I'm Going to Look for Owls
Back in November while trudging through the swamp on the opposite side of the creek on my parent’s property, we came across two surprises. 1. A stand of Jack Pine that does not belong in a swamp. Weird. (They prefer dry, sandy soil.) 2. In that stand of pine was a Long Eared Owl sitting there quietly watching us. So cool.
Monday, I decided to venture out on my own to once again see if I could find the owl or any owl as we hear them very often at night. I knew the creek would hopefully be frozen so I could easily cross, and with the projected weather forecast, that might not last long. Also, it’s much easier trudging through a swamp when it’s frozen. (Want a good workout? Trudge through a swamp.)
I was gone for about 2 hours and walked about a mile. It was so eerily quiet. I did manage to find the stand of Jack Pines again. I also managed to find myself breaking through the ice along the bank and into knee high muck. I did have on Randy’s knee high rubber boots, but dog gone it, I sunk just beneath the tops of them. Cold water seeped into them. Now if you’ve never sunk a foot into a swamp, then you wouldn’t know that it creates suction basically trapping your foot/leg in the muck and holds on for dear life! So yeah, there I was, foot stuck in the swamp, alone. I sat on a grass hump and contemplated life for about 10 minutes hoping the suction would let up a bit, wondering who would come rescue me so I wouldn’t have to walk home in one sock. After studying the other boot I realized there was a buckle of sorts and a strap, I was able to plunge my hand in and find the strap and with a darn good amount of pulling and the beautiful sound of the swamp giving up my boot (squelch a pffft), I was released!!! Woohoo!!!
I went home, giggling of course at my adventure. But also thankful I didn’t have to leave behind Randy’s brand new boot. Whew
I did not see any owls.
CanvasREBEL Feature
Thankful to whomever nominated us to be interviewed for this online magazine featuring conversations with Entrepreneurs, Artists and Creatives. Hope you enjoy :)
Adieu Amery
"You gotta know when to hold 'em...
know when to fold 'em...
know when to walk away..."
Randy and I have decided that we will be closing the doors of our brick & mortar in Amery. It has been a two year whirlwind labor of love. We knew it was a gamble, and please know we are not closing because it is a failure, but because we are tired ya'll. We knew it would be a lot of work, and well, it has been. We are fortunate in that in the two years we have been open, it has provided us with an income, the ability to share our love of art and the art of those we enjoy too. During these past two years we have also been fortunate in that our art sales at Galleries and Fine Art Fairs have also done very well. We make each and every piece of art, at home, just us. We are just to the point that we can't do both and stay sane. It's been a wrestle as to what to do, but then the universe recently dropped a giant hint and the decision was made.
We will close our doors at the end of June and pivot back to making art and selling at Fine Art Fairs and in Galleries. So, if you are a fan of our work, don't unlike us! (Please)
We thank our building owners and friends Greg and Catherine of Bowman Leather for everything they have given us these past two years. They are amazing human beings and Amery is so lucky to have them! Just darn good eggs. Our leaving came as a shock to them, as it did honestly to us. They have some final decisions to make, but I am so looking forward to what might be coming for them and for Amery. Please go LIKE their page as they get ready to make that announcement!!!
In the meantime we will be putting things ON SALE! But please note- it will be mostly our vintage and some wholesale accounts that we need to sell the rest of. The art will stay, both ours and our artisans for now. When we are ready, it will just go back to them and our art to our first show in July in Madison.
Thank you to everyone that has genuinely supported us. Thank you to everyone that has walked through the doors and said "Oh my, what a cute shop." Thank you to everyone that has taken classes. Thank you to everyone that has cheered us on from afar. And a big thank you to our artisans and vendors for allowing us to sell your items, for trusting us and for your friendships. We thank you.
Don't be sad for us. Life is always changing and we are happy to have had two years of learning and growth and an experience we can say- we did that! We are proud of what we curated. We leave with happiness and no regrets.
Be well friends. Thank you.
(Stay tuned...)
Article in Voyage MN
We were honored to be nominated as a feature in Voyage Minnesota for June. It’s an online magazine featuring interesting people, artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, etc in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Thank you to whomever suggested us, we appreciate you :)
Fire creates new life. Taken between Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. October 2021.
2021: Change
If 2021 was summed up in a word for us, it would be: CHANGE.
We start out every year setting ourselves goals for the year, as well as short term goals and long term goals. We thought 2021 was going to be another year of art shows, but being smarter about which ones we actually applied to and to stay closer to home when possible. We enjoyed sleeping in our own beds more in 2020. We thought I would continue out the season as the Rental Manager at Trollhaugen and go back the next fall. We thought Randy would continue his work at the tax office. That was the plan. Work smarter and hopefully have a wee bit more free time.
January and February went by with us both working jobs. March came along and in my planner I had all the shows written down that we were going to apply to that month. March 1st came and that was the day our lives and year completely changed. We met Greg and Catherine and signed a lease and opened a darn brick and mortar storefront on April 29th. Tin Cat Studio & other cool cats in Amery, WI. If you haven’t read about how all that came to be- you can read it HERE. With that decision it brought about us leaving ArtZ Gallery which was a hard decision as it had been our art home for years. It felt like we were leaving our friends behind, until we realized the were literally just down the road.
We did end up not applying to all the shows on our list. We picked a handful and tried to stay closer to home. What we thought would be a normal Art Fair year completely took us by surprise. They were off the charts amazing! People came out and supported artists like they have not in decades. It was thrilling, exciting and happiness after a year of not knowing if artists would make it. It also created a new problem for many, us included. Lack of art. Selling out was a dream in the past, a unicorn that there was whispers of happening here and there. Well, it almost happened to us in Madison and to many of our friends as well. A great thing to happen until you realize you must go home and make art 24/7 in order to have enough for the next show. So we made art. We ran a store and we had to put things like dinners and hiking and get togethers with friends aside. Galleries also sold well, our store sold well, so we made art and made trips to thrift stores to fill our store. We watched and admittedly a little sad at times while we watched family and friends out on their boats, fishing, enjoying the sunshine, dinner parties, etc. Sacrifices you make to fulfill a dream, and we were ok with it, at least for the time being.
Being that busy and stressed did push us to make other changes. Randy decided to retire his portrait and wedding photography business, Images by Lee. A tough decision as it can be good money, but the passion just wasn’t there anymore. We finished off our last wedding in October. Bittersweet.
We also decided to retire the traditional framing portion of our business. Lack of materials, raising prices and really not a high profit margin made the decision for us. Honestly, it was not a love of Randy’s, so being able to say no lifted a weight off of his shoulders. A hard change to make, but a needed change.
In between all of this, we fostered puppies. We ended up keeping one, so now we have 5 dogs, but still only 7 cats. Haha. We forgot about puppy energy and potty training, so that’s been a change.
Fall was a whirlwind too. Last of the weddings, end of summer shows and a much needed chance to get away. We were blessed enough to take a trip out west in mid October to see the Grand Tetons and a quick drive through Yellowstone. It was beautiful. We spent a lot of time together in the car and despite a hike gone wrong, still decided we liked each other. A blog post about that trip and hike will be coming soon…
November I went back to Trollhaugen as the Rental Manager. I admit, my heart is not in it this year. The store, our art and all of the ideas that run through my head for next year is what consumes me. The excitement for what we can do next. More classes, working with metal, Craft Circles, Ladies Nights and so many other thoughts I can’t get out of my head. I have worked there on and off for 30 years. So many great memories and things I would have never done had it not been for that place. I am so thankful. But I also realize it is time for me to fly (hee, hee did you sing it as a song?). And so I gave my notice. Well, a long notice but the understanding that this will be my last season. I’ll have to say, one of the harder decisions I have made. Bittersweet.
Now December and the harsh reality of a prosperous year. Taxes. The store did much better than we could have ever imagined, we received some more grants to help us along, art shows were great and for the first time in many years I was able to set some money aside. Some rainy day money. It really felt good. Well, we basically will be saying goodbye to that rainy day fund and will more than likely lose our health insurance for 2022 and possibly pay a bunch of premiums back. To be honest, it made me angry and angry at the world. We worked our asses off to finally get ahead and now it feels like we are being punished. It sucks. We had to give ourselves a reality check and chock it up to lessons learned, otherwise it’s hard not to hold onto that anger. Welcome to being a small business owner in America we have been told. Get used to it. Well grumble…
Overall it was an amazing year of new experiences, good health when so many lost people, lessons learned, changes made, new friends and overall happiness. I have on my wall a note that says “Challenge is Opportunity”. I think that has been very true for you 2021. Thank you to everyone who has helped us along the way. Thank you to everyone that has supported us. Thank you to everyone that has supported our store. We are so darn blessed.
Cheers to you all and here’s to a great new year ahead filled with opportunity!
Much love,
Randy and Lisa
Classes Are Starting!
We Opened A Store!
This post is still a work in progess… Darn pictures are all wonky :(
March 1st we attended our first ACC meeting to represent ourselves as a business (Images by Lee Photography and Tin Cat Studio) and also to represent ArtZ Gallery. It was the first meeting of the year of the Amery Community Club or ACC. The Main Street construction was to be discussed and we wanted to meet other business owners in town and be able to let ArtZ know what was up with the roads. Masked and social distanced and wondering if we knew anyone (nope) we plopped ourselves down at a table. While I ran to the bathroom, another couple Randy had briefly met last fall asked to sit with him. Little did we know that that was about to change our lives. We chatted with Catherine and Greg and found the conversation to be quite easy, which isn’t always the case when meeting new people. We chatted and at one point the question came up- “we have a space we are looking to rent, would you be interested"?” I knew the space, I knew it was lovely, I knew what it was worth and I answered before Randy- “absolutely not”. We were still in a pandemic and about to experience road construction right outside the front door of that space. We would have to be crazy! Backstory: it has been a dream of mine for so many years to have my own shop. This goes back before meeting Randy. He and I have indeed talked about maybe doing that someday, it has been on the list of long term sectret goals, but it was one I didn’t really ever see coming to fruition. But I wrote it down every year. The dreamer part of me wanted to scream YES but the practical part of me said NO WAY. No way we could afford that. Hell, we barely scraped by as it was. They kept on and ended it with, “let’s just meet and see what happens”. I said “no thanks”, went home and slept on it and told Randy what would be the harm in just chatting? So apparently we are crazy, because with no business plan, a pandemic, a summer long of road construction and not a damn thing to fill a store with; we signed that lease on March 13th.
What we did have was a small nest egg I had set aside last year from a small grant we had received, damned determination, a dream and the plus of happening to know a lot of artists. 5 weeks later on April 29th, we opened our doors. I will not lie, we worked our asses off. It was a whirlwind, I can’t even tell you what we did. We contacted every artist friend we thought would fit our vision, after we figured that out of course. The walls are brick so we had to build walls to hang art on, build shelving, buy shelving, buy fixtures, write up contracts, make art, I went on the local radio two times (talk about going out of my comfort zone) & we still worked jobs. I don’t know how we did it. It was 5 weeks of just go, go go!. Not much sleep and every waking breath was dedicated to the store. It basically consumed us March, April and May. I’m sure we did some other things, but honestly- I don’t remember.
MORE TO COME…
Refresh at One 10 Gallery
We added new work and did a refresh at One 10 Gallery in Frederic, WI today. Below are just 2 of the pieces that made their way there. Such a beautiful small town gallery with a big town feel.
