A Week Until the Opening!

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Done! Everything is at the museum and the opening is next Sunday. My brother and his wife are flying up from Florida for it and I am so excited. Here’s the official postcard… (the opening coincides with the museum’s annual member juried exhibition, so it should be a festive evening!)

My to-do list was LONG but it got DONE. Yes!!

Fun things were on it, like making a yarn-and-pushpin map out of the Seattle aeronautical chart to mark our adventure routes…

Fixing the broken magic wand was also on the list…

Although Ryan did the title page lettering for the original book, I chose to write it for the new edition as well as the framed wall folios. Here is my pile of practice scraps…

Making labels for the framed wall folios…

It felt so satisfying to have everything packed in boxes, labeled, and sitting on the loading dock. Thank you so much to Itinerant Studio for giving me such a great space to work in for the month of May. XO!

Hope to see you on Sunday!

Springfield Museum of Art
107 Cliff Park Road | Springfield OH 45504
June 30th, 4-5:30pm

Read more about the project HERE. Read my original blog post about the trip HERE.

This Week

I took a little break from the studio last week and went to Venice with John. We stayed at a convent guest house on a quiet part of the island, spent a lovely day on a little boat visiting islands in the lagoon, found Italy’s oldest paper shop, had a picnic and nap in a winery garden, picked up my magic red shoes from the shoemaker, and ate prosciutto & melon every single night. Best of all, I am feeling rested and not so stressed-out, and my schedule has shifted because of the time change: I get up at dawn and I go to bed earlier and my insomnia seems to have gone away. I also read two books in the week I was in Venice and realize how little time I take to just sit down and read when I am home. I wind up feeling guilty for not doing something “productive” and that’s just ridiculous. Here’s to more books!

At the end of this week I deliver my exhibition to the museum, so I am now back to work. I will post more soon. Hope you’re having a wonderful holiday!

Life Lately

Yes that’s a tree in my car! Spring is finally really here and I am working like mad to get the courtyards planted and pretty. Each year since we moved in I’ve been improving them in bits and pieces, and they are just about finished (although I know a garden is always a work in progress).

What else has been going on this past month-ish…

I finished a week of bookmaking in Springfield with Project Jericho and Zonta International, which culminated in a beautiful final exhibition and performance at the Springfield Museum of Art. I loved being able to see what other groups in the program had been working on.

Speaking of books, I found the very first one that I made! I was six. It contains a letter to Mom illustrated with various doodles. I was already center justifying my title text—rock on, little design girl!

For the next few weeks I’ll be working like mad to assemble the 42 framed book folios for my exhibition at the Springfield Museum of Art in June. It’s now officially titled A Flying Adventure: Works by Claudia Retter. OPENING RECEPTION: SUNDAY JUNE 30 FROM 4-5:30pm.
I am ever so grateful to Itinerant Studio for letting me use a corner of their warehouse as my workspace for the month of May (thanks Vicki & Tom!)

Also grateful to the Greater Columbus Arts Council for the grant which allowed me to purchase framing for the show (shown below in their boxes). Thank you, GCAC!

My show at the Meadowlark restaurant came down early last month. We had a closing reception brunch with a few of the folks who purchased prints from the exhibit. What a super-fun way to end an exhibition!

April took me to Florida to photograph the opening of The Wine Cellar, a new high-end wine shop & tasting room in Melbourne. I’ll be working on designing their website too :-)

I was thrilled to be included as a reference in art business guru Alyson Stanfield’s new edition of her classic book: I’d Rather Be in the Studio. (Squeee!) What is terrible is that, of course, my own website needs major updating (I don’t even mention that I do design work — gulp). Once my exhibition is up I’ll hopefully have some time to get busy with that.

The Magpie Consort (the chamber choir I sing with) has been collaborating with Columbus early music ensemble, Cecily, for our spring concert program. It’s been so nice to sing with an instrumental group!

My reading corner at home. I’ve been moving furniture around. We just got new windows and french doors and I can finally sit in front of them without a windy draft coming through the cracks!

Katherine and I tagged along with John on a short trip to Myrtle Beach. It was her first flight on the MD-88 with John as captain (although in this photo it’s the other way around). He made an announcement when we boarded that there was a special guest on board, gave a little introduction, and everybody clapped. She felt so special, and what an amazing memory for a kid to have of her father.

And, finally, the first Graeter’s ice cream of the season. Cheers to spring!