Planet Art is Blooming

I’m back from vacation and feeling rested and ready.  Well really I’m more exhausted today after the 10 hour drive yesterday with the three boys.  Regardless, I’m glad to be back and have had a great day today.

This morning I spoke with Kathleen Hartman and we are ready for the “Awash with Color” show on July 8th.  She is bringing in 21 watercolors for the show, many of them flowers and othery summery scenes.

Speaking of watercolors, Barbara Curry brought 10 new fantastic botanical watercolors priced right at $125 each.  They were all she had left after a very succesful run at Three Rivers Arts Festival.

Road construction starts Wednesday here in uptown Mt Lebanon, but the garage will be open–no worries. 

Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone

Okay, Linda and the boys have been away at a family reunion for five days now.  First I thought, “Wow, ten days to relax in a quite house.”  Well, to start off, the gallery is open fifty-six hours a week.  And guess who’s working all those hours?  On Saturday I opened the gallery at nine because of “Sidewalk Saturdays,” but nobody came in until ten.  When I went to close up at eight, five people walked in the door, so I let them browse around for fifteen minutes.  By the time I got out of there it was eight-thirty.  So I was at the gallery for almost twelve hours.  I’m not complaining, but, hey, I still haven’t cleaned the kitchen yet.  My brother drove in from Detroit for two days, and last night we were able to go out to dinner at Mitchell’s Fish Market.  It was nice, I thought the food was excellent, but I ate so much that it took me four hours to recuperate.  Yes, the house is quiet, but I love my kids so much that I would rather hear all the noise and screaming and fighting and whining, which I’m sure Linda is getting an earful right now.  She’s getting spotty cell phone service where she is, so I’ve only talked to her twice.  But she says that she and the boys are doing okay and having a good time.  Meanwhile, the gallery is open, the kitchen sink full of dirty dishes waits for me, and I just can’t get that song outta my head.

Vacation??

Friday morning I’m packing the boys and taking them on vacation.  Greg will be here at Planet Art every day (we’re open 7 days a week) for at least ten days.  I may have to order daily doses of  Aldo Coffee’s mocha latte to keep him going.  But let’s be honest, who is really on vacation — remember, I will be taking care of 3 little boys 24/7.  Hmm… 

A Sad Day for Pittsburgh

Just heard of Big Ben’s motorcycle accident.  The mood on Washington is somber.

The blog I almost wrote, but didn’t

I was almost going to write a blog about how this woman told me she bought a print at Ethan Allen for $450 and loved it.  I almost wrote that it was nothing but a poster, even if it is called a gilcee print.  I actually posted this blog, but Greg said it might make me sound bitter.  The last thing I want is to sound bitter–at least not while I’m still young.  I’ll just say that original art is cool, I won’t go into the whole you can hand it down from generation to generation thing or that it’s really quite affordable.  Nah, I won’t say any of that.

Beware of Little Brown Spiders, they’re mean.

Yesterday the boys and I spent at least half of an hour looking up spiders online ’cause we were certain that we had a Brown Recluse Spider in a bush in front of our house.  We never quite acertained whether or not it actually was a recluse — they aren’t suppose to live in Pensylvania, but we didn’t mess with it either.  Today I got an email from my friend Molly (wife of oil painter Scott Hunter who shows here at Planet Art, that’s “Chessbriar 1″ up top) that she was bitten by a spider (unclear if it’s a recluse) and couldn’t email me for two whole days because of complications from said spider bite, strange coincidence.

What do you get the man who has everything…and other Father’s Day sales pitches

I was making up my “Father’s Day” signs to hang on the door and I realized I have to get my Dad a gift.  So, what do you get the man who has everything, and when I say everything I mean it.  My Dad has a thighmaster, that’s when you know you have more than all you need.  Well, I found something right here at Planet Art Gallery and I can’t publish it because there is a slight chance that he will read this, so if you need an idea, come on in.  By the way, it’s not a “Best Dad Ever” mug, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Fiddling Away

I am crazy excited.  I love music, all kinds of music.  AC/DC, Allison Kraus, Sting, Chris Botti, Gene Vincent, Dwight Yokam, I could go on and on, like any art if it’s well done I most likely will like it.  The one kind of music I admit I don’t know much about is classical violin, but soon I will.  A wonderful young lady came into the shop one day and we got to talking and she told me that she gives violin lessons to children and I found out that she is a classically trained violinist, well (let me catch my breath), she said she would come in and play at “Awash with Color, the Watercolors of Kathleen Hartman” reception that we are having on July 8th.  Too cool. 

Her name is Rebecca Closson and she has started the “Pulling Strings Academy” and gives lessons to all ages, you can contact her at fiddlingaway@yahoo.com or 412-335-1065.

Half Moon

So we sold the Sandy Miller “Half Moon Pot.”  This was my favorite pot, maybe of all time.  Greg said “you must be so sad to see it go.”  And you know, at first I kind of was, but really it makes me proud.  When there is a piece that is artful, beautiful, well crafted, reasonably priced, and just really cool, and it sits on the shelf I just think - Why hasn’t it been bought?  It’s soo nice.  Enjoy your new home Half Moon.  (Half Moon is a red pot with an off center swirl coming off the top and can be seen in some of the gallery photos.) 

Music in the Park

Today, after work I took the boys to the park — the sun was shining, there was a slight breeze, and wonderful classical guitar filled the air.  It was magical.  Two guys were just sitting there playing guitar, I turned to them and said “come play at the gallery.”  And they said “yeah, okay.”  So hopefully we’ll see them soon.