Small Pond Trading Cards, Part 1

To celebrate six years of Small Pond Arts and our upcoming Season 7, we've created a set of 77 trading cards* featuring some of the characters and scenes that have made Small Pond a very special and magical place.

Unlike the fake-but-fun DVD Box Set from last year, you can actually (probably...more or less...I guess) print these out if you really want to have physical cards** to collect and trade with your friends (we're not printing or selling them, so have fun!).

I based the design of this set very closely on the second (red) series of trading cards Topps made for Star Wars back in 1977. The red-bordered Star Wars cards resonate with me on a very particular nostalgic level (so do the orange-bordered cards), and having them as Small Pond keepsakes (even virtual ones) makes me feel warm and fuzzy. I even tried to recreate the low-quality photographic reproductions by severely degrading our photos, and I wrote captions mimicking their enthusiastic style. The images were chosen carefully to give a good overview of the first six years of Small Pond, but there's not really a chronological or thematic order.

These cards will be posted in small groups for the next few Sundays, reaching completion the day before our Season Seven Silobration (May 23) where we unveil our new silo banner.

SEE PART 2

SEE PART 3

SEE PART 4

*77 cards including the Title Card (which isn't numbered).

**I didn't prepare anything for the backs; you have my apologies.

Open House

Krista and Milé would like to invite you to their holiday Open House at Small Pond Arts, Sunday 16 December from 11am to 5pm.

Drop in for a bite, a bevvie, and a chin-wag! View the 100 portraits that Milé painted in 100 hours during Burning the Midnight Oil and warm up by the blazing wood stove and let Krista regale you with tales of her recent trip toGhana. Plus, there will be a massive sale happening in the gallery, with all paintings being between 25-50% off...and a selection of finger puppets that make great stocking stuffers.

All are welcome! Stay for as little or as long as you'd like. Hope to see you then!

Gallery

I've always loved the look of red doors and the idea that they symbolize that the home and its owners are welcoming appeals to me a great deal. With 337 Clarke Rd., not only did I get a red door (painted by Krista), but I got my own damn gallery (also painted by Krista).

View of the gallery from the back corner (the studio portion).

I can't wait to get painting again. Having my own (large!) space (at home!) like this is definitely a dream come true.
I wanna make more stuff!

Not that we're short on stock...

I completed the inventory last weekend and there are over 300 of my paintings to behold (and purchase!). A few paintings are in the house proper, decorating our walls downstairs and our guest rooms and hallway upstairs.

View of the gallery from just inside the front door. The white door on the left leads into our home.

This room was a dingy grey mess before we gave it a refreshing makeover. Because of that, of all the rooms we fixed up, this is one room we would have liked to have taken a "before" picture of to compare (or made a brief makeover montage).

Look at that blue sign!
Small Pond Arts is proudly part of the 2010 Arts Trail, along with some other great artists, in beautiful Prince Edward County, Ontario.

Gallery Hours: 11am-6pm, Wednesday to Sunday. May 1 until December 24; 

other times by chance or appointment.

Until this actual, non-retouched photo, we were using a similar, but idealized-through-Photoshop, picture of the house (along with a blue sky with puffy white clouds to replace the overcast grey of that photo, I digitally added the welcoming red gallery door and the hand-painted fish sign).

Speaking of signs...

Krista and I came up with the Small Pond Arts fish logo about a year ago and we'd always planned to make large signs emblazoned with it for our house, etc., and a few weeks ago, we finally made them. Krista prepared the wood with primer and paint, I helped a bit with the tracing of the logo (two for the roadside sign, two for the sandwich board, and one for the gallery). and then Krista did a formidable job painting every single one. I'm still impressed.

About a week after they were finished, my parents came to visit and my dad helped us assemble and install the Small Pond Arts roadside and gallery signs:

Here's Stojan with the roadside sign. It survived a huge storm with lots of wind a day or two after it was in place, so we're pretty sure he employed his usual solid craftsmanship for its assembly.

He did likewise with the gallery sign (pictured just after installation and before we made the "open/closed" sign). That's my mom, Nada, on the left.

The Silo, The Hesperus, and the sandwich board at sunset.

The sandwich board temporarily resides in our front yard near the well head until I can get up the energy to drag it down the road a few kilometres to Steve's Sport & Small Engine at the corner of Clarke Rd. and HWY 8. Steve Dainard is a really great guy who's allowed us to display our a-frame in front of his shop so folks coming in from Main Street Picton will be able to find their way to us.

Once again and finally, Small Pond Arts signs and gallery.