The difference of a day, and a big win
Posted on February 8, 2010 - Filed Under Visual Inspiration
Yesterday’s Super Bowl game was just what I needed. It was a clean, impressive, exciting and immensely gratifying to watch New Orleans win.
You may have noticed the fleur-de-lis on the side of their helmets. This is a heraldic representation of an Iris, which is also the symbol of one of my other favorite cities, Firenze, Italia. The flower ultimately represents the Goddess Iris, who is the messenger between the gods and humanity, manifesting herself in the rainbow. The iris flower is one of the most resilient plants on earth: it sends up its rainbow flowers in hundreds of climates and countries in many styles and hues. Yesterday there was no rainbow at that game that we could see, but surely you can feel it now.
Once Upon a Time
Posted on February 7, 2010 - Filed Under 2010 Workshops
Artfest is coming up in about six weeks, where I am teaching for the first time. Two classes, Spontaneous Deconstructed Journal, and Three Letter Words. I am excited, nervous, thrilled, happy and ready.
The theme this year is Once Upon a Time. Here is a map I am working on for a trade.
I have to finish it up soon and then fold it down into a pop-up. If you want to see it finished, you will have to come to Artfest!
The first night, Wednesday, I am hosting a Prep Party. You can bring anything you need to prepare for classes, including mine. I will bring the black gesso and other treats, including wine and snacks. Dorm 203, after the presentation.
See you soon!
Magical Midnight Stories, real ones
Posted on February 6, 2010 - Filed Under 2010 Workshops, Creative Exercises, My Work
My friend Nancy had a stroke last week. She is out of the coma she was in, but it seems to me that she is still not with us. It looks sort of like her, but I think she is on vacation, trying to figure it out. Her hospital room is devoid of flowers, but there is music, and there is Nancy, tied to the bed that holds her, wrapped in swirling tubes and surrounded by a fortress of machines. She blinks. She raises her hand to hold the sidebar of her bed. Right now, that is all she does.
The last few days have been pitch dark inside me. Not only is it seriously frightening to see what one small moment can do to a vivacious person you know, but next, it could be me. I do not want to continue any of my bad habits in the chance I could avoid this. But then, how do you avoid something that makes no sense at all?
In the meantime, I am filled with gratitude for whatever force granted me the ability to work in out for myself in art. This morning I made a map of Nancy’s head, or perhaps my head, thinking about Nancy. And I found a book I made, that I think needs finishing. In this book I used the black on black painting techniques that I use in my Magical Midnight Stories class. Sometimes it is necessary to paint on black.
Today I am grateful for my drive to create, for the healing that happens through that drive. I am grateful for my health, and my hands. I am grateful.
The Captain of my Soul
Posted on February 5, 2010 - Filed Under Written Inspiration
Lots of events this week.
Sam sent the dog outside saying “Teebo, wanna go out? Wanna go out into the world? Wanna go out into love?”
Sydney woke up and said “Mama, it feels like there is a whole world in my stomach and the continents are crashing into each other.”
My niece, Sophie and a large group of her friends memorized this poem. They were challenged to do so, but no one actually expected them to. When asked for volunteers, nearly the entire group of 11 year old kids stood up, and in unison, recited:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley
Taos, the Luminous Landscape, August 7-12, 2010
Posted on February 4, 2010 - Filed Under 2010 Workshops
Northern New Mexico is one of my favorite places: I started going there to make art 12 years ago, the summer before my girl was born. What makes it so magical for me is likely the same as it was for Georgia O’Keefe, and other artists and writers that were enchanted away from their places of origin to land there. It is the light, the wide, wide vistas with ribbons of red and green. It is the desert floor that can look like Easter, full of purple and yellow. It is the sky, the huge, colorful showy sky.
If I was four people, one of me would be figuring out Dreamweaver so I could fix my website to make my workshop page function. One of me would be my secretary, to follow up on all those calls I made to try to find help for my webmaster person. One of me would plan the class, and one of me would be a wife and mother extraordinaire. Alas, my posting here will have to do for now.
My workshop is called “The Luminous Landscape”. We will be painting and bookmaking in the Stables Gallery, right in the heart of town and within walking distance from the casitas we rent from Lovey, at Taos Lodging. She is offering a 10% discount to students of this class, so please mention that to her if you call.
Lovey has a small beautiful compound of casitas that can be shared. They all have kitchens and baths and varied sleeping arrangements. We have happy hour outside on the deck.
The price for the class is $590 for five days, including some of the supplies, a welcome party, and a week of inspiration in the company of like-minded artists. The lodging and transportation are up to you.
Hopefully I will have my Paypal buttons up and running this week, so you can be one click away from a week of bliss!
And the winner is…..
Posted on January 30, 2010 - Filed Under Uncategorized
Lynne Sward! Congratulations! I need to track you down for a snail mail address.
Thanks to everyone who participated. I am going to keep doing this, I have a lot to give away, so come on back from time to time.
Also I am working on two interesting workshops. Taos for a week in the beginning of August this year, and Italy in 2011. I used to live in Florence, so this is a dream come true to be going back to teach there. The timing is great since my book is due some months before that.
Details to come!
Valley Ridge 2010
Posted on January 26, 2010 - Filed Under 2010 Workshops
Yesterday I sent this set of books off to Valley Ridge yesterday. All the books were made from one book, and I limited myself to using only that book for text and photos. There are 13 books in the house, more than most anyone will be able to do in this class, but I thought with the crowd that is coming I had better set the bar really high. Yesterday I mailed, banked, cleaned, organized, paid, and played homework helper and cooked. Today I am making my next list, fixing up my studio to launch on map making, and drinking tea, with my big fluffy puppy here with me listening to Italian violin music. Note the venue in Italy for 2011 to the right. It is celebration tour, as my book will be turned in and I will have nothing to do but plan a fabulous class and brush up on my Italian!
YES
Posted on January 21, 2010 - Filed Under Written Inspiration
Yes
It could happen any time, tornado,
earthquake, Armageddon. It could happen.
Or sunshine, love, salvation.
It could, you know. That’s why we wake
and look out — no guarantees
in this life.
But some bonuses, like morning,
like right now, like noon,
like evening.
~ William Stafford ~
This is one of my favorite poems by one of my favorite poets. It is the middle of the night, and my head is full of ideas on fate. What I know is that we need to take the time to appreciate what is all around us, and, maybe especially, what isn’t.
Art & Soul Virginia: Dream House/Gypsy House
Posted on January 19, 2010 - Filed Under Uncategorized
This week I am one of the featured artists for Art & Soul in Hampton, Virginia, and Glenny is offering a 20% discount on my classes. Click here for that offer.
Leave a comment here under one of the posts for VA, and on the 29th I will pick one to win a big box of goodies from my studio.
The second class is Dream Houses. These houses were in Somerset Studio a bit over a year ago, and I love making them. They start with a base of binders board, foam core and wood, and then are covered with paper (my paste papers) and sheet copper. I add hammered copper tubing, and sometimes wrap that with brass wire and milagros, then add charms and other shiny things. You will be given kits for two houses, big fun!
This gal is cold, so I sent her to live in California by the beach with my friend Mary Stanley. These three were in the magazine. They are my Nana and her sister, my daughter Sydney, and a dreamy girl I like to think of as me. On the roofs of the houses are carved floor plans of the houses each of us love, and some words about them. There are little charms and doodads added at the end.
This one is from a series called “Love Letters”. I think the guy got jilted by a woman he met at the shore. His broken heart is carved into the roof.
This weekend I got a little carried away and made a house for a gypsy. Gypsies do not typically live in houses, but this one does. She has it all done up with ribbons and beads. Her heart is full of longing, and her roof shows the crossroads she has recently faced. 
The supply lists are short, and both classes are fun fun fun. Please check out the Participant’s Comments at the top of the page to read my shamelessly solicited comments from lovely people who have taken my classes. Thanks for stopping by!
Art & Soul Virginia: Magical Midnight Stories
Posted on January 17, 2010 - Filed Under 2010 Workshops
This week I am one of the featured artists for Art & Soul in Hampton, Virginia, and Glenny is offering a 20% discount on my classes. Click here for that offer.
Leave a comment here under one of the posts for VA, and on the 29th I will pick one to win a big box of goodies from my studio.
In May I am excited to be teaching two classes at Art & Soul in Hampton, Virginia, and I have been busy making agendas for them that should satisfy even the fastest, most manic participant. The first class is Magical Midnight Stories. It is a combination of bookmaking and surface design on paper.
The book is a never ending structure that fits in a small case.
The signatures will be stitched, but the big cool factor is that the pieces inside it will be woven together, without using glue. This is a technique I came up with after hanging out with my friend Paul Johnson for a week. He is bookmaker and artist extraordinaire. I was inspired to find a way to make non-adhesive attachments somewhat simpler than the complex techniques he has, and that is when I came up with this.
I love the entire line of Arches papers, and this one is no exception. It is Arches Cover in black, and has a velvety surface that can take alcohol, bleach, paint and pens, shown on the sample above.
We will also use sumi, watercolors, colored pencils, gouache and acrylics. We will do some drawing, but there are many workaround exercises if you are one who is convinced you can’t draw. You can, and I will show you.
This is also pencil, with a different technique.
We will do some black on black blind drawing with sumi ink, and find the creatures in the designs.
I call the one below “Ninja Trains the Cosmic Bunny”
Lumiere paints and Twinkling H2Os create fabulous luminosity on this paper.
So, if you want to try all this stuff and make a book to prove you did, sign up for Magical Midnight Stories at Art & Soul in Virginia.
Art Journaling Magazine
Cloth Paper Scissors
Interactive Art Workshop
Letter Arts Review
Somerset Sept
Somerset Studio
Somerset Studio
Somerset Studio
