praying for elves

As I write this season's greetingst to you and yours directly from the studio, I'm hoping that all of you are finding this holiday season to be filled with magic and wonder and let's face it - sanity.   In a world where so much seems so crazy these days, I continue to work tirelessly at continuing to spread my messages of love and hope through my paintings and artwork. This winter I have also been filling my days with applying for shows, exhibitions and art fairs on the east and west coasts. I have even thrown my name in the hat for a residency in Perugia, Italy, through theHydra Project based in New York City. This residency program is extrememly competitive, so if I am not selected, I will continue to apply for other international residencies that will allow the themes of my work to grow and expand. In the meantime I also have been praying for elves as I continue to prepare  for various art fairs and shows in the spring of 2016. My dear husband was able to secure a number of beautiful old wood frames for my works on tyvek and felted paper, so this past week my studio turned into a bustling framing shop. Some of these framed pieces turned out spectacular! I'm so anxious to share them with you. It always amazes me how a frame has the ability to shift and finish a piece of artwork in such a formal way. The following are all available for purchase: "ascension" mixed media on tyvek. Framed to 23"x26" "intention" mixed media on tyvek. Framed to 23"x26   "odalisque" mixed media on tyvek. Framed to 23"x26" A couple of quick shop announcements for those near Prosser, Washington, as well as Phoenix, Arizona! You can now purchase some of my works these great shops:  Sixth Street Art & Gift Gallery  and C-MOD, Curated Modern Design! Thank you to Carol and to Cynthia for supporting my art and sharing it with your communities! If you're still in the market for holiday gift ideas, consider some original artwork or hand painted journals that are available for purchase and can be shipped right to your front door. 5"x7" Journals with 60 lined pages can be seen on my Instagram feed while some of my Marilyn Monroe and Frida Kahlo Art blocks can be purchased via my Etsy shop called Laurie Maves ARTsy Journals run for $20/$25 with shipping and the art blocks can be purchased for $40-$100 and up. That's all for now!   Remember that the studio is always open to your visit. We're located at 730 Umatilla Street in Denver, 80204. Just call ahead to make sure I'm around. 720.300.2819. Take care, have a blessed holiday season, a very Merry Christmas and see you in 2016!

Sometimes journalling is the best thing you can do

Please read my latest newsletter here:

all about journalling

Laurie Maves ART newsletter

Laurie Maves ART journals can be purchased on my ETSY page:

LaurieMavesARTsy on ETSY

Change of Season and NEW studio

Dear Friends and Collectors of Laurie Maves ART. in the new studio with new paintings photos by Kathleen Peachey              Fall is definitely here, once again, and this time I look onto the world from a new studio situtated near the 8th Avenue Exit off of I25 - right smack dab in the center of the city of Denver. This most amazing space has been created for me by my endearing husband. Yes, I was married this past summer and one of the amazing perks of my newlywed status is that my husband is part owner of a constrcution company in Denver called, Platinum Renovations. The new work space is brightly lit with floor to ceiling north-facing windows. The light is so amazing I rarely ever have to turn on a light. Many who know me from my days of having the basement studio on Santa Fe Drive in the Santa Fe Arts District in Denver will know that the space is a true change for me - even symbolizing rising from a dark time in my personal life to a new bright and brilliant existence. To Ralph Guglielmi, my husband, I am most grateful. Come see the space when you can, all you have to do is call me, email me or text to make an appointment.  We are located at 730 Umatilla Street, Denver, CO 80235, USA

More news in the art world for Laurie Maves ART (my name was officially changed to Laurie Maves Guglielmi, but for all art-related business, I will maintain the Laurie Maves ART trademark). There are two shows I would love to bring to your attention. This weekend I will have one painting of a portrait of Annie Oakley made specifically for the "Buffalo Bill DAZE" 9/11 - 9/13  event in Georgetown, Colorado. "Annie Oakley Ain't Afraid" is 24"x30"  acrylic on canvas and is currently available for purchase

The next exhibition I would like to let you know about is one of a collaboration with Erica Jane Huntzinger that will take place in the Frank Juarez Gallery in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, starting October 24-November 28. The show will be titled, "20 and Counting," as Erica and I have been friends for the past twenty years following our enrollment in the Masters of Art in Art Therapy program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 1995. Erica visited Denver in August and we created 20 paintings for the show, 4 being true collaborative paintings.  "intuition" 24"x30" acrylic and china makers on Tyvek all rights reserved by Laurie Maves ART Thank you to all of you who continue to support my painting. I look forward to the new works that will be created in the new space.  Come Visit!

(what happens when) waiting for the perfect painting studio

"My Warrior for the Feminine Divine" mixed media on canvas 72"x72" 2015  all rights reserved by Laurie Maves

Since my last Linked-In blog post, I have been patiently (who am i kidding - sometimes not so patiently) waiting for my new studio to come to fruition. In April I wrote the entry "Fliegen" Away on 4/15, as I was in the midst of packing up my desk, my paints, my easels, boxes of magazines, various collage materials, brushes, etc etc.  You name it, in the 2D art world of media, I was probably boxing, taping, and bubble wrapping those various materials away. I had to leave my 2000 square foot studio as my landlords were changing spaces, and I was along with them for the ride, so where they went, so did I.  At the time, I thought I might be down and out for only a month.  That was all well and good, because I was in the middle of my wedding and glorious honeymoon to one of my favorite countries on the planet, Italy. Honestly, I had many other thoughts on my mind in the month of May, than making that fourth grand 72"x72" painting of 2015, or completing the next commission on my log.

But now two months to the date have passed, and I'm still without a completed studio and boy is it really showing my over-achieving, anxiety-ridden, always need to be accomplishing something, dark side.  My newly-wed husband, who is gracious enough to cut a space out of his business's warehouse to create me a beautifully north-facing sunlit 1000 square foot studio, has been more than accommodating and supportive. "Take the summer off, Laurie. This is my busy season, and I only have spare guys to build your space when the company slows down, and we're super busy right now.  Take some time to be with your boys, relax, enjoy the summer, read some books, practice your Italian. I love you.  You know it's ok to slow down every once in awhile.  Take this time as a gift."

What??? Take the summer off??? Relax??? Enjoy the summer??? What does that mean? Is he crazy?

And the more time I went without a studio, the more I realized I was a certified downright art-making-junkie. I had been pushing my work, my paintings, my concepts, my social media so hard for so long - for over a decade - that I really didn't know what it meant to cool it.  Not to mention, I was an avid yogi as well. I have been practicing yoga for about the same amount of time I have been steadfastly pursuing my art career. So why is it that I cannot seem to practice my practice?

Why does it seem like even after all the Kris Carr, Mastin Kipp, and Deepak Chopra articles, podcasts and videos that I have absorbed like a sponge over the years that I cannot be at peace when I am not at work?

Is it because my art-making is more than a self-made job? More than a pay check and aspiring fancy career? Is it because I have a type A personality? Is it because I am a perfect example of a mom, who doesn't want to be categorized as a "soccer-mom" or "stay at home mom" because that somehow defines me as weak and less than? Is it because my over-achieving personality since childhood has its claws so deep into my guts that when the most important person in my life says, "hey honey take a break, you deserve it," that I feel guilty...almost as if that is impossible to do?

Why as 30-50 year old something women do we push ourselves to such crazy extremes only to find we are truly making our lives - even the most brilliant ones - more chaotic? Why do we beat ourselves up when we are not creating, achieving or being the best "mommy" on the block? Why is it so hard to just 'be"?

I'm still wondering about all of this about myself and about high-achieving mommies in general. And even more so, I wonder about this for creatives, artists, writers, and the like, when we seem to have the ability to have a dream job, dream husband, dream kids and it's still not enough to take the guilt away of not performing? Perhaps I need to sign up for another round of talk therapy to calm my nerves while I await my new warehouse studio's walls to go up. Maybe I should take a page out of my own Art Therapist's background and draw about my anxiety of not having a working studio I can run to. Maybe the creative process is SO innate in individuals like myself, that when people like me do NOT create, we do in fact go a little bit batty? I can't even begin to tell you I have the answer at the moment, and maybe that's life's process, to create this puzzle along the way that I am driven to put together and continually solve? Maybe I won't be asking these questions of myself 10 years from now, and maybe just maybe I can learn to chill the hell out this summer, when I don't have a shop up and running.

Is that possible?

Check back with me in thirty days, and I'll let you know. Studio or no studio, I'd better figure it out, read a book, draw in my journal, get a sun burn, and make some home-made focaccia.

LUMIA #tileArt Competition with my painting

Hi friends, collectors, and reader of artsy blogs!

Yesterday the voting opened for a #TileART competition on the Talenthouse Website. This has been a great website for artists and creatives to get their work out into the world hoping to be "discovered" on a global scale. I have entered one of my paintings called, "My Most Favorite Circle Painting 2014" into the competition. I continue to be an advocate for real time, real life painters in a digital age, where painting and drawing with paints and pencils may soon be a thing of the past with computers creating most of the art we see online.

I hope you can take a moment to vote for my work. I think it would be fabulous to see a painting on your cell phone, and even better if it is one of mine. The more Laurie Maves ART gains momentum, the more current collectors of my paintings will be pleased with my increasing value in the art marketplace.

Here is the link: Laurie Maves #TileART on Talenthouse

Next week look for the #STANFOURCOVER another most important contest I am participating in - trying to win the album ART cover of the German Band STANFOUR's newest album "4" which is scheduled to be released later this spring.

Thank you and Happy Humpday!

Arriving Here, Leaving 2014

Today being the last day of the year I tend to embark on a life review - I'm sure like many others. What have I done with my life? Where am I headed? How am I doing as a mom? What to paint next? How to make the work better, how to reach more people...is it ever enough? Am I ever going to do or be enough??? (something my dear friend, Bernadette Slowey and I often talk about.) I spent the better part of yesterday reviewing almost a decade's worth of work posted online - some of it lovely, but honestly most of it I could do without. There's the inner critic for you. But I always come back to the fact that you can't get there from here. Everyday you have to be here. Here. Here. And every moment is now. Now. Now. And I could have never arrived at Circles, had I not painted Venuses, poppies, and Lollipop Figures on cliffs, then daisies, then orbs, then Circles. You can only get here, from where you are. 
Today's featured painting is my favorite Circle painting of 2014, appropriately entitled, "My Favorite Circle Painting." I love the lightness of being of it, it feels happy - the floating bubbles of possibility. It feels grounded and strong. It knows color and all the ins and outs and endless combinations.
I thank you all for an amazing 2014, and also for an amazing life thus far. I am truly blessed to be spending the majority of the hours of the day doing what I love to do - ever since I was a child, and that is to create.
I look forward to 2015, all the new paintings that will be made, all the new experiences I will have with you at my side, and all the new places we will arrive at together called "here." Happy New Year!

"my favorite circle painting" mixed media on canvas, 40"x40", 2014
all rights reserved by Laurie Maves ART