GAGA

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GAGA is the acronym for Gentileschi Aegis Gallery Association, and I’m a new member, jumping in with both feet. The group’s name comes from Artemisia Gentileschi, a painter from the Early Baroque period, and invokes the protection of the Greek goddess Athena’s shield, Aegis, named in “The Iliad.” The upcoming GAGA group show opens on Friday, May 9 at the Southwest School of Art. (Save the date!)

This GAGA exhibit is nicknamed ROYGBIV (colors of the spectrum), and each artist member received two paint chips from a selection of house paint colors which had to comprise at least 70% of their 12″x12″ works. Cool concept! The group’s 120 pieces will be installed in color progression order. So – here are my two pieces, just finished tonight. And, yep, that’s Behr brand house paint you see on the pieces – one lighter chip (“Gumdrops”) and one darker (“Orioles”) of the same hue. Now I get to go clean up all those tiny little glass beads that rolled off onto the studio floor! Art’s a tough game.

gagadark gagalight

 

Saturday morning discovery time

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Hooray, it’s the weekend! My exhibit opening at the Carver was great – thanks to all who came, images to follow. This morning, I turned my attention to the upcoming ADC workshop at the Studio on March 23rd. This was the image I used for that workshop – it’s a fun little piece I did using clay on canvas:

Surfing around, I found this amazing work by Joanna Mozdzen, a sculptor from Ontario who who was born and raised in Poland. Isn’t it fantastic? But wait, there’s more if you scroll down.

I followed the trail to one of her videos on You Tube and was just blown away by her five-minute tutorial on sculpting a female head. Take a break and watch this. It’s totally mesmerizing. Yay for Saturday surfing and awesome discoveries like artist Joanna Mozdzen! Have a lovely weekend.

 

Monday roundup

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An example of Citra-Solv collage paper

An example of Citra-Solv collage paper

What’s up with this weather??  It’s 28F this morning – I stole the cats’ afghan off the couch and wrapped up in it. They have fur coats – I don’t. Ha. Moving right along, I’m excited about the upcoming Studio Show and Tell next month and wanted to give you a heads-up. Saturday, April 5th from 3-5 you’re invited to the Studio to bring a short demo, ask questions, brainstorm with other creative people,or just hang out and suck up the vibes. I plan to kick back, watch what others bring, and steal ideas. Sheri Lenora from Austin will demo her painted crinoline fabric, and Rosemary Uchniat and Bonnie Davis are going to show us their experiments with Citra-sol cleaning liquid and magazine pages for collage. There’s actually a Citra-sol site for artists if you want a sneak preview of this technique!

Sheri Lenora's painted crinoline fabric

Sheri Lenora’s painted crinoline fabric

I would be remiss if I did not mention the wonderful artful gathering at yesterday’s Beyond Abstract workshop – we had such a good time. Here’s a link to the video.

Tomorrow I’m hanging my solo show at the Carver Center – the opening is Thursday from 6-8. Please drop by if you have a chance, invitation below.

I hope y’all have a wonderful week! Keep warm, stay cool — whatever this crazy weather brings.
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Artful Gathering: Dreaming in Color

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Wowsers! I just got my first look at the Artful Gathering online catalog of classes for the summer – this is a fantastic group of creative artists that I’ve managed to hook up with – thanks, Zinnia! The AG page is getting over 13,000 his a week even before classes start. Just looking at the catalog gives me loads of ideas for my own workshops at the Studio. (Steal like an artist!) My first class is on page 12 of the catalog – and I’m so glad that my pal Michelle Belto is joining the faculty for the second session – take a look at all the cool stuff!

AGCAT

 

 

Remembering Pete

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Last night I had the pleasure of attending a concert tribute to Pete Seeger, folk singer and activist, who departed this earthly realm on January 27th. The Inner City Coffee House was the perfect venue – lots of old and new friends were there to cheer on Inner City founders Patti and Rod Radle, with Bryce Milligan, Rudi Harst, and Tom Williams as they sang Seeger’s old favorites. The crowd joined in – it was an evening of nostalgia and hope (and trying to remember all the words to “Where Have All the Flowers Gone.”) Bryce Milligan got in a fracker verse – always something to care about 🙂

Now I’m all inspired to share the love at today’s workshop on Exploring Air-Dry Clay. Who knew you could do so many sculptural forms without a kiln? I do, now! Here’s a small piece I put together this morning for the workshop. It’s all air dry clay, fun and easy:

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Workshop preview excitement

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I *really* am excited – Michelle Belto and I firmed up the plans and processes for our next all-day workshop on Saturday, March 29th. It’s called ROBE & RUNE – we’ll work with encaustic monoprints and shard faces and construct a lovely freestanding garment-like sculpture with layers of meaning, symbols and design.

I had never done encaustic wax monoprints on rice paper before today,  but the paper is transformed into a beautiful translucent panel of color and light that can be torn and manipulated. There’s no brush-layering or scraping involved. Wow! You can see the prototype that I did in the pictures below. I’ll be posting more photos and details, but if you’d like a jump on registration, go to this page on my site – for tuition and lunch and all materials, the fee is just $135. It may go up once we figure out our materials cost – LOL – so reserve your spot now if you’re interested. I’m so excited!!

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Don Miguel Ruiz Jr. and Heather Ash Amara at the Studio

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Talk about an enlightening weekend – authors, teachers and friends Don Miguel Ruiz Jr. (whose father wrote the beloved Four Agreements: A Toltec Wisdom Book) and TOCI founder Heather Ash Amara were our guests on the San Antonio stop of their spring speaking tour. The did their live webcast from the studio last night – hope you got to see it.

Afterwards, I asked Miguel to talk to SHARDS subscribers about art and the acceptance of our work – his answers are interesting and surprising. The bad news is that our work will never be accepted by everyone – but the good news is that we’ll learn a lot! I wish the sound were better (the iPhone was my only camera), but Miguel’s words are wise – and sometimes surprising!

At the end of this post, you’ll find a link to a great short video with Heather Ash on Living the Four Agreements. Thanks, guys, for sharing your practical wisdom with us!

Heather Ash Amara on Living the Four Agreements

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Shard journeys and unfolding myths

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Wow. I was just invited to speak at The Association for the Study of Women and Mythology (ASWM) 2014 National Conference here in San Antonio on March 28-30. How perfect! (Thank you, Susan Carlin and Sid Reger.) One of the great delights in my life is hearing from creative women all over the world who are using my Shard Faces in their own work, transforming them into the most amazing Spirit Dolls and unfolding their own myths. Here are some recent messages with photos:

From Vicki in Brisbane, Australia: It’s my first go at making one . . .she turned out absolutely beautiful and I was really happy with the outcome 🙂

vixen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Karen in Washington State: I got the faces yesterday and started on my mermaid this afternoon. She is almost done! Her neck & body are all one branch and the arms are a 2nd forked branch I attached to her back. Working with your faces has opened the floodgates of creativity for me, I am having such a good time working with them.

mermaid        And I loved this note and picture from Vicky in Canada: I just had to show you the photo that my boyfriend took of my Spirit Doll this afternoon. The last sliver of sunlight was shining on her before disappearing behind our building. The star in the picture is actually captured in the crown that is on the full moon’s face. I actually cried because I was so touched by the picture and my Spirit Doll.

vicki

Shine on, Mythmakers!

We Felt So Good

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What a weekend at the Studio – I’ll let the videos do most of the “talking,” but the whole experience of learning to make felted constructions was just incredible. Jill Scher is an extraordinary teacher. I learned so much (as did we all) and came away with a fascination and respect for this process and the fiber artists who are felters. It’s such a tactile and color-rich craft – the wool roving is soft and beautiful and there are countless variations for using it in two and three-dimensional pieces.

Video one ( just below) shows the first day in which we made wet-felted wool scarves, and video two (at the bottom) shows us felting wool into a silk substructure. I hope you enjoy the videos – being there in person was pretty cool too! And, PS – I’ve invited Jill back in November – so stay tuned!

Celtic Spirits

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The Persian poet, Rumi, said “Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.” There was a lot of that going on at the Studio yesterday as the Celtic Spirit Doll workshop participants unfolded the most wonderful, mythical creations. We were amazed at the beauty and variety of these little sculptural artworks! You’ll see what I mean in the video, below –

It was a lot of fun – now I’m getting ready for the fiberart felting weekend with Jill Scher – lots going on! Oh, and the winner of Alison Schockner’s lovely little heart pin is Judi Daughety – thanks for subscribing, Judi. I’ll see you soon with your gift! Happy new week, everyone.