my new website

My new website is up! Same address, www.ericahauser.com, new design and easier for me to maintain. It is the new home of my blog as well, so the blogspot will remain, for now, as an archive from May 2011 through now (mid-August 2015). Of course this span contains several long lapses, but there are still over 300 and I think some are quite nice, at least they track my practice and thoughts, among other things, over that time.
So if you have found your way to my blogspot page somehow, you are welcome to browse past blog posts, which I have never properly archived beyond dates- no word cloud or tags or anything so useful- and please visit my website for recent posts and current work. Thank you!

fresh cones

I first painted these ice cream cones outside the Beacon Creamery on the corner of Main St and 9D maybe 6 years ago, and repainted them 2 years ago, but they were looking shabby and due for a fresh coat this summer. I finally got to it this morning, and my friend caught me as I was close to finishing up. Only one driver called out the window, "Where's the chocolate?"

paintings in 'mostly maquettes' show

Opening this weekend at Theo Ganz Studio, 'Mostly Maquettes', a fundraiser to benefit Beacon 3D, a 5-month-long public art project comprising 20 outdoor sculptures situated around town. The show will have 2D and 3D works for sale, including these three small paintings, two of which are new this summer. I'm glad to support the project.  The gallery is at 149 Main Street, with an opening and preview this Fri Aug 7, 4-8 pm. It will be up through Aug 16.

Summer Traffic, acrylic on canvas, 12"x12", 2015. $375

Frostick, acrylic on canvas, 8"x10", 2015. $375

Four Pops, acrylic on masonite, 8"x9", 2012. $150

taking the heat

It's August 1 and a fine day to revive the blog, which went into another prolonged dormancy. Despite claiming earlier this year that I would not let such a lapse occur again, I did, and I'm sheepish once more. Recently I started an Instagram page (Follow me!) a nice quick way to put my images out there with (or without) a few words attached. Soon I will understand more about how to use it effectively. Or, maybe I won't, just as I never quite learned how to best use my blog. However, doesn't take a tech whiz to point out snidely that posting regularly is a good start.
I'm thinking of ways to make this easier, like possibly integrating the blog into the website. While we are at it, how about updating the content of the website too? Perhaps some paintings completed in the past year? Maybe refine that joke of an artist statement? No, I can't take it easy on myself any more. I was busy this spring, and it was great, but I've got to focus on this while I'm not yet too busy stacking wood and complaining about the weather. (I've actually begun stacking again, but just occasionally so far.) And how can I devote a post to my new wheelbarrow (!) if I'm not posting? I ask you.

Anyway, here are thirty delicious popsicles I painted in June, each 7" square, 1/4" thick, acrylic on wood. They are for sale in my online Etsy shop  or email/message me to purchase. Flavors subject to availability. With this nonstop aggressive marketing push, it's a wonder I have any left.

sure good

 Two more ice cream wrapper paintings, acrylic on wood, poorly photographed. Sure Good and Happy Days, a second version of an earlier one that had sold because, who wouldn't want happy days?
When I have enough of these, whatever enough is (so far just 10), I'll have them properly shot so I can make prints.

This small (5") one I made for my friend's birthday present, from a Deluxe Temptee Pop wrapper. Why do I love the popness of this pop, now that I liberated it from its defining text, I want to paint it huge.

coffee and tee

I'm mining the past few months for some of the pictures and bits of info that I didn't post during my blog hiatus (what else can I call it?). On Facebook, posts whiz by and are swiftly forgotten, and I'm not on Instagram (yet), and I can't update my own website (embarrassing admission!),  so this is still my main way of collecting the ephemera of my activities in one virtual place. There is the Catalyst blog as well, which is an extension of my projects when I'm the one co-organizing a group show, as was the case twice this winter. February was our Coffee and Donuts Show, for which I painted this one (14"x18" acrylic on canvas), based on a vintage photo I found of a Krispy Kreme. 

This is just me modeling the newest iteration of my Beacon dummy light shirt, in slate gray. I sold some at the holidays and thought I'd revive the marketing now that it's nearly short-sleeve weather. All sizes for men and women, some men's in black, kids sizes in white/black and baby onesies. $24 and available through my Etsy shop or by emailing me directly at erica@ericahauser.com. It's about time to don my orange vest and touch up the actual light itself, it's looking scuffed after a rough couple years.

fresh up

'Fresh Up' is a selection of my soda-related paintings to inaugurate the 3B Gallery at Beacon Bath & Bubble, opening tonight 6-9pm at 458 Main St. The soaps and suds have been in business there for a long time, and the owner recently added vintage soda pop for sale- well, the brands and label designs are vintage, but the drinks in their colorful glass bottles are fresh and fizzy. My work seemed thematically apt, as you can perch at a white metal cafe table and crack open a cold one while you contemplate it.

The 10 pieces are a mix of older and newer. Drink this and that. The only one not specifically soda is Creamsicle from the ice cream wrapper series, but the guy is apparently a 'soda jerk' behind a fountain, so it works, and perhaps will interest more people in dropping by to see more of them next month at Beacon Open Studios. As the past couple years, I'll be using the back space of Catalyst Gallery to show recent paintings and to sell some of those delightful Beacon dummy light t-shirts and mugs.