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ByrdCall Studio
 Welcome!  
  
Happy New Year!
I mean that sincerely.  I wish the coming year brings you  joys beyond your imagination and love and peace in your heart.

 
 

Hot Off the Easel ...
  

When the holidays roll around, I have to be careful not to go posting a photo of every custom job I create. It could be a holiday gift, and there is that 6 degrees of separation thing to worry about. I printed dozens (maybe over a hundred) shirts for custom giving, but some of the most interesting gifts were special orders like Abraham Lincoln on a pint glass and Chesapeake Bay themes on wine glasses. Here are some Chesapeake Bay themed wine glasses for gifts as well.

Lincoln Pint Glass
Eye-to-Eye with Abe Lincoln on a Pint Glass

  

Great Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron.

 

Osprey
Osprey about to catch its dinner

 
 

Resolution: 

It is important to look at the past year and re-evaluate what works for you and what doesn't work so well.  Basically, I am very happy with my last year in work (Byrdcall Studio) and in my personal life, too.  I think I will focus more on making sure I have personal time to enjoy more in 2013...I want to get out on my bike more, play in the garden more, and try new artistic endeavors that no one is expecting me to do...like PLAYING with paint, sketching musicians, and print making.  I also want to make for time for having fun with friends  That's all do-able.

 

Here is a mini-synopsis

of what I feel GOOD about in 2012:

 

BrugesI'm glad I took my friend, Virginia Sperry's offer seriously when she asked me if I want to go to Paris with her for a week in February.  (I, in turn, agreed to join her for fun in Paris if we could also extend the trip to a few days in Belgium.)  Experiences like that should not be passed up or we'll look back with regrets some day.  I have no regrets about that trip.  Virginia is an awesome friend and artist and has just started a blogpage which I find very inspiring. 

Check it out if you like:  Muse-ings

 

mosaic-makingI'm glad I took a week off from working in July to go to Common Ground on the Hill to learn cool stuff like mosaic-making, Latin Dance, and Outdoor Cookery, and meet nice people.

 

Chestnut Horse portraitI took on three BIG projects this summer that helped me to realize that I have a knack for capturing the essense of horses in my art work...Pony Portrait

 

 

 

 

 

 

I learned that I can work on an art collaboration across the country and come up with a gallery-worthy end product (on time) that helps to keep rya rug-making alive.... here is the rya rug I created for a Los Angeles based artist incorporating her design into my gradations of color.

 

 

I also feel very good about teaching a rya rug making class to four close friends to use my last four wool woven rya backings from Sweden.  We started the class in the winter and reconvened in the fall to see each other's completed work.      

 

 

It was pure joy to see the creativity that came from this group--many of whom had not done "art" before.

 

 

 

I feel good about a busy year doing custom work for byrdcall.etsy.com customers.  This is nice because people from all over the United States --and the world for that matter--find me by chance and ask me (trust me!) to come up with custom made creations to improve their lives with the joy of art.  Fat Boy

For example, a woman from North Carolina asked me to paint this mailbox with her husband's Fat Boy Harley so when they arrived at their new home after closing with the realtor, he would be surprised.  Isn't that cool to be part of a moment like that?!

 

 If you've been with me since my first Newsletter this spring, you may remember how excited I was to have my original linocut "Brookie in Color" reproduced in a book called TROUT by James Owen from Sweden.  It was quite a thrill to hold the book in my hand and see my work among many other classic renditions of trout by very famous artists.Trout book in hand!   

Interested in getting this book?  Click here for more info on buying the book (No!  I don't get a cut of the proceeds, just helping out the author who seems very nice.) Click here to see details on book TROUT.

 

Camlin Installation My last big project of the year was for my friend,

Dean Camlin, who asked me in very general terms to create a wall mural for a prominent wall in his Architectural office building.  This was extremely challenging, since it all had to come from someplace deep within...and it did...and I was happily amazed that I had it in me to pull it all together.  This is important on a deeper level than just bragging.  ;-) 

     When you know you can accomplish something, it's not that big a deal that you accomplish it.  It is a big deal when you trust that "higher powers" will take over and you--the artist--just go along for the ride and become the hands and trust good things will happen.  They did.  For that I am very grateful...and I trust that I can count on that kind of assistance from now on in life.  Life is very good.

 

 I guess that's enough.  It's been a good year.  Let's all look forward to good things happening--like magic-- in 2013!

 

 
 

Upcoming Projects for this Winter:

This month starts off with me recuperating from a pulled lower back muscle...and then..

  1. Paint a Great Blue Heron wall mural in a local home,
  2. Complete a design for a blockprint I'll carve for a ranch in Durango, Colorado
  3. Paint two cat portraits on glassware
  4. Restore to original quality a hand-carved and painted wooden sign which has been in the elements for about 20 years
  5. Create a floorcloth for a new mother and baby
  6. Create a floorcloth for a neighbor
  7. Create a new logo for the local food kitchen's Milk Run
  8. And ideally some artistic play time for myself!

So my question to YOU is which of these projects would you like to see follow-up images and stories on next month (and maybe the next month.) 

byrdcall@aol.com

 

 
 

    

Thanks for your interest. 

Thanks for giving me a great year of feel-good moments.

 

Wishing you the best year of your lives 

and Peace on Earth

Sincerely,

Melinda

 

PS  Feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone who might enjoy it.  Thanks.

 

Melinda Byrd

Byrdcall Studio
Woodbine, MD

410-549-4889

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