Come out for fabulous food, music, and art at the Grand Opening of a very special cafe. This place is full of magic! Come see why! I will have selected works from my "When Animals Dream" series on display. Cafe Musique is play'n and the food can't be beat! Please come and be one of the first to check this place out! It will be fun! See my April 29th posting below for more about Sally Loo's!

-Heidi

Under Eden

Here's a better image of one of the pieces that is at the Clark Center right now. It is called Under Eden and it is the first piece in the Building The Greenhouse series that will be featured at Castoro Cellars in July.

Art at the Clark Center

After hanging my art on Monday at Sally Loo's Cafe, on Wednesday of this week, I hung 10 more pieces at the Clark Center in Arroyo Grande. They do rotating shows in their lobby and the back hall leading to the theater. It will be up for 2 months through June. Check out my full show schedule at my website.

It was love at first sight when meeting Sally Loo!

And this is Sally Loo!
Sally Loo and her owners, Jen & Brandon Manuele bought the old Café Luna, in the eclectic Railroad District of San Luis Obispo. Like Sally Loo, Jen & Brandon have been working like dogs transforming the place into the coolest hangout in town! And of course, the new name of their place is SALLY LOO'S CAFE!

That's Jen & Brandon Manuele. Jen & Brandon are amazing photographers and after checking out their website and Blog, it was clear to me that they were energetic, creative, hip folks who were accustomed to creating beautiful and spirited things. So when they asked me to hang my artwork on their café walls, my immediate response was heck YES! On Monday of this week I hung 9 artworks from my When Animals Dream series. Their sea foam colored walls were waiting for me as the the perfect back drop for my work. It was as if we had meticulously coordinated the colors in advance, which we did not!

With family, friends, and repair technicians all putting in some cheerful sweat, the crew is in the final prep days of hanging shelves, organizing the kitchen, planting flowers in the front flower boxes, training staff, and hopefully getting a day of rest before opening on May 7th! Meanwhile, the café regulars in their neighborhood drop by to check on their progress, awaiting a good latte and some of Jen’s famous cooking! As you can see, these are the "before" photos. I'll post some "after-reveal" photos when they are up and running!

When you visit them, be sure to also check out the showroom next door, featuring their stunning photography. But give them a couple weeks for the dust to settle in the cafe before the showroom is up and running!

























When I was snapping up these photos, Jen couldn't help herself and took a couple too. This is me on the couch in front of Flying Swan & Koi Around.




See you at Sally Loo's!

Encaustic Workshop

I'm teaching my Encaustic Workshop this weekend. My good friend and fabulous photographer, Sara Heinrichs was present for my February workshop and made a really cool slideshow. It's posted on the Encaustic Workshop page of my website. Turn up your speakers because it's set to music. I haven't figured out how to put slideshows on this blog yet so here are a few stills that Sara took.


At each workshop, we make a group piece which is sold at one of my shows for charity. Below is a student working on our group piece.

A Walk to the Old Oak

Two days ago, I got a notion to finally walk to the big oak tree on the other side of the gully. It is a tree that I look at all the time from my studio office and yet, I had never walked to it. I am looking at it now as I type, just 1:00 off my monitor. Two winters ago, a large limb broke in a wind storm and ever since then, the broken limb looked like a big dear was lying beside it, eating from its base. (Can you see it in the photo below?) I thought for the longest time that the tree was on our property but just recently learned that it is a few feet off the property line. I get to look at it never-the-less.

This year we have barley growing and it’s at knee level. I walked out into the field towards the oak and the only thing I could think of was “I hope I don’t encounter a snake!” I am so scarred of snakes! Each step I took was like something out of a suspense thriller. You know, scared of what might be larking even though there are no signs of anything wrong. Maybe it was the fear of snakes but it may have also been the weird sensation of walking and not being able to see my feet. I had to completely trust what I was feeling. I walked gently with mindfulness, allowing all creatures to slither away as I trod near.

Walking with mindfulness allowed me to notice all the ladybugs! There was a ladybug in front of me every two steps! How many must there have been in that barley field?! I got half way from the house, turned around, and it felt like I had left the planet. Like outer space, I was someplace I look at every day but had never been.

Upon arriving at the Oak, I felt another sense of place. The old growth was distinctly outside of the planted area and the brown weeds were standing in peaceful defiance like aliens.

My walk to the Old Oak marks a similar path that I hope to take more often; revealing a closer look at what is right in front of us....simple journeys and introductions to people, homes, and little known spaces....exploring the humble, beautiful, ugly, resourceful, creative, and unique. Come with me.

Radishes with Salt

When we were kids, we had a swimming pool that Dad would set up each summer in the far corner of the yard. It was only 18 inches high or so, but it felt plenty deep, especially when we lay on our stomachs, arched our backs and floated in the cool water. When we were in the pool, it meant that it was really summer and anything was possible.

When summer was over, the pool would be dismantled and put in the garage. In its place each fall was left a circular patch cut out of the lawn like a cookie cutter. In the patch were dead weeds, mud and lots of worms.

A few years went by, 18 inches of water just wasn’t deep enough, and Dad stopped putting up the pool. I don’t remember missing it.

Dad kept the circular grass lawn cut out and turned it into a garden. He grew corn that was small and often full of holes. He grew baby carrots and I think beans. He grew lettuce that I was never quite fond of because it was bitter. The lettuce grew very well. In my opinion, we had too much of it. Dad would tend the garden each night after work, in his shorts, squatting down, pulling weeds and putting salad fixings in a colander for dinner. Each year he would enlarge the circle a little bigger to accommodate more plants.

But I will always remember the lovely radishes.
One early evening when my grandparents were visiting and admiring the garden, I pulled a beautiful red radish. Up to that point, radishes were more beautiful than tasty. My grandmother explained that they tasted best with salt. I just remember washing off that radish and bringing the salt shaker outside into the garden.

Now my radishes come from the produce department at Trader Joes, tied in muddy bunches with big blue twisties. I take them home, snip off the leaves, wash them in a colander, and of course enjoy them with salt.

Now I miss the pool and long for 18 inches of water.