What can I say, keeping up with blogs is not my strong point but I'm trying to be better at it. As usual, its been a rollercoaster year so far. Got into shows I wasn't planning on as well as getting rejected or waitlisted by shows that were in the past a sure bet. I guess that’s just how life works though, it keeps you on your toes.

My health has a way of continually creeping up and biting me on the back side and all I can do is bite back! My wonderful wife took it upon herself to get me a gym membership so as to work a bit harder on keeping myself healthy and I am doing my best to use it as much as possible.

We were asked to attend the New Mexico Arts and Crafts Fair this year and had a pleasant trip overall compared to the same time last year (re-read the blog to refresh your memory if needed). We were however rejected from the Las Cruces Art Fest for the second time in a row and have decided to spend our hard earned money on jury fees elsewhere this coming year. If they don’t want us, we will go where they do!

The big surprise for me was the acceptance letter to the Weems Art Fest in November up in Albuquerque again. A prestigious event, voted best in the state and has high ratings among the nation. I'm both flattered and well, a bit scared but in truth it will be a great adventure no less!

So far I have survived a snake attack, a flash flood, a complete septic failure and replacement, health issues, smoking sanders, and all Mocha and Olivander can throw at me, Mocha at my drawing desk and Olivander everywhere else. I am already prepping for the Weems show and also for La Casa which I don’t know if we are in or not yet.

OOH Yeah and we got waitlisted to Las Artistas this year I was a bit shocked with that one especially after sticking with them through the ice storm last year, well I guess I'm taking that a little personal and sometimes forget its just business.

Oh well, I'll keep swinging and we have our sights set on the Indian market in Denver possibly in the next year also Anglefire and Santa Fe, so yeah I'm not out yet not by a long shot!

Truth is I have been reflecting on this year a lot celebrating my birthday just a few days ago had me thinking (thank you all by the way for all the warm birthday wishes!) about how things go in life now that I am 32 I honestly felt much older the first half of the year, having slipped a disk early on in the year had me worried I was heading down the road I traveled just a few years ago sitting in a wheel chair cause I was so severely limited in my movements from the disk problems back then, but thanks to god and the wonderful physical therapist at southwest sport and spine who helped get me back on track I actually bounced back from it! I include a exercise routine in the morning that is a mix of stretching, posture aligning and yoga and some days mundane but it is working! I know I will never fully rid myself of the pain but to have it bearable is such a plus and you all benefit from it by getting to see new work! The business side of things seemed to fit along with my health this year it to was rocky, I know things as a whole are rocky right now and I have faith things will get better, at some point they will get better, I have concluded that the mess of this year has to do with the year its self "13", as I cant quite figure out any other reason, well I can but don’t want to go there! shows are off, health was off, attendances off, as a whole everything was off this year. so the hope is that with the 2013 leaving us so will all this off-ness, but back to the deep thinking I have been doing the past few days, despite all this disheartening problems when I look back and reflect there was a lot of good that happened too. I seem and well I think we all seem to remember the bad when it hits us hard, and the more I thought of it I did have a rocky start but there was some very bright moments as well notably my birthday concert with Trans Siberian Orchestra my lovely wife took me to that made me feel 10 years younger! I also booked an off show this year that really humbled me to the core, and had some dear friends set these feelings in deep, I started all this with the help of my lovely wife and the hopes to sell something at the show to cover the 10.00 booth fee at St Genevieve  craft show ooh so many years ago, sitting behind a card table covered in artificial snow batting  among cute little old ladies and there knitting and crochet doily's and we worked hard to build up some money doing other local craft shows, trails west senior center craft show, good Samaritan craft bazaar, Munson senior center, all to set up at the la casa holiday bazaar held at Dickerson's barn the next year, the largest show in Las Cruces! again with the snow batting about 12 dolls some carved toy cars and wide eyes I sat next to my then girlfriend now wife Cecilia and thought wow I'm doing this! now looking at how things have gone, la casa has become the smallest show we do, a card table was more than enough to hold my work now I have a professional booth display and am at a point I am even thinking of increasing to a double space booth to hold everything I do, I recently talked to a dear friend who has known us from the beginning and she gave me a big hug and told me that when I started I was just a wide eyed school boy, wondering if my work was good enough…she then told me and you started moving forward and just left us in the dust, this brought tears to my eyes. when I do reflect I have come along way and it has not been easy but I'm doing it and even thought this year has been rough, it has also been good, as that little blue fishy has taught us you have to "just keep swimming" it makes no sense to go backwards when there is a wide open space for you to explore. I will move forward because I want to know just how much farther I can go. I cannot thank all of you enough, your support by buying my art is what keeps this all going, well and my wonderful supporting wife, this next year will be better not just for me but all of us, again with my reflecting we all have good and bad during the year but it is up to us which one shines brighter, so hears to a wonderful new year for all of us! we have the power to make it great we just have to step up and make it so. I love you all and thank you again for your support!

Well time fly's when your having fun right!!???..... or when you are so busy that you are putting in 12 to 14 hour days and not even realizing it! been working steady with show dates rapidly approaching, with a brief span of time after the Albuquerque show to rest and work on fixing me threw workouts and stretching, I headed into the start of shop time this year with a very fun and rewarding custom order that brought two very beautiful birds to life and have since found their home in Denver! they are going to be centerpieces in a brewery there, standing tall in the bar area, I look forward to the completion of the brewery as it is in its finishing stages and should be opening soon, to see how the completed bar will look! I was happy to make a trip back up to Albuquerque again for the annual balloon fiesta but as a patron not a vendor, meeting new people and scoping out the venue and will be considering adding it and some other shows in the Albuquerque area to our show list. The shop has been rocking! ornaments are being made on an almost daily basis and new sculptures being done every other day, if this continues all who attend the shows we have lined up will be in for a great treat and a wonderful assortment of art to choose from! My back is holding well and still keep up with my morning workout and am able to keep my pain to a minimum, thankfully I get to make my own hours so I have the opportunity to stop and rest as needed and that is what is keeping me going strong doing what I can when I can and resting when I should, everything is working out well. on a more personal note I was so excited to learn one of the bands i just love will be coming to town and for my birthday no less, and my wonderful wife has got me tickets to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in December! So all in all the end of this year is shaping up to be pretty good!

Ooh good lord where do I start! we had the worst luck as it came to be for this past weekend in the New Mexico arts & craft fair, let me back pedal just a bit it started with a unplanned purchase of new tires to a hefty sum of dollars but I was to help ensure we had a safe trip to Albuquerque, we hitched up the trailer and was off, we left Cruces with no problems headed to Albuquerque and the trip was fun we talked laughed jammed out to music all was well…..as we pulled into Albuquerque and started to let the truck idle it would sputter and hiccup, we started to get concerned, maybe we got some bad gas? we made it to the show grounds and unloaded the truck and set up, got back in the truck and started it, the sputtering and hiccups were so bad it would barely stay running so we google mapped a Hyundai service center hoping that it was not clear cross town thankfully there was one bout 5 minutes from where we were, took it in and they ran a quick check on it computer stated it was a cylinder misfire so we had to leave it so they could start working on it in the morning, we are left without transportation now, their shuttle took us to our hotel and we called in a pizza cause what else could we do…time for bed.

     The next morning one of our wonderful artist friends Goldie came to our rescue and got us back to the show. it is now Friday the start of the show….we go from 10am till 9 pm and not a single sale, on top of this the service center called and says they do not know what was wrong with the truck other than there is a cylinder misfire, we are stressing and worried, at around 7 or so we got another call from the service center, after rechecking their work they discovered a coil was the culprit to our problems, apparently it failed differently than what they are used to so that was why they overlooked it so now they had to call around to find the part cause they did not have one in stock, so another night without a truck. once again I have to say I love my artist friends Andrew a fellow artist took us back to the hotel as it was actually on his way home, so we are back in our room and beat….time for bed.

     Our dear friend  Goldie was by bright and early to get us back to the show, we started again at 10am by chance our aunt and uncle came into town for some R&R and offered help if needed so it was a relief to know we had a safety net if it got to that point, bout midday we got a call and out truck was fixed! quick trip to the service center and then back to the show driving our wonderful little truck! as for the show however……we are still deeply in the hole! we got to enjoy a talkative dinner with our friends Goldie and Sandra and then headed back to the hotel cause we still have one more day to go….time for bed

     Sunday morning we grab some coffee and head to the show as we walk in and get to our booth I receive a phone call from a person that was at the show on Friday and wondered if I still had a particular piece available I said yes (as I have not yet sold anything) within an hour they show up and take one of my signature dolls! and better yet within that same time frame literally within 15 min a couple walked into the booth talked to me as I was finishing the sale of my doll, then up and bought an original painting! my heart was pounding cause now we could breathe! all in all I sold 6 carvings a number of prints and one original. never that I can remember have I been threw such a range of emotions in such a short amount of time. as the show closed we packed with a bit of a smile on our face cause all the extra cost we developed had been covered we bout broke even for the weekend so we finished packing headed back to the hotel then dinner and time for bed…….

     Monday morning we took our time hit a few stores on our way out of town headed back to Cruces……we almost made it….. the tow truck got the Santa Fe. Mom and Dad got us.

I also know this weekend was a super moon......i don't know if i ever want to see a super moon again!

    

I swear life loves to kick you when your down! but its ok cause I am a bad mamma jamma and I am back up sucka! sorry for my absence as many of you know I have been down with a herniated disk and have been spending a good amount of time in physical therapy trying to remedy the situation, it has been a slow process but progress is being made however on the 21st of April I was rushed to the hospital with severe pain in my lower back and abdominal region after throwing up for a few hours hunched over in wincing pain, the doctors injected me with morphine so I could straighten out enough to be put into a CT scan machine only to discover I was passing a large kidney stone. now I have a high threshold for pain I truly do given my history but sun ova bitch that thing hurt! and scared the living daylights out of me cause I had no idea I had it! but now looking at things it was merely a speed bump as I am better (I have not fully passed it yet but the doctor said that often happens and to just be patient) I am back on my feet still doing therapy for my back that is going very well as I have logged several days in the shop! granted it was at about 3/4 the pace I normally would work it was productive never the less! you guys are freaking awesome the well wishes and encouragement has been so helpful it is nice to have people you have never met genuinely express care for you so thank you from the bottom of my heart, everyday I am able to put in longer times in the shop my mornings take a while to get going I have a full regimen of stretches and exercises the doc has me doing to get me ready for the day  all in all things seem to be headed back on the right track THANK GOD! thank you again all my rabid family friend and fans! you guys rock!

 I fear that my current situation may have stemmed from my heavy run of completing work for the last show of 2012, I finished over 30 sculptures within a month and a half and pushed myself very hard to do so ….but …now I find myself slightly bed ridden thanks to a herniated disk in my lower back, according to the doctor it is a significant bulge so I have embarked on a slow and painful journey with a physical therapist that specializes in spinal injury, he has high hopes we can remedy the situation. For the last two weeks I have been working on doing so, this has taken a huge chunk of time out of my work much to the disproval of me cause I am currently not creating anything, Sitting and standing for any amount of time has been more than discomforting, I am pushing on with the therapy and have much faith in the doctor working with me, he truly seems to know what he is doing, I have to admit I am already doing better than I was when I first went in to the doctors with the pain and lack of movement, I have much more time to invest before I can get back in the shop, small steps are already going on flat art but it too has been slow in progress, hopefully this will all change soon and I can be back to my old self sooner than later. pain meds here I come.

It has been many moons but big bears art studio has a site again! I know I present myself as a professional artist but my funds state that I am more of a not for profit organization! hey I am trying, Facebook has been my main source of advertising and with that I have learned not that many people have Facebook pages interestingly enough I would say maybe 1 out of every 3 people that walked into my booths in the past few years have stated the prefer not to have a Facebook so I truly felt a site was a much needed necessity cause I want you to see my work and be able to do so on your terms, not threw the confines of a social media site, they do have me roped into it but that's another blog! please, please, please give me input! I am a hog when it comes to input I want to know what you want to see? don't like the new site tell me! what do I need to do to make it better! want to see a certain carving tell me! want me to participate in a show you know of tell me! just want to go have a beer with me TELL ME! I think I got my point across.... I want to become a strong presence in the local art community I know I am slowly on my way so I am trying harder and working harder with that I plan to make 2013 the best yet!