Revisiting Virginia

I am just back from Art and Soul in Hampton, Virginia where I was blessed with the best students I could ask for in all three classes I taught. And as always, my students inspire me with the art they create - no matter what is being taught, the students art is their own, built on the skills I teach them, while retaining their own personal flair. I know that some artists worry that their art will be copied, but I have never seen a piece of art that turned out to look exactly like mine. That is the beauty of art - no two pieces ever really look the same. Art evolves - new ideas are built on the foundations of learned skills. I love the synergy between student and teacher in class as learning and skill merge to create new art. Each bird that was created from papier mache had its own shape and personality, including a "camel backed" bird that was a one of a kind species. These are some of the awesome student work from my evening needle-felting class:

Vendor night was a whirlwind of color and materials that made promises of a masterpiece to be and the fabulous art vended by the instructors made the pocketbooks empty, but still filled with the joy of finding that perfect treasure.






And I was lucky enough to find a spot in Stephanie Lee's class, Selective Seeing: Painting the Mind's Eye View. A great instructor and fabulous class, made even better by Sarah Garrity's kindness in bringing us a variety of old cupboard doors gleaned from local antique and salvage dealer's that were perfect to mount our paintings on.


Life moves a little slower here. The storms are full of bluff and thunder, but the rain washes the skies to a cornflower blue filled with big puffy cotton ball clouds. The weather was warm all but one day and the wind brought the scent of the nearby ocean to curl through the air and beckon me to visit. There is a small wooded patch of lush green trees behind the hotel that I wander, filled with the songs of robins, sparrows and finches, all drawn together by the melodious call of the mockingbird, who sings the songs of other birds and takes them as its own. And as I looked up, I saw a grumpy owl who was clearly bothered by my presence under his tree. He flew into the trees, looking much like a flying boxcar with his chunky body and huge wingspan. Just as it is here, there were the always present seagulls and crows, looking for a careless human to drop a bit of food for them to scavenge.

I rented a car to explore the surrounding area and will save those adventures for my next post! While it is good to be home, I left a bit of my heart in Virginia.

Return to the Sea

What is it about the sea, especially one as dark and brooding as this, that steals the darkness and melancholy from our souls and leaves us in peace with a calm heart and clear mind? The ocean has always been magic for me, so I leapt at the opportunity to spend the weekend with good friends creating new art, walking the beach and doing a bit of writing on the side.

Mother Nature, too, was busy at creating her art. This bright bit of color in an otherwise dark gray day, was laying in the sand after being washed up by the tide and yet, it appears to be a found art collage of flotsam and jetsam crafted by a careful hand.

Or the abstract reflections of clouds and sea on the sand with the small calligraphic marks left by sea pebbles. Seems to be too perfect to have been created by happenchance. Everywhere I looked there was beauty and to walk in beauty, in Navajo tradition, is to have a balanced soul. The weekend ended in rain that appeared to wash the world clean of the remaining whispers of winter to make way for Spring. The daffodils nodded in agreement as they danced to the rhythm of the wind.

Priceless!

Cost of ferry from Port Townsend to Whidbey Island: $8.90

Cost of gas to take a leisurely drive across the island: $12.00

Having a camera in my hands when a bald eagle flies past my nose: Priceless!!

Not to mention this shy Great Blue Heron who did not want his photo taken. Look at the wingspan - looked to be more than 3 feet and spread from bank to bank.

Artfest 2009

Creature from Carla Sonheim's Imaginary Creatures class.

I've spent the weekend at Artfest in Ft. Townsend, WA, taking classes, making friends and creating art. It was an amazing experience that began on Thursday morning with a watercolor portrait class by Tiphoni. In a room full of artists that had little experience with watercolor, every single person turned out a credible self portrait created from looking into a mirror and recording what we saw using a contour drawing (which is why the portraits look slightly askew - you aren't supposed to look while you draw) and filling in with layers of color glazes in red, blue and yellow to create the colors of the portrait.

Self Portrait from Tiffany's class

Friday, I spent the day at LK Ludwigs Artfest Journal class. This was an incredible class in that we learned so many ways to create journal pages. She creates many of her pages "outside the journal" and then attaches them to the actual journal page. We worked with metal mesh, tissue collage, layered collage, acrylic washes, surface treatments and more in just a one day class - and LK is so generous with her materials and her instruction time. This is a class I would highly recommend!!! I will be posting journal pages as I complete them.

Saturday, I attended Carla Sonheim's Imaginary Creatures class. We created creatures from random scribbles of watercolor on the paper. Everyone in the class turned out wonderful creatures from their scribbles. Carla also taught us the basics of drawing, including drawing a portrait of the person across from us with our left hand!! And although most of us were right-handed, all the portraits were recognizable and wonderful. Another great class to attend that gifts you with a sense of whimsey to add to your art!

More creatures from Carla's class

In between times there was the vendor fair and show and tell and wonderful walks on the nearby beach and fabulous shopping in town. And catching up with friends I miss so much, but only get a chance to see at these retreats. But the best part of all is the fellow artists you meet all on the road to finding their path in this artistic life!!

Spring has Feathers

a day of dreams
the garden and the hummingbird
float on my breath - unknown

In just a few moments in my garden, I was visited by most my feathered friends that struggled through the winter at my feeders. My Anna's Hummingbird was here this morning, but I missed getting a photo of her. This new hummingbird I believe is a Rufous Hummingbird - all rust and red in color. The House Finch looks a bit more orange - gearing up to wow the ladies...and as always, the jays come for their peanuts as soon as they hear me rustle the bag. Each jay picks up several nuts and puts them down, weighing each one to find the best one to take, although eventually, they take them all. We were graced with sunshine late this day and I planted my lettuces and snow peas while feeling the sun's heat warm my winter bones. Wrapped in the warmth of a spring day, I wonder what would life be without a garden full of feathers and flowers?

After the Storm

We had snow today - to me, March 1 should be the official day for snow to disappear into its winter den on Mt. Hood - but no, not this year - although it did not stick, it was strange to see snow after having several balmy days in the high 50's. But after the storm, the skies in the east cleared to show the almost full moon among the fluffy, cotton-ball clouds tinged with the rose pink of sunset. And the skies in the west were on fire with sunset. Nature gives us such a treat when displaying her beautiful artwork and for a moment, even in these difficult times, you can lay down your load of worries and just drink in the beauty of the world and be thankful.

Listening to the Sea on a Distant Shore

This is my completed collage for the latest Nature Gathered assignment, the Sea. Gesso on wood, with collage, acrylic, graphite and water soluble crayon....she's listening to the sea on a distant shore while enjoying a hot summer day...

By the Sea

Just a fun collage piece I put together while working on my Nature Gathered challenge.

At last, a sunny day...

It seems like a lifetime since I was last able to walk the LaCamas Lake trail in the warmth of the sun. A week ago, the cold of winter parted and allowed a sneak peak of spring to be. I grabbed my camera and headed out for the trail and was not disappointed.

I had not seen my shadow in so long!

The reflective color of the deep blue sky sets of the winter bare foliage and and moss covered trees.

The jet contrails make abstract art in the water.

And the full moon rises to lend her beauty to the sky.

I am taking part in a small poetry and prose exchange that will continue through all the days of winter. I thought I would share a few of my words:

December 30, 2008

How much more vibrant are the colors of the landscape when heard through the song of birds and the percussion of wind and rain. The music of the landscape is composed by all who share its bounty and color forms the notes in which it is written. Each being plays its own melody - a flash of red thunder wing , a shy soprano in drab grey, the dark melancholy of bare, brown branches, the jaunty tune of a squirrel stealing peanuts from the blare of the sky blue jays – yet all these songs will join together to create the symphony of life.

January, 27, 2009

Fly wild and free

Joyously celebrate your freefall, weightless

Dance in the clouds

While singing your trumpet songs

On your southward journey home.

I close my eyes and feel

Your windon my face

And become a feather on your wing

Taking my spring-yearning heart

toa a warmer land

Leaving on ly my time worn body

to contend with the cold winter.

I dream of daffodil sun.

February 5, 2009

Small yellow suns dot the grass

Dandelion wine, you say...

But I see thousands of white downy parachutes

Blowing in the wind

Eager to seed another star.

No weeds, these

But small worlds yet to be

Found Poetry

LK Ludwig posted a found poetry prompt on her blog on 2/6/09 to create a poem from the words on three scraps of book text and work it into your journal. Here is my interpretation of her exercise, taken from the pages of an 1860's ornithology textbook. Rather than put it in my journal, I created a journal "bottle" to illustrate my poem:

In winter,

Dark, without the exquisite hue of spring birds
Silky, silvery white feathers contrast

With the dingy, less-pure colors of the season.
Restless, active little forest birds,
Picking bugs out of cracks in bark,
A quaint and curious song

Recalling a titlark in midsummer

Be sure to visit her blog and check out everyone's links and read their found poetry, as well. Enjoy!

A Weekend at the Coast

Sunset at Lincoln City

A curious seal

Sun break on the ocean

Siletz Bay tree

Happy dog chasing the seals

Crow's feet

Lincoln City Beach

Another sunset view

***

I just returned from the Central Coast of Oregon where I took a class in Writing and Selling Nature Essays at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. The class was taught by Melissa Hart, a professor at University of Oregon, who also teaches an online class in memoir writing for University of California, Berkeley. Her class was amazing - she taught so much in a short six hours and was very generous in sharing her resources. Eight women from Oregon and Washington, some new to writing, others already published, attended the class and shared stories together in this peaceful and remote area, with a stunning view from every window. We learned that vision is our strongest sense and tends to dominate our stories. So we left the classroom and went outside into the trees and closed our eyes to hear the birds and the distant thunder of the ocean waves, used our fingers to feel the soft, velvet moss on rough tree bark, and used our noses to smell and taste the salted pine air and pungent loam beneath our feet. After the class, I drove to Lincoln City and walked the beach, searching for treasure and enjoying the sun as it set behind a fog bank. After spending the night, I left to explore other beaches in the area, stopping at Siletz Bay where I watched a happy dog chase a herd of sea lions off their cozy sand beach and into the cold waters. All too soon it was time to go home, but rather than my normal route, I chose to meander slowly through the slow back roads, exploring towns I had never been to before and did not know existed. There is so much of the world we don't know and miss in our travels over the interstate. Yet, in these places, history is alive and once experienced, stay in our hearts forever.