A Charity Auction for Disadvantaged Kids

So last week was a week of fun things - i got to fly to Justin, TX to visit my best artist friend, Laurie Justus Pace, one of the 5Graces founders.
We spent a lot of time doing fun things, like visiting Donna Howell-Sickles studio/gallery, attending a wedding, eating some great Texas food in a local famous steakhouse (right beside a bank that was robbed by Bonnie & Clyde), driving around in the car in high winds and booming thunder and gushing rain, grabbing chicken from the cauldron of death, and best and most important of all: creating a joint painting in the studio, which proceeds will go to Michael Bolton Charities to help disadvantaged kids.

My 7-year old daughter Annie-Mae sat model for it, and also was the name giver for the painting's title: "Looking into Grace" (she came up with that by herself, without any prompting from anybody else).
Laurie and I spent a long time in the studio, first sketching out the drawing with charcoal, then we started right up with Holbein Duo Oils. Both of us worked simultaneously, reworking areas, highlighting, darkening, shaping and correcting.


Both of us were in awe at the energy in the room and that we saw emerging from the canvas.
This is the finished painting:


Annie-Mae occasionally checked in on our progress, just to keep it real for us.
Both Laurie and I had a hard time getting to sleep that night, all pumped up from painting together.

So here is the auction on ebay:
Looking Into Grace Charity Auction

or, if you'd rather search for it yourself, you can type Pace Togel into the search field on ebay.com.
Remember, all proceeds go to the Michael Bolton Charities - it's a way to give disadvantaged kids a better future than they have in their past. Please join us in making a big difference for them - spread the word, and keep on bidding!

Here is the link to the page about the auction on my website:
Laurie Pace & Conni Tögel Create Joint Painting for Michael Bolton Charities

If you need more information about Laurie, you can find at Lauries Daily Blog

You can also read more about the 5Graces by going to their website - 5Graces.org

Both of us have our work listed on ArtByUs.com
so if you miss the charity auction, and still would like to purchase some of our work, ArtByUs.com is the place to find it.

Whew - finally the weekend is over!

As you can tell, i'm still not that great at the whole html thing - so far i've been really blessed to have my dear husband to set up all my webspaces in the www - however, that also has kept me from learning much of anything, so more than anything, i'm trying to teach myself the fine details of changing color backgrounds, letter spacings, and all the wonderful doodads involved in making this page look as weird as it does.
So, thanks for bearing with me.

Art? yes, i've been working on that as well, but not as much, since the weather here is less than toasty at the moment. My new studio space for the moment is our sunroom with a view of the sheep pasture, the garden, the neighbor's pond, the forest and Lake Hartwell beyond it. Quite beautiful, very sunny, but unfortunately not heated or cooled - so painting there is a bit of a frigid experience at the moment. And cold is my least favorite flavor of temperature, i'm afraid.
Nonetheless, i did manage to raise the temps out there above freezing last week by running the heater, a small space heater, and the livingroom fireplace with the door open for a few hours. From that time, i created two new pieces (pics might follow tomorrow, when i have daylight again), but i think i'll be working a bit more on them once they've dried to the point where i can work them over a bit more.

This weekend my parents and i took a drive up towards the mountains to Pendleton for lunch - there is a great little café there with some awesome food, right on the town square. Afterwards we drove over to Pickens to the county museum where they have a woodwork exhibit called "Painting with wood" - some beautiful work there, my favorites being some beautiful furniture pieces done by a local artisan whose name i unfortunately did not jot down. Downstairs they had one of the woodturning artists doing some demos, which was very interesting, but since we were pressed for time, we had to leave after a few short moments watching him work.

We drove on to the Hagood mill, which is a historic waterpowered mill that still operates as a living history museum. There were some musicians doing some great mountain music, and some hand spinners working in one of the old log cabins there. Unfortunately, we got there a bit late, and it was quite cold, so the ladies were already packing up when we got there. We did get to have a few minutes chatting with them though - such lovely personalities there!
We also brought home a package of Country grits from the Hagood Mill - no southern breakfast is complete without grits! They are absolutely delicious, though a bit more time involving than the quick cooking grits you would get at the grocery store. Well worth the time!

The evening was spent taking some visitors from Germany around Anderson, seeing the local sights and having some coffee in the local Panera shop.
It's always great visiting with friends of old times, catching up on all the gossip from "back home" and reminiscing about days gone by.

All in all, it was a nice weekend - new things to see, new people to meet, new food to try...just right for a bit of new ideas for my artwork in the next few weeks.

if i get a chance tomorrow, i will be posting some pics of the new paintings i'm working on...of course, sheep. sort of.
If you get bored in the meantime, check on my sheep for me, so i won't have to go out in the cold: http://www.seesheep.com

Artist on the Edge

Artist on the Edge
is my new blog - i just set it up a few minutes ago, and am still sort of just feeling my way around all this.
talking is what i do - a lot. bothersome to some, but it clears the head for creativity. so, get your earplugs ready, there's a waterfall of words coming your way....

Normal People do Normal Things

at least that's what they are supposed to...
Real life is different, though - most normal people i know are the ones with quirks, smirks and real life problems and real life living.
Take my mom, for example - as normal as vanilla ice cream, a housewife with a Bachelor's degree, a great cook, a great listener, and yes, even a hobby of her own - quilting.
My mom is turning 65 in a few weeks, so she's really had her share of normal in her life.
but then, she's also had quite some other times as well - like when she and my dad recently went on their first safari in Kenya. my mom. the one that spends half her time during the day cleaning messes other people made. the one that insists that only ironed kitchen towels are worthy of residing in her kitchen drawer.the one that can't function properly without having a cup of coffee right after getting up. the one that taught us kids that cleanliness comes right after godliness.
MY mom went on a safari.
my head is still reeling from that.
apparently, they had the complete "out of africa" experience, with white tents, brass wash basins, breakfast above the savannah, with waiters wearing black bowties. and a massai in front of the tent at night, to keep my mom from winding up as breakfast above the savannah herself.

other "un-normal things"? oh, yeah, plenty: like growing up on a small farm (we're talking about five cows, 10 chickens and 10 kids here) in germany, sleeping in a bed with her three sisters. toys were almost non-existent. there was a two-room dollhouse and there was one käthe kruse doll to be shared by the four girls.
compare that to the piles and miles of stuff pouring forth from every kid's closet in this country nowadays, and you'll understand why this is noteworthy.
other un-normalities: leaving home with two suitcases, a passport, a new life in the womb to seek out a new life in a country halfway around the world. my parents emmigrated to the u.s.a. in the very early sixties - when people still travelled with hats, gloves and high heals.
they spoke practically no english.
they had no job.
the only people they knew in this country was my dad's sister and mother.
they also had almost no money, so they wound up on campus at lee college (now lee university) in cleveland, tennessee.
their first appartment was one with shared bathroom - actually, everything was shared, with mostly little cockroaches. yuck.
the armchair had a hole that was conveniently covered by my mom's elbow in their first christmas pictures in their new homeland.
oh, and the spots on the armchair? those only appeared when the people living upstairs flushed their toilet...

thinking back over all the stories, anekdotes and recollections of my parents makes me realize why i am where i am today. it's in the genes.
yep, my life is pretty much plain vanilla as well - my husband and i have three kids, a small farm with 5 sheep (check out our sheep-cam here ), one dog and one cat. though my kitchen towels aren't ironed (well, actually, in my house, nothing is ironed...) and godliness definitely comes wayyyyy before cleanliness, there are glimpses of light between all the bland.
like teaching myself to paint. or getting my motorcycle license. or leaving home to work in a nursing home in neuchatel in switzerland. or driving four hours to have breakfast in strassbourg, france with friends. or learning to take apart a complete vw beetle, just because i can.

looking back, THOSE are the normal moments for me. living on the edge a bit. pushing the limits and trying to see beyond the horizon. and best of all: leaving the kitchen towels and ironing to those that have that as their horizon....