soooo, anyways, I was frantically searching for a place that would frame a piece of art for me that was due in an exhibition in 48 hours, and a coworker mentioned "The Potter's Bench" which happened to be right in Peru, IN (the small Indiana town where I live). Alexandria, the artist/owner, did a fabulous job on very short notice, and we hit it right off and ended up chatting for about 2 hrs. Her shop is an eclectic assortment of artwork, children's clothes and toys and framing in a beautiful brick turn-of-the-century building that she and her husband completely restored. As I was perusing (ha) the shop, i happened across a 4" x 4" piece of artwork (ink and acrylic wash of a forest) with a tag attached to it saying that it was free, and it was from the community artists co-op of PERU. Well, I was delighted and surprised that such a small town had a co-op of artists. The card said they met the third Wednesday of every month at Cafe de Cirque. I made myself a mental promise that i would go and check it out, but not without some misgivings because I make decisions to do stuff all the time and quite frequently do not follow through because of procrastination, laziness, fear, inconvenience etc etc. soooo, when the next third Wednesday rolled around, I had a decision to make. It was a gloomy, cold, bone-chilling windy-rainy sort of night. I didn't want to go anywhere. I didn't feel like putting on a fake polite smile and gritting my teeth through the awkwardness of meeting new people. What if I get stuck with 3 or 4 really boring people for an hour? what if everyone there thinks I shouldn't be there? What if it's a complete waste of an entire evening that I could've spent doing something productive? What if they are all young hip people and I will look stupid? What if they are all men and I will be the only girl that shows up? What if they are some really, really weird people? But then I remembered that I like weird people so I ended up going.
The woman/Dalmation that met me at the stairs is Susan. Overwhelmingly friendly and extroverted, I hardly felt awkward at all. She made me feel like I belonged there right away. Apparently it was Halloween theme, so some people were dressed up and there was all sorts of crackers and cheeses and wines and sweets all set out. I couldn't drink the wine, of course, but there was some really strong coffee.
the coffee counter of Cafe du Cirque
She is chicken cordon bleu.
Another part of the cafe, artwork displayed throughout the friendly warm-yellow ambience.
another view.
A lovely, sort-of-shy, extremely nice watercolorist who lives on a farm and invited me to go horseback riding :) this is her abstract mixed-media piece. Every meeting, they have a theme and everyone presents a piece they made on the theme. The theme for this month was "dream".
The above are several other artists showing their theme pieces. Paintings, photos, collages, etc. About 12 different people presented.
This is a "shelf-fungus". One woman collected some of these, put them in an oven at 200 degrees to dry them out, and then used a woodburner to make designs on them. then coated with varnish. I thought it was beautiful. Below photo does not do it justice.
After all the presentations were done and some business was discussed, Susan took me to see her studio which is adjoined to the Cafe. Here are some pics.
How true, how true. "All wisdom is plagiarism.."
pet birds in colorful bathroom.
This all makes perfect sense to me. My type of interior decorating.
I WAS feeling rather proud and content with my spare-bedroom studio space, but after I saw THIS.....yes, it is apparent, I need more room! no, i need to go back to the not-so-distant past and remember the one-room studio apartment i once lived in, with artwork and glass spread all over the place, on the floor, with little tiny step-stones of bare carpet space to hop around on.
All in all, I met some insanely-awesome wierd people, found some gallery and art class connections, get to participate in the Christmas art for nursing homes project, saw some great art presentations, and learned that there are over EIGHTY people I still get to meet that are part of this co-op. Yes, I'm glad i went.
Last but not least, this is the piece that got framed in the shop at the last minute that led me to the WONDERFUL group of people I met in Peru (after almost not going) that share passion for art. And my cute little nephew Douwe who would tell you right away that the title to this post is an "ahwittahwation"
