Photocrawling Seattle

Usually I sleep in on my days off...a rare opportunity to wake to the songs and twitters of the backyard birds in the the pale pink light of a rising winter sun...the warmth of the sun's rays wrapping me in a soft blanket of comfort. But Saturday before last, I fairly hopped out of bed, excited to get out the door and down to the train station to take the Amtrak Cascade to Seattle. I met up with my friend, Paula, to share the 3 hour train ride north, where we will meet Gwen and Dawn at the Seattle Pike Street Market.

The sir was warm with the promise of spring. Small green sprigs decorated the trees and the dogwoods were in full bloom. Ever alert for that small piece of discarded trash that might become a recycled work of art, I saw several promising informal trash dumps to visit on the side of the tracks. Who would have thought that when I grew up, I would be excited by the sight of discarded drawers and metal pieces? Or an odd shaped rock? Or any of the multitude of small treasures to be had upon the ground. How lucky we all are as artists, to see the potential beauty in things no longer of value to others!

When we arrived in Seattle, sweet Gwen was there to guide us to our destination. After a few photos of the Seattle station architecture and the tiled floors, still surviving from the original construction, we were off to the market, via the underground tram. A few stops later, we walked out into the bright sunlight to see the Seattle Art Museum right in front of us. A beautiful building that I longed to go in and visit, but no time for that today. We walked down the street, taking in the Hammering Man, whose hammer had been stilled by the removal of his hand for maintenance. A few blocks later, we gazed at the Seattle Market, ringed by daffodils along the roof edge and full to the brim of folks out to enjoy the day. Here, we found Dawn and now the four of us set out to explore. The distant Sound was a sapphire blue and the cherry blossoms filled the trees with pink lacy frills. The market itself was filled with the color of fresh fruit and vegetables, the fragrance of lavender countered by the smell of newly caught seafood.

We watched the vendors toss fish in the air and hawk their goods. We took photos of the multitude of neon signs that are throughout the market, but rare to find outside the old parts of towns now. And the flowers....there were so many of every color in the rainbow...bulbs, perrenials, tree limbs and ornamentals. An amazing array that filled the eyes and nose, almost overwhelming our senses.

We stopped to have humbows for lunch, a dumpling filled with deliciously spiced pork from a streetside vendor, before moving on to find a coffee shop to sit and journal the day. Along the way, we stepped into Fran's Chocolates, and sample a bit of heaven in the form of a smoke salt chocolate caramel and bought small Easter chicks of chocolate and caramel, wrapped in foil in hues of purple and green. Of course, some of these begged to come home with me and how could I resist? Now filled with good food and equipped with photos of our explorations, we settled down to enjoy our day and journal.

We printed out photos to share on our PoGo printers to preserve the day for all of us. Gwen provided us all with a small journal made from newspaper and gesso and a clever fold and cut method and we set down to cut, glue, collage and write while we enjoyed our coffee. Too soon, though, it was time for Paula and I to catch the train back home. After visiting the Medici paper store and scoring some unique collage packets I can take to Australia for the students, we said our goodbyes to Dawn and headed off to the train station, walking this time so that we could continue to take photos of the day. We said our goodbyes to Gwen at the station and settled in for the long trainride home. Paula and I chatted on about the day and how wonderful it is to spend time in the company of our friends in the pursuit of art. It just does not get much better than that!

New Class in Virginia

I've got a new class posted for Art and Soul in Virginia in May 2010!!! Come join me in this two evening class and explore drawing and painting the human face and figure. I will show you sure fire methods to draw faces and the human figure, both adult and child, including the feared hands and feet, fingers and toes!! After we create our drawings, we will re-produce our drawings using mixed media, including collage and paint. Go to this link to learn more! I would love to see you there and spend some serious art-making time with you all!

And don't forget my encaustic class in Virginia! We had so much fun in Las Vegas playing with wax. And the encaustics created in class were amazing. I look forward to sharing similar techniques with you in Hampton, including the basics of creating wax and colored wax, fusing, surface decoration, inclusions and more! You can read more about the encaustic class here. I supply almost everything for this class, so this is a super easy way to explore this medium before investing in supplies.

And, last, but not least, is my watercolor painting class. In this all day class, learn the basics of watercolor painting including color mixing, the application of color, some cool tricks to create special effect and how to choose brushes and paper. We will explore washes, dry brush and the layering of color to maximize what is best about watercolor - the transulent color that reflects light back to us as if through a stained glass window. You can read more about the class here.

Virginia is a wonderful place in the spring! Especially the nearby Eastern shore. I plan to explore that shore again on this trip, and this time I WILL see the ponies of Assoteague and Chincoteague that I have dreamed of seeing since I was a child and read Misty of Chincoteague. I hope you can join me there!

A New Found App

I love my iPhone. I resisted buying one for the longest time, thinking I am already too hooked up to the network and needed time away from the world...places I could go and not be found by anyone but myself and the warm wrap of nature on a sunny spring day. But eventually I caved in, encouraged by friends who did not hesitate to endorse this small wonder.

While there are dozens of reasons I consider this one of my best purchases, the one use I did not feel would be beneficial was the camera option. After all, I have been a photographer since winning an award in high school left me hooked and have a digital SLR with all the bells and whistles - what would I use a camera phone for other than to record the sometimes unexpected.

Then I discovered the world of apps - photography apps - apps that will turn out photos that resemble my Holga's odd toy camera photos, act as a "flash" without flashing, crop and even a mini Photoshop app. Who could resist? But a couple of days ago, I discovered the Hipstamatic app and I am in love. I have been snapping shots of everything, seeing what this app will produce as a finished product. Each photo is squared, framed and treated to a retro toy camera effect and each photo is a bit different than the photo before. I've just started exploring, but thought I would share these first attempts.

At long last, March 1....although there will be a few more frosts and a lot more rain, the winter draws to a close for me when March arrives. The trees are alive with the song of birds...they celebrate too. The willows are fuzzy with buds and the frogs serenade the night. And in the air, the unmistakable scent of new life. The leaves are peeking out of winter set buds and fruit trees curtsy and sway, dressed in the softest of pink and white lace flowers. And the geese fly north. Change flies to us on small feathered wings of a new season.

But first, I will travel across the ocean and visit a bit of fall in Australia. Seven days and counting...I know an amazing adventure is in store for me. New friends to be made, art to be shared, memories to record. This is a dream come true...to teach art classes in a corner of the world I've have always wanted to visit and explore. Thank you, Judy...I am grateful beyond words.

Viva Las Vegas

The night is dark. A light here and there, six miles down, but mostly purple black darkness through the window of a plane winging through the desert air at an amazing 600 miles an hour. A trip that once took more than a day takes place in the miracle of a couple of hours. Suddenly, a glow in the distance and the night gives birth to a bubble of light completely incongruous with the surrounding inky blackness. Las Vegas. City of perpetual light and life, energy and electricity, greed, desperation and loss...and for a lucky few, the sound of a jackpot.

I am here to teach classes at Art and Soul in the place of the talented Judy Wise, whose eye betrayed her at the last moment, stealing her away to the comfort of family and the healing warmth of home to recover. A scary proposition to step into the shoes of a talented artist such as Judy....but I love to teach and I will have the opportunity to join my friend, Tory Brokenshire, a talented artist from Salem, Oregon, who has come to take classes. And I am excited to be in a city I once loved, back when it was a sleepy desert town and the bathtub warm waters of Lake Mead were a dream to water ski.

I arrive just in time to attend the last few minutes of Vendor Night, and the opportunity to purchase collage materials from one of my favorite vendors, Collage Closet. She did not disappoint and I came away with an armful of old papers and metal pieces that I will squirrel away for future art projects. Sadly, I did not get an opportunity to look at the talented work of the other vendors, but my pocketbook was thankful. I could hardly have said no to such fabulous art. Afterwards, we walked over to the Flamingo for a late night Burlesque show, before going back to our room at Bally's and collapsing.

I woke up early on Sunday, eager to teach my first class....only to find that none of my supply boxes I carefully shipped to arrive before me had shown up at the hotel. I was dumbfounded. In all the years I have taught classes, the post office had never failed me. I ran for Maria's store and bought what I could to teach with, but what a blow that was. But I received a warm welcome from the students and we enjoyed a day of journaling techniques and shared approaches to writing that left us all richer for the experience, despite the lost supplies.

Sunday evening, we explored the passageway between Bally's Hotel and the Paris, crafted to resemble a quaint French village and full of restuarants and shops. As you stroll through the passageway, you are surrounded by a soft sky full of whispy clouds, the facade of old buildings graced with stone carvings, hand lettered signs and windows filled with lace curtains. Were it not for the noise and commotion all around, it would be easy to pretend you had found your way into a rural village. How fun it must have been to plan, create and dress a French village!! What a change from the normal bland office venue that form the bulk of clients for most architects and designers. A dream job right out of Disneyland...

Well, you have to admit it is a novel idea. A no smell toilette bowl....hmmm............................

And Tory comes to terms with the gorilla that guards the entrance to this store.....

Monday I woke to find the message light on and to my delight, three of the four boxes I shipped had arrived. I breathed a sigh of relief as the wood panels I had cut for the encaustic class had mostly arrived. But still, I was in need of a griddle and a toaster oven, and supplies for another instructor who did not receive her supplies, either. And, well, yes, I love a good adventure...and what better way to get the flavor of a town than by jumping on the the transit bus to find your destination. And what fun to ride a double-decker bus and take in the sights of the town from a different perspective.

Two buses and several stops later, I found Michaels and Wal-Mart together in a distant shopping center. I scooped up lucious colors of paint, a tub of candy corn for class and my utensils, and stopped. I had left my third and fourth arms somewhere and there was no way to haul my hard won finds back to the bus stop. I contorted and twisted, balanced and pushed...and finally gave up and called a taxi.

As the driver fought his way through rush hour traffic, he delivered a constant stream of Las Vegas trivia. He talked at length about how the recession has so horribly affected this city built to fleece the unwary of their money. He pointed out entire skyscrapers that are immaculately finished on the outside (called a "skin"), but completely empty of improvements on the inside because the owners ran out of money or went bankrupt. The "skins" were added so the average person would not know that the building had stopped and the city could keep up its "image" and customers would not be deterred from visiting (or being cautious with their money).

Tuesday morning I arrived early to set up the encaustic class and start the skillet warming. Soon the room was filled with the honey sweet scent of hot beeswax. One by one the students arrived and began working on their collage base for the encaustic. And then the fun began. After a first coat of wax over the collage, we incised, we gilded, we painted with encaustic crayon, we embedded and best of all, we shellacked. Borrowing a bit of Bullseye Amber Shellac from Leighanna Leigh, who graciously shared, we painted our encaustic with shellace and lit it on fire with a match. The base burns off and leaves the most incredible designs in the wax. The art created in this class was amazing and we all had a wonderful time. The last package arrived during lunch and I was able to hand out a second backing board and almost everyone created at least two works of art to bring home with them.

When class was over and the classroom tucked in for the evening, Tory and I skipped out the door and into the wild night life of Vegas. Colors so hard and bright that you can wear sunglasses at midnight. Colors so vibrant that you can taste them on your tongue and your artist heart wants to pluck them from the sky and create art. We started with the world buffet at the Rio. Billed as the largest buffet in Vegas, the buffet brings together food from the ends of the earth. The food was okay....the dessert bar was to die for! But as always, the eyes are hungrier for more than the stomach can hold and soon there is no room for more.

So back to the Paris to walk off our calories and up to the top of the Eiffel Tower, Vegas style. At the top is a 360 degree view of the "strip" in all it's glory and a bird's eye view of the fountain show below the Belagio. Timed to the music that is played, the fountains sway and dance to the beat, jetting up into the air with a crack and a boom and then twisting delicately together like lovers in a chorus line. But the air is cold and bitter and we scurry for shelter as soon as the show is over.

The Bellagio fountain that moves with the music of the moment, leaping several stories into the air.

On our way back to our room, we stopped at a Harlequin Romance cover art show. I can almost hear the words here....that's it....you've snuck out of your room and broken your curfew for the last time...it was fun to make up our own stories to tell the character's tales. One of the most notable things we observed was that one artist literally used photographs of faces and hands and then painted in the rest of the painting, leaving a medival knight with a decidely 20th century face...

Wednesday morning I set up the last, but certainly one of the most enjoyable class, Dolls for Big Girls. After readying our clay, each of us created one-of-a-kind dolls. The dolls insisted on who they were, often guiding the artist in creating and dressing her, with each becoming her own personality.

All too soon, it was time to say goodbye and head for the plane home. What an incredible experience Art and Soul provides for the student and instructor alike. We learn and grow in art together, becoming sisters (and brothers) in creativity and shared experience.