Art week in review

Oh my! So much going on. Saturday the Stockton Art League had a reception for their current juried art show. I entered a mixed media piece/collage and paint - and also the Alice Meets the Internet assemblage. Alice took a second place for three dimensional works. This is such a hard category to judge. There were alabaster sculpted pieces, carved woods, steel sculptures, pottery, etc. And then there was my piece, made from a packing crate which brought my portable dvd player. And there it sat with its bright red ribbon, amongst all these other pieces. I had never shown it in Stockton before, so I was very happy to have this honor. In fact, to be selected to be in the show is pretty chancy. They had to turn away a lot of art that would have been shown had the space accommodated a larger show. Francis got an honorable mention on a mixed media piece.

Monday I spent the morning at the senior center working on my Man and Power altered book. Yesterday I spent most of the day cleaning my studio. Then someone reminded me the art center was having their monthly meeting in the evening and Suzanne was going to do a demo of paste paper techniques. Of course there is the business meeting to sit through first. I called Francis and arranged to pick her up. I called Jean, but she has a bad cold. But she asked me if knew what a special paper was that she had been reading about. Something she can use with her water media pieces. I didn't remember, so I looked it up online, found a few links and tutorials and called her back after emailing the links. I tried to respond to an email from Sam, but my computer refused to send him my answer. So, I had to remember to talk to him at the meeting. Suzanne had premixed the paints and paste and had them laid out across the table. Then she showed us several ways to apply the paint and to get interesting textures. A few people tried it and were having a great time.

Today I was back at the other senior center for art play. One of the gals finished a painting she's worked on for quite awhile. A landscape of her grandsons fav area to ski, as seen from afar with the mts in background. I worked on my book again.

Now I have to work out my demo/talk for the Lodi Art Center's next months meeting. It is so hard to show altered books as there are pages and pages to look at. And it is frustrating when there's a crowd. So, I'm trying, at the suggestion of Francis, to find a different way to show them. Maybe constructing an accordion fold screen with pages mounted on it....... Maybe for one of the books. But it would mean deconstructing the book. A more logical way would be to do a slide show/powerpoint presentation. It's not the same as holding a book though. It is much less personal. Well, I have a couple weeks to work it out.

Yesterday I got sidetracked with my old art journal. I was looking at some papers I had marbled a couple years ago with the shaving creme technique. One of them had a little face that could be seen peering out with a funny grin. I thought I'd try to carve a stamp with the image. Well, I got it carved but now it looks kind of scary instead of sweet. It looks like a Tim Burton creation. hmmmmm......I did it a few more times with dif expressions.