We're Back!

What an amazing weekend in Concord with the INspired Artist retreat.

Words cannot express the positively engaging relationships with everyone
there. You MUST go to Donna Downey's blog and watch her talk about it.
Her and her husband Bill pulled off an incredible event that "inspired" me
beyond belief. The energy of the group was so amazing and each and every
person there, was there for the right reason.
Here's a picture of a "shrine" that I created while demoing
some of the Tim Holtz crackle paints and our newest
Vintage Triptych wholey Card books.
Are we signed up for next year? You bet we are! Our space is picked out
and I will be teaching again, thanks to the encouragement of my students
who took the mica and transfer classes.
Oh yes, are we tired? Yes and no. After working the booth and teaching classes
all total we worked about 12-14 hours a day for 4 days. A little rest, a little
massage today and I'm good to go.
More pictures will be posted in a day or two.

Iron, steel, metal...it's all the same?

Ask sculptor, Ralph Berger that question because I sure don't know
the difference. Maybe there is none, but when I look at what he does
with it, I see ART. His blog is
filled with new pieces that he
has created from "found objects"
bigger than our version of
found objects... bouys, enormous saw blades, pressure tanks and whatever. Check it out. It is truly amazing esp. when I think of all the work that it must take to finish these.

Working with Gouache

One of the older issues of Cloth Paper Scissors inspired me to work with Gouache as a medium for resist and since I had never used it before I thought I would give it a try.
It's pretty interesting in that it washes off a surface, unlike acrylic which is there forever. I guess that means if I get it on my clothes, it will come off. hmmmmm - a bonus already.
The process started with a pencil drawing, then a wash of water color and then a coat of white/or any color you wish, actually all over the piece.


After it's dry, paint white gouache over the whole thing, but do not cover up the pencil lines.
When dry, you give the entire surface a coat of black india ink. Now, that's scarey because you see all of your work disappear under this black surface of ink.



When that's dry you take your piece to the sink and wash off all the india ink to reveal your images again. Let dry and then... work your creative magic to add color, embellishments, journaling, and more.



This whole idea of this came from Lauren Grant at our Kristi Steiner Diva Retreat in February although her process was a tad different.... using white acrylic paint, but that's a story for another day.
Meg Fowler and I sat down last Saturday on that cold and rainy day and did our thing with the gouache and are results were amazing. I like this so much I think that it just might become a class that you will see on my schedule.

Diva Reunion photos

Just adding another photo of our fabulous and creative
adventure here in Saluda . 12 of us gathered together
again for a 2 year reunion with Kristi Steiner
here in Saluda at Snails Pace.


The weather was certainly
in our favor as several of us took a short hike
to Pearson Falls right here in Saluda.
Along the way we gathered interesting fragments from
nature to inspire our afternoon journaling and collage.

An ATC a day... .continued

No, not mine but that of Gerard and Amanda from
Wilson, NC. Check it out. They are amazing and
talented, just like us. Every day
he creates a drawing on an ATC
and gives it to her.
Follow their blog to see their
newest additions.

It's finally here!

Cloth Paper Scissors® Studios
This special issue is dedicated to creating beautiful, inviting, unique, and functional studios for making collages, quilts, handmade books, and other types of fiber and mixed-media art. You will enjoy a full color zine with fascinating looks at studios and spaces of artist such as Cheryl Prater, Debbie Crane, Beryl Taylor, Tracie Lyn Huskamp, Judi Coates Perez, Lesley Riley and many more. They graciously open the doors to their studios and show us
where "the magic happens"

STUDIOS
" A Spa for the Creative Soul" from the publishers of Cloth Paper Scissors

• 10 projects to personalize your creative space
• Budget storage solutions
• 101 ways to organize your art and fabric supplies
• Extreme studio makeover with Patricia Bolton, Editor CPS

and much, much more.
Available now at Random Arts

Cleveland County Arts Workshops

9 enthusiastic participants joined me in Shelby, NC at
the Cleveland County Arts Council this past Tuesday night.
Each person created their own interpretation
of a self portrait...or not. Some chose to do
favorite animals, or very abstract images.
From glossy magazine pages to
a complete "work of art" -
a fun time was had by all.
Thanks to everyone who
attended and thanks
to Ellen Yunker for asking me
to be a part of their awesome facility.

Look who's here!

A surprise and unexpected visit from Barbara McGuire, PMC & polymer clay artist, author, craftsperson, teacher, TV Star and more.....

You all know her, right? You have seen her books, read her books, seen her name in all the publications? She called to say that she was in the area and she had heard all about our shop and wanted to come by. We had a fabulous time visiting and catching up on who's where, who is doing what in the industry. Anyone interested in doing some extraordinary classes in polymer clay please let me know. We have an accomplished artist near by who is anxious to be a part of our shop.

Saluda Shelf

Update on the shelf
Yes, the "Q" went missing the day after it was placed on the shelf
but we sort of expected that. See.......................it's gone!
We are just wondering what is going to show up next.
Each day another piece of art, nature, frivolity, garbage, what?
Who is going to add the next item? Follow up to continue with YOU
as a participant.

Look at this... Last week I cut some branches off of my

flowering quince and forsythia shrubs and brought them
into my kitchen. This is something that I had always wanted to do
but for some reason I either cut them too late or I was too early.
This year.... perfection.

Unexpected visitors to Random Arts on Saturday...
Gerard Lange -(check out the portfolio on artist books)
Art Professor at Barton College, Wilson,
NC and Amanda, a High School Art teacher overjoyed me
with their presence and shared their stories, journals and
ATC's with me. Gerard creates an ATC each & every day....
He draws these with fine art pencils on 2ply water color
paper & is inspired from his beautiful relationship with
his fiance, Amanda. One day it might be a shopping cart
drawing from their trip to the market. Next time it might
be the calculator they used & the next day it might be
a drawing of her jeep. She has kept each & every one of
his ATC's in 3 separate wooden boxes that she obviously
treasures more than anything. She teaches her high
school art students, among other things,
altered books and he teaches photo shop
at Barton College which includes transferring the process
into journals. Both of them have done such amazing work
as you can see from her journal pages.
I could not help but be inspired by all that they
shared with me... including their loving
relationship...aaahhhhhhh. I think I might have
encouraged him to do a blog of his ATC's so I will
keep you posted on that. They are incredible & Amanda is sure
that his work will be published some day and I think that
she might be right.Be sure to check out his web site.

Diva retreat update...

As promised, updates and photos from our Diva Retreat will continue.
Linda just sent a few awesome pictures so I wanted to included them
for all to see.

Have you seen it?

A mysterious shelf, attached to a telephone pole,
right here on Main Street in Saluda has found it's
resting spot. Some call it a shrine, an altar, a drop
spot or work of art waiting to be.
From what I hear, people are visiting and dropping
off all sorts of "personal treasures" on this shelf.
Some may choose to "take" from it instead of
giving, but that too is part of the universal process ---
to add, to subtract --- to give---to take----
to create. Let's just observe and see what happens.

2008 Diva Retreat Recap

Since our first Diva retreat in 2006, all of us have known somehow,that our paths would cross again... and again and again. Last weekend was our 2 year reunion and 11 of us shared our thoughts, ideas, techniques, queries,inspiration and friendship. With ice and snow predicted for last weekend you can well imagine how most of us reacted to the "farfetched" idea that our creative weekend "might be cancelled". As it turned out the ice melted and sun came out to reveal the deep blue mountain skies of North Carolina. What a relief and what an amazing beginning to this deep meaningful retreat.
From "show and tell" on Friday night from most of us, our inspiration
was flowing and we were all eager to get our fingers into the paint
and begin the process.Top to bottom is a collection of some of the creative journeys that
we have been on recently.
#1 Donna Williamson collages family photos with fabric
#2 Donna also shows a "color" motivated project done
with a group that she belows to in Charlotte. Her color" John Deere Green" ...
#3. Kristi giggles over her latest Fabric Booklace. Look for her to teach
that here in June. (Yes, you can finish it one class!)
#4. Suzi Hunt's newest fabric dolls took us all by storm. Generously
she has given us all a pattern to create our own.

This was only the beginning of the weekend. After that we shared
"goodie bags" filled with hundreds of unique found objects,
papers, vintage items, fabrics and much much more.

To be continued....

It runs in the family

My sister Amy, paints! I can't believe it! When she told me that she had started painting, I almost fell over. She was/is the last person in the world that I would even think would start doing something creative. The studious type, the single working girl, the academic type, but not in anyway, an artist. Since we have been adults, she has always lived in other places such as Denver, North Hampton,MA, and now Davis, CA, so knowing what she was doing on a day to day basis was not part of the program. Needless to say I was quite surprised but hearing the joy in her voice as she talked about her new passion thrilled me. The best part about all of this is that after all these years we finally have something in common, our art.
Here's her latest work after taking a weekend of lessons in Huntington Beach, CA. from Robert Burridge.

This week in North Carolina

From cold weather and ice in Saluda to
60 degrees in Charlotte for the
fiber art exhibit...
One of my
favorite places
to stop for lunch or coffee and peanut butter cookies in Charlotte
is "Something Classic".
When my daughter lived in Charlotte
we ate at the one
on Providence and then I found out through "happy accidents" that there were a couple more locations.
While visiting the Black Lion on Park Road, there it was, right there
inside this designer showcase shop. What a pleasant surprise to be
able to shop and have a lovely salad.
On to the fiber exhibit at the Mint Museum of Craft downtown Charlotte...
This exhibits features the works of many talented fiber artists from around the world. Each unique, interesting and inspiring. You still have time to see these awesome works through Feb 24th.
Another happy accident... a Something Classic in the museum building. How lucky am I
to find this just in time for coffee and a cookie! yum yum

Dye it, paint it, distress it, strip it, sew it

Sounds like a lot of work but it actually took less time than a couple of minutes for the whole process. Even with the sewing machine. This textured wallpaper takes dye and paint really well and then when you spritz it with water, sand it, scrape it and emboss it, and it's still pliable and easy to use. On these pieces this is just what I did. Once I had the pieces done I cut them with a paper cutter into strips and wove them all together. At this point you can trim the pieces into the size that you want for your card, background or collage. I used a larger fleur d'lis for the accent on a card that I created for my friend Katie. The last card was finished with an interesting photo with a mica overlay.

DON'T BUY WHIRLPOOL APPLIANCES

I am NOT going to go into a lengthy "schpeel" here about this that and the other thing, just
DON'T BUY WHIRLPOOL APPLIANCES.
They break right at the time of warranty and then they don't stand behind it then when it breaks again in a couple of months, they don't stand behind that.
That's all.

YES, I PAINT, TOO.

My first love in my life, that started at a very young age was oil painting and I continued on for many many years until I found out about rubber stamping, altered art, collage and assemblage.
So, recently over the holidays I painted a piece of my daughter and her boyfriend Erik. They live in Bozeman, Montana where it is a lot colder than it is here in North Carolina. They have only seen these pictures of their Christmas present but will soon see the "real thing" once it is sent out to them. The top photo of the painting is one that I took while it was sitting in the back of my Matrix, ready to be delivered to them in Ohio for the holidays.
The other photo is one that I took of my work
hanging on one of the walls in my house. Since I wasn't able
to make the trip to Ohio for Christmas I sent these pictures to her
so she could see her present... via the world wide web.

I first did a painting like this about 10 years ago after attending
the Teesha Moore Art Asylum in Snoqualmie, Washington. Paul and I spent a weekend there learning all sorts of new techniques taught by Tracy and Teesha. It was an awesome weekend for both of us and one of the things that I learned was do this type of painting. I did a painting of myself at that time and a few years later did one of my daughter, her husband and their first son, Andrew.
I only use one color paint to achieve this affect, burnt umber by Golden. I suppose other paints would work but I prefer Golden, especially since Patti Brady, the Golden Art expert, was here to teach this past year. We are very excited to have a verbal agreement with her for another appearance here in 2008. You won't want to miss her next workshop and you won't want to miss her new book that showcases her techniques using Golden Paints. Due out in Fall '08/

I'm Looking Back

2007 was the year of "wholey paper & rust". Oh yes, just sum it up in those words and it's all over the place. It took over our lives. We were absorbed in all things wholey .
We
painted it
stitched it
distressed it
tore it
rusted it
torched it
stamped it
dyed it
glued it
transfered onto it
printed it
and.... more, to come.