navylane :: musings

And the last of my Artfest saga… On Friday, I was Lost and Found with the talented, delightful and down to earth Lisa Engelbrecht.

In class, we experimented with adding washes of color to canvas and cotton muslin using a variety of inks, including liquid acrylics, gouache and walnut ink. Then we practiced lettering on paper before making the jump to lettering on fabric.

The most important lesson learned in this class: I am not a calligrapher, nor do I possess the patience, drive and self-displicine needed to be a calligrapher. However, I love typography and lettering, and I will definitely make use of more informal, alternative lettering in my projects. I like the process of lettering on fabric, possibly more than on paper, and Lisa’s class gave me an opportunity to explore this technique and try a range of different inks and tools.

I have opted to forego finishing the piece I worked on during class (shown left). I was definitely having an off day, and I wasn’t really thrilled with a single thing on this piece. I misspelled the word daring, I am not crazy about the lettering or colors, and I lost a few of the elements I had planned on embellishing it with on the way home. So it’s now in the scrap pile.

Instead, I turned my attention to one of the washes I did during class. I added a quote with some very impromptu lettering, then I finished the piece with the addition of stitching, a rusty metal star charm and some fibers for a hanger.

Voila, but there is one thing I am questioning: I know that when you use a quote it is best etiquette to include the name of the person it is attributed to, but what if the source is unknown, such as this quote? Should I add unknown under the quote??

On Thursday I was Journaling The Journey with Anahata Katkin. Not only is her work truly divine and inspiring, her approach and theory on creativity is encouraging and thought provoking as well. I am so into the idea of each of us having our own individual symbolic alphabet, and I am truly enthralled by the powerful concept that our creative focus can nurture our goals and help bring about change.

Momentum, art journal, 30 March 2006.

The pages above are meant to be a catalyst of sorts for the change I want in my life. On the back of the yellow panel (which fits in the envelope on the left side of the page) I have written thoughts about the change I seek and the steps I need to take to provoke such a change.

The next pages, shown below, are representative of how I am now and how I see myself in the future. I had trouble with these pages, especially the part of the me to come as I was feeling a bit restricted in the materials I had before me, but it was a great challenge and forced me to work with what I had on hand.

Now and Then, art journal, 30 March 2006.

mixed media wall hanging,
8.5″ x 26.5″ including hanger

I made this wall hanging on Saturday in Traci Bautista’s The Artful Wall class. It was a fast paced class with lots of demos and techniques using surprisingly cheap supplies. Traci is a great teacher with lots of cool tips that I would like to try and incorporate into my own work. Some of her great advice included: work really fast… re-use your art in new ways by scanning, copying and printing previous collage or journal pages… and cut up and crop something you’ve created and use it in several projects.

I owe a big thank you to the sweet and talented Bridgette Guerzon Mills — I could not have accomplished much in class if it weren’t for her generosity in lending me her sewing machine and eyelet setting tools and paper towels. She has a really great style, too, and I was much more into the colors she was working with for her project than the wonky ones that seemed to be dominating mine.

I am back home after a six-day excursion to Washington for Teesha and Tracy Moore’s annual Artfest event.

Misty and I left a day early so we could spend some time in Seattle. We were so blessed to have the ever so lovely Katie Kendrick meet us in Seattle and spend some time with us. She is the most kind soul I think I have ever met, and I feel like I have known her for years. After she picked us up from the airport on Tuesday, we stocked up on art supplies at Daniel Smith and searched for treasures at Goodwill. Then we checked in at the uber cool Hotel Max before leaving for a delectable dinner at the Snappy Dragon with Bernie Berlin and friends. On Wednesday morning, Misty, Katie and I walked about Seattle drinking coffee, taking pictures and browsing the market. After a bittersweet goodbye to Katie, we embarked on our journey towards Fort Worden for our first Artfest.

It was a messy, emotional week for me. I was energized by my new surroundings, overwhelmed by the mass of people I met, smitten by the serenity and beauty of the beach, fatigued by the long stretches of creative time I had each day, guilty over the fact that I had sick little ones at home who terribly missed me. I had heard people say the first time at Artfest could be ovewhelming, but I was in no way prepared for just how intense and overpowering it felt to me.

It is such an interesting dynamic to have so many different personalities and different types of people together, yet all having art as the same common demominator among them. So cool to meet in person many of the people I know only by name online. Maija Lepore has such a positive energy about her; I just can’t help but smile when I’m around her. Celine Navarro and Stacie Rife are so fun and easygoing, and we had quite a few laughs together. Nina Bagley is an amazing woman with such a good heart. LK Ludwig, so talented and beautiful; I bought a gorgeous pair of earrings from her on vendor night. Pam Garrison and Amy Hanna are an adorable pair of friends with such sweet, genuine smiles! And a handful of other wonderful people that I cannot think of right at this moment because my head is still spinning a bit — such a treat to meet you all! I regret that I didn’t get a chance to meet Lelainia Lloyd or have a chance to sit and talk with Liz Elayne — I do wish our paths would have crossed before we had left!

I enjoyed each one of my classes: Journaling the Journey with Anahata Katkin; Lost and Found with Lisa Engelbrecht; and The Artful Wall with Traci Bautista. So inspiring and motivating! I’ll post photos of my projects soon…

Now, it’s back to the daily grind. Two sick children and a sick husband. A house that looks strangely no different than when I left, almost as if life as I know it had stopped and waited for me to return. Fighting exhausation, dirty laundry, and pumping myself up with lots of Airborne and tea in hope that I can avoid all these germs getting the best of me. Lots of snuggles from my little ones. A sense of peace that I am home and that I now know how very much I am needed and appreciated as a mother. Eager to get back into creative mode and implement some new ideas and techniques. Torn between indulging in the comforts of home and the love of my family, and wanting to go back and revel in the creative energy of Artfest once again.

P.S. I was terrible, as usual, at taking photos during my time at Artfest, so if you have any to share I would be ever so grateful if you could email them to me!