Open Studio and Sculpture Garden

Lucy is waiting patiently for all her visitors!

May 20/21

10 to 5

415 Heath Dr. Eldersburg, MD

FREE!!!

10 Reasons why I like the yearly spring open studio:

1. The gardens look fabulous. Mulching is done, weeding is, well, never done and I have planted lots of new things. There is a new moon garden (behind Lucy) due to the removal of a very old, very cool and very rotten tree in front of our house. I have spent hours at various plant nurseries around the area, perusing what’s new and what’s old and planning new designs in the gardens.

2. The grounds look great. It is the time of Green and, despite the grumbling, my husband works hard to maintain the yard in tip top shape.

3. The sculptures get some upkeep. Maintenance of the animals is an ongoing job but this is a good time of the year to make sure that they are looking gooooooooooood.

4. The studio magically gets clean. Okay, not really. I lied. Or maybe exaggerated. There are several days put aside for making this a reality. However, it is always such a good feeling to walk into the studio after the event and realize that all I have to do is PLAY!!!

5. I sense the excitement in the air. A friend of mine said today “Aren’t you excited about your open studio? I am!!!” ‘Nuff said.

6. I meet new people in the quest for ways to market this event. There are such neat people here in Carroll County and I love finding new friends who will help me promote my open studio.

7. I get excited about showing off new works. This year, I have the beginning of a really exciting project in the studio and I can’t wait for you to see it!!!

8. I get to meet such great people each day of the event. Last year I was overwhelmed at how many people showed up despite the abysmal weather. Rain and 50’s is not my idea of a perfect day but over 100 people showed up to see the sculptures. This year the weather is (so far) promising to be warmer and who knows who I will meet during the two days?

9. I often make contacts that produce more studio visits throughout the year. This year I had a visit from the high school kids from Winters Mill high school. A bus load from Carroll Lutheran stopped in on a very hot day in July. And a group of guys in Model A Fords drove in one afternoon earlier this year to spend some time with the sculptures.

10. I get to see people’s reactions to my work. Artists have egos and I am no different…I love to see the smiles and the “oohs” as people walk around the property. I am always honored when someone takes the time out of their day to come see and enjoy my creations.

I hope you can make it this year, it is such a treat to see you!

AND:

Don’t forget…you can still go to Buickster Hall in Taneytown to see some of my smaller works until June 11. See my website for more info. www.virginiasperry.com

newsnewsnewsnews…

Well, it’s hot. If you’ve been wondering whether I have given up working in the studio during this heat the answer is…sort of.

finishedfinishedfinishedfinished

I am not welding but there is plenty of other stuff to keep me busy. I finished the second of the seed pods on Friday and managed to get it into the garden on Saturday. I don’t know if it’s going to stay there forever, but I’m not moving it until the temperature goes back down to the mid-80’s. Or lower. Much lower.

So for now, here’s a sneak peek at the pod in its temporary place. We decided maybe it should be called “Pod de Deux” since it is the second in the series.

I have started the third piece, but again, it will have to wait a bit. In the meantime I am busy doing research and thinking and drawing and thinking some more to come up with the next designs that I will be tackling. Stay tuned!

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In other news, my installation, “Pipeline”, is still ensconced at the Delaplaine gallery in Frederick. MD. The opening was well attended. The show is up until Saturday the 30th (I know, not much time left to see it). I was happy to see it up, but I have to admit to some trepidation over this particular installation. I had had to jerry-rig it due to an oversight when I was packing all the tools for the installation. (I forgot to add the special nails I was using and had to make do with regular nails.) So even though I was the only one who knew how fragile it was, I spent some time last Monday fixing it. It is definitely stronger and more stable now.

two visitors at the opening of the sculpture show at the Delaplaine

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And finally…it is official! We are hosting a fundraiser event in September. Creative Alliance is a community arts organization in a cultural dessert in downtown Baltimore. It has grown over the years and now provides an amazing focus for the arts in that community. Every year they offer a group of events that are designed to raise money for the organization. These events, titled “Art to Dine For”, are a combination of art and good food, put on by various local artists and board members. This year, Rich and I will be hosting an event called “Art Camp”. Here is the write up on their website…

Look forward to an afternoon of pure fun and bring the kids, too! Explore the 100-year-old barn Virginia Sperry has converted into her welding studio where she creates life-sized animals and birds out of steel. Wander through Virginia’s six acres where several of her animal sculptures are carefully installed. Enjoy homemade ice cream sandwiches made from fresh cookies and Hoffman’s ice cream and watch your kids play together in rollingdownhill races, creating masterpieces with sidewalk chalk, and riding a handmade rocking llama.

2–4:30pm | Adults $55 | Kids $25 (Call 410-276-1651 Tues – Sat to purchase Kids’ Tickets)
Food: Fun Treats | Attire: Country Comfy | Location: Carroll County

You can find this information and sign up for the event at http://creativealliance.org/calendar/art-dine.

I urge you to check out all the offerings. There are some really fun evenings planned throughout the fall and early winter.

Please note…this is the only other time this year that the sculpture garden will be open to the public. This event is not free but 100% of the money that we make goes to fund community arts education and programs. It is really going to be a lot of fun!

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I thought I would leave you with a photograph that I took recently. There have not been many butterflies in my garden which is too bad, because this has been a wonderful year for flowers. But I did manage to capture this beauty while it was dining on my echinacea.

Stay cool!!!

 

in retrospect…by the numbers

The open studio is over and life has returned to its normal peaceful, ordered state. I spent the day recovering from being super hostess and will resume being an artist tomorrow. For right now, I am content reliving the weekend in all its glory.

As I ponder the weekend, I am struck by how much we as a society are stuck on numbers to qualify our happiness and success. How many home runs did someone get in a season, how many people voted in an election, what score did your child get on the test, what is your IQ. The list is endless as to how we measure ourselves. Endless, but limited. For we don’t always measure the stuff that is really important. How many people dropped popcorn while they cheered for those home runs because they were so excited? How many people were affected by the policies put into place by the elected official? How many times was your child polite to other people? And how many times did you smile today? Perhaps those are the questions we should be finding the answers to.

I am not immune to the numbers game. Throughout my career as an artist, I have avidly counted things. Dollars I made at a craft show, new names on my mailing list, visitors to my gallery, lizards sold…it all added up over the years. But quite honestly, I can’t say that any of it was really important. I continued to make stuff, people continued to buy it and I wasn’t any more or less happy after I had figured out the bottom line. Or if I was, it was fleeting because I always thought the numbers should be higher.

And yet I continue to do it. I carefully count the names on the sign in sheet for the open studio trying to figure out how many people came. But as I do so, I wonder exactly what is the magic number? What is the number that means that the weekend was a success? That I can use to tell other people so that they will be impressed? And then I think maybe I need to come up with some different numbers.

So here they are:

Number of people who smiled when they were here: All of them.

Number of people who thanked me for opening up my property to the public: I lost count.

Number of people I thanked for coming out to see my work during the weekend of solid rain: Everyone I talked to. (At least I tried, if I missed anyone, consider yourself thanked).

Number of people who told me my work was amazing/phenomenal/fill in any number of adjectives: I lost count.

Number of kids who rode the rocking llama: over 30.

Number of adults who rode the rocking llama: Probably around 20 but I don’t know for sure, I think there were some who did it when no one was looking.

Number of chocolate chip cookies eaten: 7 dozen.

Number of people reached by my facebook post of the article in the Carroll County Times: 1,770. (This last number is quite ridiculous. It is my first encounter with the power of social media. And it doesn’t count the people who saw the article in the myriad of other places that it was posted or shared. It also reminds me of the still strong power of the press. The newspaper may be a dinosaur, but don’t count it out, especially in the smaller communities.)

Number of kids who stuck their tongues out at the kangaroo: Only one was caught on film, Others may have as well. I will never tell.

Number of tire ruts in our lawn: doesn’t matter.

Number of happy, successful artists living here: One.

Thank you.

 

 

what’s new?

I did not mean to take so long with the last three posts but here we are with a new blank piece of blog paper and much to write about…are you ready???

EXPERIMENTS

In the past weeks I have been experimenting with rust and fabric, with mixed results. I was not really pleased with what came out of it so I scrapped the experiment (pun intended) and went back to working on what I thought was going to be a garlic bulb.

FINISHED SCULPTURE

Sometimes I am not really sure who’s in charge of the story in the studio. I fought valiantly for three days to finish the sculpture as a garlic and for three days I failed. So I decided to give up and go with the flow. The finished product is, indeed, a bulb but I am not specifying which one. Some people see garlic, some people see amaryllis, some people see…well…what do you see?

Of course this was only part of the story. I took advantage of both the great weather and the presence of my intern Julia (not to mention the incredible opinions of some four legged animals) to install the new sculpture where it belonged…over the well head in my front yard. There could be an entire debate over whether art becomes craft when it turns into something functional. We’ll leave that for another day. Instead, I’ll just say I much prefer looking at the bulb than an ugly well head.

INTERN

Having an intern has been a wonderful thing. My studio has never been cleaner, I have lots of pieces of finished steel to work with as I make the next sculpture and…what’s that you say? You want to know what I’m working on?

Yeah, I’m not telling.

As I was saying, Julia is great. She finds work to do when I don’t have a specific project, she helps out even when I don’t know I need it, and she is super willing to do just about anything. I am getting a lot more work done and the studio is consistently clean. Plus, she arrives on time and is excited to be here. What more could anyone ask?

SPRING/SUMMER OPEN STUDIO

I have set the next open studio here at the farm. It will take place on May 21 and 22 (Saturday and Sunday) from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. it is yet another chance to come see the sculptures, but this time they will be surrounded by the gardens in their full splendor (hopefully). You can even bring a picnic and sit near a giraffe or musk ox to eat it. It is free and it will happen rain or shine. The studio is handicapped accessible, but if you are unable or unwilling to walk down (and back up) the hill, we are happy to drive you around in a golf cart and give you a guided tour.

If you are in the area but can’t make it to the open studio, I am offering guided studio visits by appointment. Visiting information is on my website. The kangaroo is waiting to see you!

stuff

It’s a rambling blog today. I have little ability to focus, driving is hazardous, and my husband has been super helpful lately since I told him I am trying desperately not to descend into the morass, which he has helpfully renamed the molasses. One foot in front of the other and soldier on…

Enough of the whining, you’ve read it before, no sense in dragging it on.

Because my concentration levels are so low, this is going to be a photography map of what’s going on in my life…come for a walk with me…

In the studio you will see that the joey is almost finished and I couldn’t resist placing him in the pouch temporarily just to see whether they look good together…the answer is yes!!!

unfinished joey in unfinished mama’s pouch

I won’t tell you why, but earlier today I could be seen taking a picture of a bulb of garlic. You will just have to be patient to find out why.

photo op

In the garden you will see a late pollinator called a digger wasp or blue winged wasp on the native goldenrod. I was thrilled to see it for more than one reason, not only is it cool looking but the mothers feed on Japanese Beetle grubs…I hope they eat lots of them during the winter. They made a mess of my garden this year.

late season pollinator

Otherwhere’s in the garden, a volunteer yellow cherry tomato is hiding under the echinacea…I just picked some and have yet to eat one but will report in a future post, if I remember.

behind the echinacea

hiding

And finally, here is proof that at least one monarch visited my garden this year. I had a whole bunch of tomatoes in my hands so I didn’t dig around for the fourth wing. One can only hope that the eventual death of this butterfly happened after the eggs were laid for the next round.

proof

parfait

mussels make a great abstract photo

Mussels can be found everywhere in Alaska. I don’t like to eat them (I stay away from all bi-valves) but I like taking pictures of them

In other news:

I strive to have art in my everyday life, whether it is actually working in the studio or making amazingly simple and evocatively delicious foods from things that I have actually grown. I still feel quite amazed that I am capable of growing things that are edible, there is always a moment of pure delight when I bite into a tomato or zucchini or pear or apple and it is not only delicious but I know exactly where it came from and what went into producing it.

Today was no exception. Lunch was and open-faced English muffin with a little mayonnaise (I am American after all…you could also use french bread and some olive oil) then slices of a yellow tomato from the garden sprinkled with salt and a little balsamic vinegar (use the good stuff…you will appreciate it more) and a couple of basil leaves plucked from the plants. Top it off with triple cream Brie cheese (or cheddar, goat cheese, fresh mozzarella depending on what is around) and then run into the oven until the cheese melts. Add a little fresh pepper on top and dig in!

Dinner, eaten on a sultry evening on the back patio to the sounds of the cicadas and the drum corps from the local high school, was an appetizer (ooooh, how cosmopolitan we are!) of the brie and slices of a pear from our Asian pear tree. A chilled, crisp French wine made it all the more delectable. Main course, bow tie pasta, with a traditional tomato sauce (or gravy if you live in Italy) from (you guessed it) garden tomatoes…and more wine…of course. I cannot tell a lie, the tomato sauce had some toms from my friend’s garden as well. (Thanks Melinda.)

Finish with a square (just one) of amazing dark chocolate with orange and almonds and the night is complete…

In studio news:

The kangaroo nose got a bit of a tweak today, and I think she looks marvelous. The joey got a couple of new pieces and I did some prep work of little tiny pieces of steel so that he can continue to grow in the next couple of weeks. In addition, I am working on my first installation piece since I got back from NYC. If you remember, I did a massive cleaning a couple of weeks ago and have taken advantage of the empty walls  to start a new piece. I don’t know what the story/title is yet but I have no doubt that everything will come together the way it’s supposed to. In the meantime, here is a sneak peek!

detail of installation, mixed media including yarn, wire, cardboard, plastic netting and steel chain.

well traveled musk ox

cold, rainy, and other-wordly

This is a picture from Glacier Bay National Park. You can see the Glacier on the left…the small dark dot next to it is the big-ass cruise ship that has chugged up the Bay to give its 2,000 guests a closer view of the Glacier. This picture shows the typical blue/gray/white landscape that we got used to seeing every day, rain coming down here but not there, blue sky up ahead but not behind and fog on the left but not the right. (I mean port and starboard naturally.) The next few posts will take you closer to the glacier and show some details that are really cool.

In other news, the musk ox came home last week! I have been waiting ever-so-patiently for him to return, I feel like my sculpture garden is complete…at least until I get the kangaroo finished. It has been beastly hot and HUMID and welding is not so much fun in those circumstances, despite the AC that I have turned on. So, for now, we will enjoy the musk ox’s return. I have placed him at the bottom of the hill from the kitchen door so that I can see him first thing in the morning and when I sit out on the patio to eat or read. He seems to be quite happy down there and Izzy has already welcomed him home, in her own way. You might notice the difference in the colors between the previous picture and the next ones…it was quite a shock (and a pleasure) to come home such lush surroundings.

If you or someone you know (and like) are in the Baltimore, MD area and want to come visit the animals, give me a call! The gardens are open by appointment. Just hop on over to my website to get all the information…