Cleveland Rocks

Another week has just flown by but before we get to anything else, I have to tell you about Ginny's Small Studio.

The lovely Ginny Carter Smallenburg and I

Michael and I were just there last weekend teaching and I knew from the moment I walked in that I was going love this place. If it weren't for stringent baggage restrictions with airlines these days I think I would have ended up taking half of the store home with me...but of course we weren't there to shop, we were there to run workshops and I just have to show you what we got up to.....

Day One for me was the class entitled Atypical Aphrodites...I love working big and that's just what we did, every canvas panel you see here is at least 4 feet in length!

Here is are few pictures of our day...

Everyone hard at work and very happy to have the whole table to themselves

Cindy, Norma, Jill, Dusty, Janet, Stacey, Camille, Patricia, Judi, Robin, Kip, Pamela, Bette

 Thank you to Cindy Kovack for taking pictures for us!

Day Two was Collaging the Translucent, where the class builds sculptural works of art using a combination of transparent and opaque collage materials combined with found objects. These are really hard to photograph well, I wish I could show them all to you, alas, terrible reflections meant that many of the photos didn't turn out all....here are a just a few samples of what was made in class....

Day Three - Dorian Gray Portraits. Inspired by Oscar Wilde's novel, in this class students were really asked to push their collages to include a whole lot of symbolism, and various hiding spots and nooks and crannies to conceal and reveal qualities of their chosen subject. It was absolutely wonderful to hear about everyone's journey through this process. Here's a peek of some of the results of our class.

Around town this weekend

My darling husband is returning from Missoula today, and little does he know it, but I've got us booked for a very, very busy weekend of Art Happenings around town...here's what we're up to, if you're a Vancouver local you may want to check these out for yourselves.

Thursday, May 3rd

Guess who's coming to town? Seth Apter will be in Vancouver, BC this evening for his artist talk and book signing. I had the opportunity to meet Seth briefly last year at Art Is...You in Connecticut and see his wonderful artwork up close. It will be great to try and catch up with him again and I'm so looking forward getting my signed copy of his book The Pulse of Mixed Media. Click here for all of the details.

Friday, May 4th

I love downtown Vancouver. I love Art. Put them together, sprinkle in some music, artworks, competitions and auctions from about 80 different artists and you get the 2012 Art Expo! Contact Monika Blichar for tickets and details.

Sunday, May 6th

Dr. Sketchy. What is Dr. Sketchy you ask? Well, it's life drawing with a twist....part art class, part cabaret. The models show up in themed costumes to The Wallflower on Main Street in Vancouver, and during the course of the evening perform a burlesque number of sorts while a group of artists with charcoal, pencils and sketchbooks at the ready begin madly getting their marks down on paper. I haven't done life drawing since my University days so it will be fun to dust off the old sketchbook and try my hand at it again. This month's theme is Beach Blanket Bingo featuring "Coco". Each month there's a new theme, they've had everything from Rio Carnivale to Star Wars to Krampus Kristmas...how could you not have fun? Click here for more details. ...well that's all for now, but I promise to post pics next week!

Man Trouble!

Some of you may have noticed that a substantial portion of my work has a somewhat shall we say feminine bias to it.

Now that's all well and good, but when you are designing a tarot deck, sooner or later you have to address some of the powerful male figures. So there I was in the studio, and I was on a bit of a roll, you know those rare times when the planets seem to be in proper alignment with your muses and the work just flows....well, anyway it was during one of these times that I decided it would be wise to start in a large canvas with a male central figure....and then....well, that's when my man troubles began. My muses had changed their allegiance, they abandoned me for greener pastures, fickle creatures that they are...As an aside you may have also noticed the simply stunning work that has been coming out my darling husband's studio these days...I think we all know where the muses went....just look here if you don't believe me!!

I started in on a piece that I was determined to transform into the Knight of Wands tarot card....and here's what happened:

But in the immortal words of Shakespeare, "All's well that end's well". More about the symbolism and meaning of the Knight of Wands next time....

Who, What, Where and When

Well hello again. Back from Artfest where I had an absolutely amazing three days of teaching! The projects that came out of class were positively amazing! What a joy reconnecting with old friends and making so many new ones.

Here's a quick peek a what came out of a couple of classes. Most days, I either forgot my camera or the battery so I only managed a couple of quick iPhone pics...

Student work from Collaging the Translucent class

Student work from the Suspended Souls class

Next up on the workshop frontier......

Ginny's Small Studio in Westlake, Ohio - June 1-3rd

Atypical Aphrodites

Fri June 1st

Artists have been creating iconic works of art for centuries, in fact there are several branches of art history devoted to that subject alone. The artist's ability through the use of powerful imagery and cultural symbols to take an "ordinary" image and elevate it to something otherwordly is rather divine. Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of beauty and love will serve as our inspiration in this project based workshop. Prepare to do some transformative magic of our own as we take everyday images and change them into large scale iconic mixed media masterpieces. Bring your assortment of personal symbols, imagery and that box of ephemera that you've been collecting and we will incorporate them into your canvas elevating them from the ordinary to the extraordinary as we explore many sophisticated techniques for creating our deeply symbolic multilayered collage. We will use several methods, mediums and techniques for seamlessly merging otherwise unrelated imagery into a unified composition that will allow us to create modern day icons of our own.

Collaging the Translucent 

Sat June 2nd

Typically collage is about the clever ways we combine items to cover over and transform surfaces; this time we are going to explore this medium in a slightly different way. In this class we will collage incorporating items that are transparent in nature. Combining transparencies, mica, photos, textured papers, ephemera, and found objects we will create rich, layered collages, with jewel like depth and vibrancy. Using a small wood substrate as our base, we are going to design multi-tiered compositions. By learning the secrets of how to combine the visible with the semi-visible, and focusing on both the play of light and effects of depth, you will be able to create mesmerizing almost holographic effects. You choose whether the subject is a portrait, landscape or something else entirely.

Dorian Gray Portraits Sunday June 3rd

Many of you might be familiar with Oscar Wilde's famous novel the "Picture of Dorian Gray" in which a young, handsome youth is granted the wish of immortality, with one catch of course... that all of his sins, vices and age would be made apparent in his portrait. This class uses that novel as our inspiration. We are going to expand on this theme and create our own portraits that can perpetually transform and reveal secrets, dreams, virtues or sins... the choice is yours.
These personal stories begin with a wood substrate on which we will paint, collage our portraits, add multiple doses of compelling imagery and infuse with sins or virtues. We will be using nooks, hinges, and hiding places to cleverly disguise our subject's secrets, as well as exploring different textural effects that we can add for richness. At the end of our day of Wilde exploration you'll have your own portrait of revelations, with all of the secrets hidden in plain sight.

Souvenir

Some people collect postcards, others a t-shirt, a spoon, perhaps a keychain, the list is endless. What do I collect? I'll give you three guesses....

Why, Tarot decks of course, and my last trip to New Orleans was no exception. Truth be told, Michael and I have no shortage of keepsakes from our last trip and I really want to say a sincere thank you to the wonderful group of artists and friends that surprised us with a post wedding celebration where we received a veritable bounty of very thoughtful items....but I digress. 

Sallie Ann Glassman

After going into one shop after another, I finally found the deck I wanted. The deck that the lovely Marci Donely introduced me to. Which deck you ask?....the Voodoo Tarot Deck. Yep, that's right a VOODOO deck for tarot. How cool is that? Wanna hear something even cooler. I met the artist, Sallie Ann Glassman. She's a known Voodoo Priestess in the area and her colleague and created the deck and accompanying book with writing collaborator Louis Martinie.

Voodoo Deck by Sallie Ann Glassman, book by Louis Martinie

The imagery is really very interesting, a lot of it rich with symbolism that I am completely unfamiliar with. The Major Arcana included a Wild Card - the Baron. The Minor Arcana is divided into four suits, and for me at least, that's where the similarity to other decks ends. Three of the four suits are branches of Voodoo (the Petro, Congo, and Rada), but the fourth suit is based on the religion called Santeria, an interwoven tapestry of Catholic and African beliefs.

I'll have to do a little more research on the symbolism before I can use the deck for readings, but it is gorgeous isn't it?

P.S. If you want your own copy of this tarot deck do a search on "voodoo tarot", several online vendors are available, so you can find the one nearest you....

Tied to the Untidy

No, no, no, I'm not at all referring to my recent "tying of the knot" to the notoriously untidy Michael deMeng, aka the "anti-Martha Stewart" (and yes, that's a good thing).....rather I'm talking about MY studio.....no, that's not my studio....that photo is the studio of the equally messy Francis Bacon (I'm not really much of a Scotch drinker myself). Right now Michael is filming a segment for his Crusted, Crumbled and Cracked online workshop...and so we've been having interesting conversations about how many ways you can "rust" plastic....but I digress....

We're still in January and it's already been a busy year....but now with birthdays, holidays, and weddings off the to do list it's time to get back to work. I've been busy creating in the studio (to say it is very untidy right about now would be more than a bit of an understatement) and I'm excited to announce that this will be a hoppin' year of travelling and teaching: here's what's coming up for 2012...

It's a pleasure to be teaching in my own neck of the woods, right here in beautiful British Columbia and first up on the schedule is.....
February 11-12:  Upstart Crow in Delta, BC registration is taking place right now! We'll be spending the weekend collaging like crazy with two separate classes: Veils of Psyche, and Iconic Allegory.

March 28-April 1:  Don't miss your last chance ever to make it to Artfest (Port Townsend, WA)! If attending Artfest has ever been on your to do list...then this has got to be your year. Teesha Moore, Artfest organizer extraordinaire has announced that will be the last year for Artfest. So don't delay!

June 1-3:  Small Studios (Avon Lake, OH) Come for a workshop and visit Ginny Smallenburg's new retail store to be open soon!

June 29-July 1:  Valley Ridge Arts Studio (Madison, WI) has an amazing line-up of workshops this season (including a couple from yours truly) and Registration begins 9:00am CST on Saturday, January 14th...as I understand it, you really want to be online and registering early since classes fill up quickly!

July 30-August 7:  Art Unraveled (Phoenix, AZ) is having their 10 year anniversary and offering a 10% discount on your classes as long as you sign up before March 15th! Registration opens January 17th!

September 19-23:  Art is...You (Petaluma, CA) Registration will be going online soon!


October 4-9:  Art is...You (Stamford, CT) Registration will be going online soon!