Petaluma Inspiration

My Mom and I went to Petaluma over the weekend, for 2 reasons. One was Halloween & Vine, a juried Halloween art show that I'd heard about that I've wanted to go to. It was wonderful, really amazing (although in most cases shockingly expensive) original art. My favorite by far was actually one of the more reasonable vendors, and I just have to share pictures of the two pieces I bought (one is a gift, I swear!).

My pictures are terrible, I took them last night in awful light, but these are just so amazingly creative, she gets such amazing character out of these felt ( I assume) faces, and uses such wonderful accessories. It was torturous picking two of them...Here's her etsy site.
The other reason we were there was the Art Is You art retreat they had there for the first time. Actually attending the retreat and taking classes wasn't in the financial cards for me this year, but they had a trunk show Saturday night that was open to the public. Oh my gosh, I got to see some amazing art that I've only seen online, and meet some amazing artists in person. I got to meet Michael DeMeng, he was so nice, and so down to earth, which I already knew just from reading his book, "Secrets of Rusty Things" but it was so exciting to meet him and see his work in person. His fiance Andrea Matus, equally creative and amazing, was also so nice and easy to talk to. She has a piece that I just stared and stared at when looking at the available classes for the retreat, and it was wonderful to get to look at it in person, see it here. I got to meet some other amazing artists, and I left feeling so inspired, and really hoping I can attend next year.