RePURRposed Gallery (part 2)

My sister Karen and I took a taxi part of the way toward SoHo where the event was being held. I've never visited New York as an adult, so we did a LOT of walking so I could really experience the city up close. Hell on the feet but WOW! SoHo was such a cool area, I knew instantly that one day I'll have to return and explore it more!

Part of me wanted to linger and take photos, peek in the interesting shops along the way, yet at the same time I wanted to speed walk right to Mulberry Street. I've been SO excited for weeks now in anticipation of this event, I just couldn't wait to get there! Brittany really upped the excitement when she called to confirm our attendance and teased that there would be some surprises!

We knew we had arrived as soon as we saw the chalk paw prints on the sidewalk out front of the building. Such a clever idea! They really did think of everything!

We arrived about fifteen minutes early, just enough time to sit around the corner and change out of our sneakers. I wondered the whole time I was there HOW women can walk around NYC in high heels and not break their necks!??  While we waited out front we watched the activity inside. Photographers taking photos of the art, last minute details being put into place, and THERE! just down the steps on the next level, in the middle I saw MY CATS! They are so brightly colored they loudly meowed, "Here I am!" 

Outside we met a few of the other Artists participating in the gallery. Local Artist Kira Alexis Kuck accompanied by her Dad, and Wendy Hannaford who traveled all the way from California! We snapped a few photos by the window display, and before we knew it, Brittany Allan was greeting us and we were going inside.

Here I am with fellow participating Artist, Wendy Hannaford just after we put our name tags on. Posing in a respectable manner was difficult when what I really wanted to do was jump up and down and yell, "OMG! I'm really here!" All the composure really disguises the incredible amount of excitement that has built up over the weeks leading to this day. 

My art has never been in a gallery before, other than the student shows I was forced to participate in during my college years. It's never fun for me doing things that don't hold importance. Like the name I use here for my blog, facebook, and Etsy shop; Cher's Passion. Art and any cause aimed to improve people's lives or our environment, are things I can freely apply my passion to. This is living a good life to me, making a difference, is meaningful and well worthwhile.

My crazy cats have made people laugh and that alone is an accomplishment of doing something meaningful. Laughter IS the best medicine. These cats hold hints of my real cat's personalities, but some of mine too. They show how silly I can be sometimes, and boldly state how much I love color. Irregardless of how "Hilarious" they are, they also tell a personal story of hardship and dreams, perseverance and love.

More coming soon! 

:0)

Shop Green

I belong to a GREAT Etsy team (Etsy Recyclers Guild), where all the members use recyclable materials in their creations. In our team you will find the perfect gift, decor, functional items, jewelry, art and more. Everything is handmade!

For a quick look see, take a look at our current treasury featuring a bunch of my fellow team members.

Also here's a very informative article about our team and it's members, and our team blog has a list of all our team member's shops on Etsy.

Happy Green shopping!

Earth Day 2010

What are you doing for  EarthDay2010? 
Check out EarthDay2010 on twitter and tweet what you are doing to keep America beautiful.

I know I've written about this here, on facebook and on twitter already, but I'm SO excited I have to keep talking about it!

I'll be in New York with my sister Karen on Earth Day (April 14th) for the RePURRposed gallery event. My cat food can, cat inspired art will be IN the show! Check out more photos of my submission on my flickr.

Blog Inspired

Although I've contemplated creating a blog to write about my Etsy shop, I've avoided doing it because I generally am not in a writing mood. Seems like today I am lol. I wanted to add and thank that Everything Etsy was what gave me the final shove into the blogging world.

Everything Etsy is running a blog party with free advertising for the prize! Oh how I'd LOVE to win! Here are the beginnings of this weeks item for my shop. Transforming a tin can into a doll.

I hope I'm doing this right! :0)

my art in a New York exhibit! for Earth Day

Last year I was laid off from my job, to save money I got online to find coupons on things I purchase. One of the sites I went to was Friskies.com, and signed up to get coupons for cat food for my 2 kitties.  Like most sites you register on, they send out the occasional newsletter, which I hardly ever read, but one particular one I did, and SO glad I did!

Friskies wrote a blog post  asking for entries in an art project (Together We Can) to promote recycling. The objective was to create cat inspired art out of (empty, clean, Friskies of course) cat food cans. I applied, was accepted and started cooking my idea. By the time I read the guidelines I had my idea all worked out and knew just what I wanted to do, although the guidelines didn't fit with my idea. So I had to rethink the whole thing, which I wasn't too happy about and almost backed out of it. One of the guidelines was that you had to use 10 cat food cans. My idea only consisted of 3 cans, and it took me about a week to figure out how the heck I was going to incorporate 7 more without changing my whole design.

We were allowed to use Fancy Feast cans too, so I took 7 cans and just started playing with them, like children's building blocks. I arranged them and rearranged them some more, until I finally saw it! A sand castle!

The idea was purrrrfect! and fit right in with my beach theme.

I worked on this project for a few weeks and had some heart pangs when I had to give them up and ship them off to New York.

I'll see them again in the RePURRposed gallery event on Earth Day - April 14 in New York! I'm SOOO excited!

You can see more photos of my cats here: my flickr pics

And I'll be sure to update here after the show!