Art and Soul, continued

Tear It Up!

My Tear it Up Demo
Paper, including repros. of old letter and my handmade paper, reinker, acrylic medium, collage paper and rubber stamped image.

I got to Hampton, Va. on Tuesday night. (Week before this one.) I had all of Wednesday to get to know people, register, and shop at the wonderful onsite store run by Portland's own Maria, owner of Collage. Was I nervous about teaching at Art and Soul for the first time the next morning at 9 AM (6 AM Portland time)? Well, yeeeah. Fortunately my excitement outweighed the nervousness. At the class on Thursday the students were all eager to play and were warm and welcoming. I talked about ways to make their torn paper flower collages and showed some examples.

Now came the moment of truth. The Demo. As I told the class mid-task, I had no idea what I was going to do but just put paper and reinker down on a piece of matboard as they watched. Fortunately, it turned out pretty well--see above. After that I relaxed and the students were ready to jump in.

Some class members beginning their collages

Jean starts a complex background.

Lyn adds part of a phone book page.

Many happy hours later, we shared our finished pieces. Some class members were willing to pose with their work.

Lyn with one of her lovely collages. Below you'll see a closeup of her finished piece with phone book page on the left.




This student also made the "eye" flower you'll see below. Here's where I have to confess I don't remember the name that goes with the pictures of all the people in class. The above student was delightful--if you are reading this, dear delightful student, please remind me of your name, as I'd like to remember!






This also delightful student who I remember well, but whose name I don't, did a pair of backgrounds so perfect that she decided to wait to see if she wanted to add to them later. They make an elegant diptych, as shown below.

I showed this lively and lovely piece yesterday also. The complex layers blend beautifully.
I think this was done by the artist of the eye flower!

Pat's pair of collages. I showed a picture yesterday of her cake flower (see below.)

The petals of this flower were collaged from a magazine page showing whipped cream atop a yellow cake.! The center of the flower is the cake.

Sandy started out with a magazine cutout of a tutu and newspaper pages. In the closeup below, you'll see the tutu became a sparkling flower!


Tutu flower collage

Jean's brilliant and dramatic red flower.


This is Jean's finished piece with the complex background. The petals are left unglued at the tip for a more natural effect. The feeling is one of serenity.

Sandy's Zentangle flower. I'd never heard this term before--if you want to know what it is, click here.


A many layered and delicious collage by Janet.


A wild and gorgeous flower. The text has a lot of meaning for Sandy who made this.


Flower petals made of text adorn Lyn's hopeful and evocative piece.

Janet's collage reminds me of Tuscany. The colorful magazine pages at the bottom richly set off the rest of the piece.

We all photographed the amazing lineup of work at the end of class.

The photographs below were sent to me by class member Janet. They show the full array of class creations. Thank you, Janet!

I'm so proud of my students and so thrilled to have taught this class!

More on Art and Soul tomorrow...