In Like A Lion!

What a whirlwind!  Since I last posted we have managed to slip away to our little casita in San Felipe, Baja Mexico for 10 days of relaxation (in between installing a hot water heater, pump and new propane tank).

Back to Twentynine Palms to prepare an open house for my son Markland and his new wife, Holly. We had guests from age 9 months to 84 years old, locals, San Diegians, and Las Vegans. 4 couples spent the night in their tents on our 5 acres of heaven and others in the guest rooms. It was a full house and fine evening.  

 I hung 31 assemblage pieces for my  Morongo Basin Cultural Arts Council show at the Twentynine Palms Inn today on the West Wall of the restaurant, it will remain until May 5th.  Please drop by, have a drink or a bite to eat and enjoy the show.  Jennifrer Ruggeiro’s photo graphs grace the East Wall. 

Spring is High Season here in the High Desert, busy as a bee!

Endings and Beginnings

The first month of 2012 has been a busy one. I closed my shop doors for the last time, and expected to sit back and relax a bit.   Instead, life  quickly rushed in to fill any void  I might have experienced!  Moving an entire bookstore and art gallery back to my small home studio,  finishing the last traveling moleskine and sending it back to its owner, family members in need of care, cupboards desiring restocking, and long neglected home tasks.

I have managed to begin several new pieces of art, they await me.  I was asked by Carlos Reyes to hang some in his new gallery in Yucca Valley,  ArtFx& Furnishings,  so those are the priority right now ~he opens in 4 days!!!  Beginning March  4, 2012 Jennifer Ruggiero and I will share the walls of the Twentynine Palms Inn with a show featuring her luminous photography and my petite assemblage,  those pieces are next on the list.

I eagerly anticipate being part of a new long distance art project, Hilary Emerson Lay has launched a Sock Critter Adventure that I have been chosen to be part of.  Read more about Hilary and her quirky pals with the link above.

Hope you are all making interesting inroads into 2012!

MitaBee ~ Art a…

MitaBee ~ Art and Books is closing.

Winter Solstice is approaching and with it, the Return of the Light.   Ever so slowly the days will become longer and with the increased hours of daylight so increases my need to be out and about!

It was nearly a year ago that I chose to follow my dream and open a little shop.  I have always loved finding such a place on our road trips and stopping to poke around and find the treasures hidden on the shelves.  My boys and I used to call these places shoppy shops; little stores with things you never knew you needed, but did!  Needful things.

I now know that while I enjoy being a customer at such a place, I prefer discovering one to owning one.

I am ready to venture out, once again traveling back roads and searching out forgotten towns, stumbling upon someone else’s MitaBee!

My new dream is that this lovely little building will speak to one of you

and help you realize

YOUR dream.

Shop Small, Shop Local

Join your friends at MitaBee Art and Books on November 26th for Small Business Saturday. This is the day after Black Friday and is a great way to support your local small business owner, help fuel the local economy and invigorate our community. Mita has invited local artists and crafts people to set up a table on the back patio to bring even more quality, locally produced items to the public. In addition to the ongoing display of Mita’s petite assemblages (perfect for Holiday Gift Giving) Mita’s husband Allen Robison Barter is exhibiting a selection of his figurative nudes.
The back patio artisans include:
Anna Houghton and her wonderfully wacky felted dolls,
Cynthia Enfinger and her beautiful carved gourds and fragrant soy candles
Kenna Boyer with her vintage china and typewriter key necklaces and stained glass
Helen Matoush will bring her charming Primitive ornaments and gingerman basket pins
There will be least one other SURPRISE artist!
In the bookshop our 30% off sale will be expanded to include Poetry, Literature, Youth, Art and Music and you will receive a free 50 cent paperback book with every hardback book purchase. The 1st 10 customers will be given a small gifta and there will be a drawing for a piece of art! 10-4.

6594 Adobe Road, just south of Hwy 62 and just south of the fire station in Twentynine Palms. (Closed Thanksgiving Day,, the 24th and Friday, the 25th)

Normal Days and Hours : Friday 10-4, Saturday10-4 Sunday 11-4, and Monday 10 – 4.
For more information contact Mita Barter at mitabeeartandbooks@yahoo.com

The 10th Annual Hwy 62 Art Tours!

MitaBee Art and Books will be the location to experience the art of  Mita and Allen Barter this year on the 10th annual Hwy 62 Art Tours!

 Open both weekends ~October 22-23 and October 29-30

Special Hours for Art Tours!

Saturday and Sunday from Nine to Five

(normal business hours 10-4)

A Stranger

Come visit this eclectic little shop that is home to the studio of Mita Markland Barter and also serves as a small gallery and bookshop. Books specific to the Joshua Tree National Park communities and books authored by local residents are a specialty. Area artist’s greeting cards and local music CDs round out the selection. Location G12 on the Art Tours Map, you will find our listing on the Art Tours Website under Galleries.

A message from Ted Quinn,   president of the Morongo Basin Cultural Arts Council:

Welcome to the 2011 Hwy 62 Art Tours. For the tenth anniversary of the premiere Hi -Desert art event of the year, we’re excited to present over 200 of the areas best and brightest stars, embracing all of the arts.

While we know that it’s nearly impossible to see it all in just two weekends, we know that whichever route you choose, from the open highway to the dusty desert road, you will find inspiration and stimulation at every turn. We would not want you to miss anything that may move you, so be sure to look at what is being offered on both weekends of this years ambitious tour.

The artists who have made this desert their home are as varied as the landscape. Many of us feel not that we have not chosen the desert, but that the desert has called our names.

Each person has his or her own story which brought them here, but whether it’s the silence, the mystery found in the Joshua Tree, the vastness of the night sky, the feeling of connectedness to something greater than ourselves or spiritual solace, this desert draws out the best of each one.

it is not the solitude of isolation we have sought, but the openness, in all of its manifestations.”With the expanse of our minds,” as our colleague, Candacy Taylor says, “Our desert inspires us to make a difference, to make art.”

We hope that you will find the beauty and the richness that is shared by all of us who love this place. The Hwy 62 Art Tours are designed to give you a road map to this place, where the inner life is enhanced by the outer reaches of the human imagination.

September Events

Hello friends:

Just a reminder that MitaBee ~ Art and Books will be closed from August 16th-September 8th.  When we reopen in September there will be a couple of exciting events you won’t want to miss.

 Saturday, September 24th from 9:00-4:00: Embellished book workshop

 ~Dreams~Visions~Passions~
Put them all together in an exquisite repository to inspire and delight you, to remind you and to enliven you.
In our workshop we will create beautiful pages with collage, paint, stamps, found objects, layering and  embellishing, texturing and aging, until the beginning and  end are one in the same and you never end up with what you  had planned …. 

but something much, much better.
Using a small cardboard book as our base, so we can  spend more time on content and creativity than construction and you will go home with an adorned  and treasured tome.
I will provide all materials, paints, papers, books,  magazines, glues, stamps, found objects and ephemera  

HOWEVER  you will end up with a more personal piece if you use things that you find and that are interesting to you. When you are going through your everyday life keep a look out for pages from  magazines, newspapers, fortunes from cookies, quotes, maps,  wrapping paper scraps, bits of lace or material, ribbons,  vintage packaging, images, old photos, tickets, small found

 objects and memorabilia that might work for you. Bring extras to share!
This is a beginner’s level workshop but if you have  any favorite tools (scissors, exacto knife, pens, mediums, glues) bring those for your personal use.

 This workshop is limited to 6 people , class  is  $50 with a $10 material fee

You may reserve your spot  by emailing me (mitabee@yahoo.com)
 

Friday,  September 30th from 7:00-9:00 pm  Ruth Nolan book talk and signing

Ruth Nolan, Professor of English at College of the Desert and poet/writer, will give a lecture based on the California desert literary anthology, No Place for a Puritan: the literature of California’s deserts.*

 

The lecture is open to the public, free of charge, and will be followed by a question/answer session including members of the audience.

 

The desert anthology was edited by Nolan during a year-long sabbatical project.

 

“This book is a reflection of my lifelong passion for the California desert, both in spirit and intellect, and includes a widely comprehensive overview of our region, starting with stories of the Cahuilla and other desert Indian tribes, up to contemporary desert writers,” says Nolan, who uses the anthology as a reading companion for the creative writing and literature classes she teaches, including the popular Inlandia Writers Workshop in Riverside.

 

The presentation will focus on selected readings from the collection, including works by local authors Susan Straight, Juan Felipe Herrera, Gayle Brandeis, and Nolan, and will include a discussion of historically, philosophically and culturally significant works by nearly 80 other authors in our region and beyond, including voices of well-established, little known, and emerging writers.

  * available for purchase at MitaBee Art and Books

See you all in September!

Inter-connectivity

Finishing up a piece of art today and looking through my discarded books for an odd page or two to “seal” the back with.  Choose a page from Belford’s Chatterbox from the 1800′s  for its nice stained  and aged pages and as I pasted it to the back I noticed the passage, “She had a touching way of referring to her mother as if she were not dead, but still here with us, mixed among our comings and goings.”  I often do that myself and it made me think of my mother (who was part Bulgarian)  and just then The Bulgarian Choir came on my music mix in the studio!

I finished that piece and grabbed another page, completely at random, selected  only for the symmetry  of the print on the page and noticed just before I glued it down that it contained a poem by John Ruskin. I just spent the earlier morning reading all about the Ruskin Mill Educational Trust  where my son Nicholas is working  this summer in Nailsworth ,England.

Inspired by the ideals of William Morris, John Ruskin and Rudolf Steiner, the Trust has developed a unique and brilliantly successful approach to problems of social exclusion, economic decline and environmental degradation.  The trust operates on three campuses that are simultaneously residential colleges for young people with learning disabilities,  seedbeds  for economic regeneration and centres for artistic renewal.

Artist renewal……..

Dog Days

Excerpts from MitaBee ~ Art and Books newsletter:  the Summer Buzzzzzzzz……

 Summertime is entrenched in Twentynine Palms and the heat is on. (although, blessedly the temps were much gentler this last week)  Visitors from out of state and out of the country seem to enjoy the triple digits on the thermometer and every so often when the door opens at MitaBee ~ Art and Books  there is an unfamiliar face.  Lured away from the comforts of a cool hotel and pool they have ventured out to explore our little city.  What is missing this time of year is the steady flow of locals that once populated our streets and bolstered the local economy by spending their  hard earned dollars at the various small locally  owned businesses.  Think Local when planning that next shopping trip.

The slow times  do give me the perfect opportunity to work on my petite assemblage pieces in my onsite studio.  Small rusty tins (often sardine cans with their vintage key attached) surrounded one of a kind collages.  Pieced together with faded photographs, old maps and words clipped from discarded books then adorned with found objects and bits of  forgotten memorabilia. Rarely measuring over 4″x 2″ and priced at 30.00 each these small moments in time are the perfect hostess gift or birthday present. Easy to mail and easy to hang.  There is always room for one more MitaBee!  I have finished 3 series since May, the first using a background of fabric from a dress I found wrapped around a creosote bush along a dirt road in Wonder Valley, the second series features a vintage playing card with an image of a Joshua tree and for the third series I used joss paper printed with a hand carved original image of a Joshua tree.

 

MitaBee Art and Books will be closed from August 16th – September 8th so I can replenish

my rusty bits, my used books and MYSELF!

In closing, if you haven’t been in to MitaBee ~ Art and Books, please drop by .  If you have visited  but it has been awhile, check back, we have new books and  new art every week!

  Open Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday 9-5. Friend us on Facebook for the latest news, happenings and sales!

And you can also find me on my new online gallery at ArtFire!

MitaBee ~ Art and Books

An eclectic little shop with 

Local Art and Low-priced books  

6594 Adobe Road (just south of the fire station)

Twentynine Palms, CA 92277  

760-567-0856  

Friday ~ Saturday ~ Sunday ~ Monday  9-5

The Shrine Auction is Open!

Over 25 artists have contributed stunning pieces to the 4th  Gallery of Hope online auction to benefit the street children of Oaxaca, Mexico.  I am honored to be included with these remarkable, talented and caring individuals this year.  The website is now available for viewing and registration and the bidding lasts a short week so waste no time.  Please read browser notes at bottom of this post if you have trouble accessing the link.

“Imagine a virtual gallery teaming with  love, compassion, inspiration, kindness and joy.   A gallery where each offering was created with the intention of making a bright difference in the lives of others.  Please join our efforts and help us transform hope into reality for children in need”.

Rebecca Brooks, founder of the Gallery of Hope

The Gallery of Hope Shrine Auction is open for registration and viewing June 1-4 and for bidding  June 5-12

You will need to access with firefox/mozilla or google chrome,  internet explorer does not seem to work.

Mozilla/Firefox are alternative BROWSERS to Internet Explorer if you do not have these browsers use the links below to download them.

 for windows use this link

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/

for apple use

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/internet_utilities/mozillafirefox.htm

Spring clings to the Desert a little longer this year!

Normally by this time of the year we are hitting 100 degrees with some regularity.  But not this year and I , for one, am ecstatic.  I think, create, and function better when the mercury is lower.  I just finished 4 pieces of art for Woods in the Desert Art Gallery . Andy is celebrating the one year anniversary of his gallery in Joshua Tree , California this month with new works by featured artists Robert Arnett, Scott Monteith, , Rik Livingston, Mike Smiley and Mike Fagan and me!  My piece “Time Flies” is featured in the postcard advertising the event, thank you Andy!

The Artist Reception  is this Saturday, May 14 starting at 5pm as part of Joshua Tree Second Saturday Gallery Crawl. Hope to see you there!