"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...)

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…