Kacy's Musings: December 2007

Monday, December 31, 2007

2008 New Year's Resolutions - Artistic Endeavors

Here is my list for 2008

Finish some unfinished projects. Like these:

Take more classes at Valley Ridge (or better yet win the lottery and take ALL the classes at Valley Ridge). Specifically these:

DJ Pettitt
DJ Pettitt
Beryl Taylor
Nina Bagley
Keep the blog updated and post more projects. Work on my writing.

Organize supplies and space.

Pick a couple of my Yahoo Groups and become a more active, regular participant.

Try to use more embellishments and make things that aren't always "flat".

Friday, December 21, 2007

2007 New Year's Resolutions - A Year-End Report

These were my artistic resolutions for 2007 and how I did.

Try a new technique at least once per month.
I learned so much this year. See below about taking classes.

Swap with new groups.
I wanted to try some different types of art and branch out to more mixed media and not so much stamping. I was able to do this and am learning a lot about all kinds of art. Now I have to reign it in a little and figure out where I belong and focus this year. This means choosing a couple of groups and being a more active participant in them. I'll have to learn to let go of a few things.

Take some classes (if I can find them).
This was a great year for classes. I found Valley Ridge Art Studio and had a blast!! It is located in beautiful, scenic Wisconsin. Kathy and Bill are wonderful hosts and the instructors and other participants are full of energy and creativity.

I took workshops from Traci Bautista and Robin Atkins. Traci's workshop was Collage Unleashed: Butterfly Flower Graffiti Journal. I ended up taking two workshops from Robin. The first was Acrylic Painting ~ Deluxe Decorative Papers! and then I was having so much fun that I stayed on for the Improvisational Bead Embroidery workshop. It was a great time. (If you're wandering where I am in the pictures, I'm the chubby one called Kelley. I won't be the chubby one in next year's pictures!!!)

Then in October I went to Art and Soul in Portland. I took classes from Misty Mawn, Claudine Hellmuth, Ann Baldwin and Lesley Riley. I was surrounded by wonderful, inspiring people and learned so much. It was a fantastic trip and I'd love to do it every year.

Push myself to try things that scare me (it’s ok to fail as long as I try). I have been pushing myself, now the struggle is to find where I belong in the art world and what my voice is.

Get some art on my walls at home and at work!! I didn't do to well with getting my own art up. I seem to send it all away in swaps but I bought some great art this year from these artists:

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Pay it Forward

I'm going to keep bumping this to the top of the blog until 3 people comment. So if you're tired of seeing it please leave a comment and I'll send you something.

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this Pay It Forward exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow, or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog. So basically, if you comment and you’re on, I’ll send you something crafty that I’ll make!Once you sign up, copy and paste the above paragraph on your blog, and three other lucky people will be recipients of your handmade work.

I'm getting paid forward by Adrienne Goodenough and thought it would be fun to pay it forward to you. I will check my blog daily to see who the first three sign ups are, and if they've joined this Pay It Forward exchange, they will be the recipients from me. Make sure to leave your blog address with your message, so I can check your blog.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Holiday with the Hounds

This is what I did for two hours last night. Not a bad way to volunteer. It was the annual Holiday with the Hounds at our local animal shelter. My mom and I were assigned to hang out with the litter of six puppies. We had a great time. The puppies are two months old and just as cute as can be. Everyone got to come by and say hello and pet the puppies. We were assigned to make sure they got out for potty breaks, clean up any messes and PLAY!!!

Friday, December 07, 2007

Art and Soul - Part 1

I'm very slow in getting this posted but better late than never as they say. Art and Soul was a blast. The classes were great, the people wonderful, hung out with family that we don't get to see very often and ate too much.

I didn't have classes the first day so after checking in at registration we went off to Latitudes for a quick visit with cousins Larie, Dick and Chaucer. Then after setting up our plans for dinner we headed up the Columbia River Gorge. It is such a beautiful trip. We stopped for a while at Multnomah Falls for some great scenery and a photo op. Then back to Portland for dinner with Larie and Dick and called it a night.

Classes

I headed over to the Embassy Suites for class on Friday morning and the first person I saw was Adrienne from CCSwaps. She was standing outside the hotel waiting for the shuttle. We just had a minute for a quick hello but I was so glad I found her without even trying. I was afraid I'd have trouble finding her. She came over from Wales to spend the week at Art and Soul and then head to Wisconsin to visit. Check out her blog for the great information on her classes at Art and Soul.

My first class was "Altered Ego" taught by Misty Mawn. We used self-portraits in our collages. I think the biggest problem everyone had was that they didn't like taking pictures of themselves or getting pictures taken. I messed up my face (I'm not a painter) but Misty fixed it for me so now it looks nice. She recommended that we use faces from magazines for practice. I'm so in awe of Misty's talent. Her demos made it look so easy. She kept telling us it took years for her to get to this point in her art and we should just keep working at it. These are some of the things I worked on:

My face (messed up by me, fixed by Misty)

My second class was with Claudine Hellmuth. The class was called Magazine Alterology. We used Citra-Solv (the concentrated version, not the diluted one in the spray bottle) and NevrDull to alter magazine pages and then used them in collages. These are the collages I did.