Not only do they have the latest in hat fashions but now they’ll be showcasing my latest note cards so run on in and pick up a few and send an old fashioned note to your best friend cuz remember a good friend is like a good hat….hard to find!

Before I let y’all go I was wondering have you ever noticed that a new hat and a new man have a lot in common? When you first spot it you’re like damn that hat looks good wonder how it’s gonna look on me and when you see that man for the first time you’re like man he’s fine wonder what he’d look like standin in a picture with me….well you know Ms Mattie always said make sure the style and color of yo hat fit’s the personality of the woman underneath it so you may want to hold off buyin’ it until you’ve tried it on a few times and ladies I think the same can be said about that good lookin new man you spotted ….take your time before you take him home.

Ok enjoy the pictures of Ms. May’s hats and the pages from my sketchbook.

Be blessed and enjoy life !

Karen Renee

The Vallejo Jazz Festival was a success of sorts…it was my 1^st outdoor show in over a year and my display turned out great!

Oh and let’s just say it cost me way less than the $3,000 dollars that I was being quoted for outdoor booth space. I went to Dick Blick’s Art store and brought the 2 very portable fold out display walls and I purchased an EZ Up tent from Big 5. Pulled out my existing tables and table clothes and viola! There below you see it.

The Jazz musicians really put on a show…for those of you who were able to make it I hope you enjoyed the music as much as I did. My sister Jacqui and KT came out to help and it seemed to me that both of them were getting their boogie on too.

Now I must admit it was a lil slow out there in Vallejo but I met the best folks and got a lead on another show which I hope to see you at in September!! So yes keep your eyes posted for that yellow orange e-mail with the dark green lettering telling you about my next show…

I’m not participating in this show but ….please go out and support all the other Bay Area Black Artists who will be selling their wares at Art & Soul this Labor day weekend oh and where else can you see Angie Stone, Wayman Tisdale and Walter Hawkins for only $5!!!

Well today is August 20^th and I can honestly say that most of my tasks have been completed (smile)

I was able to purchase a pop up tent for shade, got my display walls, re-designed how my both will be set up . Got most of my new products together and packaged nicely….sounds like everything has been going great right?! Wrong! I would not be me with out having some sort of life drama…..so here’s the g-rated not depressing version and when you finish reading this entry you will see why I try to make my works honor the Lord….that’s right I’m trying hard to gain good favor with the Lord.

My printer has decided that it will print any and everything that it can in color except my images….. So with 3 days left to actually prepare for the re-launching of my art business I have not been able to print out copies of my images to add to the bible covers that I will be offering for purchase AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH the frustration....oh well guess I'll just pray and see what happens.

Be blessed & enjoy life!

Karen   

It seems like yesterday when I said I was going to take a few days off from updating my blog and all things associated with my art ….but my goodness 2 days turned into 2 weeks!!! So let me bring you up to speed .....while I was napping my son turned 19 !! (he’s old….I’m still 35 or that‘s what my bio says anyway) My new Sunday hat came and I’m still seeing the Houston hats when I close my eyes!!!

Ok so enough of the hats …..It’s the 23^rd of July and the Vallejo Art & Jazz festival is August 25^th so I’m back in rush mode trying to get ready for my 1^st show in over a year!!

Hey that reminds me… you are gonna come and check me out at the Vallejo Art & Jazz festival right???

Ok so back to the madness….getting ready for the Festival …now this will only be my 2^nd outdoor festival and so I need a better way to present my work. 1^st I call this company that makes display panels and they quote me $3,000.….hmm that won’t work….so I place an ad on Craig’s list….you got it no response to date…heard from another artist about a guy selling panels …mmm hunh right again he had just sold them…. Ok so I found a stand in the Art store’s catalog that might work and I rush right down to take a look at it & try to make a purchase ….well you guessed it again they don’t sell them at the store only thru the catalog and it takes from 2-3 weeks, for delivery !!

Now remember my original question, Wow where does the time go?!?

When everything else goes left …I turn right … pray and make some art….going upstairs to paint …be blessed & enjoy life …see ya tomorrow.

Ok so now the van has been loaded up and we are back on that road !!! Watch out world the Karen/Karin’s are on the road again !!

We are leavin’ Texas today …we didn’t mess with Texas and so they treated us right nice!!!

On they way out KT and I stopped to visit with the “watermelon man” how appropriate for the h2omelon woman !!!

Not sure how many of you folks have been to Texas but it is real picturesque !!! Look at the great pictures of the country churches below !!! Yeah you guessed it you’ll be seein them again real soon.

Before I leave you today …let me tell you again how picturesque Texas is….they had the most beautiful fields filled with bright yellow coreopsis flowers and they had the bold blue of the Texas blue bonnet mixed in as well as the soft lavender of the Texas wine cup so ..you can rest assured that you will find Nappi relaxing in a field of wild flowers soon so be sure to check out the site real regular like so you can get a new picture for that special lil girl in your life.

Be blessed and stop on by tomorrow !!

Now I was not just workin’ for KT I was networkin‘…too you will be able to catch a lil “Hattitude” at the Black Heritage gallery in Houston ….as soon as Ms Robbie Lee works out the details…..

I know those of you who came here to read about the hats ….are like yeah yeah blah blah blah so here we go gettin to the good stuff! KT’s booth was in the middle of …..you guessed it all the Hat folks !!!!

Rosebud of New York sent her family down to represent her. Then there was La Hatterie of New Orleans ….from where I purchased my 1^st really special “Sunday hat” check me out in my hat below….can’t wait until I get to wear it to church …ladies I’m sittin on the front pew blockin everybody’s view!!!

Don’t I look good????

Yes, ladies I have pictures of hat’s stuck in my head !!!! Which will soon be on the site for you to look at …..whoa I’m tired and it’s time to pack and get back on that road ……

y’all come on back tomorrow now ya hear !!!

It’s time to set up her booth at the festival ….it’s a good thing we are both wearing tank tops so the girls were able to convince a couple of guys to help us unload that van and get the booth set up….you heard me right!!! We’d still be there unloadin today if we hadn’t …..

so now let me tell you my gurl was the bell of the ball !!! There were so many folks walkin around with her lil purple and lavender bags that the other “Superstar artists” were coming around to seeee who she was…and you know I was slippin my cards in all those bags right ???

Well so now word got around soo much that the face of Essence herself came into the booth and bought a few items as well as placed an order for more !!! We met Susan Taylor !!!!

KT may have no time for me in the near future as MTV…BET and all kind of folks was snappin pictures of that booth !!!!

We met Tina Knowles (that’s right mother of Ms. Bootylicious herself!) see the pics below …..

So now you know my life has been crazy hectic with updatin’ my website (www.karenrogersrobinson.com) and all….so I can’t remember if I mentioned this or not but my friend Karin T and I went to the Essence Festival to sell her wares (karinsart.com) which explains why you haven’t seen a posting from me in a while…..

Ok so we drove down to Houston in KT’s big white van (yeah I really drove…see pic‘s below) let me tell you that it was a really long hot drive down . Let me tell you a few of the things we came across…….

Arizona is special they have designer jails!!! You heard me right they have this jail in Avondale that was really something …..looks like architects auditioned to be able to build it…..looks better than most schools and senior centers…..what’s wrong with that picture????

Anyhoo these folks down south …when you get next to the jails they post these signs that say …..Jail …please do not pick up any hitchhikers!! ……..now is it just me or what but in 2006 is anybody pickin up hitchhikers????

So now we’ve made it to Texas and the 1^st thing you see after the big lone star flag is a sign saying “drive friendly’…smile, smile then there’s another sign saying Don’t mess with Texas ….littering fine is $1000.….so we drive on a lil more and there’s another sign saying “drive friendly’….about 30 min. into Texas we got pulled over where a friendly border patrol officer asked us if we had anyone else in the car with us ….(they were looking for illegal’s!!!)

Don’t mess with Texas!!!

Now I have somthin to say to Arnold update our rest stops!!! With the exception that down south they don’t use paper seats the rest stops down there are sooo clean and they all have WIFI!! They are interactive and tell you about the area you are driving thru….and they drive friendly….becuz just like us everyone was afraid to …..MESS WITH TEXAS!!

Wow can you believe it’s Friday again!

Every Sunday, I call my sister artist Karin T for inspiration we spend a few hours chatting about everything from religion , men, our families, work and then we get down to business, we talk about our ART!

After doing my bible study and talking to KarinT I was soo inspired . We’d looked up possible vendors for our work; Google’d fellow artists that we know (checking out their websites, looking to see what items we can add to our sites (I’m currently in the process of re-doing my site KT has been thinking of updating hers a well)) checked out Craigslist to see if there were any new art opportunities out there that we could do(gonna submit my artwork to be on a street pole in Santa Rosa). We chatted about our upcoming trip to Houston, Tx. . KarinT is doing the Essence Festival this year (Go KT Go KT) !! We discussed KT’s timeline for completing her work and then it was my turn ….here is where the scary music from the shower scene in Psycho is playing in my head….. So now did I mention I’m re-doing my website …well with that comes deadlines. I have to give the web-designer a break down of what paintings go into which gallery and of course that was really needed 2 weeks ago as the revised site was due to launch 6/1... that’s right we’re using CP time which really means the site will be up just in time for our trip to Houston. Oh yeah back to the list …gotta give the designer some wording to go into each sub-gallery so you good people visiting the site will understand what the pretty pictures are all about. She also needs a list of what type of products my images will be placed on, along with a sample picture of each product so it can be added to the site . Place an order for new business cards and advertising postcards (gonna distribute them at the festival). Need to make a vendor sample package & price list in case one of them responds to my inquiries. Proof read the test site for errors. Locate reference material for my 2 new series’ “Church ladies with hattitude” and “Members of the congregation” Oh and we can’t forget must create new art!!! All of these things need to be completed byyyyyyyyyyyy…..you guessed it Friday !!!

Now of course Sunday when I was bringing my night to a close in my evening prayers I asked the Lord for help in staying focused and motivation to bring my faith inspired work to the public. Not sure what happened the week started out so great ….my lil fingers were flying ..got so many “Church ladies with hattitude” pieces sketched out , sent out inquiry messages…but let’s just say by the time I post this article to my blog space it will be Friday and there are still some unfinished items on the list.

Sooo it’s Friday and being the slacker that I am I find myself with 8 hours to order my postcards and business cards , complete my vendor price list (as luck would have it I got a response from a vendor and haven’t finished my price list yet!). Proofread my site and create a piece for the “Members of the congregation “ series .

Ughhhhhhhhhh what to do what to do ……well when your backs against the wall any good woman will pray and then go shopping. So when KT e-mailed me and asked if I wanted to join her on her excursions to Trillium (that’s an art publisher ) and Tracy chop shop( a picture framer) I said sure !! Feed the baby dog (that’s Diamond my tea cup poodle) and fixed myself up so I could roll ….and of course I got down on my knee’s and prayed ….that when I get back today I’ll have the focus and drive to finish the last few things on my list. Lucky for me I’m an X’er (Generation X= digital baby) all of my remaining tasks except for the sketch can be done 24x7 on the computer!!!

So I’m off with KT on our excursion ….I’ve posted a before and after of a picture belonging to the “Church ladies with hattitude for you ….feel free to post your thoughts. Not sure with the Hattitude is about read the previous post .

Be blessed & enjoy life!~~~~~~Karen

As with everything else in the African American community the symbol of hats as meaning you have arrived has spread to the rest of American culture. For some it’s fashion but for the women of the church it’s our way of saying,”Look how God is blessing me!”