Dauna managed to take some pictures before a number of pieces were sold.  For friends and family, this was what much of the fuss was about — a complete rearrangement of furniture, lots of dust bunnies, a multitude of printed tags, labels, and signs, and lots of glazing.  Oh yes, and picture framing — lots of framing, or matting & bagging.

Many thanks to our customers and supportive friends and neighbors who made the event a success.  Look for new images on the website and in the store.  Very soon you will also see more pottery and the scented art will be added to the shoppe as well.   Your business has made it possible to forge ahead!

Enjoy the scenes of the Gallery.

Saturday, December 3:  1:00pm-600pm at the Kiser Studio Parlor Gallery

There will be a multitude of new and familiar items for sale – for yourself or for gift-giving:  Stoneware & Raku sculptures, vases, Morticia Pots, and functional organic pieces, Giclees, Prints, Greeting Cards, & a 2012 Calendar of art images you can order. There will be incense, burners, oils, and accessories, individually or in sets ready to give.

You can preview some of the paintings and prints here on our website Gallery Shoppe and in the Kiser Art Gallery on Yessy.  We may add some images here to whet your appetite as well!

Stay tuned, and do Contact Us if there is an original or one-of-a-kind sculpture you’d like to buy in advance.  It will give us the means to create more originals before the Open House!

Oil painting in progress, begun in July of 2011.

This image is of an old farmhouse behind the family farm in Minnesota.  The farmhouse belonged to my Great-Great Aunt and Uncle, whose descendents moved about a mile away, off to the right of the large clearing (and down the hill).

Childhood memories almost always involve this old house; playing in it until the floors fell through and it became too dangerous, or role-playing around it in the woods down the hill behind and to the left of it.  Behind the house and down the hill is the Crow River, one of the few rivers in the world that flows north.  Spring flooding is normal, but the heavy floods of 1965, 1997, and 2010 brought the river part way up the high hill, across low-laying farm fields, and through the town of Delano.

These pictures illustrate the progress of this painting.  It is from a photograph taken in 2007.  Today the house nearly completely degerated with time.  The lush greens of Minnesota vegetation and trees are evident in the painting although most of the details and highlights in the fields and trees are yet to be added.  Layers and layers of transparent colors create the thick depth of the woods behind and beyond the house.

The next step is to finish the house.  Several subtle colors and the raw planks that make up the walls have yet to be detailed.  The final steps will be to fill in the tall grasses in front of the house and then highlights in both the trees and fields.

Below shows some of the steps in the creation of the image.  I’ll add more pictures as the painting progresses.

This week, Artist and Academic, Dauna Kiser, ended her day at the local Farmers’ Market as happy as if she had good sense.  She had made a killing selling weeds to area residents who were buying them in large quantities.  She was dizzy from doing the happy dance.  Her customers seemed as pleased as she.  “These are the best weeds I’ve ever seen,” said one woman who had bought several bunches.  “I don’t have any of my own left, so I will enjoy looking at these every day.”  One man bought a dozen bunches.  “My wife keeps pulling ours up.  These are for the barn.  She hardly goes out there.”  Another couple bought a bunch for each room in their house.  “An exceptional value for $10.00 per bunch, and so nicely arranged.  We love them!” said the husband.  “The vase is pretty nice, too,” added his wife.

On a side note, the vases are hand-built, high fired, one-of-a-kind items Kiser tossed in with the purchase of a bunch of weeds.  “I couldn’t find enough bread bags and twisty-ties, and I didn’t want the weeds to dry out and maybe die,” she said thoughtfully.  “I could put water in the vases, then.  It seemed to work out alright.”

Kiser decided to sell her large crop of weeds at the Farmers’ Market on the advice of a Facebook friend.  Her friend made this suggestion after reading on Facebook that Kiser had discovered a “nice crop of weeds” in her yard.  Another friend added that “one persons’ weeds were another person’s herbs,” which Kiser thought sounded prophetic.  “I like prophecies,” she said enthusiastically.  “I might come up with my own one of these days.  I’m pretty sure it will come true if I can get enough people to believe it.” She went on to explain how the sequence of comments and their content resulted in her actions that concluded in her enriched bank account.

“I hope more weeds grow,” she added.  “I’m going to sell those spiny kinds next time.  The flowers on the top of them kind of get in the way, but I have an idea about that.”

We’ll keep you up-to-date with the latest developments in this exciting news.  You can visit the Downtown West Liberty Farmers’ Market on Thursdays from 4:30-6:30pm or follow their Farmers’ Market Facebook Page.

By Randy D’Artkritik CDXLIX.V

New!  (Don’t tell Randy) When your weeds have dried up, wilted and died, turn them into Dead Flower Art.  The most trending activity this Fall!

~Because if we must make fun of someone, it really ought to be ourselves~

The average person only has one regular voice with which to influence a politician (and who cares about one little voice?), while a lobbyist can back their one voice with money (that something that many politicians worship).  The solution for those many of us with only one regular voice?  Use it!  If all of us call, write, vote, voice our opinions, that one voice backed by collections of cash will have far less influence than many, many voices raised in unison.

This piece was finished in time to be displayed at StarDog Gallery for the BuckTown Bash in Downtown Davenport, Iowa, on July 29, 2011.  The original is available for sale (we think it is still available…).

More images coming.  To inquire about this piece or a giclee print, Contact Marty.