Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Notes from An Artful Journey

What a rich and full time it was at An Artful Journey again this year. It was an enthusiastic group in my workshop and they were focused, productive and talented. At the end of the first day I looked at the paste paper that was spread out drying and was taken by the quality of the design and color that was displayed. Oh yes, and by the quantity of it too. There were some people here who knew what they liked and wanted and how to get it!! And for others, it took some time to work the medium and make it theirs.

There were lots of choices with several mediums to explore and book forms to create so everyone got to sample what interested them and concentrate on what really did it for them. Here are some examples of playing with the dyes.

As the hours passed and the days moved on everyone’s work table reflected their style. Several of my tribe showed up; those who work in chaos. And then there were the folks who kept order in spite of the volume of papers they were accumulating. How do they do that?

With a little one-on-one time with me even the neatest, most organized person in the room can be induced to let go, let it fly, work fast, get messy, not understand, and then bring it all into focus and love it. Well, they might not like the part when they do not understand. But they get over that.

One of the things I loved about the classroom we had this time was the big white erasable board that I used for lists, diagrams and instructions.

Here’s a sheet of paste paper with the river rock pattern from the stencil from http://stencilgirlproducts.blogspot.com/

A whole lot of beautiful books were made.

An Artful Journey is such a wonderful experience in part because it is a relatively small event. There were 5 teachers instructing in various mediums. The conference center is surrounded by nature and Cindy O’Leary really takes very good care of us.

The next An Artful Journey takes place February 23rd-27th with DJ Pettitt, Katie Kendrick, Tory Brokenshire, Flora Bowley and Albie Smith offering 3 day workshops. I am limiting my class to 12 people so if you are interested sign up as soon as registration opens sometime in July. Check out Cindy’s blog for more photos of this year’s event http://artfuljourneyretreat.blogspot.com/

and Kelly Warren has some great info and photos too. http://happyshackdesigns.blogspot.com/

I want to thank Mikki Lesowitz and Carmen Tangherlini for sending me the great photos you see in this blog entry.