ad libitum

ART UNRAVELED 2012

I forgot to post a class description and picture for my "Hello Dollies" class at Art Unraveled (Monday night 6:30 t0 9:30, August 6) in my previous post. So, here is the class description

Hello, Dollies

student level: all levels

Project workshop: students will leave with dolls they made in class.

Dolls have been with us forever, giving comfort, sparking our imagination, and pleasing our aesthetics. This is a class designed to explore traditional and not-traditional dolls, to sit down and make one or several dolls designed by you. I will provide materials and instructions for you to make paper dolls, flat fabric dolls and spirit dolls. Take some time to relax and create at your own pace. You can make paper dolls with traditional jointed arms and legs from scratch; use selected cabinet cards to make dolls to use as hangings; make coat pins or embellishments from fabric scraps and polymer faces; and/or make spirit dolls out of twigs and ribbons.

A kit fee of $5 covers class supplies of art papers, doll templates, brads and eyelets, jump rings, fabric scraps, polymer faces, embellishments (beads buttons, sparklies, pinbacks), glue, cabinet card images, heavy cardstock, magazine images, markers, sheets of snappy sayings, wire, twigs and found objects. 

Supplies to be brought by students: scissors, pencil, any personal embellishments that you may want to use.

 

 

ART UNRAVELED REGEISTRATION IS OPEN

Art Unraveled  July 30 - August 7

Embassy Suites, Phoenix-Scottsdale location

A fabulous list of internationally known teaching artists, some returning, some new to AU - many teaching workshops you haven't seen on the schedule anywhere else. (Can't get time off work? Join us for an evening!)

10th Anniversary Celebration Discount

In celebration of our 10th anniversary, if your registration is

• received prior to March 15th and
• workshop fees total $250 or more

receive a 10% discount from the total of your workshop fees*.

* Only workshop fees are discountable and must total $250 or more to be eligible for the discount.

Click here to see all the great things planned for this year's Art Unraveled. There are lots of great classes to register for (I'd love to see you in the class I'm teaching, "Hello Dollies" on Monday, August 6 , 6:30 to 9:30 pm); I'd love to see you in one of the classes I'm taking. ArtUnraveled is one of the highlights of my year.

 

A CAR AT LESEDI, SOUTH AFRICA

Use it, reuse it, transform it into something else, make it beautiful...

SNOW DAYS ART PROJECTS

The unusually mild Michigan winter gave way to a traditional snow storm this past week-end. I gave myself some snow days and indulged in painting papers and drinking a lot of hot chocolate.

I made some background stamps by cutting fun foam and then gluing it to a cut up cereal box.

I painted deli papers black and white...

I stamped white paint onto the black papers...

I stamped black ink onto the white papers...

And, I used color paints on some more deli papers...

I will use these papers in collages, to make fabric papers, and for backgrounds.

IF THIS IS TUESDAY, IT MUST BE TEXTURES

Nancy Donaldson has sent out some more textures for us to play with. This group of textures started life as photos of telephone poles. I love Nancy's textures.

A winter branch becomes colder looking...

An angel statue takes a different look...

An Irish baby stands out more...

PENGUINS ~ ESPECIALLY FOR KATE

My friend Kate loves penguins. (Who wouldn't?). When I learned that we would get to go see the colony of penguins at Boulders Beach, I knew I would be taking lots of pictures - both for me and for Kate.

 

AND LIONS, OH MY!

Most of the lions I saw in South Africa were napping. I did see a lioness eating a warthog, but almost all the others were pretty still. We saw a lion soon after his meal (the ranger told us you could tell by his belly and by the way he was breathing) and he was pretty immobile. No matter, they are magnificent creatures and I'm really lucky to have seen them.

The Castle in Cape Town is guarded by a pair of lions.

This lioness got up and walked around when our Land Rover arrived, but got back to dinner when she decided we were't going to try to share the meal.

 

The ranger told us that just after he eats, a lion is not going to move for quite a while. No one got out of the LandRover to test this theory.

Such a powerful profile!

White lions napping in the bush outside of Johannesburg.

Here's Annie petting a lion cub (the fur is a little rough and the guide told us to pet with a strong hand because a light touch irritates them).

 

CAPE TOWN

Cape Town was a delightful surprise to both me and Annie, It's a beautiful city with a beautiful shorline and a busy and fun waterfront. Our hotel was by the waterfront. Our first morning there, we took a city tour, going up to Table Rock (the line for the cable car was too long, so we didn't take the cable car to the top), driving through the brightly painted BoKaap neighborhood, touring the Castle, driving through District 6 (a sad part of Apartheid history), walking through the city Park, and seeing diamonds being cut.

ELEPHANTS

The Elephant is Slow to Mate
by D. H. Lawrence
The elephant, the huge old beast, is slow to mate; he finds a female, they show no haste they wait for the sympathy in their vast shy hearts slowly, slowly to rouse as they loiter along the river-beds and drink and browse and dash in panic through the brake of forest with the herd, and sleep in massive silence, and wake together, without a word. So slowly the great hot elephant hearts grow full of desire, and the great beasts mate in secret at last, hiding their fire. Oldest they are and the wisest of beasts so they know at last how to wait for the loneliest of feasts for the full repast. They do not snatch, they do not tear; their massive blood moves as the moon-tides, near, more near till they touch in flood.

SOUTH AFRICAN BIRDS OF A FEATHER

I saw an incredible variety of birds in South Africa (it's home to penguins, ostriches, buzzards, hornbills, vultures, etc).