Workshop, and Friday Freebie on Saturday

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So, it’s summer-ish here in mercurial San Antonio – a beautiful day in our neighborhood. First, a quick note – I just had a cancellation for tomorrow’s Celtic Spirit Doll workshop (a friend fell victim to the flu, boo) so if you want the eighth spot, email me quick. It’s from 3-5 tomorrow and it’s the usual (amazingly cheap) tuition of $55 with all materials included. And libations. And grub.

And now, for the Friday – er, Saturday Freebie! It’s a timely and beautiful little felt-and-lace brooch by my talented friend, Alison Schockner – perfect for Valentine’s Day!alison Alison’s creations are legendary – I have two of her wonderful sarong jackets and love them both. You can see her work here on her website. She’s so productive, and every piece that she makes radiates the fun and joy that she shares in her creative life and work. If you are a SHARDS subscriber by midnight tomorrow night, you will be in the drawing for this lovely art-to-wear brooch.

Finally, if the nice weather has you wanting to kick up your heels, drive out to the old Quihi Dance Hall and Gun Club tonight. My band is playing our annual benefit for Inner City Development. It’s a lot of fun for a great cause – here’s the info – YEE HAWWW! I hope I can stay awake past 10:00 p.m.!

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Ooh! Ooh! Look! Artful Gathering . . .

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I feel like a happy dog running around in circles, wagging its tail – ooh, ooh! I just found out that my intro video is up on the Artful Gathering online art teaching site! Check it out – the video’s on the front page! Arf! <wag> OK, I’m being insufferable – but still . . .agphoto there’s a lot in it about San Antonio, not just ME 🙂

It’s going to be a fun experience, and working with the other Artful Gathering faculty artists is a trip. Some of them, like Keith Lo Bue, I’ve admired for years, and others I’m just beginning to get to know, but they all do fabulous work. One of my favorites is fellow AG teacher Luthein Thye from Malaysia. Her small constructions reflect her love of fantasy and magic and she’s an amazing craftsman (craftswoman?)luthien-portfolio-poster Watch her video if you get a chance and see the Malaysian village where she finds inspiration.

The Artful Gathering concept was developed by Zinnia Galliher. She’s got that rare combination of artistic talent and organizational vision that makes the AG group so rewarding to work with. Even though registration is still a ways away, I’d better get busy developing my lessons. But do look around the Artful Gathering site – there’s a ton of good stuff to discover.  Yay! Arf! <wag>

 

Friday Freezie

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All plans are on hold here in San Antonio – it’s icy! People in colder climates may not understand why this city shuts down when the roads get ice-slicked, but, believe, me, it’s a good idea since San Antonio drivers go a little nuts (nuttier?) when the “s” word (“snow”) is even mentioned. So I’m home, planning workshops and catching up on email. Alyson Stanfield’s blog today had a great quote from Niel Gaiman, English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio, theatre and films, so I’m copying it here for your reading pleasure, especially if you’re housebound and seeking creative inspiration:

gaiman“Remember, whatever discipline you’re in, whether you’re a musician or a photographer, a fine artist or a cartoonist, a writer, a dancer, a singer, a designer — whatever you do, you have one thing that’s unique: You have the ability to make art. And for me, and for so many of the people I’ve known, that’s been a lifesaver, the ultimate lifesaver. It gets you through good times, and it gets you through … the other ones. Sometimes life is hard. Things go wrong — in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do: Make good art. I’m serious. Husband runs off with a politician? Make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by mutated boa constrictor? Make good art. IRS on your trail? Make good art. Cat exploded? Make good art. Someone on the Internet thinks what you’re doing is stupid or evil or it’s all been done before? Make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, eventually time will take the sting away, and that doesn’t even matter. Do what only you can do best: Make good art. Make it on the bad days, make it on the good days, too.”

This quote is from a commencement address he gave at the University of the Arts in 2012. The whole thing is enlightening, takes less than 20 minutes, and is a fine thing to watch when the weather outside is freezing. Stay warm, y’all!

 

Back to Earth . . .and clay

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Well, who woulda thought – the anniversary party was a huge success. If you were there, thank you! If you weren’t, there wouldn’t have been room!! Only kidding, but the joint was standing room only for about an hour. Incredible – I’m still floating around in the clouds, but it is back to the world of the working artist today. Shades of Green nursery, the prettiest nursery in the city, called for some more of my Sprig Shards, so I spent the day playing with little clay faces. Here are a few – they are still very wet, hope they can go in the kiln tomorrow. I need some new faces – time to hit the graveyard <grin>.

sprig1 This Sunday’s upcoming workshop is called Collage on Canvas with Transferred Images and we’re going to be experimenting with TAP paper. One of my own favorite pieces is a collage that my friend Harold owns called Starling, and that’s the kind of look I’d like to demonstrate,  except the participants are bringing personal photos. It should be fun.

That workshop is full, but if you’re interested in seeing how this TAP paper works, there are several good links on YouTube. Here’s one (the narrator has an awesome accent).

Finally, congrats to Rob Keogh who won the long-distance door prize of a Lyn Belisle Studio t-shirt – Rob, send an email to lyn@lynbelisle.com and tell me the size you want and where to mail it. OK, back to the clay and year number two – woohoo!

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Starling: Lyn Belisle 2012, collage on canvas

 

Party preps

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Countdown14tshirts to the First Anniversary Party at the Studio this afternoon from 3-6 – woohoo! Here’s an artful arrangement of door prizes guaranteed to promote the place – clever, no? I want one of the bags – guess I’ll make an extra one after the drawing’s over.

There are also over a hundred little Rune and Relic face shards. Each guest can choose the one that says “Pick me!” Speaking of picking, yesterday afternoon my dear and generous friend Ann Ash brought bowls and bowls of fresh-picked flowers for the tables. The Studio smells like springtime. 14faces

Chef Michael has been busy. Can you say “lobster pizza”? No kidding, this may become a spécialité de la maison (aka Studio). There will be a lot of food for guests to enjoy as well as wonderful classical guitar music by George Gaytan.

14lobsterSo why am I nervous?? I guess it’s human nature when you plan an event – some people seem to do it effortlessly. But, as Georgia O’Keeffe said, “I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing that I wanted to do.”

So on with the party! Hope you can come – far-away friends, you guys are in the drawing for door prizes, too. And if I get anxious about the anniversary party, I’ll just click here and lighten up.

Happy Studio Anniversary – hope to see you all this afternoon, in spirit or in person! ♥♥♥

 

Jill Scher – sneak preview – wow

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I’ve invited award-winning Colorado fiber artist Jill Scher to the Studio for two felting workshops the weekend of February 8th and 9th. She send me an advance box of materials and samples which arrived yesterday, and I was just blown away by her work. I hope you can take advantage of these workshops (one on felted scarves and one on Nuno felting) – here’s the info link. And here are a few photos of some of her work. The felted scarf I’m wearing is a one-of-a-kind art piece, incredibly soft and light. I may have to buy this one and never take it off!

Consider joining us for this unique creative opportunity – a day of working with Jill at the Studio, lunch included, making your own felted one-of-a-kind art to wear. There is a limit of eight participants, and there are five spaces left at this writing. I’m sooooo excited!

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Unpacking the box

 

Hand felted one-of-a-kind scarf, wool, silk mohair

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Hand felted one-of-a-kind scarf, wool, silk mohair

 

A hanging at Cathedral House

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Check out this new piece that I finished this morning for the Illumination exhibit at Cathedral House Gallery – I love it! (she said, modestly) I had forgotten how much fun it is to add found objects and sculptural details to a collage on a wood substrate. It’s called The Lottery and there’s a story involved about that girl and the lottery for her hand, etc. etc – artsy minds work in mysterious ways. But it was cool to use sticks and wood and clay and paint and all that good stuff.

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Lyn Belisle: The Lottery, mixed media on wood panel

Gloria Hill, my hanging partner, and I met at the gallery this afternoon to put up our work for Sunday’s opening. Here are some photos – it was interesting because we were hanging paintings against a strong back-lighted window. You can also see the other pieces that I’m putting in the show, below.  Here’s a map to the gallery – it’s in a beautiful building owned by the West Texas Episcopal Diocese on spacious grounds near the headwaters of the San Antonio River, definitely worth a visit. Thanks to Patsy Sasek for inviting us to participate!

Copying Gwen Fox with unpredictable results

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Gloria Hill and I have been painting together on Wednesdays at the Studio for a year and a half, and we always like to find inspiration from interesting sources. Today I said, “Let’s try to paint like Gwen and see what happens.” Gwen Fox is our beloved Taos-based painting teacher – she’s awesome. So I picked out one of her abstracts for us to copy, and off we went. Here’s the painting that we were attempting to forge (all in the spirit of artful emulation, of course). Scroll down for our results.

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We got as far as the layout and background before we realized that copying wasn’t working for us. So Gloria went her way and I went mine – how can two artists who start with exactly the same idea and example end up with such different results?? Take a look (and rest easy, dear Gwen – you are an original, and while we have learned so much from you, we won’t be competition for your glowing abstract style!) Here’s Gloria’s:

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And here’s mine – not only do they look like they came from two different artists, they look like they came from two different planets! Go figure –  but it was fun and very insight-full.

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Oh, boy – a new year, and a party!

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I’m so excited about the upcoming First Anniversary Celebration at the Studio. It’s just two weeks from tomorrow. Please know that you’ll be an honored guest, and there will be a free little face shard for all SHARD subscribers along with lots of food and fun and music . . .and . . well, anniversary celebration stuff!! And if you’re not from around these parts and would like to participate virtually, email me and I’ll put your name in the pot for a door prize drawing.

Here’s your invitation – now, please excuse me, gotta go back to party preparations. Oh, boy!!

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Favorite Artful Discoveries of 2013

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Happy New Year, everyone! What a year of adventure and discovery. I thought I’d round up a few of my favorite semi-random mostly-artful surprises and discoveries from the past twelve months to share with you – I’m so glad that you were part of my 2013!

model magicArt Material: Model Magic Air-Dry Clay

Yeah, I know – that purple dragon on the package put me off, too – but when I started playing with this stuff, I found that it has amazing possibilities, some of which I’ll share in upcoming workshops on air-dry clay. You can stamp into it, make molds from it, and imbed stuff. Stay tuned . .  . I’ll be teaching an online workshop at Artful Gathering featuring this clay and similar media this summer

floss_edited-1Cheap Art Tool: Dental floss

Another discovery from the Exploring Air-dry Clay workshops – it cuts clay beautifully and can also be used as super-strong, thin cord for stringing beads. I have a bag full of little sample-sized floss at the Studio. Oh yeah, and if you happen to be eating corn-on-the cob during a workshop, it comes in handy there too.

evernote_edited-1Art Tech Tool: Evernote

I’ve had Evernote on my phone forever but never knew how to use it until I downloaded the desktop version, too. Now I can save short memos to myself (my memory is fading fast) and I can clip notes and ideas from the web and save them in folders on my phone and computer. It’s free and seriously easy – you just have to remember that you have it. That it doesn’t do for you.

michelleencsmArt Process: Encaustic on Watercolor paper

It was an “A-ha!’ moment when Michelle Belto showed me these new wax on paper panels she’d been creating on #300 watercolor paper. They are small jewels of layered translucency and mystery. She demonstrated this in our Wax and Wings workshop – my attempts are still pretty pedestrian, but hers soar!

beadsStudio Gadget: My Dymo Labeller

I took a very helpful online organizational course for artists from Alyson B. Stanfield in November, and of all the good suggestions, this one I actually put into practice almost immediately. It really helped me separate stuff and think about how I used it. For example, I realized choose beads mostly by color and not by size or material, so that’s how I separated and labelled them. Plus you can print out goofy labels for your own amusement 🙂

Website: Pinterest

pinterestSo, mabe I happen to be the last person in the world to discover Pinterest. I knew about it, but now I understand its usefulness for artists. It’s not so much about finding products or outfits, but it’s about inspiration. I have a Pin Board on ideas to steal – anything from the designs on a Masai headdress to a giant abstract painting by DeKooning. It’s also fun to see what other “pinners” like.

Art-Idea Book (rediscovery): Griffin and Sabine

griffin_edited-1Nick Bantock is a dang genius. I found my copy of Griffin and Sabine and the sequels just a couple of months ago – there is inspiration on every page, both visually and literally. It may be one of the most beautiful small books I’ve ever encountered. If you’re not familiar with it (because it was published over two decades ago), take a look. Nick Bantok’s website is pretty awesome as well.

Art Process Book: Wax and Paper Workshop

waxpaperAgain, I thank my lucky stars (and Carol Mylar) for introducing me to Michelle Belto. This is her book, and it is a wonderful example of how to teach a complex process in an engaging and approachable way. It’s also a stellar example of organizational model for an art process book. Gorgeous photos, too. I can’t wait for Michelle’s next book – she is a master at her medium.

Natural Material: Cactus skeletons

Cactus-Skeleton-1102352I love these netted plant skeletons! They are lightweight and strong and infinitely varied. They can be painted and used as stamps or just used by themselves. A workshop student from Floresville brought me some recently. Why are they so hard to find around here when the land is loaded with prickly pear cactus?? If you have a source, send it my way! Will trade for shards.

Art Store: 10,000 Villages

10000vThis is not the place you go to buy acrylic paint, but the ideas are rampant. Textile patterns, wood carvings, incised silver – and all made by craftspeople from across the world in a fair trade environment. It opened at the Pearl just a couple of months ago. If you need some fresh ideas and an optimistic look at the state of human creativity, go here!

 

Please send along your favorites from 2013 – I’ll pin ’em on my Pinterest stealboard, put ’em in my Evernote file, and post them to SHARDS! Happy New Year, dear friends – be safe.