Back from Artfest

We had a great time in Port Townsend, WA at our second time to Artfest. Here we are with our teacher Karen Michel in the woodblock collage class. There was alot of hammering going on. This was a fun class, we learned how to give a patina to the wood with ink.







One night they had journaling by the beach get together. There was a bonfire with hotdogs and s'mores and beverages one night. Here are some gals working on their journals.













Everything was so green in Seattle. I was such a welcome to spring. The drive from Seattle (about 3 hours including ferry ride) was beautiful, full of flowers, trees and everything growing from all the humidity there.










We spent a day at Seattle- here is pike market with all the seafood lined up. We also had some chowder, mussels, clams and dungeness crabs. We dont get that in Denver.








Here is the Olympic Sculpture park in Seattle. This is one of Calders sculpture.

Trades ready for Artfest

I finally finished my trades to take on Tuesday!! I started with a watercolor painting and shrunk it down to attach to my charms. The charms are the Artfest logo printed on some hand made marbling paper I made this year. These are my first charms. I think wire and jewelry making are not my thing. Im also bringing a few atc cards and a piece of encaustic collage to sell at the artfest table. Only 4 more days....

Remembering Artfest

The Countdown is on until we leave for Artfest. Here is a Colored Pencil drawing I did of a beach scene from last time we attended (3 years ago) This photo was taken at sunset with beautiful pinks, peaches and blues. I shrunk this down to small size to attach to my charms I will be trading next week. I am excited to take some collage and sculpture classes.

Visiting Embrace Exhibit at Denver Art Museum

Last Saturday was a free day at the DAM so I decided to check out the exhibit I will be taking my 8th graders to later this month. This was entirely held in the new Contemporary building and they really took advantage of all the varied space and angles the architecture supports.
Each artist was given a corner or wall to create on. Most all the art was made when they got there. There is an exhibit with time lapse video and pictures to show the step by step processes.

This is a room downstairs by the gift shop. The artist Matthies wanted to emphasize different words immigrants felt throughout the world. This is really a hands on exhibit with cushions to lie on and sculpture to touch.
This was an exhibit I deemed inappropriate for my 8th graders entitled Dying Christ is rushed to the hospital by Shishkin. This includes a whole room to appreciate. The drop cloths used while painting are still in place.
This hanging sculpture by McEnroe was really interesting. They have cell phone codes you can play for each exhibit. (Unfortuneatly the reception is not good in the rooms) This was entitled Bathers. He used pantyhose filled with sand. Then he coated them with polyresin and drained out the sand after it was hard. I love the shapes and the shadows created in the exhibit. This is found on the fourth floor.

I couldnt find out alot of info on the exhibits as I would of liked to. I tried all the cell phone numbers but I would of liked some printed material as well. I would highly recommend this
exhibit as its something different containing all the installations. You can walk through as be a part of. There were many new exhibits on the fourth floor I hadnt seen last time I went. This is the last month to see this. So hurry over.

Art Journal in Progress

My New Art Journal is ready for Artfest. I just need to fill with some completed pages. I used the Coptic binding method with watercolor paper. The cover is done on pastel paper Canson Mi-Teintes with gold acrylic paint (paste paper technique) covered over bookboard. The size is 9x12 and nice and light to travel with.

There is a night at Artfest when everyone brings their journals and create at night. There is even a bonfire. Im hoping for nice weather again.

Coptic Postcard Book

This was a practice project for my Art Journal I will be making to take to Artfest. I looked all over to find the perfect size journal with the heavyweight paper . I wanted something a little larger than a page and would lie flat. I decided to make my own out of watercolor paper and a Paste paper cover. (I will post when I finish) Anyway I thought it was best to practice first so I saw this great idea for a postcard book using the stitch I wanted to sew. This was from a great book called How to Make Books by Smith: http://tinyurl.com/yjsl5zd

This book was really quick and fun to do. Besides the directions in this book, I used a you tube video to help me as well. I glued two postcards together for the front and 2 for the back. Then created 6 signatures with 4 spreads. I would use a darker waxed linen thread to show up better on my journal. You use a kettle stitch to make the neat line down the spine. I had to take out the last signature because you sew the back cover and the last signature together so it ripped a bit. All the more reason to practice. If you have been wanting to sew a book , this is pretty easy. I have done about 3 or 4 different classes to try bookmaking. I find it relaxing and fun.

Fat Book Pages Finished!

I am getting so excited to be attending Artfest this year near Seattle Washington with 3 friends. One of the fun things to do is to make pages to be included in the Artfest Fatbook. Each person makes one page and duplicates for how many people participating (53 this year) We mail them off to the hostess who binds the book with one page from each Artist. What a great remembrance of the trip! Anyway our theme this year was FairyTales. I chose the three little pigs and did a collage of this scene. Here is a picture of my finished fatbook from 2007. This was the last year I could attend the event. I can only go when my school has spring break since it starts on a wednesday.

Christmas Tree Zentangle

This is my latest Zentangle project. I created a tree and made cards for my volunteer helpers in my art class. I drew with .5 micro pens on watercolor paper and then scanned and duplicated on my computer. Finally I priinted onto 80 lb watercolor paper.

Dead Sea Fish Collage

I created this collage from a photo I took on my trip to Israel. This was on of our meals near the Dead sea. The fish was Tilapia.
I used various textures of different papers: wallpaper, magazine colors, starbuck bag to simulate the color. I tried to add darker shades to give value. This took forever but was fun to do. I painted my canvas with the color I intended to collage as a guide.

Watercolor Leaf Collage

I started with a Watercolor painting from traced leaves. I used salt and splatter textures. Then I added texture and shapes with fibers, tissue paper, mulberry, and string paper. I just love all these fall colors this time of year!

Wool Felting

This was another class were we stated with merino wool (undyed on the bottom) and layed colored wool on top to form our design. With agitation (bubble wrap) and soap and hot water we felted all the colors together to make a piece of art. You can use this to make a purse or case for my sketchbook. When it is felted you can cut it and it wont unravel.

Monoprints with Serge

I had the privilege of taking a class with Serge who is a professor at UNC in his expertise of Printing. The type we did is Trace Monoprints. We learned how to properly ink our plate and used different tools to draw our design on the plate. Then we ran the plate through his press to get a Ghost print. We used oil based ink that cleaned up easily with vegetable oil and Simple green spray. We immediately could add color with watercolor. So much fun!

Collage in a Box

I just came back from a great conference in Breckenridge where I was able to take 10 different classes in art! How great it that?
This was a collage in a box I made in relation to an artist Joseph Cornell. We looked at lots of his work and then set about cutting a frame in our box and covering the outside with Gesso. We covered the inside with papers, wood, objects,shells, sticks, whatever to represent our dreams or our passions. Some objects I included were music for my singing, travel globe, acorn and shell from my home in NJ shore.

The Art of Baking Bread

This Summer I found that I was allergic to things with gluten. (gluten-free) And since bread is one of my favorite foods I had go learn all over again baking bread with gluten free flour. This was very difficult because usually they are hard as bricks and the high altitude makes is even harder to get the recipe right. I was given a new breadmaker for my birthday and today was the first loaf of bread that actually came out decent. I bought a Zojirushi BBCC-X20 that you can program especially for gluten free baking. This is a raisin bread loaf that was yummy.Here are some bagels that I made. They were rye flavored and tasted great. I got the recipe from the current issue of Healthy Living.

Tryptich Book and altered photos

This was a book I made from a class I took in Fort collins by Kelly Kilmer. It was alot of fun to make the book and then paint the pages with different techniques.

Its called a Tryptch book because it has three sections that fold in.

Another part of the class included altering photos. We used sandpaper, stencils, paint, glitter and other items to change the photos and make them interesting. I mounted them in my book I made.

The best photos for this seemed to be ones of a large closeup of single objects. Kelly brought some photos of hers we could use. Here are some of the pages.

I would like to try this with my photography class this year with the photos they take. Sewing the book will be a little challenging but I think they can do it. Last year we sewed a book and they did well with it.

Making Rehearsal Dinner Invitations

This is one of my finished invitations. I used thin watercolor paper and drew some flower outlines with ink. Then I filled them in with some watercolor. I mounted this on some peach cardstock. This is her wedding color. Now I need to address the envelopes and buy some nice stamps.

My Glorious Garden

Being from Colorado we hardly ever get rain in the summer and by July everything is dead and looks like the sahara desert along the road. (Unless its sprinkled) This year we have had SO much rain that I am so proud of my garden this year. It has been fun to watch it bloom and grow. Here is my front porch with my waterfall I made myself several years ago. I have to take out the pump every winter since it gets so cold and I readjust the rocks every time. I keep adding new shrubs around the waterfall as we tear out the ugly evergreens that take over. All the planters I put together myself. Even my clematis (on the far left) keeps on blooming. Its amazing what some rain will do.

Collage on Foamcore

Here are some close ups of the long panel.

We had another Art night Last Friday and we worked on an unusually long collage on foamcore. First we trimmed it to the length and shaped the top. After laying out our images we glued them down and painted around them. We added another color and some other papers and text. Then I blended the colors together with Carand'ache crayons and wrote some description about the theme which was Travel. Lastly we hot glued a ribbon and did some splattering. Click to see the detail.

Prague has all the Art Museums in the Architecture

I loved going inside all the churches and seeing the beautiful decor and art inside as well as outside. This is Tyns church. Beautiful Gothic Style.
The Castle is in the background. It was set on a hill. St.

This building shows the Art Nouveau Style that is prevalent in Prague. Beautiful!

Back from a Wonderful Trip

This is the first stop on my journey to a small village , Pisek, in the Czech Republic. We sang in the public park, visited high schools to tell about america and practice their English. We visited and sang in a nursing home and attended a women's club. We helped the women practice their English and hoped they would attend the church at Elim. This bridge is the oldest in eastern Europe even older than the Charles Bridge in Prague.
This is a pen and ink sketch I did one morning of the old bridge in pisek. I added some watercolor when I got home. The bridge had lots of stone sculptures all across the bridge.



Here is a pen and ink drawing of the Garden Tomb where Jesus was believed to be buried. This was a beautiful place full of flowers. We had communion here with our church group on Sunday.