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.

Oh HAPPY DAY!

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY Day here! Two brand new puppies! Mini Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. The little girl is the ruby and white one, and the little boy is the tri-color one. The are always on top of each other, touching somehow. Even with a huge yard, they run side by side. They sleep on each other, and if you are petting one, the other must get in on the action too.

Just a few pictures of the days adventures. Can you see the enormous smile on Mike's face???

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!

The Eroded Diva

As many of you know, I've been participating in the Erosion Bundle Project. (More detailed post on that to come.) A very dear group of online friends -The Altered Art Divas- are doing a special round robin. The Fabulous Kris Henderson organized not only The Erosion Bundle Project, but also, this Eroded Diva adventure. She created the most awesome box structure to set us off on our journey. Yesterday brought my turn to add to the deliciousness.

I love repetition and hidden meaning in art, so I added some antique music snips from my bundle to several different locations throughout the piece. (I think art should sing to your soul!) I added music snips to the brass butterfly, with an eroded red gemstone on top. More music snips, an old watch part and an antique rhinestone went to the top left hand corner, with red raffia- all from my bundle. I believe it was Di Gilligan who first added the red paper flower to the piece as the accent punch color, and I loved it, so I repeated it throughout the piece as well.

I added some more music snips, red raffia and watch sprockets, with antique millinery flowers to the puzzle pieces.
I carefully removed the center insert to work down below the little peek hole in the top right hand corner. More music, and since currently I am FEELING like the ultimate Eroded Diva, I placed a small mirror to look back at you. Another watch sprocket on top, and then I put the insert back in. The SUPER talented Kathy McElroy had it just prior to me, if you would like to see before and afters...

Studio organization

I'm out on the injured list, with the back thing being messed up discs now. I'm resting, and still having to deal with my collarbone/arm issue so my computer time is still limited to less than 10 minutes a day. I feel very cut off from the world without my daily computer contact among friends.Anyway, I can't lift anything, can't drive, can't sit or stand for any length of time. So I'm trying to find things I can do to feel "useful" and "productive." Our friend Nate gave me this cool antique cubby thing last Christmas, and I've been wanting to use it in the studio. It's spaces are long and narrow, and required some thinking as to what I could store in there. I spent a little time sitting on pillows and wrapping my longer ribbon snippets onto foamcore pieces that fit in the spaces perfectly. I couldn't be more pleased with the way it turned out. Now I can look at the color family without having to root thru a whole big drawer of jumbled pieces. Some time ago, I had begun wrapping my little short snips around wooden clothes pins and storing them by color family in clear "paint" cans.

I am always in search of the best way to store my treasures....anyone have any unique ideas to share?

EEEK! Where does time go?

My apologies dear friends! How could more than a month have gone by since my last post? Everything and nothing has happened. Does that make sense? Lots of great things, and a few yucky things have happened. Here is the whole tale, the good, the bad the ugly, AND the wonderful!



First, I had a great time painting faces at a community family festival. Great accommodations, wonderful patrons!

I also painted faces at a lovely 6-year old birthday party. Beautiful day, sweet and friendly people, and great atmosphere.



For sometime now, I've tried to get help for where I severely injured my collarbone. It causes my arm to ache and go completely numb. It pokes out and has to be worked on 3 times a week to try and get it back in position. Not fun, but thankfully I have a wonderful Dr. who is helping me tremendously. But I can't be on the computer for more than 10 minutes a day! It has been building up for some time, and I tried therapy a couple years ago, but now it's so bad I've had to take a break from my job for awhile to see if I can get it healthy again.

Was contacted to take more face painting jobs- had to turn them down due to timing. Always so nice to be in demand.

Next, as a little souvenir of a community festival, I caught the mumps... I mean who get the MUMPS as an adult? Especially when I already had them before??? But, the upside, because I could only eat Popsicles and liquids, I lost 10 pounds...Woo-Hoo!

Then I started feeling better, and I met with the wonderful people of the Village of Groveport. I've been asked to teach art classes, workshops, and art camps! They have several GREAT spaces for the classes, and I feel so blessed to have this opportunity. For children, tweens, teens, and adults. All sorts of ideas for classes are swimming in my head! I've never felt so energized, so full of ideas! I'm scribbling them down everywhere trying to capture them. I will start later this year- more info coming soon.


Then, the lingering end of the mumps turned into bronchitis. I was holding my own against it when I had an unfortunate incident by the shower... I slipped and fell and fractured my sacrum...SO now I'm having difficulties sitting, standing, sleeping...But, all the more time to write down my art ideas...(though they do get a little weird during the middle of the night...) Funny, with all this padding, I figured I would have bounced...LOL!


Mike has had his own ups and downs. He's had another 2 back surgeries, and is facing 1 more this spring, 3 more this winter. On the positive side, he's attending State Classes for Real Estate. He's really enjoying them and excited about the future. He's almost through except for the crammer for the State Boards. He's so focused and great with the details, plus he knows SO much about construction and real estate appraisals, I think he's going to be a fantastic realtor!
He's had several offers already!

Oh- and dare I forget? There was Artiscape. Busy Busy Busy! It was Fantastic. Had the most awesome people in classes! Couldn't have asked for more from an Art Retreat! And tomorrow I'm thrilled to be winging my way to Salado Texas for the Shady Ladies Altered Art Retreat. Can't wait to meet my online friend Jeri in person! If you are in the area- come join us! you can check out the link on the side of my blog.

So- as soon as I get back I'll catch up. (This little tale took me several days to write! !0 minutes a day is almost unbearable!) Hope all of you are having a less bumpy, but just as happy Spring!

I'm elated to have had this time to rest a bit and work on my art. Lots of new projects and ideas are coming forth!