Playing Catch-up

Artfest came and went with the blink of an eye this year! I had a blast and this time around, I had my Bay Area Art Sisters to pal around with (we ended up in a lot of classes together!). I met some new friends and some new sisters joined our lil' group, too! I took three amazing classes from three wonderful, talented teachers...

Day one, I took a class with Nina Bagley. We learned all kinds of fun and funky ways to make a keepsake book (mine is still in-the-making...but here's a shot of the cover):


Misty Mawn's class, "A White Out" taught me all about how to distress backgrounds and make my canvas look old, worn and grungy (very fun and addictive!), and to paint all in ghostly, peaceful shades of white.


Day three was with LK Ludwig and we learned all about metal mesh and how to make resists with patina and commonly found objects (feathers, leaves, alphabet stickers, magazine cut-outs, stamps, etc):


This weekend we spent with Raul's family up in Modesto. We had a great time lounging in the sun at Lola's and today we went over to his brother's house to partake in an Easter gathering with family and friends.

Maya played with snails (making them race, makign the big ones give the little ones "snail back" rides...odd girl!) ;) And she made friends with the sweetest neighborhood cat. We wanted to take him home!

And I even got some art done! Worked on some more pages for the 1001 Journals project. It's ready to be sent to the next person (sorry for being a journal hog and taking so long!)



And that's all for now! We start the final count-down for our baby girl...next Thursday I hit the 36 week mark and I think that means that the baby could technically arrive any time now... yikes!

Artfest is in the Air!

These are some of the trades for Artfest I've been working on...little shrink plastic charms mixed with beads and funky fiber in an array of ocean colors. (I was originally inspired by an article on shrink plastic charms in Somerset Workshop by Lisa Guerin). The theme this year is sea monsters! I've adapted it slightly to include mermaids and the faces I think look a lot like jelly fish with long tendrils flowing down.

This little one has a curly seahorse tail and butterfly wings. A sweet little monster!

This is a closeup of the face that reminds me of a jellyfish...you gotta see the flowy tendrils for the full effect. ;)

Only 23 more days until ARTFEST!!! :)

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.