Well hello again. Back from Artfest where I had an absolutely amazing three days of teaching! The projects that came out of class were positively amazing! What a joy reconnecting with old friends and making so many new ones.

Here's a quick peek a what came out of a couple of classes. Most days, I either forgot my camera or the battery so I only managed a couple of quick iPhone pics...

Student work from Collaging the Translucent class

Student work from the Suspended Souls class

Next up on the workshop frontier......

Ginny's Small Studio in Westlake, Ohio - June 1-3rd

Atypical Aphrodites

Fri June 1st

Artists have been creating iconic works of art for centuries, in fact there are several branches of art history devoted to that subject alone. The artist's ability through the use of powerful imagery and cultural symbols to take an "ordinary" image and elevate it to something otherwordly is rather divine. Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of beauty and love will serve as our inspiration in this project based workshop. Prepare to do some transformative magic of our own as we take everyday images and change them into large scale iconic mixed media masterpieces. Bring your assortment of personal symbols, imagery and that box of ephemera that you've been collecting and we will incorporate them into your canvas elevating them from the ordinary to the extraordinary as we explore many sophisticated techniques for creating our deeply symbolic multilayered collage. We will use several methods, mediums and techniques for seamlessly merging otherwise unrelated imagery into a unified composition that will allow us to create modern day icons of our own.

Collaging the Translucent

Sat June 2nd

Typically collage is about the clever ways we combine items to cover over and transform surfaces; this time we are going to explore this medium in a slightly different way. In this class we will collage incorporating items that are transparent in nature. Combining transparencies, mica, photos, textured papers, ephemera, and found objects we will create rich, layered collages, with jewel like depth and vibrancy. Using a small wood substrate as our base, we are going to design multi-tiered compositions. By learning the secrets of how to combine the visible with the semi-visible, and focusing on both the play of light and effects of depth, you will be able to create mesmerizing almost holographic effects. You choose whether the subject is a portrait, landscape or something else entirely.

Dorian Gray Portraits Sunday June 3rd

Many of you might be familiar with Oscar Wilde's famous novel the "Picture of Dorian Gray" in which a young, handsome youth is granted the wish of immortality, with one catch of course... that all of his sins, vices and age would be made apparent in his portrait. This class uses that novel as our inspiration. We are going to expand on this theme and create our own portraits that can perpetually transform and reveal secrets, dreams, virtues or sins... the choice is yours.
These personal stories begin with a wood substrate on which we will paint, collage our portraits, add multiple doses of compelling imagery and infuse with sins or virtues. We will be using nooks, hinges, and hiding places to cleverly disguise our subject's secrets, as well as exploring different textural effects that we can add for richness. At the end of our day of Wilde exploration you'll have your own portrait of revelations, with all of the secrets hidden in plain sight.