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A FLUID ROMANCE WITH KARI MCKNIGHT-HOLBROOK

My third class at Art & Soul in Virginia was A Fluid Romance taught by Kari McKnight-Holbrook. Kari has a vast knowledge of the properties and character of fluid acrylics and mediums and gels; and she's a generous as well as knowledgeable teacher. Her class was a lot of fun. We used paints, modeling paste, clip art, drawings, photos, stencils, and all manner of embellishments.

Kari suggested we tell a story in our paintings by including images of a person, place and thing: an excellent creative touchstone. I came very close to following directions. I wanted my piece to portray the creation of a creative woman, so I used images of people and things. Below is the best photo I could get of my painting. The quote I wrote (which is partially obscured by light reflection) says, "not Eve, pulled from the parts of one who was incomplete, but Lillith, created whole."

FINISHING, STARTING, AND STILL NEEDS WORK

This past week-end, I worked on several projects. I actually finished a necklace a friend of mine had asked for; I made progress with making embellishments out of the fabric paper I had made with my friends Lori and Chris the week-end before; and I made progress on my 2-D canvas piece.

First, the piece I actually finished: a black and white beaded necklace.

Lori Hutchinson and Chris Gould came over to my house the week-end before last. We ate well (at Martini's, one of my favorite restaurants in Kalamazoo), shopped happily (at Stitching Memories, a great yarn shop in Portage) and played happily in my messy studio (we each made 7 sheets of fabric paper, the technique demonstrated by Beryl Taylor in her book, "Mixed Media Explorations").

 

This past week-end, I started making embellishments by cutting some of my fabric papers and sewing around them. Some, I will leave like this; some I will sew more on; and some I willfurther embellish with baubles and/or beads. Right now, I am just making a stash to use later.

 

 And, I worked on a 2-D canvas that I am trying to get ready for a three person show at the Portage Library in late June and July. I'm putting in some pieces I've made in the last year or so, but I want to do an original canvas for the show, too. I want it to be a mixed-media 2-D piece and I have a lot more to do to it, but here it is (paint, mostly Color Mists by Aileen Roberts,  still drying). I have a lot more to do on it.

I also worked on starting class kits for the Crowning Glory class I'm teaching at ArtUnraveled in August (it's a great art retreat and there's still time to register). I'm also working on things to sell there because I'm going to be one of the vendors at the Shopping Extravaganza (I've already posted about the cuffs I made, I'm currently working on some other things, which I will post when they're further along in production).

MY LAST 2 CLASSES AT ARTURAVELED

All good things must come to an end. I have finished my last classes at Art Unraveled. I have been so busy, I haven't taken as many photos as usual (I will remedy the photo situation when I go to Sedona with Fran; I plan to wear my camera around my neck and take lots of photos of what everyone tells me is one of the most beautiful places on earth).

I took Jacqueline Sullivan's Glorious Papers class and had fun playing with paste paper and paints. And, I got to play with pan pastels (gotta get me some of these color rich and thick pastels).

I also took Katie Kendrick's Tales from the Land of Odd. I sat next to Martha Brown (she is a Background Queen) during class; here is a picture of Martha looking very serious as Katie was demonstrating techniques.

I did 3 paintings in class - each one based on a floating head (hey, it meets the Land of Odd theme). I haven't decided if they are finished or not.

Now to finish packing the flat rate boxes to send supplies and art projects back to Michigan (flying out to an art retreat is so much more complicated than driving).

I really love ArtUnraveled! I love meeting up with my Phoenix art friends (Fran, Angie, Maija, and newly met Rella); meeting on line friends like Tracey;  and running into other friends (Martha came out this year and is planning on coming back next year; Leighanna taught, vendored and socialized; I bought an incredibly beautiful shawl from Lorri and Jennifer who taught their hat making class to much acclaim and sold absolutely lovely altered vintage clothes - and, they're a lot of fun at Happy Hour). I've probably left people out, not because they aren't important, but because I'm exhausted by so much art and fun.

PAINTING AND PHOTOSHOP

I am currently in Cape Girardeau, happily being with my husband for 10 days, but sadly away from my studio. So, to prevent total art withdrawal, I played with digital art today.

It is less than a week ago that I was in Birmingham for painting classes with DJ Pettitt and wire wrapping with Deryn Mentock. So, I decided to try to combine some of my painting with some photos in Photoshop. I took a photo of one of the formative steps in the face I painted with DJ's instructions (I wanted to use an unfinished face because I wanted to do "sketchy" things with it). You can find the original photo in one of my previous posts).

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these, but here are the two I worked on today (after we got back from 3 days in Memphis, which is, by the way, killer hot).