JUST ONE HOUR

Trial...

Teaching has come up yet again. Normally in the summer during the Sawdust Art Festival I teach a small, quick-off workshop on Wednesday nights. Faith Fickett helps me out and we have a lot of fun with it, making bookmarks and the like.  
Well, I thought the same would be the case this coming summer season until I got a call.  Would I instead teach an hour-long class on those nights? The offering would be that for $45 patrons could get admission to the Sawdust, a glass of beer or wine, and a one-hour class.  
The challenge: come up with a class that could be done in the allotted time...and have needed value.  I'm close, but not quite there yet.  Still, it will be something similar to the image above, yet not so much to it.  I would love to get your feedback on this one.

Mixed Media Playtime

I LOVE teaching!  Sharing what I know and am experimenting on with new and returning students is one of the highlights of my life.  I just have a hard time understanding when fellow artists say, "Oh, I could never teach" or "People would copy my work."  Bah!  Teaching is totally rewarding and most copying isn't really.  I find students want to impart something personal to whatever they create, not re-create my work.
The AHA moments, the laughter, the frustrations, the camaraderie...all are a joy to me. 
Teaching is just plain FUN!
Click on Mixed Media Workshops to the right to find out more about the fun.

Yet another bird

IT FEELS LIKE SPRING...IS IT?

The days are getting warmer again.  The herons at Dana Point Harbor are building their nests.  Hummingbirds flit about everywhere.  The sound of cooing doves mingles with the rattle of baby crows and the hammering woodpeckers and the shriek of the scrub jay.  Perhaps it is spring. 
Where did the winter go? I think maybe it was spent making plans--more workshops, the summer Sawdust Art Festival, travel plans.... And through it all, the creation of some fun art journal pages.  What a great way to try out techniques and combinations!

Today's journal pages...FUN!

BLOOM WHERE YOU GROW

Bare tree on Crystal Cove bluffs

 The rain stopped as suddenly as it had started on Sunday and so, though I started out to go to the market, I found myself on the bluffs above Crystal Cove for a short walk in the blustery air.  
It occurred to me all of a sudden that I have been putting a lot of leaves in my art work lately.  Could it be because of the many wintry and leafless trees? If the trees are not yet in bloom perhaps it is possible to bloom right on the page as we create a piece of art.  I just seem to be taking this all too literally, perhaps.
But it's fun to think about it.

Leafy pages in Art Journal