C Stein's "Cedar Elm Roots" Photographic Art Print Selected to be a Part of Plantarium 2022

(Click to enlarge.)

From the Plantarium 2022 press release:

Gallerium Art Exhibitions proudly presents PLANTARIUM 2022 Smart International Online Group Exhibition. The exhibition has been opened on September 15 and will remain on view until October 15, 2022.

Plantarium 2022, an international juried dual art exhibition, represents plants and our deep roots and relationship with trees, leaves, flowers, and greeny grass on the planet earth.

Countries: 23
United States, Japan, Hungary, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, India, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Portugal, China (PR), United Arab Emirates, Romania, Spain, Sweden, France, Israel, Bulgaria, Iceland, Ireland, Russia, Malawi

Visit PLANTARIUM 2022

Donating Artwork and Celebrating the Grand Opening of the New Dalworthington Gardens' City Hall

As a member of the building committee that helped the new city hall in DWG take shape, I am happy to announce that the grand opening of the building is almost here. On Thursday, November 18 beginning at 5pm, the City of Dalworthington Gardens will hold a grand opening celebration.

There are some very special elements in the new building. Another alderman built and donated the big table for the conference room. It is awesome and even includes the DWG symbol burned into the wood by a custom built branding iron. The table is very elegant with a dash of rustic charm that gives a nod to the City's tag line, "a rural oasis in the heart of the metroplex".

I offered to donate some artwork that would tap into that theme as well. I brought up several examples of my photographic art images I had printed for me as gallery wrapped canvases for the mayor to look at a month or so ago. After looking around the building we thought the conference room was the perfect place to hang some pieces. With the way the windows were laid out in there and the plans already anticipated for the other walls, it looked like two horizontally oriented and two vertically oriented 16" x 20" works of art would be most appropriate. I wanted the images to be of nature that had been photographed in DWG. I had two landscape oriented dragonflies that I had photographed in my backyard and a portrait oriented study of a great egret that I took in Gardens Park. I needed another vertically oriented image.

Great egrets are large birds that frequent Pappy Elkins lake in Gardens Park. A comparably sized bird that also hangs out around the lake is the great blue heron. I did not have an image worked up yet for a 16" x 20" piece of art based on a great blue heron photo I had taken, but thought that was what the fourth image needed to be. I hunted through the photos I had taken over the years in the park to see if I had a suitible one. I wanted to find one where the heron was standing in a similar posture as the egret on the canvas that was already printed and I wanted them to be facing each other once they were hung on the wall. I also wanted the final alteration of my heron photo to take on a similar characteristic as the other three pieces of art I was donating. I found a few original photos of mine that I thought had potential. After working with this group, I settled on one that I thought best fit the criteria I had set out. After completing the image it was time to send it off to be printed on canvas. I always cross my fingers when I do this with a new image. Some images look better printed on different substrates so even though I print out proofs on paper on my printers, I am never 100% sure of how the print on canvas will look. I think it turned out nicely and compliments the egret very well.

One other donation I made to the overall project was to save some of the plants that continued to grow on the original homestead site, even though the old house had been removed years ago, and ultimately return them to the site. I cared for them for over a year until we could tell if there was an appropriate place to set them around the new building. We decided the bed on the north side of the building would make a good location for these hardy, easy care plants. When the plants in the bed mature a bit more, I will take some pictures and make a post about that garden.

(Click on the images to enlarge them.)

Holographic Photographic Art Pegasus Sticker

Even though I have not keep up with my blog posts with one exception for about eight months, I was able to create some new items during that time. I started out by sewing masks for friends and family. I completed some new magnets, started a couple of projects that are still in the works (one item for me and one item design for sale) and added another sticker to my sticker offerings. A couple of pieces of my photographic art were in a virtual show over the summer and some pieces made it into in person exhibits this fall.

Today I want to share some information with you about my stickers. This is a new product for me. I created the artwork for my first sticker just before the end of last year. Early this year I had some produced from that artwork. Even though I have had them for a while, this will be the first time for me to share my dragonfly decals with you on my blog. They are supposed to be very weather resistant and able to go through the dishwasher if you attach them to something like a travel mug. I have been testing out the weather resistance of the dragonfly sticker in my garden. I attached one to each side of a ceramic disk made for me by my friend, owner of CiCi House of Clay, and hung the ornamentation from a hook. It has been there for months. The water still beads up on it and the colors are good.

I created my second sticker a couple of months later. Instead of an image on an oval sticker like the dragonfly, I decided to try a holgraphic die cut sticker. I thought a flying horse would make a good candidate for this type of sticker. I started with some images I took of a flying horse model. I digitally created essentially a line drawing from one of those images that I used as the basis for the sticker. The printer added the holographic magic. Watch the short video clip below to see how the rainbow of the visible light spectrum plays across the decal depending on the angle of the light falling on it. These decals are available in my EclecticSkeptic Etsy shop.

Photographic Art on Display at this Thursday's Symphony Arlington Concert and Art in Bloom at BRIT

If you will be attending the final Symphony Arlington concert of this season on Thursday, May 9 and want something more to do than hang out in your seat during intermission, head just outside of the seating area to view a collection of my photographic art pieces. There will be some flyers and business cards on the table for you to pick up if you see something you want to follow up with me about. Unfortunately I will not be there to talk with you in person on Thursday as I have a previous engagement to attend.

A piece that you won't see Thursday night is one that was accepted into the 2nd Annual Exhibit of the Botanical Art Collective of North Central Texas, Art in Bloom. This exhibit of botanical art runs from May 10th through June 20th, in the gallery at the the Botanical Research Institute of Texas. The gallery is open during weekdays from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm. I do anticipate being at the opening reception on Friday evening, May 10th, from 5:30 pm -7:30 pm. This is an opportunity to meet many of the artists and see who receives the “People’s Award” at the conclusion of the reception.

Thirty two local and regional artists are represented. Mediums range from watercolor to gouache, oils, acrylics, mixed media, graphite and colored pencil, pyrography, wood inlay, and photography. It is a celebration of the beauty and diversity of the plant kingdom.

My Photographic Art will be at East Main Arts Festival - Saturday, May 4, 2019

As one of the artists gracing the walls of CenterSpace Coworking in downtown Arlington, I will have more of my photographic art with me for sale during East Main Arts Festival in the way of matted prints, ready to hang art, bookmarks and note cards in addition to the artwork on the walls and for sale there the rest of the year. The festival is free and open to the public from noon to 8pm on Saturday, May 4. Enjoy a variety of music from four locations within the festival. Craft beer and munchies will also be on the block.

While most of the other artisans are outdoors, there will be four of us inside CenterSpace, an acrylic painter and photographer, a watercolor
artist, a potter and myself. We are providing a make and take craft as well so stop inside and have some fun with us. I look forward to seeing you there.

Mansfield Arts Week Includes Work by C Stein

Arts Week in Mansfield coincides with spring break. This ten day event (Thursday, March 7 - Sunday, March 17) combines arts from every spectrum. I posted last week about one facet of Arts Week that I am participating in, an artist reception from 6-7 pm, Friday, March 8 at the Mansfield Public Library for artists whose work is currently hanging in the library. This week I wanted to share a few more opportunities for you to find me and my work in Mansfield as part of Arts Week. I have five of my photographic art

pieces hanging inside Calibration Chiropractic, one of the businesses who have offered artists space to show their work as part of Arts Week. I will be there at specific times Monday - Wednesday, March 11 -13.

Monday, March 11 is Kids Day. A potter will be doing pottery wheel demos from 10am - 2pm that day at the clinic my artwork is hung in. Many other events are happening for Kids Day throughout the city. I will also be at the clinic for both days of the Historic Downtown Mansfield Arts Walk, Tuesday the 12th from 1-4pm and Wednesday the 13th from 5-8pm.

There are plenty of additional activities and events going on during the rest of Mansfield Arts Week. My art is scheduled to continue to hang at Calibration Chiropractic throughout the month of March.

Fashion Show in AVAA 2019 Regional Exhibition

If you enjoy viewing a wide range of media, styles and subjects of art by local artists, then you need to stop by the Bob Duncan Center in Arlington to view the Arlington Visual Arts Association's 2019 Annual Regional Exhibition. My matted and framed entry, "Fashion Show", of a leafy sea dragon was selected to be included in the show this year. (You will find it in the display case. The reflections from the case and the picture frame made it difficult to see some of the details of the image so I have also included a

watermarked version of the original in this post.)

Some of the art can be viewed whenever the Bob Duncan Center is open. These pieces are on the east wall of the main hallway. The rest of the exhibit hangs inside the room on the west side of the building. As long as the room is not in use, you can view the remainder of the show when the center is open as well. The exhibition opened on February 5, 2019 and runs through April 8, 2019.

New Digs - Iridescent Dreams Kestrel

By now, quite a few pieces of my photographic art prints have found their way into customers' homes. And sometimes I am lucky enough to have a customer come up to me at a later show and tell me how much they love their purchase hanging in their home. It always makes me feel good to know that something I created brings joy to someone else. What is more rare is for me to get a glimpse of what my artwork looks like in its new setting.

The very first time that happened was when a customer snapped a photo of a recently purchased matted print they framed and posted the photo to my facebook page. Recently a customer texted me a photo of a ready to hang piece of art in her home that she purchased from me at the Happy Holidays Pop-Up Market this past holiday season. My customer was actually also a vendor

at the market and liked my "Iridescent Dreams" kestrel series matted and framed print so much when she dropped off her product that she purchased it and took it home with her.

While I usually don't share identifying information about my customers, when I got permission to share this customer's photo on my blog, she mentioned she would share my post once I published it. Since she was a vendor at the market and has an Etsy store, it only seems fair to thank Sabrina of The Sleepy Cottage publicly for sharing. The eyelashes pillow in her photo looks like her brand.

Eclectic Design Choices Artwork Included in GPAC 2018 Juried Art Show and Sale

I delivered my entries to the Uptown Theater in Downtown Grand Prairie earlier today. The foyer of the theater will be home to more than 125 pieces of art from 58 regional artists. It will be open to the public beginning with the reception for the show on Sunday, September 23 from 2-4pm. If you are unable to attend the reception for the Grand Prairie Arts Council 2018 Annual Juried Show and Sale, you can view the art in the lobby of the Uptown Theater until the artists remove their work beginning at 10 am Saturday, October 20.

My triptych of moonlight on the waters around the Galapagos Islands is one of my three accepted pieces.

Update 9/23/18: The piece I shared above won third in the photography category. To see the other pieces I entered, check out my awards tab.

Fall Gallery Night at BRIT 2018

My artwork will be back at BRIT in Sept. Instead of being part of a gallery exhibit as a few pieces were earlier this year, I will have a full compliment of my photographic art with me for an invitation only reception on Friday, September 7, 2018 and as part of FWADA Fall Gallery Night at BRIT on Saturday, September 8. BRIT will be open to the public on Sept. 8 from 4-9pm. You will find me and my artwork (matted prints, note cards, coasters, ready to hang artwork and more) along with about ten other artisans and their creations in atrium II as part of the pop-up artisan market. There will also be a new exhibit in their gallery space and welcome center as well a pop-up exhibit by the Fort Worth Art Collective.

Herb Festival at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens Sat. May 19

I will have most of my photographic art and a limited selection of my jewelry with me this Saturday. I won't have as many of my ready to hang pieces with me this year because I have several of them hanging in the Inspired by Nature art exhibit in Mansfield. You can see those weekdays through May 22 from 8:30-4:30pm at the MISD Center for the Performing Arts. I will have a good selection of my matted prints, note cards, bookmarks and more at the Herb Festival at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens.

Inspired By Nature Art Exhibit to Feature My Photographic Art

All six featured artists plan to attend the reception on Saturday, May 12 for the Inspired by Nature Residency at the Center art exhibit from 6-8 pm. You will be treated to high fire ceramics, photographs, basket and gourd weavings, paintings, mixed media pieces featuring polymer clay and photographic art images. Browse over 70 pieces of art, all inspired by the natural world around us. If one speaks to you, you will be able to purchase it, however it must remain in the exhibit through May 22.

In addition to the reception from 6-8 pm this Saturday, the exhibit is open to the public at the Mansfield ISD Center for the Performing Arts from May 7-22, Monday through Friday from 8 am - 4:30 pm.

State of Texas Nature Designations

I have heard it said that Texas is a state of mind. If your mind likes to linger on the nature around you, you might be interested in what critters and plants Texas has designated as the state bird, tree, etc.. I snapped the following images in my yard or DWG's Pappy Elkins Park and turned them into photographic art to celebrate the beauty of these state designated critters and plants.

State native shrub: Cenizo

State bird: Mockingbird

State plant: Prickly Pear

State insect: Monarch butterfly

State tree: Pecan

State flower: Bluebonnet

Dental Art

Those of you who follow my blog realize that I am inspired by nature and that is the theme of most of my photographic art. I am always up for a challenge however, so when the founder of Cadmus Dental asked if I could create some dental art, I told him I would think on it. Unfortunately, try as I might, I was stumped. I finally asked to see some examples of pieces of dental art that he liked. It gave me a better understanding, however now I had the problem of trying to figure out how to come up with something that put my own spin on new or different imagery.

After some thought, I decided to do a proof of concept piece using the one dental tool I could easily put my hands on and a couple of my jewelry tools as stand ins for dental tools. I arranged a still life using the tools and took some digital photos of them. I then worked with the photos to see what type of photographic art they wanted to be. The first image in this post is one of the images I came up with from that session. I met with Scott to find out his likes and dislikes with regards to the concept images. He liked several of the treatments so we discussed what he had on hand that might serve as input for some proper dental art. I also found out about an event that Cadmus Dental was going to be holding soon that might be a good place to show others in the business any new pieces I could come up with by then.

I set another appointment a couple of days later when the light would be good to do a photo shoot of some demonstration pieces and samples. We also went to one of his facilities to shoot some images of a piece of equipment in use. Those last photos were interesting but not conducive to quickly working up some new artwork. In fact I now have a better idea of how to try to get better input images and will try taking more photos later. Several of the demo and sample piece images turned out to be good starting points for dental photographic art. I sent some jpegs over for Scott to review and provide feedback about them. I took that feedback and came up with five finished pieces that I framed for the Cadmus Dental event. The second photo in this post is those pieces displayed at the event. (Click to enlarge.)

Where do we go from here with the dental art? Scott said he received good feedback from attendees at his event. I need to get a page together with images and pricing. Scott wants to be able to point people from his company's website to the dental art that is available for sale. In the meantime, the five framed images I brought to the event are hanging outside and inside of Cadmus Dental's main office at CenterSpace in Downtown Arlington if you want to see them in person. These pieces will soon have tags with prices and be for sale on the 817ArtsAlliance Art for Sale - CenterSpace page. In addition to what I am creating, I have contacted two other artists and thrown ideas to them that should be in their wheelhouse of creative talent. I am looking forward to what they are able to come up with. Hopefully I will be able to expand the art offerings through their creations too.

Photographic Art from My Visit to Eden's Organic Garden Center and CSA Farm

About three weeks ago I shared my trip to Eden's Organic Garden Center and CSA Farm. I mentioned in that blog post that I had turned a couple of the images I had taken there into new photographic art prints. In this post I will give a bit of a back story on how those images came about and show my photographic art images created from them.

While I was waiting for the tour of the farm to begin, I shopped the organic produce offered for sale from local farms. I selected a couple of different types of squash and placed them on the counter. The purveyor was not there to check me out at that moment. I looked at the squash laying on the counter and thought it had the makings of a still life image. I took the liberty to add some greens and beans to the composition and scoot some of the other items on the counter out of the frame. I took a few shots and returned the items I had moved to their original locations as best I could. The size of the squash dictated a landscape orientation for the image and one whose aspect ratio worked well for a 5x7 print, which is what I developed from one of the images I shot.

At one point in the farm tour, I glimpsed a commotion out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head to see something flying away from a large spider web. I asked if anyone else had seen what had happened and we went to look more closely at the web. No one else had gotten a better look. The spider was a large orb spider, however its web was missing its signature Z pattern. We surmised that a large grasshopper or cicada had likely been what we had seen escaping from the web and it tore up the Z section as it got away. I managed to get a few shots of the orb spider in its disheveled web before the tour resumed. I titled the resulting 8x10 photographic art print "Just Missed".

You can find more information about Eden's Organic Garden Center and CSA Farm on their facebook page. They host small neighborhood farmers' markets on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Saturdays of a month from 9am to noon (April - Dec.). Look for their sign out front and drive all the way back down the driveway to the big shade tree by the barn.

EDC to be at New Urban Traders Market Location 9/16/17

I first heard about Urban Traders Market from a fellow artist shortly after they organized last year. She had a favorable experience with them so I was interested but was too scheduled at the time to check them out. I finally had a chance to visit one of their markets at their summer 2017 location and was pleased to see that their stated mission was evident from the look of the market and from visiting with vendors.

About that time they announced the new location they would be moving to after taking August off and I decided to submit my application to become an approved Urban Traders Market vendor. Urban Traders juries their vendors to ensure variety and quality. They already had as many jewelry artisans as they felt they could handle so they offered me space on the approved list for a few of my accessories, my night lights, and the full range of my photographic art creations sans jewelry items. I am excited to

be part of their inaugural market at O B Mac this Saturday, September 16.

I have been following Urban Traders Market's Facebook event postings and it looks like there will be a fabulous variety of vendors and a popular food truck too. I hope you get a chance to check out their new location on Saturday. I think this group is very serious about creating a space where artisans can thrive, in addition to a fun space for the public to visit and develop a sense of community. Stop in and say hi when you come by.

2017 Fall Gallery Night Show and Sale

There are many great locations, where you can view local art, that are participating in the 2017 FWADA Fall Galler Night this Saturday, September 9. Check out the guide to map out your day (most locations open by noon and continue into the night). I recommend you include The Fort Worth Community Arts Center on your list. Not only because I will be there with my photographic art but also because I find they always have a great assortment of art to look at. They also usually have adult beverages, beginning in the evening, to sip while you stroll past the art.

My work will be in the back gallery along with creations from members of the Texas Pottery and Sculpture Guild. The show and sale at the Community Arts Center will be open from 10am - 9pm.

2017 Grand Prairie Arts Council Juried Show and Sale

The reception and awards presentation for the Grand Prairie Arts Council Juried Show will be from 2-4 pm on Sunday, September 17, 2017. Click on the images at the bottom of the page linked here to see some pictures of last year's reception and presentation. I was impressed with the venue and the spread at the reception last year. I thought it was a very nice thing to do for the artists.

I will be there again this year. I always enjoy seeing my work hanging among that of other artists. It is fun to hunt around the room to find where my art wound up. If you come to the reception or later while the show is hung and open to the public, you can hunt for three of my photographic art pieces that were selected to hang in the 2017 show. Look for "Aliens Have Landed", "Aspen Trunks Against Fir & Spruce", and "Profile".

The show opens with the reception on September 17 and can be viewed for free in the lobby of the Uptown Theater in Grand Prairie until 10am on Saturday, October 21.

Ready to Hang EDC Photographic Art at CenterSpace in Downtown Arlington

While the art has been in place for a few months at Downtown Arlington's newest co-working space, I finally got all of the pieces together to make purchasing it easier. If you see a piece of art you want to take home with you when you browse the art on the walls of the relaxed new co-working space, CenterSpace, you will be able to use an internet connected device to buy it. If you are looking for a special piece of ready to hang art for your home or office check out my photographic art, photographs by Amy J Schultz and a limited edition DREAM poster commissioned by Downtown Arlington Management Corporation.

The owners of CenterSpace have graciously offered to let people view some local artists' work in person and hand the work over to customers after receiving notification of payment in exchange for having some awesome art on their walls. When CenterSpace's members need to take a break from looking at their computer screens or other task they might be engaged in they can contemplate the artwork on the walls.

Payment for a piece of art can be made online through 817ArtsAlliance. Pick the title of the artwork (shown on the art card by each piece of art on the wall) from the drop down menu below an artist's listings on the Art for Sale - CenterSpace 817ArtsAlliance page. Then click the Buy Now button and follow the rest of the instructions from PayPal. You will be able to pay using your PayPal account or credit card.

Note: The images in this post were taken just after the art was hung. The images in the CenterSpace link above was taken after the art cards were added.

Find EclecticDesignChoices at the Fort Worth Herb Festival this Saturday, May 20 2017

I will have much of my photographic art and a limited selection of my jewelry with me this Saturday. The forecast has some rain in it but I hope that won't stop you from coming out and enjoying the festival. Please stop by and say hi if you get a chance to come out.