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I can say one thing...that the week has flown by, I have been busy with various art and art related happenings but I have still managed to make my daily nap club meetings with Mackie and Scooter, which I am probably most proud of. Hey, there is always time to nap. And make art. And sparkle. No excuses.  Scenes from #textiletuesday at casa de Gironda Tuesday I initiated my first (self-imposed of course) #textiletuesday on Instagram. For the first TT (of what I hope to be a weekly commitment to do something textile/fiber related, hold me to that!) I invited my super talented friend, Giselle, over. She wanted to learn how to bead. Folks, she is a natural! Behold, the birth of another fiber-fanatic and beadin' babe! It certainly was not all fun and games...there were a few needles that came unthreaded, some fallen beads and, of course, the return of the dreaded #frockblockers...two cats that love to sleep on top of vintage fabrics and eat the lovely embellishments...sheesh. We survived it though...and I got to witness the 'spark' for fiber art in someone else, nothing beats that! After Giselle left I kept working on a project I had started...I was distracted... looking at my beads and random embellishments... all I could think was...(in my best Marty Huggins voice)  So...five hours later, my beads, threads, random trims and embellishments, etc are all grouped by color and sorted into plastic bags, etc. I came out of what was almost like some kind of daze and was happy with what I saw. And then Wednesday morning I woke up and cleaned/organized my wee little art space in the kitchen...and that made me (and John!) happy...nice open space to create more work, everything put away. Yes, please.  ...ya'll know I like to organize... Wednesday it was off to Ink and Pistons to drop off my pieces for the show this weekend (Amanda and JR are so nice!, congrats on your one year!) and the head on over to Jessie's for randomness.  http://inkandpistons.com/inkandpistons/ Amanda gave me some postcards to distribute....but first...yep. Impromptu photo shoot out on the patio for Art Hive Magazine and Ink and Pistons promoting on social media. Yeah, I know, we are silly. So silly. What happened after the photo shoot goes as following...Jessie attempts to make cauliflower rice...I eat leftover spaghetti squash and turkey meatballs (amazing! more, please!)...Jessie gives up on her culinary endeavor and makes stir fry with regular rice...I post to Art Hive blog and FB about Ink and Pistons and then take a hour and a half nap...Jessie is a creeper and takes a picture of herself watching me sleep...don't ask...then we plot and plan to take over the world! (...not really, we started talking about sparkly stuff and then I went home)  http://www.arthivemagazine.com/ Awaiting me at home...a large box from my father-in-law. Inside- magic! Raffaele has been experimenting with transferring images onto wood...and now I know why. He made me a cool wood block based on an image from my website, it is sitting on my art desk as we speak, er...read...er..write. You get the point. Also in the package, a 'drawing box'. It looks like a big wooden book, but it actually opens up and has storage for my 11x14 drawings. I can close the box and use the top as a work surface. Its...kind...of...awesome. Inspired by the 'mail magic' I received...I packaged up some things that I have been wanting to make, spent time collaging and embellishing each package....I shipped those off Thursday morning.  Which brings me to last night (Thursday) and this morning. I kind of have...ummm...alot going on. I feel a little overwhelmed, and excited. Not sure where to start. I will make a list, cause I am weird like that.
 ...all kinds of artin' going on over here!
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...just finished framing three pieces for the Ink and Pistons Show, yay! Thanks for the help, Mackie!
 ...these cats are getting outta hand! ...oh my is right. I really feels like summer break now, and I kind of...well...LOVE it! Yay! Well, I kind of have several projects in the works...per my previous post...so this will be a shorter blog but I did want to take a minute and write about the new series I started yesterday...I call 'em, 'Crazy Cat Ladies'. I thought of these pieces because I want to show them at a really cool group art event. There is a show coming up in July called, Caturday Saturday at the Greenroom Nightclub in Fort Lauderdale and I didn't make any pieces for it last year and I didn't want to miss out this year...so I am starting early!  Saturday Caturday, Greenroom Night Club in Fort Lauderdale, July 27th from 10pm-4am  Hangin' with some cool cats Now, let's just get this straight. I am not hatin' on crazy cat ladies, I myself and probably one cat away from being one myself. I use the term lovingly. When I started thinking about the pieces I wanted to make I was checking on-line to see what was already being done, if anything. I came upon this site, http://www.crazycatladies.org. I checked out the site and saw some good information on there about cat hoarding, etc. which is a serious problem and not funny at all, but I definitely think these pieces could at least draw attention to the bigger issues. So my idea for my pieces is to continue to look for inspiration from fashion magazines and my Pinterest Boards (poses, styling, faces, etc) and then combine the images of my ladies with cats...cats resting on their heads, shoulders, peeking out from behind them, etc. High fashion meets feline fierceness...cat couture... I will select my three pieces for the Caturday Saturday show from this series, I hope to make lot's of them! When I was making the first three pieces, I kept thinking about the whole animal hoarding thing...and then the importance of spaying an neutering...and how terrible it is that everyday animals are euthanized ..Mackie and Scooter came from an animal shelter and I can't imagine not seeing their furry faces when I wake up...so I want to try and figure out a way to get some of my pieces out there to raise awareness, or funds, for a local animal shelter. I tried to find contact information for the site I found, but could not find anything. Still researching but if anyone out there has any leads please let me know. ([email protected]) Alright...time to get this day started! Gym, lunch with one of my favs, a nap with Mackie and Scooter, creative everyday pieces, a commission and some more 'crazy cat ladies'!  ...first three 'Crazy Cat Ladies...approved by Mackie. PS..I added a graphic I made for the Art Hive Magazine FB page and Blog this morning...but I, uh...made some additions specifically for this post!  I am such a geek. Sheesh.  ...I am in the middle of my last pieces of the series...gonna work on these all at once because I am doing lot's of layering with crayon, crayon resist, photo transfers and maybe some bootleg encaustic techniques...also working on a commission using gouache on vellum and some 'crazy cat ladies' that I started today and and really excited about...all of this madness will be on my Instagram account until I have time to sit and blog, http://instagram.com/artinw_damuse
In the meantime...thought I might post something fun. When I was little, I loved my coloring books. Now, lot's of artsy folks hate on coloring books...but I liked 'em, and I still do. I changed over some of the images from my series this month, please feel free to download, print and, well, color'em! Grown folks, kids, whatever! Here is the link to the PDF of images. Have fun...and stay tuned for updates on my creative chaos! ...do you like art? sparkle? cats? fashion? random inspiration? if you answered yes to any of these questions....you just might like my pics on Instagram. Go ahead, check it out! http://instagram.com/artinw_damuse 
 I cannot think of a better title for this blog post. Seriously. The Art of Seeing. It's funny how things turn out sometimes..coincidence...fate? I don't know, but it is surely is amazing. At least a month or two ago, when I was looking for examples of a good AP Studio Art syllabus (just in case they asked me to teach that for my new job)...I saw a name I recognized on the screen- Fran Gertz. Did I saw recognize? I meant a name I respect... a name I revere. See...eighteen years ago, she tutored me for a brief period. I can't remember if she was new to the county, but somehow she was teaching at a local middle school and I ended up with the privilege of working with her. I say privilege because that is exactly what it was. I didn't have many lessons with Mrs. Gertz but she really did make an impact on me. At that time she had already been teaching all over for years, even overseas...and she just had a way of explaining things...of making me see. It was amazing. I digress...too busy gushing. My bad. So anyway, a little while back- I see her name. She was listed as a facilitator for an AP Institute at Nova Southeastern University, so I contacted her via email, thinking it would be great to see her. I also offered to assist her if she was interested...and it turns out, she was. What I didn't know is that she had recently been in a horse riding accident so me offering to help came at a great time as she would need help. It's funny how things work. Monday morning...early...I am up. I drove the hour and change down south and there she was, exactly the same as I last saw her, and probably even more inspiring. The reason I say that is that I know that I am more receptive to the information that she has to give, now, eighteen years later, as an artist and a teacher trying to grow. 
So I left feeling good about seeing a former teacher and happy that I could assist her. But I left with questions for myself...about my work. I sat there listening to my former teacher, talking about how to get high school students to produce work that will be worthy of college credit...discussing formal qualities and how to take the work further... and I am realizing that I need look at my work and assess these same questions. I am excited about my commitment to making art, but I want to make sure that I am pushing myself as an artist...asking myself questions, pushing myself and the work further. I take my work from an initial idea at the beginning of each month, but I think that if I work harder I can explore more, come to more solutions, better solution by the final piece in the month. I can do more. Baby steps, at first. Last night I tried to break out a little bit...I was thinking about texture as I scribbled faint text on my image...but then I was like, why is the figure still in the middle of the composition? ...and tonight I abandoned my usual point of view, zooming in and using more of the space. I have much to think about...and I don't know what impact this will have on my fashion illustrations...but I do see a change in the last few pieces, and I will consider that progress. When I was uploading today's piece to my June body of work I could see where the images, while I do like some of them, they were becoming stagnant. I feel that the last five images are starting to get somewhere...and after completing my piece today I think I can try to whole heartedly push the work, push myself to take it that one step farther. 
Thank you Mrs. Gertz...you truly have the art of seeing, and helping others do the same. So today I spent about three and a half hours at Barnes and Noble/Starbucks...a little longer than my usual Sunday ritual but I didn't go the beach in the morning so I suppose it all evens out. I started two new fashion illustrations, one is for a Great Gatsby-themed show I am participating in...and I did a little angel bombing just because it has been a while. When I got home I resurrected the ol' teachin' blog and I spent some time writing about some of the projects we completed at art camp last week. And now...before I go into nap mode or otherwise lose motivation to blog...here is a wrap up of the morning's events...I am sure I will draw some more, maybe even make a trip to Michael's later this evening. Gotta get some sleep, I am helping one of my former teachers with an AP workshop tomorrow, which I am really excited about! 
...I seriously am having too much fun with art history! So silly! I made this little graphic for the Art Hive Magazine Facebook page this morning...(insert giggle and snort) Happy Father's Day out there!
 I posted this pic I made just so I could revisit it and laugh at my nerdiness. ...all done with art camp for this month...a few commitments here and there...going to look at some places to live down south next week...think I have an idea where I want my 'Childhood' series to go...yep, I am verKLIMT. (which is like verklempt x 100!) YAY! Happy Saturday, ya'll! ...and...I did get around to posting the final pictures of CEDs 162-165...more crayon art to come!  Creative Everyday pieces 162-165, June 11-14, 2013 |
AuthorArtist and Art Teacher 
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