Fearless Sketching

If you've been waiting for the right moment to take a "pain-free, no-critic-zone" drawing class, this might be the workshop for you. I've had a cancelation due to one participant's planned move (she was coming in from afar!) so there is space available for one fearless sketcher on April 12-14 (Friday night potluck optional).

We'll do big and little sketches, drawing from life, some invisible drawings, lots of fun exercises that get your hand and pen in action. Some participants will bring iPads and use those, but it's not necessary, just an option.

There is a catch -- the only bed available is either a cot sized (though comfortable) bed in the studio (includes private bathroom) or a spot on the sleeping porch. The fee includes all meals and most supplies -- you'll need to bring a large sized sketch pad or loose paper and your favorite drawing implements -- and food to share at one pot-luck meal. Generally folk arrive here on Friday about 4, the "formal" workshop runs from Saturday at 9 to Sunday at 3, with lots of fun, conversation, time in the hottub and pool, walking in the hills and stargazing in between. 

If you are interested, send me an email -- contact list on the sidebar -- or leave a comment so I can get back to you. These are pictures from the last Fearless Sketching workshop, and some of the results. My friend artist Sarah Jones will co-lead this one with me. 

The workshop fee is $185 -- views into the Hill Country, infinite and free!

Sketching on the sleeping porch.

Hand studies, two exercises

The sleeping porch.

More Text on the Surface -- Online!

 

My Joggles course MORE TEXT ON TEXTILES starts tomorrow. There is still time to get in on the fun, the supplies for the first class are things you will have at hand! And you can order the rest from Barbara at Joggles -- makes it easy! In addition to very specific instructions and pdfs of the lessons that you can download and keep on hand, there is an online forum during the course for questions and conversation. I will also bring up the various topics here on the blog, with some additional inspiration from other artists during the 4-weekly lesson series. Although this is a continuation of TEXT ON TEXTILES, this class does not require that as a prerequisite and you can take the two in any order. 

The tuition is only $45 and I think offers a really nice round up of creative approaches to getting text onto your art cloth or art quilt, with some interesting twists and turns. You can be upfront and obvious or subtle and secretive, posting your message in secret code or billboard boldness. Use a quote or just a fragment of your own journals or sketchbooks!

There is even a SAQA exhibit that you can enter with your text-centric work (if you make a quilt quickly) called TEXT MESSAGES, judged by Lesley Riley.

 

Here's the course outline from the Joggles catalog:

This class is scheduled to begin on February 19, 2013. Add to your technique toolbox with interesting and “open-ended” ways to add words, letters and text designs to your art.  This process-oriented course is organized around a set of exercises, rather than presenting one project -- you’ll be able to use these ideas and approaches in work for wall pieces, art-to-wear, art journals and other mixed media work. Full of photos and examples, each weekly pdf workbook takes you through one or two new techniques, including making word stamps from craft foam, an easy way to cut original fabric letters to fuse or appliqué, sun-printed and mono-printed words and letters, and using soy wax with textile paint to add words to fabric.  Susie will also offer a “bonus” fifth lesson that illustrates her process in making a small art quilt using the techniques taught in this course. This course is a continuation of Text on Textiles, but the lessons are not sequential and not dependent upon participation in the first course.  Lesson 1 -- Learn to cut free-form fabric letters in a variety of styles, inspired by the work of Corita Kent. Start with paper (these can be used in mixed media and journal work) and move onto fused fabric, felt and other materials, too.  Lesson 2 -- Make your own word and letter stamps from craft foam and recycled materials. Learn how to easily reverse your words and letters as you design, then make stamps with craft foam, string, cardboard scraps and other recycled materials.  Lesson 3 -- Sun-printing with textile paints is a fun and easy way to make original fabrics for your art quilts, bed quilts, art-to-wear and other projects. And, given a hot sunny day, you’ll see how easy and versatile a technique it is.  Lesson 4 -- Soy wax is a non-toxic, easy to wash out process that requires no solvents or special equipment other than a wax-dedicated electric fry pan (preferred) or a microwave oven. You’ll learn ways to make lovely fabrics that have a minimal change of hand when done, so they are great for all kinds of quilt and wearable applications.  BONUS Lesson 5 -- See how Susie adds up some of these techniques to make a small art class. Use her approach and see what you can do!  Curious to know how online classes work? Go here to read all of the details: www.joggles.com/classdetails.htm  The supply list will be sent to all students one week before the class starts. Once you buy this class you will receive an email order confirmation, but you will not hear from us again until the supply list is sent.  A high speed connection to the internet is recommended for all students. In order to participate in online classes at joggles you are expected to have basic computer and internet skills. You need to be able to browse the internet, know how to download and save a document to your computer's hard drive, and understand how to open and save email attachments. It is your responsibility to learn these skills before the class begins. Please be certain you are comfortable with all of these skills. Class fees will not be refunded once the class has begun.

 

Rainbow Printing Revisited

I love to make Rainbow Prints. This is my go-to method for making one-of-a-kind versions of iconic images, saints and sinners, angels and other visitors to the design table when I want something specifically matching a color scheme or a one-of-a-kind version of one of my silkscreens or thermofaxes. Over the years, I have featured this technique in workshops, in a Quilting Arts issue, in a DVD (see below) and on many of my textile paintings and altars.

My lovely lightweight Airbook has one difficiency, it doesn't have a big memory. So I tend to have to juggle info and files and the go-to stuff I am working with on and off of external drives. And, (I don't suppose you will be surprised) I don't exactly have a uniform file naming or file storage system in place. SOmehow, I don't think this chore is going to come to the top of the list anytime soon,

So I just find myself on the occasional morning like this doing copying and deleting -- and the good thing is that I surprise myself with all the treasures that I have forgotten! So, before I banish some of these pdfs to the external drive, I thought I would share them here on the blog. 

First, here's a pdf of the "short version" of how to make Rainbow Prints --my term for multicolored screen prints made with watersoluble crayons.

 I'll keep this pdf on the computer for another week, so act quickly if you want a copy via email -- just send a request to me on the comment form on the sidebar. I'll also put you on my monthly mailing list for other notices, unless you tell me PDF only, please.

If this tickles your fancy and you need or would enjoy more information and examples, you can see a video promo on Quilting Arts website or right here

and you can also order the DVD if you decide a full-fledged video workshop is just the ticket to success.

Paying Attention

The just-past post covered a lot of territory. As I take on this new expanded adventure of art out into the world, it's a good idea to think about my story, and what I bring to the table. (Perhaps you should do so, too! Post a link in the comments to your blog about your creative path and we'll see where this takes us...)

Where does my story as an artist begin? With paying attention.

Paying attention, this skill, like any other, needs focus, practice and to be honored within the environment (culture) of its practice. Fortunately from my childhood, I had mentors, parents and teachers who gave me that skill and fostered it's development.

First, a family who loved nature and beauty: Birdwatching was the usual activity on any trip; a geology pick was always in the back seat; composition books for note-taking are STILL a Christmas stocking standard. We looked at plants and creeks on Sunday afternoon drives as we searched for farmland (soon thereafter purchased with the GI Bill). My chemist father shared his love of observation and my intellegent stay-at-home mom nurtured beauty in the everyday life; both of them honored the skill of paying attention and modeled it to us four.

The concepts in The Missing Alphabet speak to my second set of lessons in paying attention. When 12, I was enrolled in a Children's Theatre at Baylor University, part of the department of drama headed by legendary regional director Paul Baker (he also headed the Dallas Theatre and worked with Frank Lloyd Wright on the design of that forward-thinking structure on Turtle Creek). His wife Kitty, and the young woman who became my mentor for decades, Jearnine Wagner, had started a children's program based on the same principles and ideas that were at the heart of the college drama program. These were: that each of us is creative and has a unique story to tell in our art and that all art/perception and creative thinking can be discerned through a vocabulary of form: line, color, shape, movement, light, rhythm, space, sound and texture. These perceptual/sensory tools could be harnessed by the artist (no matter his or her genre or field) as tools for telling that unique story. These, called by Baker "the elements of form," have moved into our missing alphabet book as "the sensory alphabet," a change of language that helps us explain to parents and educators that these are not just "art" words.

I've been able to take these perceptual and creative tools into my life in so many ways, I use them daily as "screens" for my thinking and inventing and imagination. They are the tools that I teach to the participants in many of my workshops, retreats and courses. I find them invaluable in defining and critiquing, in helping other artists find their own strong suits, their own voices and their best ways of working, simply by asking them to pay attention to these perceptual elements in their lives and work. The Missing Alphabet, while its a book targeted at parents, is still a useful resource for emerging artists who would like some specific information about the sensory alphabet, as well as lots of activity ideas that have no expriration date according to age!

Art school introduced me to another set of tools for paying attention, principally, that of drawing. I am not a natural "drawer." In fact, as a young woman (and even in art school) I pretty much decided I could never be a "real' artist because my drawings in junior high and high school never measured up to the cpaturing of reality that I expected as artist should be able to achieve. And though my college drawing classes at Trinity University were dully attended, I still never really fell in love with drawing until much later -- like a couple of years ago.

Paired with the sensory alphabet, some simple ways to approach the blank page have helped  me to get over my fear of drawing and to actually treasure the time I can carve out to pay attention through drawing.* I have a new group of "drawing" mentors, in real life, my friend and artist Sarah Jones, in the digital and print world, the work and writing of John Berger . 

That's why I am looking forward to the next Fearless Sketching workshop here at El Cielo. It's scheduled for April 12-14, costs $180. There is still room for a couple more participants, so if you are interested, send me a note through the comments or on the contact form on the sidebar to the right.