Permission to Play

I am pleased to announce that I will be teaching a mark making workshop, entitled Permission to Play, at Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch's OPENstudio in Lexington, Kentucky October 4-7, 2017.

Come and try your hand at my favorite mark making techniques at the beginning of the week

 

and round it out with Lorie McCown as she guides you through the process of telling your story with cloth. 

It's sure to be a fun-filled, highly creative, art packed 7 days. For more information, just click here.
Hope to see you in Kentucky next October!

In the studio this week

Urchins in summer camp = studio time! 

 This little page 

 spurred a lot more of this,

 which resulted in all those holes.

 And that just begged for its own bit of red.

What did you do this week?

509 = 3

Wondering just what sort of art math I'm up to now? In what universe 509 = 3? In the blogiverse, of course!

In celebration of passing the 500th blog post milestone (this post is #509 - 500 was back in Cleveland - day 4's morning walk, in fact), I've made 3 journals to give away as my way of saying Thank You! to everyone who reads my little blog.

The journals are made of papers that I marked on after returning from this year's artist retreat at Pam's .

Roughly measuring 6 inches square,

 each has 18-20 pages, including the cover.

There is movement

and color.

Mostly blue as I was dreaming of water as I did these.

The edges are rough

as are the journals themselves. They are imperfect and incomplete. Every other spread is blank - awaiting your own marks and words.

If you fancy having one of my little journals, you have until midnight New York City time on Saturday, September 6, to leave a comment here or on the corresponding post on my Facebook artist page. Next Sunday morning, the little urchins and I will draw names. Don't forget to leave your blog address or email address in your comment in case your name is drawn.

Good luck! And Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

Marks - June 22-28

My favorites from the week. Enjoy!

Marks - June 21

Saturday's mark making began with sheet of Rives BFK

that had been painted last week. 

A few circles were added.

As was an X

or 2...or 3.

A bit more color was needed

so the yellow crayon got to play.

 summer marks #2, 2014

Knowing that this will become a journal, I cut the pages 

and rearranged them just for fun. 

This is my 493rd post. My little urchins keep asking when they get to draw a name or 2 out of the rusty can again. Seems that in 7 more posts there needs to be a give-away to celebrate. Perhaps a mark making journal or 2. What do you think?

Marks - June 19

Summer vacation has begun which means lots of activities with the little urchins until their summer camp begins mid-July. We went to see How to Train Your Dragon 2 yesterday and it was great!

Being that there's a stretch of very little studio time ahead, I've set a daily challenge for myself - to make a mark...or two...per day. It's building on what was begun during the 5th annual artist retreat at Pam's.

The key for me is to keep the marks simple. Yesterday morning, feeling in a mood to stitch yet

 lacking the time, stitch-like marks were added in a couple of places.

 I entered the studio this morning intending to add another mark

summer marks #1, 2014

and ended up deciding that the page is done. Time for a new sheet.

In the studio, June 18

Making marks

and having fun

playing with a new brush. 

 Setting a challenge for myself

to make at least one mark

per day this summer.

A celebration

Today is my friend Katy's birthday.

 An artist in her own right, she doesn't see herself as such.

Always putting family and friends first, 

she dreams of joining Pam and I on our artist retreats.

And that is what it is...a dream,

for she will never do it, will never take time for herself.

Katy told me once - when I was angry at the world, at moving, at leaving family, friends and home behind -

that she was not going to let me not be her friend. 

 Something kept me from walking away from her...from her audacity at telling me that that day. 

8 years later, I'm treating her to lunch in celebration of her birthday and our friendship...and giving her this book, newly finished just this morning as she so admired the journals made at Pam's. Shhh....Katy doesn't know I've made her one. Thankfully, she doesn't read the blog!