2013- Cool and Creative

First off I want to point you all in the direction of two cool blogs that friends of mine have started in the new year: Tending the Fire is a group of friends in the Pacific Northwest area that I had the privilege to meet at several Artfests. This blog is a group effort and well worth checking out: Tending the Fire The other blog is by another Artfest friend who decided that a new blog was in order to reflect her growth as an artist and to give her a venue to blog about a wider assortment of topics: Nikkidaisy

As I mentioned in my last post my only resolution for 2013 is to make it 'cool and creative'. I've got some cool trips already planned for the new year, and I want to expand on my creative pursuits this year, and try to break out of my comfort zone a bit more. Sometimes you have to take baby steps to get started so here is a page I just started working on. I've posted the first two steps in the process, and my plan is to continue to work on it in stages and show each stage (if I can remember to stop and scan as I work.)

What are your resolutions/goals for 2013?

Artfest- Saturday March 31, 2012

Story Pieces with Sunny Carvallo Last day of classes at Artfest. Sunny Carvallo gave us each a small piece of plywood which we painted and stenciled and stamped to create a background for our 'story' characters. This was a great class for me to learn some painting techniques. The idea was to write the last line of a story (you know, before the "...and they lived happily ever after." My line was "Returning home her dog was there waiting for her." (Yes, I was missing my dog very much, couldn't you tell?). My table mate, Mardie was also missing her dog. Here is a picture of the two of us with our finished projects:

After dinner was show and tell where we got to see work displayed from all the classes. I really wish that more people had displayed their projects, even if they were still in progress. I did take some photos at the show and tell, but since I didn't have time to get permission from the artists I will not post them here. Back at the dorm we had another art journaling party, where I started another journal page, which I have posted below. I will continue to work on this page and post a followup when I have finished it.

Sunday, April 1, 2012 Barely getting on the shuttle to the airport (there were supposed to be two buses, but one was an hour late, so having an early flight I was lucky to get on the first shuttle that was on time) it was a sleepy ride to the airport and a smooth flight home. Artfest is over in real time, but the magic will last for quite a while to come. My thanks to the entire Moore family and their support crew for making Artfest a smooth running and magical event.

Artfest, Friday March 30, 2012

Draw! Fantasy Vaudeville with Miss Mindy I had such a fun time in this class and learned some great things about drawing figures. We did a lot of pencil sketching in class and the final project was to create a Vaudeville poster for one of the characters we created. Most of the class were doing human figures, but I was in the groove doing animals. Here are three of my sketches and the poster I finally finished up in time for Show and Tell on Saturday night.

Friday night was vendor night and it was packed. Most tables were 3-4 people deep. I bought Miss Mindy's paper doll book and a pendant featuring one of her sassy girls walking a tightrope. I also bought fat quarters of fabric with wonderful designs by Tracie Lyn Huskamp,as well as one of her fragrant lavender sachets that helped me drift off to sleep that night. Back at the dorm I continued to work on my art journal, as well as the small art journal book we received in our welcome packets at registration. I used the stencil that Teesha designed (also in our welcome packets) on the front cover. I plan on putting most of the flat trades I received in this book. Below are pictures of one of the first spreads I did while I was at Artfest. This reminds me of something I forgot to mention about activities on Wednesday night. After the opening ceremony was over about 100 of us headed over to Dorm 225 where Jill Berry was giving out copies of the special mini map she did for Artfest. She showed us all how to fold it to fit into a cardstock foldover which I have pasted into this journal. We all had a great time learning the special folds. Thanks Jill!

Artfest- Thursday March 29, 2012

First Day of Classes- Technicolor Journaling with Tracie Lyn and Marilyn Huskamp. I have never worked with pastels before, so this class looked like a fun challenge. Tracie Lyn and her mother-in-law Marilyn were wonderful, leading our class through the ins and outs of working with pastels. After we made a color chart in our brown paper pads, we were each given the same color copy of a photo of a bowl of peaches. Using graphite paper we all transferred the picture to our brown paper and then colored them in with the pastels. It was amazing to see how differently all the pictures turned out- all beautiful, and all slightly different. Here is mine:

The next class project was to select an image that we brought from home to do. I chose a copy of a photo from a La Vie Claire magazine of an old chair with a mason jar of flowers and ball of twine on it. Here is what I did with the remaining time in class.

After dinner there were two journaling parties, one in the Commons and the bonfire down at the beach. I usually go to the bonfire journaling party but thought I'd check out the party in the Commons first. I never made it to the Bonfire, east coast time hitting me like a brick wall at 9:30 p.m. and the cold night outside. I was sitting in the far corner of the room and only caught a glimpse of the belly dancer after the country band finished playing. Had a fun time socializing with the great people at my table especially Collette, Emily, and Danielle. Here is the page I worked on at the Commons party.

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!

Getting Ready for Artfest

Over the past few years Artfest has been a part of my Spring ritual. I have attended this event that takes place in Port Townsend, WA since 2007. This year is no different. I picked my classes back in September and have been gathering art supplies (when they go on sale), planning art projects that revolve around the event (4x4 Fatbook trade, event trades) and preparing art journal pages that I can work on while I'm at Artfest. What is different about this year is that it is the last Artfest. The fabulous organizers of the event, Teesha and Tracy Moore and family/friends, have decided to make this the last one as they look to new opportunities and projects to get involved in. I cannot express my gratitude enough to the Moore family, as well as all the teachers and the 500+ attendees that make the Artfest experience life changing for me. I will miss going to the Artfest next year, but I wholeheartedly wish only the best for Teesha and Tracy in whatever projects they go for next. So here's a look at some of the things I've been working on for this Artfest. The theme is 'Stacks of Stuff'. Here is the page I made for the 4"x4" fatbook collaborative project. I used some clip art of the two women (Dover clipart) and stacked up the logos of all the Artfests I've been to since 2007. The base is watercolor paper with a paper tape tab on the side and a paper flower attached with a flower brad. I can't wait to see what the other 48 artists made for the book.

I've made about 55 ephemera packs and 30 of these tissue paper flower pins (photos below). They are made from old sewing patterns, and I made a few out of some patterned tissue paper I had saved from gifts I received. I found the instructions for these flowers on Pinterest. If you are interested in making them, you can visit this website:http://epherielldesigns.com -I will warn you, you need a bit of patience and a steady hand to cut these out. The results are worth the effort, they are really cute, and I feel vindicated for saving all those dress patterns I used to make things for my daughter when she was a little girl.

I hope to do a post from Artfest (if I can figure out the technicals on doing that with an iPad.) Otherwise I will post pictures once I get back!

Art day Saturday

Saturday I decided to make the day all about art. I got out my new book "Collage Lab" by Bee Shay (who I've had the honor of having as a teacher twice at Artfest- she is the best!) and decided to do the first lab. It involved putting gesso on watercolor paper and then doing stuff to it. It was a very zen activity and got me in the mood to play. Here are my gessoed pieces of paper, which I hope to use in other art projects down the line (or other art labs that I do as I work my way through her book.)


Then I read a chapter in another book I bought recently called "life is a verb" by Patti Digh. The intro was serious (and a bit of a downer) but the activity was fun- dancing. So I put on a Dave Matthews Band song and danced around for a few minutes and got in the spirit to work in my art journal. (See page below) Then I worked on getting all of these images scanned and ready to post today, along with the images from the Going for Baroque class I took with Lynne Perrella at Artfest (see last post).


Today (Sunday) I am cleaning...at least I was until I took a break for lunch and decided to come and play for an hour or so. Now it's back to laundry and cleaning some more. Grocery shopping and then hopefully another round of art journaling.

Going For Baroque

I had the best time in Lynne Perrella's "Going for Baroque class at Artfest. Working way out of my comfort zone- I like to paint but never really do it outside of painting water color washes for the backgrounds of my journal pages. In this class I got to create textures with gesso on red rosin paper (awesome stuff- got to go to my local Home Depot or Lowes and find me a roll of that stuff!) and then use my Portfolio water soluble oil pastels (I bought the box about 5 years ago and never had the courage to use them before!), along with paint and collage to create this incredible banner. (As you can see from the photo, I had some buckling problems with my collaged face/image. We used gel medium to put the image down, and I just don't get good results collaging with gel medium of any sort. We all had problems with it in class that day. Not sure if the rain/humidity had any role to play. Given my track record with the stuff, I would think it was just my problems with it. I have some work to do on this, but I am very happy with the results. I learned a lot of new techniques, and even if my finished project is far from display worthy, I like what I did/learned.) I took a photo of it at the Show and Tell on Saturday at Artfest, along with other examples of what people created in the my class and the other two (Lynne taught the class all three days.) She is awesome. I had always wanted to take a class with her and when I saw this new class being offered at this year's Artfest I made sure I indicated on my registration that I had to have her class on one of my three days! I lucked out to have it on Friday- where I've made the adjustment to the time change and got my creative juices fully flowing. (I always pick a relaxing class to take on the final day- I'll post about that one next.)

All packed for Artfest!

My bags are packed and I'm ready to go to my fourth Artfest. I leave in the morning for Seattle and will take the shuttle to Fort Worden for the event. I have decided to take two journaling classes this year, and a class with Lynne Perrella called "Going for Baroque" which had the longest supply list of any of my classes. I am looking forward to seeing my Artfest friends there and meeting new people. Fun fun fun! I hope to get some journaling in on some of the new pages I've started working on in my new journal. Here's one that needs some work!

Journalfest: Lost a Pin

Well I'm back from Journalfest and still recovering from the time change. I have yet to unpack my artwork and art supplies, since I've had laundry and other chores to see to and of course I had to go back to work on Monday. I did notice that I am missing something very dear to my heart. A little pin that I had on my journal bag, which I've drawn a picture of above. I've had this pin for at least 20 years. I lost it on Saturday at Fort Worden, somewhere between Dorm 225 and the Commons area I think. I loose pins all the time, but this one was special. If you have found Jasper, please let me know. I would really like to arrange a homecoming for the little guy.
I will start posting more about my adventures at Journalfest in the next few days. I had a really great time. My world is a better place thanks to Teesha and Tracy Moore, and all the great folks at Journalfest (and Artfest).