Darla's Animals Take Over a Stephen Starr Restaurant???

I was recently asked by the fabulous curator, Eileen Tognini, to include some of my work in the first installment of Stephen Starr's New Pop-up Restaurant Series, where my animal sculptures will be among artwork by Susan Benarcik, Tom Judd, Margaux and Walter Kent (yay!!!), Warren Muller, Greg Nangle, Lenny Wilson, and Summer Yates! The restaurant will be in place for 3 days, June 29th - July 1st and is located at Washington Square Restaurant at 210 Washington Square, Philadelphia, PA. Aimee Olexy of Talula's Table will be running this pop-up restaurant and the menu sounds amazing...From what Eileen told me they were going for a farm to table kind of thing...mmmm....so if you check it out, be on the lookout for some rouge squirrels, a hiding little mouse, a sneaky raccoon and a hawk!
Photos to come...(was sick today so Justin handled the install...what a guy!)

The Menu:

Collectively Speaking, Then and Now...

Lorie Mertes contacted the ladies of The Other WOman Collective a few weeks ago and asked us if we're liked to do a show comparing the work of our collective to the work of The Philadelphia Ten, a collective that began showing in 1917! We all thought this was an amazing opportunity and were super excited to have been asked to participate!

Wednesday was a long day that started at 6:30 am when we all woke up to do a group photo for the show, as we didn't have an existing one that anyone deemed suitable. After the shoot in the woods was over there were pancakes. crawling, naps, gathering, trips to Home Depot and alot of back and forth to the car for lots of things...but around 6ish we all got together for a second time that day and started installing our work on the walls and set about creating an installation in the space...It went really well, despite our long day and I think we're all really happy with how the show came out. Below are some installation photos...

The installation:

Collectively Speaking, Then and Now:
The Other Woman and The Philadelphia Ten

June 25th, 2009 - September 7th, 2010

The Galleries at Moore
20th & the Parkway
Philadelphia, PA

What I did at 6:30am this morning...

Mayor Nutter + Surprise Party = Inquirer!

Photo by David M Warren

I woke up this morning to find a bunch of emails and Facebook messages about this mornings article in the Inquirer about the new gallery at City Hall, with a photo of Mayor Nutter with my work!!! Olivia and I went to the opening last night and it was really great. Tons of people were there and Olivia, of course got attention from just about all of them!

Here's the link to the article: Debut of New Gallery at City Hall

Photo by Jeffrey Bussmann

My husband wrangles (strangles?) sculpture for a living

Justin is the kind of guy who can do everything except remember where he has to be that day...Build giant walls, check. Rewire our house, check. Help me make crazy molds, check. Move giant Calder sculptures down the Parkway, check. Remember our dinner plans with his mom, not so much. I feel like forgetting such things is a small price to pay when he can make stuff like this happen:

William Penn needs a new home...in steps Crozier Fine Arts Philly

Just gonna move you over here...

And your little base too...

Justin and Dan with Mr. Penn levitating between them...

New digs for Billy Penn

Shoutout to my crazy husband who can make the impossible happen...I love you.

June....Already?

How is it not only June already, but officially a week into June? How the hell did that happen?
Anyway, looking forward to getting into the studio this week and will be deinstalling The Other Woman window installation at Trinity Framing on Thursday (I sold my two silhouettes...yay!).
Also looking forward to finishing ripping up the carpet in the first floor of our house and moving Justin's studio in with mine so our house is really just a house. Yes, we are back to sharing a studio, which I like and he doesn't seem to like quite as much...I like it because then all of our tools are in one place and I know where it all is. He isn't usually as excited as I am about all of our tools being in one place because I tend to be a bit of a whirlwind when I work and end up in a pile of dirty tools and mess. (Though I always clean up after!...eventually...) Justin is more methodical and meticulous about his tools and surroundings, so this will be an exercise in compromise for sure. We plan to reconfigure the whole studio, which will be great and chaotic. The sculpting and mold areas will shift and we may make room for a shop area (shop as in a place to build stuff, not a place to buy cute things.) Stay tuned for photos.
Also keep your eyes peeled for info on an upcoming show at Moore with my fellow members of The Other Woman. It will be a show of work by The Other Woman and The Philadelphia Ten!