Artfest: Day One- Wednesday March 28, 2012

Still trying to overcome my jetlag, here are my overdue recollections of the last Artfest, hosted by Teesha and Tracy Moore at Fort Worden in Port Townsend, Washington. I flew in from New York to Seattle on Tuesday, not leaving it up to chance that I might miss my shuttle to the Fort on Wednesday (which happened to me last year). I took the shuttle from the DoubleTree Hotel by the airport (very nice too- love the warm chocolate chip cookies at check-in!) back to the baggage claim to pick up the Hogwarts Express Artfest shuttle at 2:00 pm. Two and a half hours later we made it to the Fort and checked in at the Commons.

After I got my stuff into my usual room (this is my 6th Artfest and for 5 of them I've had the same room- Dorm 202 Room #16) I gathered up my trades and went back to the Commons for what I call the Trading Frenzy in the lobby before they open the doors for dinner. I didn't last till the end, reaching my limit with trades to spare for trading in classes and other activities. Here are some pictures of all the trades I did get over the five days of Artfest.

After dinner we went to the opening ceremony at the Pavilion. Teesha and Tracy gave a little speech about how Artfest has been a part of their lives and how they are looking forward to the next artistic endeavor. Teachers were introduced and then the crew that helps make Artfest work. At this point Tracy made a special introduction of David who came down from the audience as a teacher? and proceeded to propose to Tracy and Teesha's youngest daughter Trista (and she said yes!). Lots of standing ovations for Tracy and Teesha. Jesse Reno wrapped up the opening with a rambling talk on creativity and following your gut and being creative. After this I left the pavilion and picked up the fatbook 4x4 collaborative project I had contributed to. It was an incredible collection of work by Artfest artists to commemorate this last Artfest.

The other collaborative project I contributed to and picked up at Artfest was hosted by Penelope Harris "The Book of Faces" which was an awesome project inspired by classes we had taken with Roxanne Padgett. Penelope had requested people send her drawings of faces (I submitted four to the project and all were included!) What a fun thing to have and play with!