I Just signed a lease  last week on a 1300 square foot art studio that kicks sooooo much ass! It is attached to a bunch of other cool artist's studios, (the complex on 2nd & Blair, if you're familiar with Eugene, Oregon) and is zoned for business so I can open it up to the public to sell stuff and for art receptions. It has a kickass lobby, glass doors into the main room,2 raised steel counters that are up on a stage that had previously been used for bands to play on. The ceilings are super high, and the back room is almost soundproof and has a big skylight in the middle of it. I'll be sharing it with my friend Tamaris and maybe another artist. We'll be doing the Last Friday ArtWalk here in town, and will have studio sales and all that jazz, with bands playing and food & wine. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet. We were going to sign a 2 year lease but the guy let us sign a 6 month lease, so that's awesome, just in case things don't work out or whatever. We can do whatever we want to the inside of it, including building another floor level, putting up walls to make more rooms, adding more sinks or other plumbing, and even subletting it out to whoever we want. I'm sooo excited and tripping out a little at the same time, since I'm super broke right now, and have got to work my ass off to be able to afford this. I'm trying not to stress about it already, since we can always find other artists to rent out the back room for a month at a time or so, and I'm thinking of all the possibilities of the space. Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So..........any of my friends who come to visit up here in the next 6 months (hint, hint, guys) will get to see this awesome place and meet all the other amazing artists over there. First thing I'm doing......painting the Yellow Brick road on the concrete floor in the center of the main room, swirling out towards both of the doors. Yes, I am a huge nerd, but if you're reading this, you love me anyway.
We can start moving in our stuff in about 2 days when they've finished cleaning up the place. The utilities are all included in the rent so that's great, since we'll have a kiln running a lot, which otherwise would cost us a fortune.
I'll post pictures when we've got this place all fixed up and are ready for an opening party. :)

My other 2 jobs are really cool, and I still have a little bit of free time, though not as much as I'd like.  I have all these ideas for art projects floating around in my head, but I'm always busy with something else. Plus, I have a new art show pretty much every month that I feel bad about becasue I keep just moving all my same old stuff from place to place with nothing new added to it. Everything i've been making lately is a commissioned piece that I give to the person I've made it for right after I finish it, so i have nothing left to show. Gotta haul ass on some new stuff.

 I had a lady email me about selling my art in her new gallery opening up next month, but it's an hour away, so I'm not sure if I want to keep a bunch of dstuff in there that potentially could just sit around and not sell. I like moving my art from place to place, and like having all my stuff local because it's a pain to drive around to do out of town shows. One art group I'm a part of has out of town shows, and that's cool because we load up all the group's art into a huge van and someone else drives and hangs the show, then takes it down and brings it all back to Eugene for us. Pretty freaking sweet.

I'm setting up a new art show tomorrow at a local bar, and am not sure if I should bring my stained glass art along, since I'm afraid things may get rowdy down there and something could get broken... or just vibrate right off the wall because of the music. I have to remember to ask if they have insurance for art damage. I always forget to ask about that, but luckily I've never had a piece broken. Stolen, yes, but not broken.

 Okay, I've gone on way too long, and I'm not sure if anyone reads these anyways, so I'll get my ass up and get some painting done.

I've been trying to arrange art making parties over here but not too many poeple are showing up, and everyone flakes out. Damn flaky artists! I'll admit I can be flaky, too, but the last couple months I've been really pumped up and excited about trying to have these art parties and do collaborative pieces with poeple, but now I'm running out of free time. Oh well. Sometime soon.

Now I finally have time to work on some painting s and sewing some more funky little things to sell at the craft fairs around town. There's a cool art/craft festival they have in Boston every year called the Bazaar Bizarre, and I'd love to go to that and sell some things. The vendors they have make the coolest stuff. Anyone heard of this thing? They have a website that has links to the sites of all their vendors... it's pretty cool to check out.

My friend Emma is working on a website for me and wants to use different kinds of animation in it to build up her portfolio, so I'm really excited about it. It might take 6 months to get it all up, but I'll keep everyone posted.

 Gotta clean my house now. Was supposed to do it last night, but instead I sat on my butt in front of the computer. I'm going through Law & Order withdrawals right now! Can't wait 'til the Olympics are over! I should just get cable again, but then I end up sitting in front of the TV all day and get nothing done. I pretty much only watched Law & Order, Conan O'Brien, and Extreme Homes, and all the home remodeling shows. Yep, I'm a dork.

After that I went over to another lady's house to bring her a bunch of glass spirals I'd cut for her with my glass saw, and we sat around gluing them down on her pieces of wood she uses for her mosaic mirrors she makes. Looks like they'll turn out really cool looking.

 Gotta run to start cutting some glass for this new window. :)

Yes, I have no life. I know. :(

Oh... My MySpace page is at   http://www.myspace.com/jamieburress  if you want to check out more of my art or stalk me or whatever.

I just posted some new pictures in my profile pictures and my other picture section, if you look through the one called "Jamie's Art Pics". I wonder how many pictures we can upload on here. Anyone know the limit?? Hmmmm.

 I just started working on a new painting a couple nights ago. It's two women in their underwear sitting facing eachother on a couch. The perspective on it is as if you were taking a picture of them from directly above them. One is reaching out her hand touching the leg of the other girl. Can't decide yet if I want to paint them nude of leave some clothes on them. I'll post a picture of it to get some opinions on it as I get a little ffurther along on it.

I've been working with an artist couple, helping them out with their ebay store, so that's been fun. They're really cool people, so it's fun being around them. I've also been working with the satined glass artist, cutting out spirals in glass for her mosaic mirrors she makes. I'm actually covered in glass right now and still wearing my gloves. I got online to order some more blades for my glass saw and figured I'd get on here for a minute before I started driving my neighbors crazy with my loud ass saw again. Okay, they've had a long enough break, I think. Gotta go make more noise before the sun goes down and they get super pissed.

 Anyway, I was supposed to meet with a lady I'll be working with doing stained glass mosaic art, but she put it off until Monday since she fell and hurt herself the other day, and isn't organized well enough to get started just yet. Tomorrow I meet with another guy to help him & his wife out with some work from their art business, so I'm glad I'll be keeping busy and be able to pay off some bills that have been piling up. I ended up going to an art supply store and buying some new oil paints to try out. I nknow I should finish a ton of other projects before I start something new, but oh well.  Every time I have an art show coming up, I have about ten pieces half finished, and I never know what to finish first, so I spread all my crap around and turn my apartment into a disaster area. Gotta run to work on some painting :)

Then I met with a really nice guy who is starting a sushi bar here in town who was referred to me by someone who told him I was a good artist. He wants me to make 6 or 7 geisha masks for him, because he plans on having nude girls covered in nothing but banana leaves, with sushi on them, lying on tables, wearing these masks. He wants to have this thing once a week at his place. People will be serving/eating sushi off of the girls. Pretty fun idea.

 After that, I got a call from a lady who wants to pay me to cut glass for her mosaic business, since she has little time to do it herself and is behind in a few projects. She's really nice, so I can't wait to start working with her.

Next, a really cool local artist called me up and asked if I'd like to help he & his wife out  with 10-15 hours a week of work having to do with his ebay store, shipping, and inventory. He and his wife are both artists, and do shows together and are both really awesome people.

Got some more sewing done at a weekly "Stitch & Bitch" sewing group I go to at a cool lillte restaurant in town and got to hang out with a couple friends. Pretty fun day :)

 Now I have to whip up a piece of art for a group show I have to set up tomorrow at 4pm. I've been slacking on painting, since I've been way into sewing the past month. Gotta run so I can go and get something made.