Workshops at Random Arts

I'm just getting back to reality after spending last weekend teaching three workshops at Random Arts in Saluda, NC.  What a blast! We're already looking at scheduling workshops for next year, tentatively in early August.  What a fun place is Random Arts and Saluda, plus I got to see a bit of Asheville as well.  Here are a few pix from the trip:

My color class, with owner, Jane Powell, front and center

A page from the Visual Journal class by Lynn, who posted about the workshop

Holly and Ruthie doing fabulous painted papers

Deb making a grid collage, who blogged about it here.

The two Janes in Tree Pose (take my word for it, since you can't see our legs)

The fabulous front porch of Random Arts

Porch decorations made with colorful fabrics and embroidery hoops

Christy, center, who was extremely prolific!  Vickie, her mother, on the right, and Denise next to the wall.  Denise was drawn to my workshop by my video with the chicken.

Carol Stangler, a bamboo artist, with Jane Powell

 Thanks for visiting!

Random Arts in North Carolina

I've heard much about the very active art scene in North Carolina - the Asheville area in particular - and met many people from that area on my blog and in my classes.  So I am DELIGHTED to be teaching at Random Arts in September!!  One of my blog readers from Asheville, Lynn, whose blog is here, just asked me directly if I would come and teach in the area, and sent a list of possible venues.  Random Arts is in Saluda, NC, about half an hour outside of Asheville.

Friday, September 7: Unlocking The Secrets of Color

Saturday, September 8: Scribble Collage

Using hand-painted papers to create an abstract collage

Sunday, September 9: Unbinding the Visual Journal

A page spread in my visual journal

Workshops are 10:00 - 4:30; fee is $110.  Click here to contact Random Arts for registration.
The Saluda Mountain Lodge has very reasonable rates and a free shuttle to get you to class.

Visual Journal Part 2

OK, now back to the visual journal.  What is a visual journal anyway?  Everyone seems to be making them.  Are they playgrounds or places to experiment like sketchbooks?  Or documentary like scrapbooks?  Are they artworks in themselves?  Do they have to include text? What is your visual journal to you? 

I keep sketchbooks, as you may know.  These are my visual playgrounds, where I can do whatever I want, and share or not share as I please. Sometimes I work on loose sheets of paper as my sketchbooks, and sometimes I work in spiral-bound books. My sketchbook starts as a series of blank pages, bound or not bound.

This visual journal is something else.  It starts out as a book of already-painted pages.  The pages inspire further mark-making, as you'll see in this video:



 Here are a few page spreads that did not make it into the video:

 

  

 

 And a few the you see in progress in the video:

The process of making and then working in this kind of journal has a couple of benefits for freeing your creativity and putting your Inner Critic in her place:

• First, you can be totally experimental in making the papers.  They are not Art On The Wall, and they will not be seen as Compositions.  They will be folded in half, nested together, and covered with more paint, collage, and drawing.  So you can't get too precious about them.  

• Second, the journal itself is an ongoing work-in-progress.  It gives you an opportunity to exercise your visual muscles without the pressure of Making Art.  And this exercise, this practice, will hone your skills, strengthen your art, and expand your visual vocabulary.

Don't forget, I'm teaching  Unbinding the Visual Journal:

• July 19 at CREATE in Somerset, NJ
• August 23 at CREATE in Chicago
• September 9 at Random Arts in Saluda, NC