Art And Soul, here I come!

I am so excited, I'm about to burst with happiness! I'm so pleased to tell you that I will be teaching at the 2011 Art and Soul in Hampton, VA! Registration begins August 15, 2010.

I've made so many nice friendships at Art events like these, so if you are planning on being there, please stop by and say HI!

Thursday April 28, 2011 you can find me enjoying...
A Fluid Romance

Fall in love with Fluid Acrylics! As we explore the allure of layers using both physical and optical color blends, you’ll discover the subtle differences between transparent, translucent, and opaque paints. While building your paint and collage story on canvas, you’ll learn sexy tricks to easily put your own marks, sketches and artwork into the painting. I’ll share how to see if something will work out before risking what you have already done. We will delight in bas-relief and appealing textures. We will explore the attraction of using wax oil crayons, oil based markers & stabilo pencils with Acrylic mediums. You’ll learn veiling techniques to help give your paintings a deeper charm and an aura of mystery. We’ll play with stencils, stamps, rub-ons and hot foils. We will focus on freeing our inner artists, and learn skills to rebuff the dreaded Artist Block. Secrets to successful compositions will be revealed. Our finished charismatic canvases will be rich with juicy colors, individual dreams and glamorous mysteries. We will adorn our art with final kisses of 3-D ephemera that will pull the viewer into our artful embrace.

On Friday April 29, 2011, we'll dive whole-heartedly into... Event Journals Extraordinaire!

Ever been so thrilled about an event that you want to create a spectacular journal to commemorate it in a special way? Excitedly gather your supplies and sit down to begin only to find your muse missing? Want to journal on the road, but the thought of packing supplies daunting? Stuck as to where to begin? THIS is the journal class for you! Plenty of tips, tricks and visual aids, before and after, sample pages, and ideas for journal prompts will be given. We will work on background techniques, and as you paint, Kari will discuss all things journal! Beyond just composition and color, she will show you her actual working travel journal kit, give you lists of what sorts of things to collect and include in your journal, as well as how to attach, insert and incorporate them! You will learn creative places to find images, quotes, ephemera and background materials. Your inspiration well will overflow with cool techniques that can be made with simple household materials, and multi-tasking mediums! During the day we will also discuss studio storage methods for our journaling treasures, with actual photo examples.

New Classes, New projects

The Happy Bird Sings Journals

I've been sort of quiet here lately, as I'm still limited on computer time. However, I've been putting finishing touches on some of the new classes I will be offering! Since a picture speaks a thousand words, I'll let you see a sneak peek!

Event Journals Extraordinaire!

That's all for today, my computer time is up and my arm is throbbing, so I'll post more in a day or so! I'll also post the locations of where I will be teaching these classes as more information becomes available.

Garden Fairies Abound...

I' ve had so much fun with this new class I'm developing! Hard to believe these little creatures started life as a clothes pins, tin foil & floor wax... These are my most recent class samples. They gave me so much joy creating them. I was particularly fond of the new process for the wings I've come up with. I'm in the midst of writing the class instruction booklet, but as I am limited to 10 minutes a day on the computer, it is taking me awhile. Luckily, I have a good hubby who's helping!

Rollercoaster week

Last week was a total rollercoaster for me emotionally. I had the high high high of seeing the completion of a wonderful collaborative project of over 100 different artists from all over. The "Ties That Bind" project to help raise funds for Ovarian Cancer Research has produced a wonderful -full color photograph, high quality book. It is a lovely mix of photographs of the finished Art Doll, and inspirational quotes and stories. Besides the proceeds of the actual Art piece itself, all of the proceeds from the sale of the book go towards the research as well. The 3 organizers Aileen Roberts, Jan Brown and Kris Henderson have done a spectacular job in getting this project to fly high. I was really tickled to see my own pieces show up in several of the photographs. To get a peek at the book here's the link: http://tinyurl.com/lesnkv

Then crashing to the lowest of low, we had to put my precious baby dog Sophie to sleep on Wednesday. My heart still aches and the tears still flow at the drop of a hat. She was the sweetest of sweet dogs, I could never have asked for anything more from her. She was all that was good and sweet on earth all rolled up into a little furry expression of pure and innocent unending love.

Thank goodness I had an upcoming private Art & Tea party to keep me busy. On Saturday, I enjoyed a full day of art and creativity with 5 very creative and talented ladies. It was a pleasure of a day, and I was even able to finish a project of my own. Art always makes any day better!

Thru all of the ups and all of the downs I have several things I am overwhelmingly greatful for.

I have a God that comforts me. I have wonderful husband, family and friends that support me, and I have my art as therapy. When hugs and words won't do it for me, I can escape to a silent world I create for myself. I am truly blessed.

I'm swamped!

Several of you have emailed me wondering where I've been- Thought I'd post a few quick peeks at what I've been up to the last week or so-

I've been getting ready for my upcoming Artiscape classes ! The kits are jammed packed with things, and many of the items needed to be cut to size for speed in the class. Here's only one classes' kits, and they were only 1/2 done at this point! They are spreading out all over the house. Not to mention the 40+ Fatbooks I'm assembling on the dinning room table.

Trying to get this done around daily life has been challenging. I needed to make sure the little one was getting plenty of time too. SO out came the Easy-Bake oven, and it was light bulb cooked cakes for everyone.....

Art-y Goal Goodness

Giggles, my new studio muse
I've always had "goals." They were the fairly anemic, typical things. Get married to a great guy, get a creative job, travel, make art, be a good person kind of thing. I never really customized them. I used to balk at the idea of setting specific goals for myself. I have to set them at work, and I just didn't want the extra pressure of having something to pin me down in my personal life. This, I came to realize was really based on a fear of failing, a fear of disappointing myself or worse yet, loved ones. Once I learned the secret of letting go, and setting attainable and realistic goals, I was able to enjoy them. They have helped me to focus, and concentrate on what is truly important in my life, in my art. They have given me a direction, and are helping me to shape a path, reducing the chaos that comes of of trying to make decisions in the heat of the moment. Most of all, they have eliminated a lot of wasted effort. The satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment I get when I reach a goal seems to work wonders for my self esteem and resolve to accomplish more.

One goal this year, is to complete at least one creative project every other week. They can be abandoned projects from earlier, or new projects. Sort of a side goal that goes along with that is to as much as possible, use the items I already have on hand, squirreled away in my studio.

I have other creativity and inspiration goals, I'll have more on those another day....

To jump whole-hearted into this goal for this year, I spent Saturday with Amy Flowers of Shrew'd Arts, enjoying her Magical Faerie Doll, and Clear Acrylic Book classes. It was a wonderful, relaxed day of creating, meeting new friends, and catching up with some I haven't seen for some time. Amy is an encouraging, giving and extremely talented instructor, and the other artists creativity and friendliness all added to the fun of the day. Amy can be found at http://www.shrewdarts.com/classes.html

In creating Giggles, I played with Lumiere acrylics & stamping. I added beads, and craft paint, and tulle. We also learned an easy wool felting technique allowing for a light and airy feel. ( I really enjoyed this method, as it was really quick!)

Mariposa the Studio Fairie

This is Mariposa, my studio fairie. She is a seed of the inspiration for the class I am developing. My Christmas presents this year will be an odd mix of Mariposa, and the exciting clay techniques I've been developing inspired by the wonderful paper techniques I learned while attending Lynne Perrella and Anne Bagby's fabulous "Ultimate Painted Page" workshop in February. I'm not posting any photos of the finished ornaments yet, as some of the people receiving them for gifties read this on a regular basis and have already been sniffing around for clues LOL!