How To Give Without Being Taken ~

"How To Give Without Being Taken,"

a great article by Luann Udell.

When I owned the gallery I was asked almost daily to donate work to a

multitude of non-profit organizations. I said "yes" to virtually every single request.

My standard donation was a recycled wine bottle tray.

They are beautiful, ,made from recycled wine bottles & make a fun addition to any silent auction.

I always thought it was good karma to give back to my community in a small way ~ and this was usually the only way I could give to many events.

I bought into sales pitch that "it's good for the gallery."

Currently, I'm asked almost weekly to donate a piece of my work to some cause or event. It's always followed up with "here's our 501c3 number for tax purposes." Just to clarify; a 501c3 number is a non-profit organizations IRS number that they use when filing taxes. It has nothing to do with a donation that I might make to their organization. Only cash donations are deductible ~ artwork or in-kind donations are not deductible for an artist.

This is a well written article explaining an artist's perspective to donation. If you're an artist you'll read it & smile. I tease my husband (who works for a non-profit bye the way) that I'm not a non-profit....people only think I am!!

If you work for a non-profit & ask for donations you might cringe.

Hopefully, we'll all learn something.

Thanks Luann for a thought provoking article.

Denali Park ~ Part 2

More pictures from Denali Park.

William hiking at Riley Creek.

Building a fishing rod from a tree branch.

Kicking back at the camp site.

An abandoned "Igloo" motel along the Parks highway.
Here's a close up...what a weird sight!

Denali!

The mountain was out in all her glory.

Artist in the Park! (Part 1)

My family & I had a fabulous time in Denali Park! It was pleasure to be able to share my work with the visitors & the park staff. You know you're in the wilderness when you see signs like this posted all over the place. We were tent camping so seeing these signs in the campground were a little worrisome. Bears like to hunt the calves ~ yum! Fresh & tender meat!

It's late spring so the moose cows have little calves. We saw cows & calves all over the place! Lots of twins & triplets like the ones below. See the hair on the mom's back standing up? She knew we had pulled over in the truck & were watching them....

she was trying to herd the babes up & kept looking at us over her shoulder.

The Mom & trips were right around the corner from the McKinley Chalet

where I was invited to chat it up with the visitors & educate the staff about my work & techniques.

Education helps to sell the work.

I haven't done much in the way of retail selling in a while

so I was looking forward to the experience.

This was a beautiful building & the gift shops were amazing.

Here's one of the displays of my work.

What a great idea to put it in front of the window so the light can come through the window.

They asked me to set up a display table with more of my work. I also brought books, literature & handouts from Bullseye Glass & samples of fusing techniques. The glass samples were a big hit! Everyone liked to hear about the different fusing schedules & learn about the different look of glass fused at different temperatures.

A growing crowd with brisk sales! What fun! The visitors also kept asking me about the sculpture behind me ~ like I knew how it was made or installed??? One lady keep insisting that it was a natural wonder & the building had been buildt around the rock. (hee, hee) I told her I thought it was plastic & she about had a heart attack.....kidding!!! I was only kidding!!

I had to take a picture of the SIGNAL LIGHT in the intersection right outside the McKinley Chalet. Can you believe it???? A signal light!

Wow...I guess they do get a lot of traffic in the park in the summer.

If you look closely at this picture you'll notice all the buildings on the left side of the Parks Highway. It's a strip of assorted log cabins & shops. A number who carry my work. The grizzly sculpture below was outside Summitt Gifts. It's a quaint shop filled to the gills with Alaskan kitch & handcrafted gifts. The grizzy is lifesize at about 10 feet tall. Can you image being a 5 year old & running into a real-life bear this size????

At the end of my work day we went on a little hike along Riley Creek. What fun to jump from rock to rock....and stand on this gigantic boulder.

And pick up sticks.

And head back to our camp site for dinner.

Bee Check ~

Quick bee update!

Everything is going great this year primarily because the queens are fabulous!!

Here's the bottom deep box full of active bees. Every frame has a nice pattern of brood, pollen & honey across the top of the frame. Textbook! I should have pulled a frame & snapped a picture but I have trouble handling the camera & holding the frame. My 5 &3/4 year old photographer was swinging & didn't want to take pictures.

The bees have already moved up into the second box ~ a medium or shallow. I'm switching over to one deep & mediums on top because they're lighter & easier to handle.

Here's a frame in the medium that just had a started strip on it (also called "foundationless). The bees are drawing out their own comb & it's snow white & beautiful! This beeswax is perfect for lip balm & lotions. I've also had a couple ecaustic painters email & ask about beeswax but they said the going rate for a pound was something like $5? Does anyone know if that is correct? It seems very low to me but I've never sold any wax before. (?) Post a comment & let me know ~

Off to Denali Park for the BIG WILD ADVENTURE!

Duty or Love?

"It makes a great difference

whether we do [deeds] out of a mere sense of

duty, convention, respectability

and so on, or whether we do them

out of a greater or lesser degree of love."

-R. Steiner