It's been hectic...

Well, based on the last time a blog entry was posted, it would be pretty obvious that I have been a bit busy. Basically, I have no time for blog entries, web updates, or the like in December. Such is life in retail and believe me, I am not complaining. It kind of feels good to get caught back up on my regular tasks, though.
I hope that the holiday was an enjoyable one and a happy new year to all...

Dickens Festival and Emmie

It is a cold, windy but sunny day and the rain has stopped in Medford (for now!). They say snow later on in the week but for now, it is actually a really nice and brisk day out there.

We had a hectic last week here at Creative Genius and I just wanted to say thank you for a fun Dickens Festival. For starters, thanks go to all our customers, both new and existing, who stopped in on Dickens Night and showed support. We greatly appreciate you and your appreciation of fine art and fine craft. A big thank you also to our helpers this year: Reece, Makayla, Gina, Chris and Chris (and Zachary too!). Thanks for being there! We had a great time and hope you did too!

I also wanted to take a moment during this season of giving to mention a brave little girl named Emily Mangione who has extensive health issues and has had not only a birthday this past week but a hospital stay. I know her mom, Kim, through the gallery and she is like supermom. The emotional, physical and financial toll that a very ill child can have on a family is extensive yet Kim is always positive, upbeat and filled with hope in her email updates about Emmie and I not only admire that but want to make people more aware of Emmie and what she has and continues to go through. Even with all the problems we all may have, I think when you look at a little 8 year old who battles every day of her life, you have to really get some perspective. To learn more about Emmie and her family, please visit www.emmie.info

Enjoy the season...try not to stress too much and not to forget the true meaning...

Holiday Fun!

To start with, thank you to all the great women who came out for our Ladies Night on Wednesday, Nov 28th. Your support of American fine art and fine craft is appreciated. I hope you enjoyed the refreshments and a chance to browse and shop without the pressures and chaos of the mall. We enjoyed hosting the event...look for future Ladies Nights events in the future. And I hope all those prize winners make good use of their prizes.

The next upcoming event I am telling everyone I know about is Dickens Festival, Medford Village's Annual Festival on Main Street filled with holiday cheer, Dickensian characters, refreshments, entertainment, shopping and more. It is a fun night out with the kids and a great chance to browse through the wonderful shops along Main Street. There are some unique finds available out there if you take the time to slow down and browse. :) Anyway, I hope you get a chance to come out for the festival and kick off the holiday season right. And one last note about the festival: be sure and look for the Stilt walker...my step daughter met him at a concert and he supposedly travels all over the country to do his stilt walking and will be joining us in Medford Village especially for the Dickens Festival. How about that? It's such a great festival we even attract traveling stilt walkers...

Well, regardless of what you decide to do for entertainment, here's to an enjoyable weekend for all...

Greetings!
A brisk wind is blowing through the streets of Medford today but it is toasty warm here at Creative Genius. I am in the process of working on some great upcoming events that we are pretty excited about.
Of course, the first event is our LADIES NIGHT, coming up on November 28th from 6-9pm. We hope you can join us for an evening of fun, prizes, refreshments, a trunk show and a chance to fill out your wish list gift registry, just in time for the holidays. And the best part is that you get to leave the kids at home and come out and socialize with some great local women...
Also coming up on Saturday Dec 1st is Dickens Festival here on Main Street in Medford Village. Enjoy an evening of holiday cheer and come visit us for our annual artist trunk show, featuring 3 artists with additional selections for you to peruse, just in time for holiday shopping.
We are having issues with the Creative Genius website right now but hopefully they will be resolved soon. Don't worry if you can't access it properly...it isn't your computer, it is more stuff on the technical end.

INTRODUCING...

This has been a week of introductions, some really great ones and some not so great. I am going to choose to skip any negatives and focus strictly on the positive, very cool happenings here at Creative Genius...so here goes...
We now carry the incredible work of two very talented wood artists who came to me through a customer recommendation (thank you!) and whose work is incredible. They are Andy DiPietro from Burlington, N J and Philip Hauser from Hainesport. These two gentlemen were not only generous with their showcase of incredible hollow forms as well as natural edge vessels but also with their time. Both were very forthcoming with information about their craft, which is always very exciting to me because I truly love to learn about how all these talented people I work with do what they do. Both are involved with the Delware Valley Turners and you can visit the website for that organization at www.del-val-turners.com. I think those of you who get a chance to visit and know your fine craft will be impressed by the superior quality work produced by these two men.

Also new on our agenda is a studio/gallery expansion...more information on this new and exciting event coming soon but we should have some new and exciting things to roll out to our clients around mid-January.

I would also like to formally introduce our newest addition to the Creative Genius fold: our new Painting and Drawing teacher, Andrew Pell. Andrew comes highly recommended and we are all excited that he has joined us. Look for him in Children's Drawing and Painting on Wednesdays from 6-7pm and in Adult Drawing & Painting on Wednesdays from 7-9pm. Welcome aboard, Andrew!

Lastly, all you ladies out there need to mark your calendars for what is sure to become a holidays tradition. On Wednesday, Nov 28th we're hosting a ladies night from 6-9pm. It's a great chance to complete your holiday wish list registries, enjoy complimentary refreshments, enter drawings to win prizes and enjoy a jewelry trunk show featuring Michele Grady. We'd love to see you there so get your friends together and plan to be here.

Well, that's all for now...stay tuned for more exciting happenings and at the very least, more blogging from me.

WISH LISTS...

Just a friendly reminder from Creative Genius Art Gallery & Studio...now is the time to start creating your WISH LIST page for the holiday season...

The Creative Genius WISH LIST is a one page form that allows you to choose and document items here at Creative Genius that you like and would be happy to receive as gifts. It works like a wedding registry only you don't have to be a bride-to-be in order to take advantage of using it. Once you set up your page and document the items you like (and we'll show you how) we add your page to our wish list book under your last name. You then receive 6-8 Creative Genius business cards to provide to people who will be shopping for you during the holiday season (or for your birthday, housewarming or whatever occasion works!). All your gift buyer needs to do is pop in and we will guide that person through your wish list. It's the best way to guarantee you get something you really want this holiday season...and we're here to help!
Stop on by and we'll help you set up this year's wish list...

Talking About Our Exhibit-Again!

Yes, once again I am going to write about our great upcoming exhibit of wearable art by jewelry artist, Michele Grady. I am going to talk about it because I really think it is something fine craft and jewelry collectors won't want to miss. Michele is a very talented silversmith with an assortment of jewelry creations that are feminine, contemporary and unique all at the same time. There will be a variety of choices in a variety of price points and the best part is that interest free layaway will be available for items priced over $150. We're trying to make it all accessible so that very special women (and men) can wear very special pieces as they should, without having to worry about affordability. Very exciting stuff, folks....
On another note, we'd love to encourage you to tap into your creative genius side some time soon. Our many class and workshop offerings make it simple...workshops happen on a rotating basis and classes happen weekly. There's a full service pottery studio here at Creative Genius as well as Painting and Drawing for kids and for adults and a host of workshop offerings in mediums like Stained Glass, Wire-Working Jewelry workshops, Clay for Kids, and more...Don't forget about our new Digital Photography for Beginners offering for Children (adults can pop into this class too if they want to learn some cool new techniques)...these classes are offered on Tuesdays or Wednesdays and we'll be working on product photography, portraits and more. Your child will have a ball learning how to be a better picture taker...
Hope to see you soon...

New at Creative Genius

It is an exciting time of year here at Creative Genius. These days, I spend most of my time preparing for the holidays so that I can provide my clients with an exciting new assortment of fine art and fine craft in a fun and festive setting. Sounds simple but believe me, it is far from easy. There are days that I would prefer doing anything but climbing up and down a ladder, hanging lights/ornaments/art and anything else that requires suspension from the ceiling. And then there is the gift wrapping and packaging...I love to provide the service of gift wrapping to my clients but what I don't love is having to become a psychic and predict exactly how much of our special mirrored silver wrapping paper I am going to need to get us through Oct, Nov and Dec. Plus the rolls of tulle that we use in our signature wrapping are equally hard to predict. And yes, I know these thing will still get used even if we over-order and end up with extra. I understand that wrapping paper and tulle rolls are not like lettuce or tomatoes and that they don't go bad. And that leads right into my next frustration with preparations...there's a BUDGET I have to stick to as well...and it is a STRICT ONE...yikes!
Aside from all of the monstrous stress I normally encounter this time of year, I actually do love all that preparing the gallery for the holidays entails. This year, we've actually got our great exhibit running through the end of the year as well. Michele Grady's hand-crafted original jewelry designs are great for all kinds of people and will surely be a big hit for holiday gifts (or self-gifts) this year. Don't forget to join us on the 26th of Oct to kick off the opening of this great exhibit.

Now if I could just predict the future, I might get the preparations right...

Old friends, co-workers and art!

October 2nd, 2007
Well, we had a good day for Medford's newest festival this past Sunday. No complaints on this end. Lots of great folks out walking around and enjoying the festival. And wine makes people pretty easy to deal with :)

Today, pretty much one of the first thing I did was spoke to an old friend/co-worker who I haven't spoken to in 4 years. That was actually kind of cool...his sister is an artist and hopefully some time soon, they'll make the drive down to Medford to check things out. I am glad he is doing well.

And speaking of 4 years, this month marks our 4th year in business. How time flies when you love your job and love what you do. This is easily the most difficult job I have ever had (and that includes working in restaurants for the better part of my twenties) but easily the best too. We are constantly building things up, meeting new artists and adding new creations to our space and it has truly been a blast. I think I am definitely one of the luckier people that does what I do.

It has been an interesting day...the past meets the present...days like today always makes me kind of introspective about the choices I have made. Happily, I think they were good ones...

Creative Genius Art Fair During Medford's Autumn Wine & Jazz Festival

September 29th, 2007
Welcome to my first blog for Creative Genius Art Gallery & Studio, which is my fine art and fine craft gallery located in Medford, NJ. I have loved writing since I was a child so blogging was eventually going to be a natural progression for me.
Okay, let's talk about some great upcoming events...Coming up tomorrow is our fun afternoon mini art fair, located outside of Creative Genius at 32 North Main Street in Medford, NJ between 1pm and 4pm. This fair will take place during the Medford Autumn Wine and Jazz Festival, which features local NJ wineries, food, music, and shopping. Come join in the fun and scope out work from some of our visiting artists too.
We look forward to seeing you there...
Also coming up is our next exhibit which is a fabulous exhibit of original wearable art by jewelry artist, Michele Grady. It opens on October 26th with a Sweets and Treats reception from 7-10pm. If you miss this reception you will miss a fabulous spread of delicious desserts and libations plus the chance to own one (or more!) of Michele's wonderful pieces of wearable art. Layaway is available which makes it all oh so accessible...come check it out!