This original painting  titled, “Safari” is from one of my favorite artists, Renee Boutwell.  Renee is one of the local artist I represent in the gallery.  You can find more of her work at Archival Elements.  She is a fabulous abstract artist.  This piece especially has a great color palette with lots of energy flowing throughout the piece.  “Safari” is sold and is pictured in it’s new home.

….are not the best combo!   But other than that little mistake I learned early on, I wouldn’t trade my scooter in for nothing!! Especially with the gas prices.   My scooter has a basket similar to the one pictured.  I can haul pretty much anything in it.  What I would love to do is train my Senior Basset Hound, Bosley to ride in the basket.  Can you image….me, Bosley and his ears trailing behind!!???

**** Scooter Shown: Not actually mine.  I own a beautiful teal Yamaha Zuma, no picture available.

 I found a new jewelry Artisan, Christine Street from LA.  Her jewelry is just outstanding! It has a very organic style about it.   Chocolate and Steel  is her business name.  How cool is that!!??  Christine’s jewelry is created from mostly reclaimed silver, PMC uses silver reclaimed from film negatives and x-rays.  I bet Al Gore can appreciate that.

I hope to receive my first order in a couple weeks.   Be sure  to stop by Archival Elements, I am sure the first shipment will sell out. 

Well I can’t believe it, Archival Elements has a big birthday coming up.  In Aug we will be in business 5 years.  I look back and I can’t believe where the time has gone.  I can remember mulling around the idea of opening my own business and decided that was complete crazy talk.  I was really good about playing the devils advocate against my own thinking (if that makes sense).  I kept telling myself…you know nothing about running a business.  You don’t even have a business degree. ( Well I do now, a MBA from the School of Hard Knocks)   But the more I tried to get the idea out of my head the more I thought why not take the leap.   A leap of faith is exactly what it was and still is.  Here we are 5 years later and I am still as giddy to come to work as the first day I was open for business.   

“You won’t believe how beautiful a beer bottle can be…”

Archival Elements carries this great line of jewelry created from recycled glass bottles.  Kathleen Plate is the fabulous designer.   The jewelry is handmade from the body or neck of; Coca Cola, beer, Perrier, Sky Vodka and all kinds of wine bottles.  We can order anything you see on Smart Glass Jewelry’s site and save you shipping costs.  We also have many of the pieces in stock!!!  So stop by Archival Elements soon.

TO LAUGH OFTEN AND MUCH; TO WIN THE RESPECT OF INTELLIGENT PEOPLE AND THE AFFECTION OF CHILDREN; TO EARN THE APPRECIATION OF HONEST CRITICS AND ENDURE THE BETRAYAL OF FALSE FRIENDS; TO APPRECIATE BEAUTY, TO FIND THE BEST IN OTHERS; TO LEAVE THE WORLD A BIT BETTER, WHETHER BY A HEALTHY CHILD, A GARDEN PATCH OR REDEEMED SOCIAL CONDITION; TO KNOW EVEN ONE LIFE HAS BREATHED EASIER BECAUSE YOU HAVE LIVED. THIS IS TO HAVE SUCCEEDED.

                                                     -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mary Lou Retton!  ”The” Mary Lou Retton….All Around Gold Medal in women’s gymnastics at the 1984 Olympics!!!  Her and I chatted about old times over a glass of wine…..OK…maybe I am embellishing that story a little bit but I did get to talk to her (that consisted of me telling her how cute I thought she was).  She is super tiny, I mean tiny, I think 4′ 9” and cute as ever!!    I had at least 4”on her.  Whoaa!

I attended  SME Sioux Falls Women in Business Conference.  Mary Lou was the keynote speaker.  She talked about her life and challenges she faced in the competitive world of gymnastics.  She is a very inspiring woman!  I left the conference all revved up….ready to tackle on my dreams at 9:00 pm last night.   

This is an actual signed Lance Armstrong jersey I framed.  Pretty cool, huh?

Don’t miss out on our Custom Framing Sale, April 22nd-26th 20% off all custom framing orders!!!

Ellis Park by Liz Tran

Check out a new online source for art.  Archival Elements is very excited to be a dealer of Artaissance and online art gallery.  What is super cool about the online gallery is you can customize the size of the art. There are over 2,000 works to choose from. www.artmystyle.com

We are featuring Liz Tran’s work.