Artfest 2008

I've been back for about a week now and I think that's been enough time for me to reflect on the four days I spent in Port Townsend, Washington making art and frolicking in the woods and meeting other artsy folks. I've had time to decompress, and get back to "real life." But that thought made me kind of sad because Artfest was so real and so fun...I spent a good portion of each day learning new art techniques and making cool, funky stuff and meeting cool, funky artists...I want every day to be like that!
Just imagine four days full of art, laughter, good food, fun, nature...Artfest just can't be summed up in such little words. I hope the pictures paint a little more of what it was like. The first photo was of a stuffed creation sticking out of someone's backpack on the last day. It just looked so happy sitting in that pack all alone I just had to have that image with me always. The photo above is of this super cool car that someone had decorated with all kinds of toys and doodads.
I took some awesome classes with three fabulous teachers. Above was one of the three paper shrines I made in Melissa Manley's "Paper Ruins" class. We made our own molds with shells and plastic toys and anything with a funky texture then filled the molds in with paper clay. The pieces were then used to cover or enclose a matchbox...I'm not quite finished with it, but it's getting there...Below is a project from my first class that week. It was with Michael DeMeng and it was called "Creative Outlets." There is an actual electric outlet buried under all that metal and plastic. We learned how to make stuff look old and rusty with acrylic washes. Very very cool!
I actually had some time to stroll along the beach on the last day during Bee Shay's class, "Handful of Curiosity." It was a perfect way to end the whole experience. Making art all day for three days straight sounds like a luxury (it is!) and a lot of fun (it really really is!) but it is also very draining! In a good way. On that third day, I felt like I was hot and glowing like I had just been out all day under the warm sun. You know that feeling: cooked and cozy! That's what my brain felt like after exercising that long dormant "creative" side. So I snapped some pictures and collected some round stones and then we completed our project after lunch.


Funky sea textures:
This arrangements of pebbles in the sand as the tide rolled out reminded me of an alien cave drawing or something...Kinda like a crop circle or one of those ancient land drawings that were once thought to be messages to aliens or gods:
View from my dorm as I walked down the second story stairs on my way to breakfast and classes each morning. Never quite figured out what a "castle" was doing on an old Military Base turned State Park, but I thought it was romantic and fanciful anyhow:

Gotta have a picture of that beautiful blue-gray ocean...

And Artfest wouldn't be quite so special without the great artists that help organize and run the whole deal (Thank you Teesha and Tracy Moore and family and friends!), and who attend each year to take classes and teach! I met some great folks and I will never forget this experience as long as I live! I'm already looking forward to next year. Below is a picture of me, and two wonderful, friendly, creative and talented artists I befriended on my first Artfest adventure:

Hi, Kathy and Layla! Artfest was just made a million times more special because of you two! Less than a year to go before Artfest 2009! I can hardly wait.