Wednesday, November 20, 2013

(At My) Home for the Holidays...a Christmas Project Class

So here it is, friends. A three-hour class, with three very different projects. Class fee of $30 includes light refreshments and all materials except gel medium & gesso, which I ask students to bring along.

Both space and materials are limited, so I can only accommodate 8 in this one-time only class. Leave a message here or email me if you are interested. I will let you know if I you're in, or if the class is full. Below are the details...

Wednesday, December 4, 2013
6-9 pm, at my home, in Latham

Project details:
Project #1 is a wine cork reindeer ornament/package topper (great to put over the neck of a wine gift!).

Project #2 is a gift tag/mini hanger made with a vintage bingo card.

Project #3 is a mixed media winter scene on an 8 x 8 deep set canvas. Choose from 2 designs: Christmas tree (pictured above) or snowman.


Thursday, November 07, 2013

Holiday inspiration...


Bleached bottle brush trees, jute, burlap, shipping tags, and printed papers. Just a few of my finds at the craft store yesterday. I am feeling inspired to do some fun holiday projects, and maybe even a class or a demo video. Stay tuned!!



Saturday, November 02, 2013

Colors...



As an avid photographer, my friend Lisa has an eye for composition, color and shape. This is another of the photos she took the day we went to Woodstock. On the left is her image, of a stack of plates at Taco Juan's. Just for fun, I applied a painterly filter in Photoshop to the image on the right.

And this was the hand dryer in the ladies room near the municipal parking lot. We loved the "instructions" added by a previous visitor to accompany the visuals.

In case you can't see clearly, 1. press button. 2. Receive bacon. 3. Don't forget to get some up your nose as well. (Sadly, the hand dryer was out of bacon the day we visited. Probably because we discovered that most of the restaurants don't serve meat!!)





Friday, November 01, 2013

Not so heavy metal...

If you are like most artists and creative souls who find inspiration in everything from traditional art supplies to a rusty piece of metal on the side of the road, then you probably have stuff among your art supplies that you had to have, but haven't gotten around to using yet.

For some, the collecting of stuff, new and old, for potential art making may be just fine, regardless of the outcome, but for others, all of that great stuff starts to make us feel guilty if we don't eventually use it to make something!!

For me, (and I don't think I am unique), this guilt is in direct relation to how much I spent on that "stuff." The yard sale score or the free castoff that I picked up on the side of the road causes no guilt at all, but the complete set of collector's edition fancy schmancy art tools in its original storage case that sits for years in a corner of my art room practically makes me hyperventilate when I dare glance in its direction.

And yet, the thought of selling it or giving it away is nearly impossible when I remember all creative ideas it fueled -- all of the potential projects that spun around in my head when I took the class or saw the demo that made me feel as though I "MUST have this, NOW!!"

So Halloween day was spent with my friend Lisa, who knows exactly how this feels, because on this day, she busted out one of HER gotta-have-it-right-now sets of tools from Ten Seconds Studio, that she had to have several years ago...and we USED the crap out it!!

Here's peek at some of the fun...