Poets read at the Studio to enthusiastic audience

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Superlatives don’t begin to describe how compelling, accessible, funny and inspiring the four poets and the author/moderator were last night at Lyn Belisle Studio. I really had no idea how it would all turn out, but the 40 people who attended were treated to a rare evening of art and eloquence. Bravo, everyone! The video is available here (I wish the sound were better because the words were magical, but my little Flip video did its best). It’s your Friday Freebie and it’s a treat to watch. Here are some snapshot from the evening.

Pat’s Unconstricted Boa

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Yesterday afternoon I was at the Studio getting ready for the Seeing Art San Antonio tour (which was great fun) when my friend Pat Schulz dropped by to show me her beautiful prayer flags and a most remarkable boa. Here’s a photo of Pat modelling her creation – take a look and see if you can guess what she used to construct this amazing piece of fiber art:

patboaGive up? Pat constructed this from used Olay facial washcloths that had been dyed by Laura Pitts. She stacked, cut and stitched hundreds and hundreds of layers over many hours. The texture is remarkable and the colors are subtle and rich. And it is loooooooong – I love this kind of ingenuity! She calls the piece “Olé” because she couldn’t get permission from the Olay people to use their trade name.  I think “Olé” is a fine name because the piece looks like a fiber Fiesta. Viva Pat!

 

That’s the spirit . . .

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This is apparently Event Week at the Studio – there’s the Seeing Art San Antonio Tour on spiritdollopeningflatWednesday night, the exciting (yep, poetry is exciting) Word of Mouth Poetry Reading on Thursday, and the magical Spirit Doll Exhibit on Friday nigh – it’ll be a gathering of all of the spirits.

But if I need energy to keep me going, I look at yesterday’s Spirit Doll workshop video – the energy in the Studio just hummed with joy and fun. It was a very cool afternoon – thanks, everyone! See you at the opening on Friday!

The Solomons: wisdom and art

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Last October I had the good fortune to meet artist/sculptor Pablo Solomon and his designer/creative director wife Beverly at an art opening at Marta Stafford’s gallery in Marble Falls. Pablo’s sculptures were captivating – very organic and fluid in stone and clay. We started talking and decided we needed to stay in touch. And we did! This weekend Beverly and Pablo came to San Antonio and we spent two days with them exploring galleries, talking, eating, laughing and discovering lots in common. They are amazing people who took the leap of faith to leave the city and make their home on 1856 historic ranch for sale in the Texas Hill Country north of Austin. You can read about it in an article about Beverly (and Pablo) here. If you visit their websites, you’ll be as amazed as I was with scope and depth of their talents. And they are both passionate conservationists and ecological crusaders.

I’m especially grateful to both of them for the good advice they gave me about my Studio space. I hope to have them back soon for an evening lecture about some of the things we discussed over the two days of our visit. Here we are at the Botanical Garden‘s Art in the Garden yesterday evening – a perfect venue for a sculptor!

solomonAnd here’s Pablo with Miro (thanks in advance, Beverly, for letting me swipe this great photo from the website) – some of the best stories we heard were about Miro the Amazing Cat with three legs – hooray for Miro, Pablo and Beverly!

 

 

 

Friday Freebie – little spring cards

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I saw the most amazing redbud tree yesterday on my way to Trinity, and all of the ornamental pears are loaded with white blossoms – spring is definitely coming out all over. Here are some little cards to tie on baskets or bouquets. You can print them out, cut and fold them, and attach them to Something Nice for Someone.

springcards2springpic

 

 

 

Mac Fonts 101

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By special request, here’s the Mac version of my last post:

Finding new fonts to use on your Mac is just as easy as it is with Windows computers, just a little different. Again, I start with Fontspace just because I can usually find something I like there.

Screen Shot 2013-03-19 at 11.36.35 AMI found one that I want called “Celtic.” I clicked on the Download button directly below the font.

Screen Shot 2013-03-19 at 11.37.12 AMMy download window opens and I double-click in the folder that has the name of the font.

Screen Shot 2013-03-19 at 11.37.42 AMWhen the folder opens, I double click on the font itself, the file that ends in .ttf (true type font)

Screen Shot 2013-03-19 at 11.38.39 AMI click on the Install Font button and  – voila – the next time I open a word editing program or any other application that uses fonts, it’s there (see below).

Screen Shot 2013-03-19 at 11.42.20 AM

 

Fonts 101

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Ever want to add a new font to use in your designs? It’s really easy – here’s how. These directions are for Windows but I can do a Mac version later if you like.

If I’m looking for a new fort for a particular project (or just for fun) I start at Fontspace. Lots of designers contribute to it and you’ll see fonts from beautiful to weird.

fontspace1I found one I like called Wallflower.

fontspace2I clicked on the Download button (be careful here to click the correct arrow because sometimes ads for software slip their download links in and you end up with something you didn’t want – ads are the way fontspace keeps it free)

fontspace3You font will download as a Zipped file:

fontspace4When you see it in the window, double-click on it.

fontspace5A page will open with every letter and variation of the font – and if you look at the top, there’s an “Install” button.

fontspace6And, voila! The next time you open a word document or a program like Illustrator, it will be available for you to choose from in your font list!

fontspace7Happy Fonting!

 

Sunday Wrap-up

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Today’s Mala and Spirit Flag Workshop felt like playing – wonder if there’s such a thing as a Playshop? It was like summer outside where we splattered our prayer flags with paint. We didn’t get much more done with the flags because sitting around the table stringing mala beads and talking was a lot more relaxing. One of the things we discussed was creating with intention, which seems to elevate and enrich any project.

Congratulations to Barbara Weitbrecht, the winner of the Mala meditation bracelet. Barbara, email me and let me know if there’s a favorite color you’d like me to use for the tassel. I’m still far from perfect at making these little wrist Malas, but it will be made with much love.

Here’s a video from today’s workshop – you can see what the parking lot around the Studio looks like! It was deserted on a Sunday afternoon so no one ran over our prayer flags. Yay!

Studio mascot?

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Today was a workday in the Studio, painting walls and rearranging artwork. I bought a new rug for the front door area that was cheap and colorful – yay. But the most amazing thing was moving those hawks wings (some of you have seen them) to a new wall above the drafting table. After they were mounted, I remembered a lonely deer skull that was high on a wall in the guest room of our house – we brought it to the studio and hung it with the wings – just look! It is a mythical guardian creature! I hope it doesn’t scare me to death when I walk in tomorrow morning – but I think it is more protector than predator. Just keep that in mind if you’re coming to the Mala workshop tomorrow.

Deer skull and hawk's wings

Deer skull and hawk’s wings

 

Last-minute Friday Freebie

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*Dear* Shards Subscribers,

I was so involved at the Studio today, working on wrist malas and prayer flags for Sunday’s workshop, that I almost forgot the Friday Freebie. So as a natural extension of that, the freebie will be a wrist mala for meditation that I will make for you. It won’t be fancy, but it will be made with love ♥. And if you’d rather make it for yourself, I’ll give you the beads and cord and instructions.

Because I’m so late with this, I’ll wait until Sunday after the workshop to draw the name from all the awesome Shards subscribers. And (ahem) we still have two spaces left in the workshop, so if you sign up, you can join us at the Studio and watch me make your mala! Send me an email if you want to come – it should be fun. Happy weekend!

malaexamp