This past weekend, I took 5 mixed media workshops from Kelly Kilmer, who was the visiting artist at The Artists’ Nook this month. There are no words to describe how much I love Kelly’s classes and how much I get out of her workshops. Every time I take a Kelly class, I am able to play, experiment and I always get new ideas, either from her, or from expanding on something she or another student said.
This weekend’s highlights, not in any particular order:
Seeing Kelly and learning from her. She is so creative, free and amazingly supportive.
Getting to know Allyson better, and getting an awesome ego boost from her. *waves and paints Allyson’s hand*
Learning more about layering and color mixing and composition.
Realizing that some of the crazy stuff I do in my journals isn’t as crazy as I thought!
Seeing my old pals, like Susan and Marcy and Karen and Terry, who I haven’t seen in a long time. I really admire the talent of these ladies!
Meeting new people! Yes, I’m talking about you, you Ladies From Parker!
Three full days of making art and playing. Heaven.
Last night, I was so amped up, I made 14 of the little paper journals while we watched tv. I love them.
I think my favorite book was the Reclaimed book. I love the idea of taking old books, gutting them, and making new pages for them.
THANK YOU SO MUCH, KELLY!
Clicking on any of the photos below should take you to my Flickr set of photos from this weekend. I should have taken more of the process, but I was too absorbed to even think of that.
I just got caught up with Jamie’s videos and I am woefully behind on seeing what everybody else is doing. I apologize to all of you who have been so kind & supportive by visiting my blog and commenting. I fully intend to do the same every week and then life got in the way. Big time.
I have a good excuse, though!
The last two weeks I have spent getting ready for opening my very own art studio. I am working with this cool group called Poudre Studio Artists here in Fort Collins. We “live” in the Poudre River Arts Center, just north of downtown. I’ve also taken on the role of marketing manager for the center as well, so you can imagine how hilariously crazy things have been here.
So, I don’t know what week it is, really. I don’t remember what I did when, but I need to realize that’s not important anymore (which is REALLY hard for me, because I love tracking and archiving things). I did make a week list of the stuff I’ve done since the last time I posted:
poked holes
drew thin and fat lines
scratched with a sharp object
tore strips
starting adding office supplies
drew a nonstop line
wrote four-letter words
listed more ways to wreck
ALSO, I put the book out during my first First Friday, marked at the page that says “hang the journal in a public place and invite people to draw here.” Not many people wanted to do that, despite my big basket of crayons. I was surprised, actually! My MIL drew a horse though. My SIL drew a penguin and a blackeyed susan (that’s the “logo” my husband and I have – long story for another day). My husband drew a tiny alien and his space ship. That’s good enough for me!
I was carrying it around a lot and then that sort of dropped off, but I intend to pick back up again. It’s comforting to me.
Things I am learning from this process and how it’s spilling over into real life:
I am following the rules less and less. I used to be the “good girl” — who has to please everybody and do the right thing. I’m NOT that girl anymore.
I didn’t clean my house before my in-laws came over. Twice.
I am playing more. Today I was in the studio and I was prepping some pages for a journal and all of a sudden decided to do my process in reverse order, just to see what would happen.
So that’s it for now. If anyone reading this doesn’t have a “give away your favorite page” partner, please consider swapping with me. Leave a note in the comments.
And here are some photos of what I’ve done recently. enjoy!
