Itty Bitty 2 opening Sat. Oct 1st 6-8 pm...

Arts at Canal Place co-op gallery is featuring the work of member artist, Mary "Macee" McCunn in "Itty Bitty 2". The solo jewelry show opened Sep. 25th and is going on through October 30th. McCunn will be present to discuss her work and greet visitors at the Opening Reception with refreshments on Saturday, Oct. 1st from 6 to 8 p.m.

McCunn is know for her sculptural jewelry that has an antiqued textural appearance and includes earrings, necklaces, rings and other items made of silver, brass, steel and copper, yet with a subtle primitive appearance. All work is handmade through the forging process as performed by many blacksmiths and metalsmiths from the earliest of times.

The typical feel of her current works will be available, but also a repeat of her new dainty and more delicate line of necklaces, earrings, bangles and rings called "Itty Bitty" that was introduced successfully last fall. The new line is perfect for those who want the look that the artist is know for, but that want something more light and airy to wear. "I constantly re-evaluate my merchandise and listen to what the customers want and the "Itty Bitty" line adds another choice so there is something for everyone for the holiday gift giving season" says McCunn.

You can learn more about McCunn, her upcoming shows and where you can purchase her work at other galleries by visiting her blog at www.meadowbrookarts.blogspot.com or Meadowbrook Arts on Facebook.

McCunn's work can also be found at Lost River Artisan Cooperative, Gifts Inn Boonsboro, The Gallery (Oakland, MD) and Mountain Made (Thomas, WV).

Arts at Canal Place is a local co-op artists' gallery. Any artists that may be interested in jurying in to become a member is encouraged to call (301) 777-8199 for information regarding becoming a member. The gallery, located at 16 Howard St. among the Shops at Canal Place Heritage Area is open seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Jewelry to Lost River...

It was the time of year to clean the barn and install art work at the Lost River Artisans Cooperative in Lost River West Virginia. As usual it was a wonderful collaboration of cleaning fiends or should that be friends, because it sure seems like this is a great group of peeps who come out to lift a dust rag and eat good food together to get ready for the public!

The buds will hopefully soon be popping in time for this seasons opening of April 10th. The Lost River Artisans Cooperative was founded in 1988 in the scenic Lost River Valley in West Virginia's Potomac Highlands and is home to nearly 100 regional artists and crafts people. http://www.lostrivercraft.com/

Tim Wheeler (current LRAC President) is directing his artistic cleaning crew to paint, dust and sweep this large space. About 30 people showed up to lend a hand.

A little window washing (also known as an outside comedy act!). Much more goofing off from the heights of the ladder would have resulted in a few broken bones!

Yours truly on another ladder for a calmer job of dusting lights. Trust me, Tim was running out of jobs to give people. "What do you want me to do now, Tim?!"

After clean up, a little installation of some of my work.

After a nice warm day with this lovely group, I took off in my old car for a nice 20 m.p.h. ride home. Okayyyy, I was BEHIND this slow poke, but what a cute slow poke it was, until I passed him. This is always a nice country ride to and from Lost River and well worth the drive. So is the art - take a stroll and wheel on down sometime. Check out their site and see the demos, classes and festive activities ramping up for the year. If you are an artist interested in selling your wares, they will still jury new artists in for 2010. There is even a cool shop next door for a yummy bite to eat.

"What's New" exhibition......

Arts at Canal Place is featuring a collective art show titled "What's New". Included in the exhibition are necklaces and earrings by Mary "Macee" McCunn, made of copper, brass and steel. Pat Hilton is included in the show with her lovely pastel titled "Snow Shadows". Other artists showing photography, monotype prints, felting, watercolor, enameling, 2d paper, steel forged items and sculpture are also part of this show that is open to the public from March 7 - April 10. Stop by the gallery anytime between 10-6 daily to check out the show. For more information visit www.artsatcanalplace.com.

The Hard & Soft of It

After lots of hard work and a great artist to partner with, The Hard and Soft of It show went off beautifully!

A new direction for me. What a fun collection of jewelry to work on and have available to the public and what a neat way to present "hugs and kisses". This is becoming part of the wholesale line and will be avaible to retailers very soon.
Jean (Barnes Downs) explored new directions and has such a great way of exposing texture and this happens to be one of my favorites!

More "hugs and kisses"! I love the way the softness of the idea behind a gentle kiss can be combined with such hard steel & brass.

Our opening mug shot! More importantly, look at Jean's organic works in the background. Her works are always wonderfully soothing and if you happen to explore the new hospital (Western Maryland Health Systems - Cumberland, MD), her artwork can be found in the halls surrounding the waiting area on the Outpatient Surgery floor. You can explore more on Jean at http://www.solitudestudio.com/. More fun, colorful and fuzzy! This bracelet stretches over the wrist and reminded me of the days when sweat bands were cool to wear on your wrists and head! Hum.... 70's, plastic, wool & bullet casings.... what a combo!

December at Arts at Canal Place...

The Hard & Soft of It

by Mary A. McCunn & Jean Barnes Downs

Arts at Canal Place - Featured Artists
December 3, 2009 - January 9, 2010
Opening Reception w/ refreshments: Saturday, December 5, 2009
Hours: 6 - 8 pm
Arts at Canal Place, Cumberland, MD
http://www.artsatcanalplace.com/
(301)777-8199

Along with some of what you normally see from Mary, will be a strong presence of steel in her jewelry and sculpture. The typical feel of her current works will be there, but with a new and occasional soft direction, by incorporating wool and other softer materials into her work. She will utilize her metal techniques, presenting work that has both a soft natural and organic feel, while also blending it with a harder edge using geometric shapes and harder lines. As in nature, these two usually can be found together, the soft fuzzy baby chick awaiting feeding in a hard branchy nest or perhaps the soft flowing hay around a piece of farm equipment or a steel metal bridge or especially a lamb by a steel barbed fence. Always present is this natural hard and soft pairing.

Jean Barnes Downs
Planting Roots
Monotype with pastel
http://www.solitudestudio.com/

Downs' monotypes will feature strong simple abstract compositions with blocks of color and variations of hard and soft edges suggesting tender plants growing in a rock crevasse or water cascading over solid stone. Geometric shapes will be offset with the flowing contour line of drawing as she plays with mixing mediums incorporating pastel and the printing process of chine collé. Ever present are her multiple layers of color and texture drawing the viewer into each piece to seek out a story hidden there.

For the funkiness in all of us...

Turkey Teaser! Cuddlies A very contemporary, fuzzy & fun, one-of-a-kind line of jewelry made of: plastic, wool, copper, steel, brass, and bullet casings! There are caterpillar, rock, disk and cocoon necklaces. Also, some earrings and really fun and unusual bracelets. If you like wacky and off the wall, stop in and check them out. They won't be a regular from Meadowbrook Arts and are limited in quantity.
Arts at Canal Place - Featured Artists
November 1, 2009 - November 30, 2009
Check out our "extra" inventory as a teaser of the show to come in December at AaCP. We will have two full cases available for those who want to GOBBLE up unique pieces prior to "The Hard & Soft of It" show in December. Ask anyone working at AaCP where our two cases are and happy shopping! Ho Ho Ho!
Hours: 10-6 Daily
Arts at Canal Place, Cumberland, MD
www.artsatcanalplace.com
(301)777-8199

Gobble Gobble....

Turkey Teaser!
Arts at Canal Place - Featured Artists
November 1, 2009 - November 30, 2009
Check out my "extra" inventory as a teaser of the show to come in December at AaCP. I will have two full cases available for those who want to GOBBLE up unique pieces prior to "The Hard & Soft of It" show in December. Ask anyone working at AaCP where our two cases are and happy shopping!
Hours: 10-6 Daily
Arts at Canal Place, Cumberland, MD
http://www.artsatcanalplace.com/
(301)777-8199

Rescue Me show at AaCP meets Chibi & Orange

My daughter and I took a quick stab at cartoonish type painting/drawings on canvas yesterday. Left is Chibi Puppy by my daughter and right is Orange Kitti, by Macee (my new name given to me by friends). They go to Arts at Canal Place for the "Rescue Me” featured Artist show. Most paintings have part of the sale donated to our local animal shelters. Along with the normal show, there are these small cute paintings made by members or the public that are being donated so the proceeds will go also go to the Animal Shelter.

Road Trip to Lost River

It was time to add more inventory to Lost River Artisan Cooperative. Now available are cool copper rings, more earrings and necklaces and my newly designed 22's for $22! Since I was making this beautiful country ride, I decided to invite a few friends along. Dalis and Ceil were gracious enough to hang for the day, though we did leave another wonderful friend (Piver) behind that was out sick, sniff. Dalis and Ceil decided it was time to introduce their products (that consisted mainly of glass jewelry, but also included felted purses and "lambscapes"!) to the Lost River area. They were juried in while we ate lunch in "The General Store" next door. What yummy chicken tarragon salad sandwiches they had! MMMMM, my belly growls as I rethink the meal.

Here are the girls as they prepped their lovely work for sale. Sassy vixon jewelry for sale!

This is a cool old tractor that sits outside the Lost River building. What a beautiful location for the coop, nestled into the trees.

Of course there had to be purchases, as well as installation of our work, because we like to support other artists' talents. We purchased yummy coffees, a tasty pecan pie jam and this fun textural large pot and serving dishes by Kathryn Kavanagh.

New at Arts at Canal Place

Check out the new style of sterling silver earrings & necklaces I've created for the Arts at Canal Place. They are great for long hair and lightweight. I always use sterling silver earwires so they are safe for senstive ears and won't cause allergies in most people. They are longer and dangle on the ears to create that sexy summer look. The necklace is on a thick handmade neckwire and looks great against that summer tan! The earrings are currently only at the AaCP location, but the necklace you can find at both AaCP and Gifts Inn Boonsboro!

Squiggle Mops

Circle Dot Slabs

Sterling Silver & Blue Lustre

Dust Bunnies Be Gone for Easter

Lots of artists showed up for the annual cleaning at Lost River Artisans Cooperative in Lost River WV to get ready for the opening weekend over Easter. Most work will be installed this week since the dust balls have been removed, after lots of sneezing on my part! Also arriving on the beautiful Saturday were plenty of lovely ladybugs. It simply was a gorgeous day and a beautiful hour and a half ride on back country roads. After the cleanup came a wonderful spread of potluck for everyone to munch on. What a crowd we had, so you can just imagine how nice the munchies were - there was actually an entire ham and the largest darn chocolate chip cookies I've ever had! Yes, I had to have one! Everything was delish. What a nice group to hang with for a while. There was the cheery Albert Hutchings (aka Mr. President!) and the wonderful manager Kathy Welch there to arrange the cleaning and display and help everyone get their applications in for the day. Don't know how they stayed on top the large group that descended on the barn for checkin and cleaning. Heck, I even saw one of my old Cumberland artist friends in the midst of all the hustle and bustle - Anita Rickenberg! She was the lovely lady who told me about LRAC years ago and decided to bring in her fabulous ceramic work for the year. Can't wait to see the beautiful juried work from what looks like a talented group of artists. If you get a chance, swing by the area and check out my work and the work of about 70 other artists! The trip will be well worth it. Visit http://www.lostrivercraft.com/ to check it out and read their blog!

Nossa Segunda Mostra

AaCP Featured Artist Show by
Mary A. McCunn & Jean Barnes Downs

Show runs Apr 2 through Jun 9, 2007
Opening Reception w/refreshments Apr 7, 6-8pm
Hours: 7 days a week 10-6
Arts at Canal Place
301-777-8199
http://www.alleganyartscouncil.org/

Mary will feature primarily new wearable jewelry works out of copper, brass and sterling silver, while Jean will be showing work utilizing a viscosity technique and with woodcuts or linoleum cut florals over monotypes.

Earrings and Necklaces by Mary A. McCunn

Mary and Jean came together once before at the AaCP for a successful show titled "Pulse & Currents" in July of 2005.

Jean's wonderful monotypes and monoprints can be found at her new website Solitude Studio. You can contact Jean at info@solitudestudio.com.