I’m really bad about getting Christmas cards out on time, if at all. I would like to be someone who is organized enough to have the handmade cards in my head at the ready. Alas, this is not me. I will admit to a bit of guilt when I receive a card from a friend and have nothing for them in return.

I’m working to make up for this failing this year by producing Valentine’s postcards! I don’t exactly know what I will do with them – hand them out, attempt to sell them, or something else. But, they are on their way to becoming reality. I spent a good bit of today working on a couple of paintings that will be featured on what I will call ‘limited edition’ cards.

More to come, of course.

KO

I played today with making some very small art. The plan? Top secret…but you can enjoy the samples.

Welcome to 2012 and my first art of the new year…it’s another page from my sketchbook (one started just a few days ago).

I’ve decided that instead of making resolutions for the coming year, I’m going to count my blessings from the previous year. 2011 was both one of the best and worst years for me in a long time. The downside of 2011 was a job loss, which involved losing a bit of my identity. The upside? I learned about real friendships and found new friends and new communities of which to be a part. I was able to let go of old places and the feelings I carried and move forward. A big thank you to my friends at Silver in the City and the Center for the Performing Arts – who got me through a tough time.

This year brought my second ever solo show – Neighborhoods at the City Gallery, part of the Harrison Center for the Arts – in October. It reminded me that making art and sharing it is what I truly love to do. I have plans for more.

In just a few days I’ll be starting a new job with the Indianapolis Museum of Art. It’s a new step and I’m so excited to get started.

So, all the best to you in the new year! Count your blessings.

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Artist Rie Elise Larsen makes ‘Julekugler’.

 

The inspiration board has grown again.

They’re still there! A few years ago I wandered the back lot behind Colonial Antiques on the northside of Indianapolis – a place were architectural fixtures, mostly from bathrooms rest until new owners can make them new again – and came across a pair of toilets, one yellow, one pink. And so yes, I took a picture.

A couple weeks ago I was back. Kitchen sink hunting in the back and here they were after all these years. Whomever claims them will have to take them as a set. Them’s the rules.

And more from the salvage yard…

If you don’t know by now, I take pictures of random stuff. You don’t have to, but I like it.

KO

Let’s have a show! My show at City Gallery at the Harrison Center for the Arts (1505 N. Delaware St., Indianapolis) opens tonight! This is my first solo show in almost two years and I am so proud of this work.

It contains mostly new work, only two pieces were made prior to 2011, and focuses on the various neighborhoods in Indy in which I’ve lived throughout my life. We jump from Herron Morton Place to Meridian Kessler to the trendily-named SoBro. All neighborhoods with some history.

Urban living is what City Gallery is all about. Opening just a few months ago on the Delaware side of the Harrison Center, City Gallery seeks to strengthen Indy’s core neighborhoods. In addition to seeing monthly art shows it’s a place to find out more about housing opportunities, the age old “buy vs rent” question, to talk revitalization and more.

The show opens tonight, October 7, as part of IDADA’s First Friday Gallery Tour. In addition to me in the City Gallery, catch the funky William Denton Ray in the main gallery and the Indieana Handicraft Exchange Mini (featuring 30 artists, including my friend Sara B. of Sara B. Jewelry!) in the Gym.

Come see some art and socialize, why don’t cha?

-KJO

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