looking ahead to winter

Our first snow of the season and now I'm really missing the warm weather. What started as a dusting is now a white out outside my window. brrrr. Here's a shot of my workshop students hard at work last month - which now seems so long ago as I can see the sunshine and leaves on the trees outside the window.

Looks like my sketchbook class at the Corcoran College of Art and Design is on for spring semester and will be titled seven short sessions with the sketchbook. (I hope it makes it into the catalog this time) For those of you who signed up last fall - I thank you and hope that you'll give it another go in the spring. We're going to crank up the volume on this class and dive into the sketchbook from the inside and out, including the book form I submitted to the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Details to come.

I'll also be offering a short workshop at the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture next Thursday December 13, 2007 at 3pm. This class will take a brief look at their current sketchbook show and then get you moving in your own sketchbook. RSVP to AAAExhibits@si.edu if interested. I bet it won't be looking so sunny and green out the window that day... but we will be thinking warm winter thoughts.

Weekend works

I spent the weekend studying bookmaking with Daniel Essig. Over the course of three days we worked on two book forms that are variations of the ethiopian coptic stitch. We worked with papyrus, cotton papers, fossils, waxed linen thread, bone folders, rules, exacto knives, metal squares, PVA glue, needles, wood, hand drills, a drill press, sand paper, milk paint, a hammer, rulers, pencils, his hand made awls, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

Here's a shot of Dan giving us a demonstration. I came away with 4 beautiful books. Two bound with papyrus covers adorn with fossils and two finished off with layered and distressed wood covers and many feet of thread.

Dan focuses on the book form itself, and most of his books are collectors items and left blank. For shame! Now here's the real test for me - I'd just love to turn this into my next sketchbook and can't wait to get in there and put these pages to work. But, I must admit the books themselves are so beautiful that they're a bit intimidating to work on! We'll both be teaching at the art and soul mixed media retreat this fall in Portland Oregon. I hope to have my book started by then, I'll let you know in October.

spring's influence

A work in progress here in the studio... Now that the weather's changing and the days are longer I can't keep my hands off all that wild color. Last week I even went out and bought a tube of magenta?!?!?

The more I paint the more I learn, every piece is a step closer to the next one. I always seem to look back at my sketchbooks for inspiration. Even if it's just the starting point. The marks in this painting look like they could have come directly out of my sketchbook. This month's issue of Cloth Paper Scissors has a few articles on keeping a sketchbook. Check it out, it's great inspiration from a few different perspectives. Next month I'm scheduled to have images of my sketchbooks and an article published in the May/June issue. More to come on that once it hits the newsstands.

My article dives deeper into why I keep a sketchbook and the different approaches I employ. Many of these points are covered in my sketchbook class that I'm currently teaching at the Corcoran this semester. That class kicked off last week with a very talented group of new students. I can't wait to see what they'll create this semester. I also lead a mini book workshop last Monday at the Art League in Alexandria - I always learn something new from my students and am amazed at what they come up with in such a short amount of time. It's a sketch-book-think-tank!

True love?

Recently while in class we were asked to state why we make art. A fellow classmate responded that she loves art supplies and that her collection is so vast that she'd like to learn how to put them to use. There is definitely a part of me that can relate to that... A friend pointed out how much I love art making materials. It's true. Usually I don't leave the art supply store until my blood sugar has dropped and forced me out.

Last week was my sixth and final visit to the Joseph Cornell show at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Every time I visit I learn something new about his work. The show is filled with heaps of goodies. Boxes are labeled with: corks, clear plastic boxes, mouse material, coral, springs, marbles, glasses, balls, flotsam and jetsam, and so on. What do I have? What do I need? That's the thing - my visionary of an instructor Katie Dell Kaufman reminds me that I already have everything I need. So true!!! So why do I keep going to the art supply store? And looking, looking, looking... The place I've been looking lately is my sketchbook.

When Mr. Cornell started gathering these item he was interested in collecting - as he organized and reorganized his collection he discovered inspiration and relationships between the items. He found stories, metaphors, and a doorway into his imagination. The materials continue challenge and intrigue me, especially when incorporating collage. I'm always feeling my way around the materials and mediums I have in my studio - or junk shop - or the scraps I find on Columbia Pike (always interesting stuff to be found there). This week I'm starting a new project that will have modular pieces and based on discovery - I wonder what I'll find along the way?