Fearlessly Sketched Torsos

 

What a great weekend. Six artist participants and my co-teacher Sarah Jones and I spent the last  two and a half days in drawing heaven. Is there anything better than having nothing to do but draw? We worked in many media, from many perspectives, with lots of input and insight from within and without the room. The first exercise was a variation of a project from Jane Fasse, whose wonderful blog  delivers art quotes daily to my inbox. AND her art quote one day last week (a timely gift from the universe) was the exercise we started with this weekend.

You can read her version here. We did the same, except I asked each person to stay with their own "claimed torsos -- 3 or 4 per person) for the entire hour and a half of drawing in response to visual prompts that were projected on the wall. The prompts were also from Jane -- a Pinterest board of figerative art.

Other exercises we pursued were more about "realistic" drawing, but this one loosened us all up, and provided a wonderful visual feast to work from -- enlarging all of our ideas about figurative drawing. I'll share other results later this week, so stay tuned.

 

Goal Setting/Goal Keeping

Just a little inspiration today, from kids. From futbol.

A film by El Cangrejo.

Video from KarmaTube

Surface Design In*ter*face/Sofa to Love

If you aren't a member of SDA, the conference coming up in San Antonio is reason enough to join. The speeches, exhibits and panels are fab, and the city will be filled with fiber art. AND, if you can, come early or stay late for one of the workshops -- from jewelry to magnetic fields to amazineg skyscraper sized weavings, ther eis something planned to feed every creative spirit around. I suspect the city will have a wonderful web of buzz and energy holding up the streets!

The workshops that are low in enrollment will be cancelled April 15, so if you have not yet signed up, take a look here on the SDA conference site. 

Here's a tantilizing look at one artist who is teaching: FerroFabric by Jenny Leary, and more here on her award-winning collaborative blog, Puff&Flock.

And, as the internet is such a gift-giver, here's a totally unrelated post from other members of Puff and Flock, a sofa to love:

And here's more from Jenny: (icecream is a bonus,love the music)

Art Advocacy Week with YoYo Ma

Here is a notice that showed up in my email today. I have heard on of YoYo Ma's wonderful talks before and I bet these will be just as great. YoYo has initiated a wonderful arts education program, in addition to his championship of music as an international connection. 

One of my favorite quotes from him:

"The thing that I've always been slightly frustrated with, was that the idea of a CD is kind of confined to a material possession that you can put on a shelf. And the idea of music, for me, is always about both the communication and the sharing of content. And so the interactive part is missing."

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/y/yoyo_ma.html#OXRYmXMI8UGE2V5k.99 

Tell your friends about this SHARE THE PHOTO  It's Arts Advocacy Week We have two special events taking place in Washington DC, and you can participate from anywhere in the world. Monday - 6:30 pm EST - Yo-Yo Ma delivers this year's Nancy Hanks Lecture titled, "Art for Life's Sake: a Road Map from One Citizen Musician" Tune in live here:  http://links.causes.com/s/clJYgq?r=zrnS Tuesday - 10:30 am EST - Yo-Yo Ma and , Matt Sorum (Guns N' Roses) - google Hangout http://links.causes.com/s/clJYgq?r=zrnS Send questions in advance via twitter using #AskYoYo or email them toartseducation@artusa.org

  Hope you'll be able to fit it in your schedule, too!