"Give and Take" 7-30-09

Here it is, finally. I am satisfied with it and only wish I could have finished last week. I am the worst procrastinator. This is the class sample for a mixed media and collage class that I will be teaching August 11th and 12th. She works... In the Studio's Summer schedule listings the class is listed as mixed media and collage. If I were to give the class a title it would be: Patchwork Portrait. The background of the work (which is 6 by 8 inches on canvas board), is done in the style of the incomparable Kelly Rae Roberts. I love the look of it and use this type of background often if I am "stuck", so to speak. The face is actually a magazine image which has been greatly altered. When I first began to learn the face, I often lifted images out of big fashion magazines and simply altered them. It worked for me. This idea is hardly new and a lot of mixed media artists do the same. You can find this idea in many "how to" books on mixed media and collage. Anyway, that is a wonderful way to introduce the face and still make it your own.

So, this is my current style, yes? And although not everyone will like it, a nice portrait can be achieved. The students will see how easy it is to put together a great background with little to no thought or sweat. The focal image is a magazine face or perhaps a photo copy face of a relative and then the actual drawing is very simplistic in style. I think we will work with an 8 by 10 canvas board and I am going to do another sample for the class in that size. This smaller one was the only canvas board I had at home at the time and you know how it is, I just wanted to get started and finish it so Lucy had a sample :) I titled the piece Give and Take and my thoughts for the title came from the message on the work. take hope and courage from others, give of your heart to others especially in times of darkness.

k

Burl and Josie 7-19-09

My skin and fur kids piled into our van on the 19th and headed to a Greyhounds Only kennel day. www.greyhoundsonly.com/. We were so excited to go because Burl's littermate would be there. Her name is Josie. She and Burl were the only two form their litter to race. I have to say the weather was greyhound perfect. The dogs could run for as long as they liked without getting heat stroke. I finally had the opportunity to meet Josie's human, Jan. She is truly one of those people you meet in your life that can be called the salt of the Earth. Her devotion to these beautiful greyts is unconditional. And then I met silly Josie. What a little Dickens she is/was. Burl was clearly waiting for her and I have to tell you that Josie went right up to him with a waggy tail and nudged him. He reciprocated. There was serious communication going on there and I had no doubt that they were rejoicing in meeting once again. Before I could snap a picture, the magic ended and Josie was off running like the wind. Burl watched her and then went to lay down in the shade. Our family had a wonderful time watching these graceful spirits. To see them run just for fun is really magical. Here are a few pics from the day. Our Burl is the big dark Brindle. Josie is the white greyt ticked with fawn. You can see they are brother and sister in their eyes. Mandy is the little brindle and Tigger is the big fawn brindle. We are so blessed to share our lives with these sweet greys.

k

MIxed Media and Collage Class - basics

Mid July I taught at a wonderful venue in McHenry, The Studio http://www.thestudiomchenry.com/. I taught a very basic mixed media and collage class that concentrated on making a few different background papers. Substrates used were 140 lb watercolor paper and matte board. The format was the Artist Trading Card (ATC), 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 and we used a variety of media including liquid water colors, acrylics, graphite, pastels (Portfolio water soluble), markers and acrylic media. I hope the students learned a little something. I dare say that for the adult students, getting messy was a little foreign, but I hope they enjoyed the freedom. Here are a few pictures from the class. You can see how messy the table ws...I was totally at home.

I will be teaching again in August and this time we will be working larger and on canvas board. I want to create a patch work background much like Kelly Rae Roberts style. Then we will add a focal image using magazine clippings of faces (which we will alter). I think Kelly's patch work collages are great for those just learning because the background is ready made. There is no real thinking, you just do. It should be fun. I plan on introducing more expensive materials in this class featuring Golden products. Those are my favorites!

Currently I am working on a sample for the class and hope to finish soon so I can get Miss Lucy a class material list.

k

Stick Horse Winners

It seems like a million year since I documented something, anything! I wanted to share pictures of the top two stick horses from the Main Stay fund raiser-First place: The unicorn, second place: an American Dream for sure. Yours truly took third place. Congratulations to the winners. Great jobs! I do wish I knew what kind of material was used to make the unicorn. I had to touch it and it was smooth as can be. I don't think it was clay but what the heck do I know! Now hopefully these little gems will sell and make some money for Main Stay. Once can hope...

k