Jessica Flores Design

Spring Into Art

 

May 1 - 3, 2009

451 N Main St, Nappanee, IN

My day job and my dream job have been blending together lately with the approach of another Spring Into Art--the Friends of the Nappanee Public Library Fine Art Exhibit and Sale. 

For the past ten years I have helped coordinate this show, each year taking on more responsibility.  My co-worker, Lindsay, and I have put in a lot of work scheduling workshops and demos with about 30 artists in 5 rooms of the local Boys & Girls club, arranging for each artist's booth space, equipment rentals, lots of mailings, the promotional campaign, a new style show and lots of other tasks in order to put together a fabulous show and schedule of free hands-on workshops! 

Please stop by and visit my booth at the show this coming weekend, May 1 - 3.  I'll have about 40 items for sale, including many of the vintage fabric designs you've seen here lately as well as half a dozen of my fine art paintings.  I'll also be teaching a drawing class for little ones and their grown-ups on Friday at 10 am.  Click on the logo above to go to our website for more details.

Hope to see you there!

Message In a Garden

As the end of this month approaches, I've been spun into a frenzy of busyness--freelance graphic jobs, three custom sewing projects, coordinating a fine art show at work, spring cleaning, and gardening.

This weekend I tried to concentrate on slowing down to enjoy the warm weather and dig in the dirt. While Nora was busy making mud pies one afternoon, I set to work tackling the crab grass among the daffodils. Imagine my delight as found this leftover scrap of newspaper nestled into the dirt near a new sprout.

This piece of utilitarian scrap used last year simply to suppress the weeds in the vegetable patch was transformed in a quiet moment into a subtle, yet profound sign to me that my creative efforts are worthwhile, and that even the most mundane tasks, like weeding a flower bed can produce joy and creative gratification.

Or perhaps it was a very literal message that God's creative handiwork is in the smallest and most unlikely nooks and crannies of this remarkable world.

Eggs and more eggs

We have been blessed with lots of eggs this spring, as my parents now have a brood of hens in the coop.  The lovely big brown ones made for some interesting new colors of Easter eggs as we dyed them today.  My cousin, Rita, and her little girl, Karma, were able to join in on the fun.  We tried marbling some with a kit and got stunning results while the girls polka dotted theirs with some cool little cotton swabs filled with dye.

Mom was prepared with blown-out eggs, so she'll be able to put her beautiful earth-toned eggs on display, but I was really quite sad to have to stash mine in the fridge after they were done. Soon they will be devil-ed.  (Another reason to add that glass-front refrigerator to my wish list!)

After we were done with the eggs, we used the leftover dye to create some paper eggs.  Nora dropped the color onto damp watercolor paper with a medicine dropper.  After I blow-dried the paper, I cut out egg shapes, pencilled family names on, and attached them with glue to some construction paper napkin rings.  They made sweet little place "cards" for our Sunday table.  I'll share photos of our dinner table later with the finished product.

Mom told us today that the first Easter Eggs were introduced as a symbol of new life, and all were colored red to represent Christ's blood. My color cup of red drops didn't quite get past a fuschia pink, but the rainbow of colors we made together today also reminds me of another of Heaven's promises and the many signs of spring emerging all around us.  

Have a blessed Easter!