ArtFest Trade-O-Rama

A few of you may remember that I made ATC's for a pre-organized trade at ArtFest . . . I posted about that here. Well, here's the cool set of ATC's from other ArtFest attendees that I got in return! Check out the cool box that Bee Shay, the organizer, pulled together to display them - complete with encrusted octopus - the theme was sea life. I pulled out a few of my favorites . . .

I also had some little trades that I made up for spur-of-the-moment trading at ArtFest - all of them had buttons like the ones from my EyesAflame Etsy shop, and some had ATC's and some had Moo Cards. And here is some of the cool stuff I got in return!

A few ATC's, a bamboo pendant with an octopus on it, some random fibers, some Moo cards, a little booklet made from a recycled postcard, and a very cool little hanging.


It's made from driftwood, and it says "listen." Can you imagine makng 20+ of these for trade? Marvelous! I wish the artist had a blog I could link to!

Now, one trade I wanted but didn't get was a wonderful little booklet of octopus facts and matching octopus button . . . created by the marvelous Beenebag of betweenassignments.blogspot.com . . . so I sent her off an e-mail and a promise of a trade, and my octopi goodness should be in the mail!

Saturday at ArtFest: Captured Memory Boxes with Bee Shay

Saturday, I took a class from one of my favorite teachers, Bee Shay. We brought photos from home to incorporate into the piece. I brought several pictures with me, but ended up using this picture that I took in the Cinque Terre in Italy when the Sweetie and I were there in 2007. The trip has fond memories for me, and I love the colors and abstract shapes in the image - I've been wanting to do something with it for a long time!



We mounted the image on a wooden painting support that had a deep 2" cradle - like the one Bee Shay is painting in the picture below. The idea was to mount the photo on the front of the painting board and fill the back with tokens or objects that relate to the image . . . except all the tokens I brought with me related to the beaches of Oregon and Washington.


So I ended up focusing on the image and the quote inscribed around the edge - we did a marvelous series of things to distress the image, applying gesso, acrylic paint, colored pencil and even attacking the surface with sand paper.


I'm still interested in continuing to work the image - bringing more of the color out. I also want to incorporate some of the ephemera from my trip. My quote came out of some free-association writing I did around the image . . . "What we build and the places we call home travel with us, creating a map in our memory."

Here's another shot of the front of the piece and the back as they look now . . .




And here's a link to some images of Bee Shay's sample for the class - just so you can see the potential.

Friday at ArtFest: Abstraction

Friday, I took a class from Mary Beth Shaw in creating abstract images on Claybord. She's the one wearing the green apron in the photo above. She had cowboy boots, a great sense of humor, and a marvelous musical soundtrack for the class!

It's been a while since I've worked in pure color and form, and it was glorious and liberating. Usually, I'm really focused on representational images, though abstract color and form is always a part of the underlying structure.

Here's the start of the boards . . . dividing the space, collaging the surface,
scratching into it, coloring.

And here they are after layers and layers of color . . .

And here's another series of three that I started working on during the class. I don't know where it's going, but it's an interesting journey.

Thursday at ArtFest: Nested Visions

I started this year's ArtFest experience with another mouthwatering breakfast at James House, "my" bed and breakfast here in Port Townsend (was that poached fruit in yogurt and berry sauce? with an individual quiche in a light-as-air pastry shell? Eeek!).

Then I moved on to a class called "Nested Visions" with mother-in-law/daughter-in-law art teaching team Marylin and Tracie Lyn Huskamp - two teachers who really need their own comedy show. Once again, I was blown away by how warm, relaxed and personable the teachers at ArtFest are . . . generally, the teachers who work the mixed media art retreat circuit are positive, supportive, and talented, but there is something about ArtFest (salt air?) that really seems to bring out the best in the instructors . . .

I didn't get a great shot of Marylin or Tracie Lyn, but I did get some good shots of my nests, made with horsehair, twigs, dog hair (brought by another participant), assorted foliage, and glue. Want details on how to make your own? I understand the ladies have a book coming out this fall called "Nature Inspired" that will give all the details . . . You know Ms. Crafty Manners doesn't like it when I kiss and tell on the blog.*

Don't they look real?!

I haven't had a chance to fully glue down the assemblage compositions yet, but am very excited about the juxtaposition of indoors/outdoors, security envelope window/house window, branch/bone, topo map/stamps . . . different ways we view the world, different ways we find security, different ways we navigate . . .


And this one is a heart and a feather and a nest perched on the cover of a dictionary . . . along with a little text. Who is it that weighs your heart against a feather to see which is lighter? The Egyptian god Ma'at? I'm definitely feeling a bit of weight lift . . .

*Note: While Ms. Crafty Manners is a big fan of sharing information and offering up free info on how to make things, she is not so keen on me sharing things taught by others as part of how they make their living . . . One of the ways that artists survive is by sharing their knowledge and receiving some kind of compensation for it. When I've paid for a class from a professional artist or crafter, I don't want to re-share information on a technique they've developed in such a way that it can be published or redistributed without their permission. Like, say, on a blog. I did find some cool things, though, when I entered "make bird nest" into Google search . . . including this quickie tutorial on making nests with plaster and hay and another set of tutorials on making a birds nest with bark-covered wire.

Making Time for Art

I'm getting ready to leave for ArtFest - tying up loose ends in the e-mail in-box, reviewing my supply lists, packing layers of clothing - and thanking heaven above for some serious artmaking time.

I have a huge studio and no children at home. Artmaking is the thing that keeps me grounded and healthy and happy and spiritually connected. Yes, I'm juggling several part-time jobs (or "gigs" as we largely self-employed types call them), but it doesn't seem like it should be all that difficult for me to set aside artmaking time at home. Especially since several of my gigs actually depend on me being a creative, productive artist. And yet that is exactly what I have been struggling with the past few months. It's felt like all the creative activity I have time or energy for is teaching, putting up a few Twitter posts and reading the occasional article. Of course, one of those articles was by Lesley Riley about, you guessed, making time for art (and of course, I Tweeted about it). It's all about putting artmaking as a priority in your life and acknowledging those little neglected blocks of time that you can dedicate to your art, to your own self, to your sweet journey and the intuitive inner voice.

You can read her article here. And I suggest you do it now. For yourself. While I take a few more millennia to integrate it and actually apply it in my life in a consistent way.

It's good sometimes to read someone else's eloquent description of all the things you already know. It's like a gentle reminder of who you really are. Now, I've got to go finish getting ready for my art jumpstart.

Monday's Give Away & A Crafty Update

GIVEAWAY!

Here's the first studio clearing give away: A collection of over 100 simple shape Style Stones by ClearSnap/Color Box. They're flat-surface beads that you can stamp and color and decorate like in the sample bracelet . . . I got them on clearance a few years ago, and they have sat in my studio ever since. If you want them, leave a comment by Monday, February 23rd, and I'll randomly select a winner and ship them off anywhere in the continental United States.

As for the crafty update, I got to spend a big chunk of the day in the studio today . . . very much needed. It had been way too long since I'd really spent a good chunk of time just making art. I worked on some artist trading cards for ArtFest in April. I'm using a stamp made from one of my octopus drawings and a bunch of old security envelopes mounted on watercolor board.

I also started working on a new encaustic collage . . .

Re-Raveling: Texture

Here's my final report from Art Unraveled, now that I've had a chance to fully re-ravel after the revelry . . . it's amazing how much being "on" for a week can take out of you! I took one more class, this time with Jacqueline Sullivan and this time all about creating textures with acrylics. We used cheesecloth, books, modeling paste, aluminum foil, tissue paper, and many secret techniques which I cannot reveal to you here, but which were a lot of fun. It felt like a good compliment to the exploring I've been doing in the book Acrylic Revolution by Nancy Reyner.




This also makes me excited about ArtFest . . . I really got into some texture techniques there last year, and registration starts soon . . . I'm trying to figure out how to work in an abstract acrylic techniques class with Mary Beth Shaw and a class with Bee Shay . . .

ArtFest! Day 3

By the third day, I was exhausted. I was in a class with L.K. Ludwig, supposedly taking mica and wire mesh and found objects and image transfers and using them to create a wall hanging.


Did I mention we got to walk on the beach? And that it was really, really cold? And that I took a lot of pictures?


I played with the very cool techniques she showed us, and made a bunch of different little things, but not a wall hanging. Here's one of them - made with a copy of an older bird-on-the-beach photo, a feather, a rock, and some wire mesh:



And yet the thing I did in that class that I really felt the most excited about was this photo of beach gleanings, arranged on the windowsill in the classroom:



And - Yowza! In the "completely random" file, I got mentioned on the Italian Recycling Website, Re-Creazione !! Or at least, my recycled bike inner tube jewelry did - how cool is that?!

Artfest! Day Two

I've been home from Artfest for about a week now, and I'm still integrating all that happened there . . . it was truly a wonderful event! And integrating has taken long enough that I haven't been blogging . . . though I have been spending time in the studio, and even working in the yard! Yummy . . . I had forgotten that yardwork really can be enjoyable, especially with mild sunshine and a double-dosing of effective non-drowsy allergy medication!

My class the second day was with yet another teacher that I had never heard of but came to love, Melissa Manley. She is a jeweler and sculptor, and our class was called Paper Ruins. It combined something I am familiar with - shrines - with something that was a stretch - working small - and a new skill - casting Paperclay. Perfect! We created our own molds, molded our Paperclay, and constructed our tiny shrines using matchboxes as a focus. (I kept thinking about Dayna and her upcoming Matchbox Shrine class!) Here are two that I worked on as they appeared at the end of class:


And, on the way back to the hotel that night, one of the wings broke off of the shrine on the right . . . Realizing how tough it would be to reattach it convincingly, I improvised:

It was a great problem-solving exercise: how do I take an accident and make it work in my favor? I ended up adding the orange elements, including the funny plastic chicken feet, and I think the whole piece actually ended up being more interesting.

I also ended up making a few minor changes to the other one:

At home this past week, I've been working on a cigar box to hold the second one - it's encrusted with little bees and honeycomb . . . This coming week, I've got to get back to work on a pay-the-bills kind of project, and it's going to be tough to get my head back into it.

Artfest! Day One (and a half)

Wednesday morning I woke up with a luxurious feeling . . . I was going to have my morning coffee, throw a few things the car, and then drive up to Port Townsend, Washington for my very first ArtFest ever . . . Four Hours Later, I started panicking: the car wasn't loaded. Not even close. Even though I was driving - meaning I had my entire truck available to me to fill with stuff - I was having a very hard time deciding what to take. It's like any trip - you can really get by with little more than a clean pair of unders and a toothbrush, but there's a compulsion to fill at least one suitcase with stuff, just in case . . . I ended up leaving later than planned and with more than I needed, but that means more to share, right?

Let me just say that ArtFest feels different from other multi-teacher mixed-media art retreats I've attended. I arrived just in time for the evening orientation and almost immediately, I felt really welcomed and I felt a real sense of community . . . even though I still haven't been able to touch bases with some of the blogger artists I had hoped to meet live and in person (Hi, Leah! Hi, Jen! Hi, Judy!) I have met a host of other wonderful people. Even though there are a LOT of people, the Secret Introvert feels very safe here.

Maybe it's the proximity to the ocean. Or maybe it's just Teesha and Tracy Moore's laid-back, friendly attitude. Either way, I freakin' love it!

My very first class was with Bee Shay - Shadow Boxing. I love making niches and shadow boxes, and I felt like the minimalist aesthetic of the class would be a good stretch for me. What I didn't count on was what an amazing and delightful teacher Bee was. She kept an easy, positive atmosphere in the room while sharing a lot of wonderful techniques. Here she is demonstrating:


And I definitely gave the whole minimalist thing a shot - here are three pieces that I finished today:
I used stuff from Hannah Grey's online shop in each of these: beetle wings, dried starfish, weasel bones . . .


And this one, I ended up giving to Bee because she really worked with me quite a bit on the design of it, and she loved the weasel skull so much!! And I know I'll be using this niche technique in the future . . .


I'm not staying at Fort Worden (though the food and accomodations are MUCH nicer than the last time I was here a dozen years ago). I'm staying in at a lovely little B&B called The James House. Much of the wood and hardware in the house is original - check out this doorknob and faceplate on the door to my bathroom . . . and I'm in the cheapest room! And there was a poached pear for breakfast. Yum.


I wonder what they're making for breakfast tomorrow? Did I mention that I love traveling?