Art and Soul Recap

It's been a week now since we've gotten back from Art and Soul Retreat in Portland, OR. What a blast! I remember being impressed last year and this year was no different. It still blows my mind (in a great way) that there are places where people can come together from all over the country and just be creative together. Talk art together. Do art together. Meet people who share the same passions. Such talent and spirit in one place. I kept looking at all these women-both instructors and students- and being really inspired by them. Such incredible people.

We filmed three artists: Ann Baldwin, Anne Bagby and Robert Dancik. We filmed Ann Baldwin a few years ago in a live workshop. It was great to work with her in studio. She is a hilarious woman. I always learn so much from her both when I'm filming and then again when editing. She somehow makes Golden products a little less terrifying.

Anne Bagby does the type of art that I long to do. She stamps her own paper and then uses it in these spectacular collages. Both her and Ann Baldwin can wield Golden Fluid Acrylics like no other. Anne Bagby also employs Golden Glazes. I came home and ordered a few myself and am getting obsessive about checking my order's status.

We filmed Robert Dancik on our last day and what an amazing instructor! He works with a product that he helped create called Faux Bone. (Go to Robert's site to learn more.) Robert kept saying how easy Faux Bone was to work with and I kept thinking, "Yeah, yeah, sure." He proved my skepticism wrong. It *is* really easy to work with. It's sort of magical actually!

Spending the day with each of these artists was amazing. They all did a wonderful job on camera and their DVDs will be real assets to those of us wanting to learn how to become better artists.

Finally, we took part again this year in Vendor Night. Holy Moly! I LOVE vendor night. It is one of the few times I as an employee of CCP get to interact with the people who buy what I help make. It's so rewarding! I am very lucky in the fact that I'm really proud of what I do and the company I work for. I'm normally pretty shy when it comes to talking to new people. I freeze and mumble and will probably trip. But I love talking about what kind of art people are making. I love meeting the people who have CCP workshops and hear that it's really helped them. Plus, it's just seriously neat to be around that much creativity in one place!

Is it too early to countdown to Art and Soul 2008? Definitely not!

(Pictures from Vendor Night: our booth, Claudine Hellmuth, Lesley Riley, Traci Bautista. Not pictured are Sherri Haab whose booth I kept going back to for fantastic resin molds and Robert Dancik's booth.)

Contest!!

Creative Catalyst (where I work and practically live...good thing I adore my co-workers!) has art shows about 4 times a year. Not only is it a great place to show your art and see others' work as well, but there are some fun prizes. (Can't beat fun prizes!)

This summer's theme: Telling Stories with Art. Their (our?) website says:

"The Summer Art Exhibition is about story telling. Summer is a great time to be part of stories from your travels, family outings, neighborhood get togethers. Have fun, tell a story with your art and share it in the Summer Art Show. All media are welcome."

Entries are accepted until August 30th.

I think this is sort of cool. Often Creative Catalyst contests are more media specific (watercolor for example) so I'm excited to see more mixed media in this Summer's.

The juror will be the very cool and talented collage artist Ann Baldwin. We were lucky enough to be able to meet and film Ann during one of her workshops at Art and Soul Retreats, Asilomar California.

Want more information about the show and how to enter? Go here!

Winter Wonderland

One of the many cool tips Ann Baldwin shared during her Art & Soul workshop is that the hardware store is one of the best places to find art supplies. As I walked through Home Depot today wondering what all I was breathing in, I thought of this. Ann says she loves it because there are so many neat things and because generally items are cheaper in hardware stores than in an art stores. (I certainly found this true with resin price comparisons.)

I agree that a hardware store can get your creativity flowing but sometimes even the specialty hardware stores can't supply the ribbon necessary to fulfill the holiday cravings. Craft stores are always great this time of year for such visual treats but last year I found my new favorite holiday paper/ribbon place: The Container Store. I discovered this holiday wrap mecca after seeing their Winter Wonderland advertised on a billboard. I thought, "Oh they'll have a few interesting rolls...probably something I've already seen a million times." But oh no. What I encountered instead was the mother load of Holiday ribbons, wrap, tissue paper, boxes etc. It was actually pretty overwhelming. But if at first you're overwhelmed just try going back 4 or 5 times. I know it did the trick for me.

Upstairs and Downstairs

Today the office seemed split. Upstairs Zach and I were on a rotating wheel of computer near disasters and muffled curses. Everything we were trying to do took twice as long. Downstairs Mom, Susan and her husband who came into help were moving twice or three times as fast working on getting out all the Ann Baldwin orders. I can barely contain my excitement that the Ann Baldwin DVD is finally going out. For a week I kept pestering Susan asking, "Is it coming today? Is it coming today?" And finally the big truck pulled up with the boxes and once again our supply room is brimming.

Upstairs = muffled cursing
Downstairs = unmuffled joke telling and general happiness

Thank goodness Zach's and my day ended with an email Susan forwarded from a customer in England. The customer wrote that she had just gotten her latest DVDs and had only intended to pop them in to see if they worked and ended up spending the whole day watching them. She's waiting for her Ann Baldwin. Probably one of the ones the Fantastic Three shipped off today. I almost want to email her back and ask her to let us know what she thinks about Baldwin. I admit that it really makes a difference getting emails like this. I have to remember this and start writing letters to the companies I appreciate. Because inevitably there is probably a girl somewhere praying her computer doesn't crash and erase everything who needs some nice words from the outside world.

(Update: Ann Baldwin now has a second Creative Catalyst DVD workshop:  Text & Texture in Mixed Media Collage)