New Small Work

Dent-de-Leon
Mixed Media on Panel 5" square

Some new small pieces using my beloved Ranger inks. You'll see them this weekend at the Mt. Tabor Artwalk.

Resting on the Road
Mixed Media on Panel 5" square

The Prodigal Returns
Collage on Panel 5" square

Turkish Tulips

Collage/Ink on Panel 5" square

Fall at Lost Lake

Mixed Media on Panel 5" x 3"

Art and Soul Report Wrap-Up and Upcoming events

A quick wrap up of my Art and Soul experience...Wednesday night after I taught the Wabi-Sabi class, I went to a talk about online networking by Claudine Hellmuth. Claudine is a petite dynamo! She taught classes every day, or close to it, and still seemed to have plenty of energy. I've followed her work and career for years and it was great to finally meet her. She gave some excellent ideas to improve my blog, so I'm working on it. Post more often, less verbiage!

My first book attempt

Here's the book I made in Chrissie Hinds' class. I knew the activity would be challenging for me as I have difficulty in learning things that have to be exact, like the Coptic stitch. Chrissie helped me through it and I have now made my first actual book, as opposed to altered books or books stitched together any which way! Note I'm not showing you my stitches. Still, now that I've done it once, I'm looking forward to trying again.

Chrissie and I laugh over my funny little book the day after class




A bit of the crowd at Vendor Night

Saturday night was Vendor Night and this one was really big! I had a table and got to see many of my students and fellow classmates.

Mixed media artist and Art and Soul co-organizer Bee Shay with her collection of cool ephemera and vintage items.

I love Bee's tower of vintage cases topped by a fairy tale hatbox

The photogenic artist, Sas Colby was my neighbor at Vendor Night

Janet at Vendor Night

Janet from my Wabi-Sabi class kindly womaned my table for a while so I could check out the rest of the tables and booths. Janet also introduced me to that Southern staple, Waffle House. We don't have them in Portland, but wish we did--they make a mean waffle.

Kellee

The week of Art and Soul I felt blissfully surrounded by art and art-makers. I had a great talk with our bartender in the lobby restaurant, Kellee, about her own art making and the challenge of staying in touch with it while children are small. The cab driver on the way to the airport when I left for home confided his past as a composer and musician and his hopes to reconnect with this part of himself.

While at the retreat I made art most nights in my suite. This is a box I decorated as a special gift. Inside are art materials, as well as scrolls containing writing prompts and affirmations.

This coming weekend: Annual Mt. Tabor Art Walk!

I'll be hosted by the talented painter, Helen Snyder. At the website you can see work by all the participating artists and download a map to the artist sites. Besides seeing a wide variety of fine art and craft, you'll catch a glimpse of some lovely gardens in the area. Come support your local artists--hope to see you there!

Monday, May 18 12-5

Off during the day? Join us at Papers Primavera, a new class at The Art of Your Life studio.

"Klimt paper"

Celebrate spring by creating delectable hand-decorated papers! You'll learn how to create your own moldable form stamps and to use them along with inks, markers, acrylic paints, and other media to decorate several kinds of papers. You'll leave with a collection of unique papers for future art projects and gift wrapping.

Tuition: 65. Includes supplies and a light snack

Happy Spring!

Art and Soul Report, part 3

Wabi-Sabi Wonder

My demo for the Wabi-Sabi class

I began the above demo in my hotel room the night before the class. I poured Golden self-leveling medium randomly over a wood panel and let it dry overnight, speeding up the process some with the hair-dryer. This process leaves strong texture on the first layer of the piece.
In the class demo I added tissue paper and reinker color, mixed with acrylic glaze medium.

Like the previous class, these students were eager to get to work, I mean play. I was a little nervous to find that I had a fellow instructor in my class, but Lesley Riley was warm and friendly and happy to have a chance to return to student mode.

Wabi-Sabi Wonder gets underway

Lu Ann and Betty start several pieces (the class used 6" square panels)

Lesley's beginnings


Sylvia starts a series of pieces

I brought many Ranger reinkers for the class to use, as this item was not on their supply list. At the noon class break I found a new color at the Collage onsite store: Watermelon. This color gave Kathy the break-through she needed on the piece below, in progress.

Kathy discovers Watermelon!

This class was a delight and the day breezed by. I got some closeups of students' work.

Kathy with the finished piece. This was her first venture into non-figurative work and she found it very freeing. Working with her on this was a joy.

A soul-filled piece, elegantly composed



The piece above with its soul-mates

A sparkling arrangement of pieces that go perfectly together

This delicate interplay of light and dark is truly wabi-sabi!

Janet and I share a love for all things medieval. Her love for fairy tales is reflected in this magical piece.

The use of text perfectly complements this rich and dreamy piece.

Robin got this wild and wonderful texture with self-leveling medium

The beautifully aged look of wabi-sabi

This lovely piece reminds me of fall, the quintessential wabi-sabi time. The lines were made with a rubber combing tool.

This gorgeous abstract shows how bright colors can be used with text, dark accents and texture to suggest aging. It reminds me of houses in Italy.

Pati fell in love with the wabi-sabi concept and style and it shows here!

Sylvia's minimalist, zen-like series is powerfully moving

Bette achieved lots of fascinating depth with her lights and darks

Joanne combined warm and cool colors in this stunning work. The text says, "She left the shop." A great suggestion of a story hidden in the work.

Marty used alcohol ink to create the circles of light above her dazzling mountain.

Lesley's rich and beautiful series just seemed to pour out of her!

Lu Ann's work shows how much depth and inspiration can emerge in a monochromatic work.

The only commentary I'll add for a while here is that we were amazed how well all the pieces went together. The word that keeps coming to my mind as I review these pictures is, "Wow."

This was truly a magical and wondrous day for me! I hope any students reading this post will send me pictures of the work I didn't get in close up. Thanks to all of you--your enthusiasm and achievements make me so happy!

As a postscript to the Wabi-Sabi Wonder report, I ran into Lyn and Pati in the hotel lobby a few days after the class. Lyn showed me the changes she'd made to one of her class pieces. Before she had not been satisfied with it, calling it her "problem child." You'll see below, there's no problem any more!

Problem child rehabilitated, and how!

Pati told us she was so changed by the Wabi-Sabi class that she found all of her subsequent work reflected her newfound love of the style and philosopy. Below is a background she made in another class. She likes the so-called background so much she's decided to leave it as it is.

Much more than a background, this is a beautifully realized piece.

Pati's "door" here is simple and complex at the same time. She learned from instructor
Katie Kendrick how to use beeswax as the perfect finish. (Click on Katie's link to see photos from her classes.)


I don't know Pati's name for this piece. I call it "The Door Will Open."

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...