Guest artsts show their faces

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One of the most enjoyable aspects of offering workshops, particularly on how to make face shards, is to see how they are used by the artists who attend. I’ve already posted photos of Spirit Dolls and jewelry – now here are some new ideas.

These are by Sheri Lenora from Austin, who took a class at the Studio recently on building earthenware faces – she’s used them in her beautiful mixed-media hangings – spectacular rich color and texture:

The nebookxt example (left) is the cover of a small book created by Zinnia Galliher, founder of Roses On My Table and a student in my online Making Faces class! I have a already warned her that I’m stealing her idea – it’s wonderful, and the air-dry clay is easier and lighter to work with than earthenware would be for adding to artisan paper constructions.

Don’t forget that there’s a workshop this Sunday at the Studio on making faces with air-dry clay with all kinds of beautiful finishes. Here’s the info, and here’s where to sign up.

 

 

 

 

 

A crazy-quilt week(end) of good things

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makingfacesAll sorts of things have been going on in the Studio and around town – and in the virtual creative cyber-village. My first online art class opened on Monday at Roses and is going great – 26 students so far, and lively forum discussions on making shard faces with air-dry clay. It will be open until December with ongoing tips and examples if you can’t make the October 13th workshop at the “real” Studio.

ww8Tomorrow’s Wax and Wings workshop is full – how great is that? Very. My friend Victoria is here from DC and will be one of the participants – yay! Michelle Belto, my partner in collaboration, just got back from teaching a sold-out encaustic seminar in Canada – can’t wait to hear about her adventures during the workshop tomorrow. We’re already thinking about planning our next collaboration – stay tuned.

paulbookSpeaking of friends, my new email pal, Paul Wank from Eureka Springs, Arkansas, emailed me a photo of himself with one of his marvelous Book Dolls. The doll’s body is a blank book. How metaphoric! Paul is a craftsman and handmade book specialist. He’s also involved in the thriving Eureka Springs art and gallery scene. I’m luck enough to have one of his amazing miniature book necklaces. Paul is a great source of info about the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. I hope to go there this coming spring or summer. Have any of you guys seen it yet?

raichlainAnd speaking of galleries . . .tonight there’s a book signing at La Vida Gallery – owner Matt Weissler has snagged Steven Raichlain is the TV host of Primal Grill and a multi award winning author of the cookbook series Barbecue Bible.  He is touted as the man who reinvented barbecue. He is also an Iron Chef winner, having defeated Rokusaburo Michiba in a “Battle of the Barbecue Gods” on Japanese television  AND He has a degree in French literature and trained at Le Cordon Bleu and La Varenne cooking schools in Paris. Not your average barbecue bubba. I’ll be there, hope to see you at the coolest gallery in Southtown.

hadesOn a family note, my son Rick starts his House of Hades book tour next week – now that he’s living in Boston, I don’t get immediate feedback from those events, but I know it will be great. And, yes, I still worry about him being safe and eating right, and no, the title of the book doesn’t refer to his growing up at our house (I hope!). You can see him reading from the book at this link – unless I have worn it out from watching.

riverHave a wonderful weekend, everyone – don’t forget that the last section of the San Antonio River Reach opens tomorrow – it should be a great day for a stroll or walk or paddle along the beautiful riverbanks.

 

“Everybody is creative – it comes with the kit”

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I love this interview with Sir Ken Robinson – he shares a lot of insight packed into a one-minute time frame.

Tapestry and Roses

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Goomaxtapestryd morning! The winner of the Threads of Blessing tapestry, as drawn by random number, is Peggy Mahan. Peggy is a wonderful artisan who will give this beautiful story-embroidery a happy home – if I can get Max off of it. He thinks it’s his.

And now for something new and very cool (and a little scary for yours truly) – Roses on my Table is the new home of my virtual classroom. I mentioned inmakingfaces an earlier post that I’d be creating some video lessons online, and the first one debuts tomorrow. It’s a 30+ minute art lab on creating shard faces and small decorative objects without a kiln using air-dry clay.  It includes materials lists and such and a gallery that I’ll create for student work. I’m giving an in-person workshop on the same subject at the Studio on Oct. 13th, but if you can’t make that one, join me in cyberspace!

It would be great to have a familiar face or two in my online lab. What you won’t see is an outtake of me trying to unscrew a stuck top on a bottle of paint and saying a bad word – LOL.

The finished altar: Guardian of the golden Bough

The finished altar: Guardian of the golden Bough

One last quick note: Celebration Circle’s Altar event closes tonight at the Bijou Theater with a great fund-raising auction and  gala – hope to see you there! My altar has quite a few bids on it – and it could be yours! Come and bid on one of these beautiful, spiritual creations.

Friday Freebie! Threads of Blessing tapestry

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Last Sunday I visited with the Threads of Blessing people at Cathedral House and am sharing one of the wonderful embroidered tapestries with a SHARDS subscriber (thanks to all of you guys). Subscribe by this Sunday evening to be in the drawing. If you don’t know about Threads of Blessing, it was founded a group of Episcopalian women from the West Texas Diocese who organize workshops in Honduras, Mexico, and Uganda that encourage the local women to share their creative skills. Pretty cool. Here’s a photo of a workshop on the grass in Uganda.Workshop on the grass

Today’s Friday Freebie is a fanciful embroidered tapestry by Ugandan artisan Esther Byaruhanga depicting a group of people planting a garden. The little seeds are tiny white stitches – maybe corn? The colors are vibrant and the people are happily working – it’s a labor of love, for sure.

threadsfreebie

After receiving her gift of payment, one of the Ugandan women on the Threads of Blessing site wrote, “With the second gift I was able to get the school results for my second child and buy land for them. How to build a house was a problem. With this third gift I can now continue with building our house.” So the Friday Freebie will be a gift to you! Thanks for supporting artists everywhere, including me :). I’ll announce the winner of Esther’s tapestry on Monday morning.

Cooler weather contemplations

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This first really cool morning truly felt like fall – and I think a lot of us feel a pull toward thoughts like those Mary Oliver expresses in the poem Fall Song:

Another year gone, leaving everywhere
its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves,
the uneaten fruits crumbling damply
in the shadows . . .

I started a little construction yesterday and worked on it again early this morning – it seems to fit. Bones and seeds and clay and cactus skeleton – there is something so poignant about fall.

ledgedwellers

 

Wax and Wings workshop takes flight

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Saturday’s collage and encaustic workshop was wonderful – it is so inspirational to work with Michelle Belto. And what a fabulous group of participants we had – Chris, Janak, Glo, Mary Beth, Shirlene – your work is amazing!  There will be one more opportunity to take this workshop – Saturday, October 5th. It’s a pretty transformative experience, at least it was for me – thanks, everyone, especially you, Michelle ♥ Can’t wait till our next session. Here’s a video to share.

 

 

Rainy Friday . . .

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. . .and that’s fantastic! We’re in such a drought that no one is complaining. Rain is supposed to continue through most of the weekend – yes! Tomorrow Michelle Belto and I are collaborating in our Wax and Wings workshop. It will be a good day to gather around the Studio worktables, listen to the rain, and  talk about nesting and shelter and how we can create those concepts through collage and encaustic. I’ll post the photos from this first session later. Here’s one from my practice time in the studio this afternoon, just the collage “nest” part. Michelle’s in charge of the inside encaustic part – she’s so good. Check out her book.

ww11

BUT WAIT, there’s more – (drum roll please) – I’m about to boldly go into cyberspace with a new series of video art labs. Zinnia Galliher, an amazing artist and techno-wizard , has developed two sites where artists can teach lessons and present projects. She invited me to teach a class on her Roses site, then I’ll be developing some longer classes for the 2014 Artful Gathering. It’s really exciting and a totally new adventure – man, all this and rain to boot! And it’s Friday!! Life is pretty darn good 🙂 Hope your weekend includes some rain and some art and a nice comfy nest.

zinniaartpage

 

Photography vs. snapshotting (and a cool dove)

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Before he left San Antonio this afternoon, my friend Ramesh wanted to go looking for birds to shoot – with his camera. We went to the Judson Nature Trails, the place that Whiltley Streiber said he saw aliens. No aliens, and actually, not many birds, although we heard a bunch of them. I took a picture of some trees. Zowee. Here we are heading for the trail.

Check out Ramesh’s camera – he didn’t need to go on a trail to take a great bird shot. When we got home, he took a fantastic photo of a dove outside the kitchen window. Now that’s the difference between a photographer and a snapshotter like me – you can even see the dang dove’s eyelid, and look at those feathers! I love this photo. Thanks, Ramesh, and happy trails home!

dove

Tonight’s opening and a poem

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It’s  Fotoseptiembre  – and I’m especially delighted that my friend Ramesh arrives today for the opening of his photography show, TERROIR. His Oregon wines arrived before he did, and are waiting to be opened and shared with tonight’s guests. I’ve already purchased one of his spectacular orchid photographs. This one – wow.

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Each photo is printed on stretched canvas and other forms of prints will be available by special order. I love Ramesh’s work (and I hear those Oregon wines of his are pretty good, too!). Please come to the opening.

Anyone who creates anything know that it takes work, imagination and most of all, tenacity and optimism – so here’s a Friday poem to remind us all of that.

Optimism

More and more I have come to admire resilience.
Not the simple resistance of a pillow, whose foam
returns over and over to the same shape, but the sinuous
tenacity of a tree: finding the light newly blocked on one side,
it turns in another. A blind intelligence, true.
But out of such persistence arose turtles, rivers,
mitochondria, figs — all this resinous, unretractable earth.

 ~ Jane Hirshfield ~

Thanks to Joe Riley and Panhala for sending this along today. Hooray for figs and turtles and friends and art!