The Last Journalfest

October 25-30th I was in the Pacific Northwest having the time of my life at my second Journalfest. Lucky for me that I had decided to go because this past weekend Teesha Moore announced that she will not be planning another Journalfest in 2012, and the Artfest planned for 2012 will also be the last.

Although I support her decision and any new projects she may undertake in the future, I cannot help but be saddened at the thought that I will not have more Artfests and Journalfests to look forward to in the future. These events have been life changing for me, and a creative/mental/spiritual boost that lasts for months. I am glad I was able to participate in the two Journalfests and five Artfests I've already attended.

So without further ado, here is a recap of my art excursion: Getting to Journalfest

I flew to Seattle on Jetblue on Tuesday to meet up with another Journalfest attendee with whom I would be sharing a rental car. I met up with Dana the first time ever in the garage of the SeaTac airport and once I stowed my luggage into the trunk of the rental car and hooked up my GPS we took off to find our hotels in downtown Seattle. Luckily our hotels were right around the corner from each other and once we checked in and got settled we decided to meet across the street at the Seattle Public Library, an incredible building inside and out. Here is picture of one of the floors inside:

After a quick tour of the library we headed off to Pike's Place Market for a quick look around before they closed up for the night. We grabbed dinner at an Irish pub and then walked back to our hotels for the night.

In the morning it was back to Pike's Place Market where we had breakfast overlooking Puget Sound at the Sound View Cafe. We checked out the market, this time in set up mode before heading back to check out of the hotels and head over to the ferry to Bainbridge. We spent some time wandering around the Bainbridge main street checking out the stores and galleries before heading to the Pegasus Cafe for an awesome lunch then we were back in the car and off to Port Townsend and a stop at Akamai art store (a truly awesome store with a truly awesome staff!)before heading over to Fort Worden for checkin.

We checked in at Fort Worden and after I hauled my 44 pound suitcase, my overloaded messenger bag and pocketbook up several flights of stairs of Dorm 225 I realized that my room assignment, Rm 41 was the same room I had my first time at the fort for Artfest back in 2007! Funny how that sort of thing happens to me so often. Here's the view from my room.

After dinner we headed over to the small theatre on the grounds of the Fort for the welcome meeting and introduction to the teachers and what Teesha and Tracy had in store for us for the rest of the week.

My three classes were very fun. Here are photos of some of the work I did. More details tomorrow!

West Coast Art Time

It's always a struggle to adjust my body clock to West Coast Time. It usually works in my favor, allowing me to be on time and awake at the beginning of the day when I'm usually sleepy and zombielike. There is definitely an adjustment to be made to the vibe of Seattle/PacNorthWest that I really enjoy making. Things are slower and friendlier here in Seattle. The city is smaller and seemingly more accessable. Black is not the dominate color of clothing, which makes people watching all the more interesting.
Other differences between Seattle and NYC- I see a lot of people walking around reading books at the same time. I went to visit the Seattle Public Library and it was pretty packed for a Monday afternoon. I was impressed that they could hand me a laminated page that gave me directions for a self guided tour around what is an incredible building- 11 stories---it is huge and wide open. I'll try to post a photo later, but I loved the words carved in the floor on the first floor of the library and the 'cone of sound' which made me think of the cone of silence from Get Smart. The building is a visual treat!
All of this site seeing I hope will add to my inspirational treasure chest for the art I will be making later in the week at Journalfest.

What do you do to refuel your creative toy chest of inspiration?