Art-Is-You

Time has been rushing by. I've been home from my Wonderful trip to old haunts...oh, good, only two weeks, with a huge make-up caseload at work and a weekend in Seattle since, so I don't feel SO bad about not sharing all that happened.

Teaching and selling at Art-Is-You was my excuse to revisit my old home turf and old friends, but more about NY and VT later, the nature of HOME, FRIENDSHIP and all of that.

Here I am with my new camera and my Hot Flash outfit, trying to smile while I take a picture in the bathroom mirror at the hotel in CT.




Sallianne and Ellen run a Fabulous Event, and asked Merrilee and her story teller friend to do an intro to my book signing for the debut of HOT FLASH: a Celebration in the hotel bar.

I wish I had asked someone to take a picture of me in the red tights, pink socks, and tie-dyed flounced skirt, the hem of which I inadvertently stepped on going up the stairs and flashed everyone. My other regret is not having sampled the HOT FLASH cocktail at the bar.


There was also a sales event...I'm Very Proud to have published 5 books now, and would love to do more, if everyone would like to chip in and buy books to fund future efforts.

The HOT FLASH book is a collection of wonderful stories and art works by 50 women about the wonders of being women...you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be inspired to tell your own stories...AND I have a HOT FLASH page on FaceBook where you can.

The theme of Art-Is was Wizard of Oz, and here Art Girl Tracy Stilwell meets the Good Witch.



















Good Witch, Bad Witch struggle for supremacy....it was All Good!


My class: Dancing on the Edge: Dolls from Found Objects...Each one did Totally Different projects, using Apoxie Sculpt as an attachment medium. The Apoxie Sculpt company even donated samples for each Goodie Bag...Thank you!

Bette contemplates her raw materials.



Jean had a moving truck with the entire contents of her studio out in the parking lot, taking the class in the middle of her move to DC...Needless to say, she had Plenty of stuff to use.







David, Bette, Pat, Thea--all Great! I've known Pat since We Folk of Cloth days. Now she has a degree in art therapy and is trying to make space for all her Stuff in a NYC apartment...Good Luck!
I try to keep honing and making my stash, my range of choices, smaller. Sometimes Creativity is stimulated by having Fewer Choices, And who has time to use it all!

The other side of the class--all deeply engrossed in their individual work...all so different, yet a Team. It's so much fun for me as a teacher to act as a catalyst and figure out what word, small act of encouragement, suggestion, will bring out the excitement, and therefore the best work in these very different individuals, all with different backgrounds and skill sets.




I've known Merrilee since doll club days back in CT. She took a piece from the discards pile and turned it into this Fantastic work of Art and philosophy, that also Lit Up!

Now she's a Retired teacher. Funny how people both change and stay the same over a decade.

I wish this huge store of Creativity to Everyone...and a Lot more Self Confidence and Pride to ALL of us!







Thea, with not the piece she made in my class, but always creative and joyful. I met Thea in one of my online Doll Making as a Transformative Process classes...She was Even Better in person!

I had decided to make this my last In Person teaching, because of lots of things: being 63 and not enjoying air travel any more, having a good deal of my time and energy consumed by the job I do for money, and wanting to spend more of the little free time I have painting, making sculpture, and Enjoying my life on the Olympic Peninsula.

Very Very Tough to think about giving up face to face contact with all these wonderful and creative people! Maybe I'll figure out how to do online teaching in a way that makes us all happy. In the mean time, my hand/elbow/shoulder patients are a lot like my students, in that we have a lot of fun telling jokes and stories and making changes in our lives together. There are a huge number of Fascinating people living out here on the Olympic Peninsula.

Sometimes the Best can be made of life by finding the Best in What IS, rather than always reaching out for change and excitement.

I'll work on my NY and VT pictures to show you something of the rest of my trip: Friends who are Forever, the lumpy hills of the Northeast Kingdom, that will always tug at my heart, no matter how beautiful and temperate it is out here. The mountains finally came out from behind a week-long low cloud cover today to reveal, ta da: new snow frosting! It's so pretty up there and FAR AWAY. A patient today said that he can't stand to be away from the smell of salt water for long now, and I'm getting that way, too. I figured out how to motivate him to move his finger, even though it hurts, and tonight we both went home happy.

Mexico Travel Journal

In addition to relaxation, I determined that my week in Mexico would be productive. An artist can never have too much of training eye and hand to work together.





It also seems that if one concentrates on an experience long enough to write and draw...as opposed to just snapping a photo...the Memory is deepened and enforced. The drawings don't have to be Master Level, as you can see.


Although I have a bureau full of collage papers, I made a point of bringing just a small collection of papers. Since my goal was to complete an entire notebook at the beach, I used a wide light green Coptic Marker, to make parallel lines on each page, vaguely reminiscent of water, tying all the pages together on a subliminal level.



In doing a Travel Journal, count on advertisements and local publications for collage materials as well.
I always find written description a necessary part of recording impressions. Your style may be different.




As long as you are not reproducing for sale, you can work off other artist's pieces to jump start your inspiration, like incorpor-
ating this horse drawing from Seattle Art Museum with my own black drawn lines. I also packed a small tin box of water soluble crayons and a small watercolor set that my beloved high school art teacher, Jessie Loomis, brought back from her trip to Europe in the early Sixties.


A UHU glue stick and fine-point colored markers completed my kit....Travel Light!



Where else could I have access to so
many scantily-dressed people, lying still. Great models...and free!







What a divided world! The staff vacuumed the sand each morning. Even dolphins were pressed
into servitude, with tourists paying to stand in a cement pool and grab a dorsal fin in each hand to be pulled 100 feet or so.


The pink retro flowers are tissue paper from the gift bags waiting for us in our rooms. The repeated motif ties the story together.


Now, Here's an OPPORTUNITY, speaking of travel journals: I've been invited to teach at the Toscana Americana Workshops in Cortona, Italy, in 2011. The cost would be around $3000 for the week, which includes housing, food, and some tours.

Let me know what you think.

More Family...and Food...Fun

My brother, David, and his partner, Brian, have a lovely new home nearer Doug and Amal.

Here's the back yard, from the deck that opens off the kitchen...another great setting for Hastings' food Fests. We were celebrating their new home, Connie achieving her Masters in Voice from UW, Hugh graduating from the "regular job" back to full-time acting, Serene's finishing her junior year at Roosevelt, Birthdays of Thayer, Doug, Amal, Brian, and Steve (in absentia and in Iowa), and my Fourth Anniversary of moving to WA, also Doug and Amal's Tenth of moving, I think.




Serene has become an avid baker (reminds me of EAT CAKE by Jeanne Ray, our next book group book...She must be able to follow directions better than I do, and you can see that she is in the family art mode with these marzipan decorations that were going to go on the cake for brunch, except there was some kind of technical process problem...Maybe she is like me, after all, in not wanted to be bound by rules.

We were happy to slurp up Connie's merainge pie with lemone sauce and Sequim strawberries...bad luck baking that day, but DELICIOUS!





















David and Brian have a wonderful kitchen for entertaining now, too. Here are the West Coast younger generation, not so young any more. Thayer left for a summer in Morocco. Serene is working on her sports and drama skills.

The brothers, Thayer, and I went downtown to SAM and Pike Market after brunch. David looks tired from all the house painting and moving.

It's SO NICE to be able to hang out with the family on a regular basis!




















The colors and textures of the market are SO Inspiring! I'd better get back to my ART WORK!









Remember the work for the fabric journal class? Romance/France. While my current guests, Bill and Barb Kobe, go out to Neah Bay, I'm going to work in the studio....but first outside to finish moving the gravel pile!!!!
I LOVE SUMMER On the PENINSULA!!!

Read 'em and Eat Retreat

I am blessed to be one of 8 in a Very Special book group, founded by Carla, on the left, the week after she moved to Port Angeles. It is SO! SO! Important to have the continuity of a group of friends over time. We've been through a lot together, including great food and ribald jokes.

Here we are at Katie's (second from left) loading up for our first ever Read 'em and Eat retreat at Hobuck Beach. It was, I think, the first nice weekend of spring, too. There's Kim, Justine, Heather with a pile of wood, and Nancy.



Our cute cottage overlooking the beach. Sleeping eight there was tight...good thing we're all friends.
Thank goodness for Bridget's second cleaning, Katie's great curry, Bridget's chocolate fondue, Carla's gourmet breakfast...and ALL those bottles of wine!













The first activity after unloading was a hike to Cape Flattery, which must be the north western most point on the continental United States.




Katie, Bridget, and Justine stopped...to read??? What book was that?

As you can see, it's colder on the Pacific Coast than inland.










Nancy, Justine, and Heather check out the lighthouse and look for whales...we didn't spot any, even though it is the season for them to be hugging the coast and giving birth (I think).


Kim is Education Director at the Olympic Park Institute, so she explains Nature to us. Obviously I wasn't paying full attention during the whale lecture.

Kim, Nancy, and Karla examine sea life...I haven't seen sand dollars since I was a kid. My grandfather used to bring them to us from his early morning walks on the beach at Old Orchard, ME. I must have been 5, but I remember the cream cheese on brown bread (that came in a can) and salmon (also canned) sandwiches.







I did a short stick doll introduction in the afternoon and everyone was Extremely Creative in turning a few sticks and scraps into distinctive critters, with very little instruction required, then a photo session on the beach.







Kim, Carla, Heather...and me, happy to be by the sea! and with friends.










Extra bonus on the way home: Lake Crescent reflecting on itself.










And a rainbow from my front porch--actually that was the week before, as I came home from Seattle on Easter Sunday.







Sun and rain together...a Northwest specialty!

Today that poplar tree is all leafed out.