine, and will provide us with a comfortable place to sleep, a sink with hot and cold running water, and a stove and a fridge so we'll be able to cook our meals and enjoy hot pots of tea! It will take a couple of shows to pay it off, but it will be SO much easier for us to do more out of town shows, (especially with the Sproggling-factor to consider). And suddenly, the notion of spending a week or so of every month at the Oregon coast no longer seems crazy--there are lots of charming little art and craft markets along the coastal highway that we can sell at throughout the Summer and Fall as well.

It is funny, as ever since college I had imagined myself on the road in some kind of "house on wheels". I spent many hours visualizing (and designing) house trucks, converted school buses and gypsy caravans. True, the van is a little less romantic than those images, but probably a lot more practical for now. And if we keep doing faires and markets and need more space, there could still be reason to convert a step van or delivery truck into an amazingly versatile wheeled camper/booth/portable studio in a few years. Such lovely daydreams for making masks by!

Revisiting paper mache

Rick and I have been digging into the interwebs, looking for new information and inspiration on paper mache. What an amazing resource we have at our fingertips these days! The web was so tiny when I was doing my art degree, paper mache knowledge had to be distilled from dusty theater tomes in the library, or picked from of the brains of passing artists.

Here are some of the most interesting links we discovered, (weblogged here for my convenience, as well as for your benefit):

• The Paper Mache Resource
  Paper mache tutorials and articles, gallery of paper mache artists around the world, forum.
  

Sculpture by Sergio Bustamante, "The Farewell of the Night"

• A look at Sergio Bustamante, an absolutely breathtaking paper mache artist in Mexico.

• Interesting paper mache techniques by Wendy Harford. She has adapted ceramics techniques such as slab building and coil pots for paper mache.

• Demon Reapers by Stolloween
  Innovative Halloween prop builder's technique for making really interesting paper mache skull masks using flat cardboard cut-outs, and a lot of homemade celluclay.
  

(I'm a big fan by the way, of using flat cardboard pieces to make a three-dimensional armature for paper mache! The ears on the donkey mask I made were done this way, although I used Liqua-che instead of celluclay).

• Paper casting with sand

For a long time I have wondered if it might be possible to adapt paper-making techniques to make paper mask forms. The paper pulp used to make sheets of handmade paper is basically the same as the paper slurry or celluclay often used for paper mache sculpture. The problem is that papermaking molds are flat. The paper casting method linked to above looks like it addresses this issue. (And it also fills my head with wonderful daydreams of maskmaking on the beach!)

So why all the paper mache research? Well, for awhile Rick and I have been talking about using more paper mache for our masks. Plastic costs have gone up, and while we are able to recycle most of our scrap plastic, I really want to make more art from renewable and recycled supplies. Paper mache is an amazing material, and I look forward to making more amazing creations with it.