Oh balls...... a packed weekend!

The weekend started off with me teaching the booth display class. It was a great success. Lots of time and energy went into this class to have it be over in a short 2 hours. I had a nice bunch of ladies attending on what turned out to be a beautiful weekend weather wise. They were all troopers to sit inside listening to me yap on and on when it was so gorgeous outside! Since it was so nice this weekend, I decided to meet up with two friends to travel to the Countryside Artisans Spring Studio Tour located in the foothills of Sugarloaf Mountain in rural Maryland. I picked up some Golden London Pride (feeling like Spring and wanting to plant something) at Alden Farms. Mixed in with all the plants, David Therriault makes way cool garden type sculptures. Passion leaked out of Tina Brown, from Morningstar Studio, as she spoke of oil spills of the past and how they affected nature, plants and animals. She was able to portray how she felt to the world through her abstract images and is pictured with my two friends, Olga and Pam. I had met her one time before and thought she was shy. Oh balls, she is a pistol! One of my talented and wonderful friends, Dalis Davidson at Dancing Leaf Farm was also on the tour with her fabulous wool and jewelry stuffsesssss! I picked up some of her awesome dyed merino sheep wool roving. She has these fabulous kits to get you started on felting and my daughter and I already started to play. Sharp little needles! We don't have a clue what we are doing or what we are going to do with them, but we are making balls anyhow! Oh balls, balls, balls!!!

Taking a break...

We took a break over Easter from work, school and art. Yoki, our very loveable yellow lab, decided to get in on the art of dying Easter eggs. She had to be a part of the Easter egg hunt, finding more than just eggs that E. Bunny decided to drop on the ground at the cabin. A quick and always inspirational trip put us on the lake with our daughter and her new kayak. She jumped right in and took off, even though it was quite chilly out. Would you believe we were the only ones crazy enough to play on a very cold wet body of water on Easter!?!

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!

Festival at Deep Creek Lake....

Arts in the Park
Come see our booth

Oakland MD - July 11 & 12, 2009
Hours: Sat. 10 - 5 and Sun. 11 - 4
301-334-6580
Garrett County Arts Council
http://www.garrettarts.com/programs.html

Studio opens to the public.....

2009 Mountain Maryland
Artists' Studio Tour

Participating Artists including Mary A. McCunn
Two weekends: Nov 7 & 8 10-5
Nov 14 & 15 10-5

Join Mary at her studio in Cresaptown, MD for a tour of her studio, refreshments and artwork for sale.
Come see her Fairbanks antique power hammer from the late 1880's!

For more information on this event and to receive a beautiful guide book with directions to all of the participating artists, contact the Allegany Arts Council at 301-777-2787 or visit their website http://www.alleganyartscouncil.org/ to learn more.

Our third pairing for another show.....

December Show
by Mary A. McCunn & Jean Barnes Downs

Our third pairing together!

Arts at Canal Place - Featured Artists
November 30 - January 2, 2008
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

Upcoming Booth Display Class...

Selling at Craft Shows: How best to present your work and yourself with Mary McCunn

at the Allegany Arts Council
04/18/2009

Allegany College of Maryland’s Institute for Professional Development and Extended Learning is pleased to partner with the Allegany Arts Council to offer “Become a Master at Marketing Your Artwork,” a timely and educational series of classes on Marketing Your Artwork.On Saturday, April 18 from 10AM-12PM, the class “Selling at Craft Shows: How best to present your work and yourself with Mary McCunn (PRO366)” will be presented. Mary holds a degree from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. She lives and works from her studio in Cumberland where she utilizes her extensive experience in business management, merchandising and marketing. If you are considering making your art work available for sale at art & craft events, this is the class for you. Mary will introduce you to the basics of designing your physical booth and display space while highlighting some important do’s and don’ts of display. She will touch on how best to present you so you keep customers once you have grabbed them with your booth design and art work. She will provide a list of various suppliers and prepare you with an art & craft checklist to cover your needs before and during the show.The class will be held at the Allegany Arts Council’s new special functions room located at 9 North Centre Street. Coffee, tea and light refreshments will be available. Brochures are available at the Allegany Arts Council. For more information call Kathy Condor at 301-784-5121. To register call Allegany College of Maryland at 301-784-5341. Sign-up for all three spring classes and save $23! The Spring series includes: Creating Powerful Slides (03/28/09), Selling at Craft Shows (04/18/09), and Working with Local Galleries (05/30/09).

In the beginning...

I think the best way for me to communicate with you (my customers, my buyers and your customers) is to finally join the world of blogging. What better way to stay in touch and share my stories and inspirations behind my art work. My work is ever changing and there is always inspiration and stories for my sculptures and jewelry and sometimes that inspiration is brought about by you. You help me stretch myself and it’s only fair that you should be able to know more about me and be included in my world.

I'll try to back track a bit to give you a time frame into my world if possible so you may have a better understanding, if interested, into why I fell in love with this style of art. Check out prior years and postings to see what has been going on over the years.

And so it begins.......

Mary's work in Nora Roberts gallery.....

Gifts Inn Boonsboro
16 N. Main St.
Boonsboro, MD 21713
301-432-0090
http://www.giftsinnboonsboro.com/

Gifts Inn Boonsboro will be hosting a Jewelry Exhibition Feb. 6th - 28th
Pick up a great gift for Valentine's Day!



February 21st events:
Mary will be present along with several other jewelers.
J.D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts) will be present at Turn the Page Bookstore for a J.D. Robb book signing next door to the jewelry event.
Inn BoonsBoro officially opens to it's first guests.

Looking at artists past......

Famous Favorites

Collective Artists Exhibit

Arts at Canal Place - Featured Artists
January 12 - February 21, 2009
Opening Reception w/ refreshments: Saturday, January 17, 2009
Hours: 6 - 8 pm
Arts at Canal Place, Cumberland, MD
http://www.artsatcanalplace.com/
(301)777-8199

The member artists at the Arts at Canal Place Co-op are presenting a unique show during the months of January and February. Working within the constraints of their own mediums, the members are presenting “Famous Favorites”, works of art inspired by and done in the spirit of the artists’ favorite masters. Would you recognize Picasso in a cubist pot or Van Gogh’s brushwork in a pastel? Come and see how many “Famous Favorites” you can identify. Speak with the artists about how their favorite inspires them and the work they are presenting. Mary will be presenting jewelry work inspired by sculptor Louise Nevelson who presented very unique work of a very modern nature during her life.

Necklace takes top award...

I was fortunate enough to have one of my most favorite and fun necklaces took the top award in the jewelry catagory in the Frostburg State University Community Art Exhibition. They announced the winners of this juried exhibition during the exhibition’s opening on Friday, Oct. 17. The exhibit will remain on display at the Stephanie Ann Roper Gallery in the Fine Arts Building through Friday, Nov. 7. Winners in each category were awarded $100. The exhibit was open to artists throughout the community working in all media. Each artist was allowed to submit up to three pieces in any category. Susan Dodge, lecturer in art at Frostburg State University, was the juror for the exhibit.

The Stephanie Ann Roper Gallery has free admission and is open to the public Sunday through Wednesday from 1 to 4 p.m. For additional information, contact Patti Graham at (301) 687-4797 during business hours, or Dustin Davis at (301) 722-6397 after business hours.

Frostburg State University101 Braddock RoadFrostburg, MD 21532-2303

ol' Stompin' grounds....

Springs Folk Festival
Mary is located in the woods on the forest trail

Springs, PA - October 3 & 4, 2008
Hours: Fri. & Sat. 9 - 5
(814)662-4158
http://www.springspa.org/

Come say hi and visit my old stomping grounds. Wears some good boots and wet weather clothes. That may scare most of you from an outdoor festival, but let me tell you, the rain is part of this festival and there are true die-hards that come out no matter what and you'll get the best home made foods..... it's worth a little wetness, that is, if the rain decides to show up in the first place.