Summer classes

Paradise Community College's Continuing Ed catalog for the summer is now out. I am teaching a new class there this summer, it is the second listing on page 1.

oh, and it will be personal and exploritory.... altho it might explain a few things too....

you can register at http://www.my.maricopa.edu/

April 19

A lot has been going on the last couple weeks... I have allowed the scraps of paper to accumulate on my tile floors, the tables and counters have been covered with paints, papers, pens and pencils. I was preparing and playing... the last hurrah before the cleaning time, but cleaning time has come... kind of the moment of reckoning for all the fun I've been having.

I co-led a workshop over the weekend... this booklet, which is still in process was the result. Everyone began their own book. We had five participants and everyone did marvelous unique things.... of course, I forgot my camera. Urrrrr...
two sheets of 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico sewn together.... all pages painted both sides..... this is one of the stages of what becomes the "cover"

cut hearts from this textured paper found in a magazine, napkin edging, lots of gold and yellow ochre, but some greens and coppers in there too

Here I painted the hearts and added lines and the words,' letting go'

The center two pages were first painted gold, then black over... then I wrote in the wet black paint... after it dried a bit I glued in this cut out of two women facing each other...

I've been reading Wendell Berry's series on the residents of Port William, KY... it has really made me thoughtful about connecting and forming community... these two women facing each other reminds me that we need to see and cherish each other... no matter what our convictions we can no longer afford to stand apart.

then there is this little ditty... a small book made of reclaimed everything... well, not the paint, but pretty much everything else... and the bird singing for all he is worth....

reclaimed board, repurposed dress patterns, reused tea bags, scrubbed, torn, and folded old watercolor paper....

measures about 2 and a half by 3 and a half inches

and all sewn together with nice waxed linen thread.

Every time I look at it I feel pleased.

and then there is this carrot. I planted some seeds in October or November and had very low expectations for how the carrot growing would turn out... only about six of the seeds really made it, but in the last few weeks I have begun to yank them out of the ground... and what-da-ya-know ... they are not the deformed little nubs I expected... I have carrots! Well, had. There is one left in the garden and I think today is the day it comes out.

"I enjoy fireworks....

but stars is nice too".... is a quote from a book called Taxi Driver Wisdom that my daughter's old boyfriend gave me for Christmas one year... as I played with this canvas I was reminded of that quote. A reminder to me to look up and find joy in what I have had all along.... you saw this as a nearly blank canvas in the last post.... I knew it needed a line thing... I thought an animal maybe... anyway, a contour line, using a pen... but I didn't end up with an animal... I drew a portion of the Titanic from an old Nat'l Geographic and then the Titanic grew arms... the stars just came after that... otherworldly and fun. The quote is stamped along the bottom and the 13 now reads Lucky 13.

I am so pleased with this.... is it a beginning of a series?

Art Studio at the Farm

I do not want this day to end.... an art day... a day of "Transformation through collage". Melany Terranova led the class and supplied all the materials... It was an amazing day for me... the chance to just immerse myself in the process... to play... to create. The first collage was a warm up exercise. Melany gave us a packet of color and texture and a few basics of the elements of design...

on the second and the third Melany told us to just see what we came up with... amazingly she provided the canvas boards, the stretched canvas, the papers, the boxes of magazines... the class was $35! And she provided all these materials....

anyway, I'd found this figure in black with her face in shadow... the line of her body, the simplicity really called to me... and I had a scrap of map, one of my favorite things... and Melany had some mono-print scrap paper (Melany!?! are you crazy... this is great stuff) and all of these bits became one piece... with the word "return" ... I find myself using that word as the mantra word when I meditate lately... so this one speaks to me... now that I've got it home I might hit it with some layers of wax (Melany had wax... but in the end using my own and giving myself some time to think things through was the best option)

and this is the last one... just begun... it needs some lines, in a warm sepia tone... maybe a cat or some other animal in contour line... and then layers of wax....

I forgot to bring my camera, so all you have are the after-pictures... but what you should have seen was the before's... the process pictures... the piles and boxes of texture and color, image and pattern, canvas and glue, brushes and paints, wax and pastels... next time I will be certain to bring the camera along...