2009 intentions

I teach a once-a-month art quilt class. The January assignment was to create a quilt of your intentions/affirmations/resolutions for 2009. Here's mine.

buddy in a bag

This bag was in the kitchen, last time I looked. Now it's in the living room with a cat inside.

buddy in a box

Buddy is such a help in the studio.

Obama

Over at Mundo Lindo, I had the kids do portaits of our new President. Here's one, done by 4 different kids (ages 9-11) and then sewn together. Check out the rest at Mundo Lindo. (I'll post more portraits tomorrow.)

do not pick the roses

I wanted to try sketching a flower everyday to chronicle the stages of a blossom. I should not have picked a rose, especially a yellow rose. (too hard to shade--it turns the yellow to green or murky.) Next time, I go with a tulip, much easier.

Art Unraveled 2009

Here's my teaching schedule for Art Unraveled!

August 5, Wednesday, 9-4:30 indoors & air-conditioned
Paper on Cloth Collage
Create a truly mixed media piece by collaging paper on to cloth. ( Jane’s techniques were featured in the magazine Cloth Paper Scissors March/April 2008 and in her appearance on the third season of Quilting Arts TV.) In class, we’ll paint and use a variety of textures to create our backgrounds on uncoated canvas. Then Jane will show you easy ways to transfer (copy) or draw your image onto the canvas. Once you’re happy with your design, you’ll collage it with a wild mixture of different types of paper and finish it off with painted and stamped and sewn details. You’ll work on three collages at once, so you might want to have a theme (or not!) Jane will show you lots of mixed media techniques to inspire you. At the end of the day you’ll have three paper and cloth collages, with the option to machine or hand-stitch additional texture at home.

August 6, Thursday, 9-4:30 indoors & air-conditioned
Sketching and Watercolor Journal Style: Collections
Want to learn to draw and paint quickly and simply to capture details from your life or travels? Spend the day drawing and painting in a relaxed supportive environment. Jane will show you how to take the time to really look at an object and draw it. Then she’ll demonstrate the use watercolors using a straight-forward, intuitive approach, how to mix color to capture the look and feel of whatever you are painting. You’ll be drawing small items for your own collection. (A collection of small 3-dimensional objects: figurines, shoes, earrings, the contents of your purse or suitcase, your art supplies. E-mail Jane if you have questions about what to bring.) You’ll create a set of 5x7” illustrations of objects from your collection that you’ve brought to class, as unique as your own handwriting. Jane will show you how to enhance your drawings with creative page layouts and journaling. You’ll create a small paper portfolio to hold your pages (with room for other pages that you create.)

August 7, Friday, 7am-10am
Sketching & Watercolor Journal Style: ON LOCATION
Spend the morning drawing and painting outside on location at the gorgeous Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. Jane will show you how to select subject matter and hone in on the pertinent details, yet simplify your drawing, so you can capture your impression of the scene quickly. She’ll demonstrate drawing on location, and the use of watercolors using a straight-forward, intuitive approach. You’ll do at least 3 pages of your visit to the garden. Jane will show you how to enhance your drawings with creative page layouts and journaling. We’ll carpool at 6:30 am to arrive at 7 am, when the garden is cooler and stay till 10 am.

And I'll have my artwork for sale at the Shopping Extravaganza on Saturday, August 8.

Registration begins in Februrary

Palm Springs: Jane's felt step 1

I'm posting a few pics of our Palm Springs weekend, and you can see the rest here.
Helen, Susie, Jeannie and I spent the weekend at Jeannie's beautiful house in Palm Springs. We each were in charge of teaching the others an art project. I started Saturday morning teaching wet-felting. Here's my peice, with the wool roving laid out.

Palm Springs: our finished felt

Here are all four of our peices (remember, you can see more details here)

Palm Springs our books

Saturday afternoon, Helen taught us how to make these cool books, and here are the ones we created.

Palm Springs: my pencil drawing

Sunday morning, Susie led us in a drawing project called "Tree Spirits" where we drew a tree and then tried to see and draw the spirits or creatures our imagination found. Here's my tree, graphite with a little color pencil.

Palm Springs Palm

We took a long walk each morning.
Sunday, Jeannie taught us a quilt project. She brought her free motion stitching machine and her needle felting machine. We spent the day drawing, quilting, drawing and quilting...

Palm Springs Hike

Here's me, Jeannie and Milo the dog. This is a few blocks from Jeannie's house in Old Palm Springs. After this hike on Monday morning, we packed up and headed home. Thank you Jeannie for hosting us! We had a wonderful, creative fun-filled weekend.

palm springs

We were so busy with other art projects, I only had time for one watercolor journal page...

Palm Springs January 09

Jeannie's backyard in Palm Springs California. We four friends spent the weekend creating art.
You can see all the pics here.
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Palm Springs Art Weekend

Jeannie (it was her house), Susie and Helen displaying some of the art we made this past weekend. I'll post more photos and details of the art projects tomorrow.

the economy......

Another casualty of the economy. Remember I said I'd be teaching kids art classes at San Diego Museum of Art (and how I was so very proud to join their faculty.) We got word last night that ALL the SDMA Museum Art School classes will be suspended until at least summer... I know it was a very difficult decision for them, and they are very hopeful they can make the school financially sound again...they need donors. BIG donors. Or tons more students. Or?? We teachers and SDMA staff brain-stormed last night, like I'm sure sooo many people and businesses are doing right now-on how to resusitate the school...

sketching at Torrey Pines

Husb and I spent most of the day at Torrey Pines State Reserve in LaJolla. I'm working on a sketch/watercolor commission for Julie and her husband. I got about 2/3 of it done today...darn, looks like I'll have to go back!

the most beautiful day in 2009

It was definitely the most beautiful day of 2009....This is another view from Torrey Pines State Reserve. My new, new year's resolution is to walk every trail and visit either every 4 months or every week! It's about a 30 minute drive from our house.

10 January, 2009

The SketchCrawl group met at Bazaar del Mundo, in Old Town for our first sketchcrawl of 2009.

san diego sketchcrawl group

We got there a little before it opened, so we set up in the parking lot. We had 16 artists, and a beautiful day and venue. It was a great way to kick off 2009!

san diego sketchcrawl group

After a morning of sketching and painting, we walked over to Casa Guadalajara for lunch. Fourteen for lunch. We passed our journals around the table and had a delightful time!

Art Quilt Explorations online class starts Feb 5

I'm teaching Art Quilt Explorations on joggles.com for 6 weeks starting February 5. It's a great beginner class as we do a new small art quilt each week. 1) Landscape 2) Geometric Felt Quilt 3) Painted Quilt 4) Bird Theme Quilt 5) Shrine Quilt and week 6) Stamps to Stencils. All for only $75! More details here and registration info.

A quilt for Larkin's baby

My first ever functional quilt! A baby quilt for a friend's daughter. I've only made art quilts for the past 5 years or so, and this was a new experience. I broke my sewing machine in the process, but it's fixed now. The back of the quilt is flannel, the same as the green border. Of course, I made up the design myself. Oh, and Larkin is a vegetarian, hence the carrot print.

detail of Larkin's quilt

bird collection continued

I thought I was nearly done drawing my bird collection, but then I realize I have a collection of tiny birds too, started in my childhood. The little yellow chick was the very first, a gift from my grandmother when I was 9 or so.

scanned feather pattern

Here's that collage, repeated and group and rotated to make a pattern. I'm printing them both on an iron on transfer, and then to organza to see what I get.

scanned feather collage

A collage I created a little while ago. Paper on Paper.

Persimmon Moon

Speaking of yoga, I try to take classes 3 times a week at RB Yoga. Great place, wonderful instructors.
(In fact, one of the women in my yoga class wanted to see this painting, so here you are Geeta. It's framed to 18x22 and it's $300.)

ohm

I realized recently that I've been practicing yoga for four and half years now. I love it!

check these out, then come back here.

My blog friend, Gil, over at Journal Craft has interviewed Danny Gregory. It's a very good interview and you've got to read what he gave his wife for Christmas.

And my new blog friend, Jennie over at Meet Your Muse has a bit of my work and words on her blog.

January 1

I used to keep the 'good' silver separate from the everyday sterling silver. What would I be saving it for? The 6-10 dinner parties we have each year? So, I mixed them all together in the kitchen drawer and we'll just use them!