Mixed Media World

 Crossing the Threshold

 Chemistry

Brothers in Arms

Sending out a big thank you to Ingrid Vichova for featuring some of my newest work on her new, UK-based blog Mixed Media World. 

Head on over to read more about my approach to art in general and these pieces in particular. Plan to bookmark and return to the site as Ingrid has put together a wonderful new community that you are going want to become a part of. 

Grunge Paste

I am happy to be the guest artist today on the PaperArtsy blog, where I share a tutorial for creating texture and dimension using Grunge Paste. With a name like that, you know that this is a cool product.

The Week Links: 43

Join me every Sunday when I share some of my favorite links I discovered in the previous week.

All previous links can be found here.

And here is Week 43...

19 daily habits of artists that can help you unlock your creativity, culled from the book Creative Block by Danielle Krysa.

Loving these ceramic figures from children's book illustrator and artist Godeleine de Rosamel found on Cool Hunting.

60 best street art works of 2014 as shown on Art Fido.

How cool is MoMA's new acquisition of Jasper Johns' Painted Bronze?

Helpful and beautifully illustrated art journaling tips from Caterina Giglio.

Playing with gesso and acrylic ink from Nathalie Kalbach.

20 drawings using everyday objects by Christoph Niemann originally tweeted by Elusive Muse.

Did you go gallery hopping with me this past week?

Workshop Update

FYI: here are some workshop updates - including newly announced workshops:

April 2015
I am teaching at Art & Soul in Kansas City, Missouri at the end of April. My 52 Card Pickup workshop is filled but there are 3 seats left in For Your Eyes Only. My collaborative workshop with Mary Beth Shaw in St.Louis, Missouri is also filled.

May 2015
There are some seats still available at The Pacific Northwest Art School in Coupeville, Washington for both my two-day Cover to Cover workshop and my 5-day collaborative workshop, called If Walls Could Talk, with Orly Avineri.

One spot just opened for my collaborative workshop with John Arbuckle, In the Pocket, at ArtWorks in Edmonds, Washington on May 28 and there are still seats left for the same workshop on May 26. Email John at johnner55@yahoo.com for more info and to register.

June 2015
I am returning to The Queen's Ink in Savage, Maryland on June 6 to teach Collage Camp. On June 7, I am holding a make-up class for Brick by Brick which was cancelled earlier this month 2-hours in due to weather. There are still 6 seats available in that workshop.

Back on my home turf, in this just announced workshop, I will be teaching 52 Card Pickup in NYC at Pratt Institute. Registration opens April 20 and seats are limited.

Teaching in White Plains, New York for the first time on Wednesday June 17. The workshop is called Layer Creator and is sponsored by the Westchester Artist's Guild. You can email me for more information. Register for this class by calling Hope Friedland at 914-428-5501.

I head to Random Arts in Saluda, North Carolina for three days of workshops from June 26-28: Dimensional Stenciling, Collage Camp and Picture Windows.

July 2015
I will be in Gages Lake, Illinois (just north of Chicago) teaching For Your Eyes Only, a 2-day workshop on June 11-12 at The Healing House Art Studio run by Crystal Neubauer.  There are just 4 spots left in that class.

Head to my workshop page for listings for the remainder of the year and even into 2016. Classes will be held in Arizona (Phoenix), California (San Jose, Sebastopol, San Diego), Minnesota (Bloomington), Connecticut (Stamford), Texas (Bulverde), Pennsylvania (Mechanicsburg), and New Mexico (Taos). Plus an international destination will be announced later this year.

Living With Art: 7

When we see art posted on the blogs from our community, by far the majority of times it is a cropped picture of a particular piece. We don't often get to see pictures of the art in the space where we actually live. Hanging art. Art on the walls. Art over the couch. Art leaning on the bookcase shelves.

Living with Art is about showing and seeing art in real life settings. Every Thursday I will be posting a series of images shared by creatives showing all of us just how art is displayed in their spaces. Each participant is opening the door and inviting us all into their surroundings. Please contact the artist if you would like any information about the pieces on display. If you want to share yours, simply email me an image, a few lines about your artistic aesthetic, and a link to your own online site. Now sit back, relax and enjoy the show.

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Previous posts can be found here...

and here is week 7...

Teryll Sacks

My artistic aesthetic is rainbow brite! I love art that is cheery, bold and colorful.

Gabrielle Javier-Cerulli

The walls are white, so white. Begging for color. I gave it some. This is 36x36. I love doing big pieces as a change from art journal-sized work.

Sue Marrazzo
This is a large mixed media work on canvas that I created for a show at the PA State Capital 2014 art exhibit in Harrisburg, PA. I immediately hung this painting above my family room sofa after the exhibit was over. This painting adds color and the Abstract Aesthetic to the eclectic mix of decor in this room. The work is entitled "Ombre Strata." I really love what I do...I create Experimental Mixed Media Art, Teach Adults and Youth ART. I am truly blessed!

Rene Hales

Marco Logsdon on left and LaVon Williams on right. Levon was a former University of KY basketball player and a self-taught folk artist. Love that his pieces is integrated into my living room and hung so you can see both sides. I am happy to display these artists and others in my home.

Sona Nast

I like living with art that has personal meaning to me. I like that I have pieces family members created, were inherited from relatives and that I've bought directly from the artists at art fairs and galleries. This gives the art a history and/or a story connected to it.

Sharmon Davidson

The art on my walls is always part of a sort of inner conversation I'm having with the work about how successful it was and whether it belongs here, or maybe on someone else's wall.

Joanna Dermenjian
My husband wanted to encourage me to add more art to my life in 2015, so he made this literal reminder. Three cardboard letters mounted on a piece of wood, spray painted with 14K gold. Winter display with a collection of vintage French lead figures also reminding us to get outside and play!

Gallery Hopping - Day 3

Way back in November 2014, The Empty Spaces Project gallery in Putnam, CT exhibited the work of Al Mathes. Happily, I was able to see the show on the very last day of the exhibition -- which was the same day I went to hang the 5x5 Small Works show. Also happily, the artist was at the gallery and I had a chance to spend a bit of time talking to him. 

His work is created on sheets of mylar, which allows him to play with transparency in a way that is completely impossible with canvas, paper or wood. The medium is acrylic and ink and his larger pieces are approximately 8x7 feet. Although Al doesn't have a website, you can read a bit more about him here and see a short video of the exhibition here.

 

As you can see by the number of detail shots I took, I spent a lot of time enjoying every square inch of these works.

And how amazing...when these pieces are taken off the wall, they are simply rolled and ready to go. Now that is brilliant!

Gallery Hopping - Day 2

Absolutely mesmerizing and totally fun is the best way I can describe the work of Ron Arad, recently shown at Paul Kasmin Gallery in NYC. The exhibition was called In Reverse and consisted of 6 of his "pressed flower" sculptures which are actually fill-sized, crushed Fiat 500s mounted on the wall.

I loved the attention to detail...including the keys still in the ignition!

Gallery Hopping - Day 1

Pace Prints is currently exhibiting the work of Leonardo Drew. This is his second solo show with the gallery and consists of work that he completed at the Pace Paper workshop in Brooklyn. The basis for his work is paper pulp and the organic effects that he achieves though paper casting are remarkable -- as especially evident in the detail shots below. The exhibition runs through April 11 if you have a chance to see it.

The Week Links: 42

Join me every Sunday when I share some of my favorite links I discovered in the previous week.

All previous links can be found here.

And here is Week 42...

Amazing crystallized books from Alexis Arnold found on Boing Boing.

5 looks inside great creators' notebooks found on The Alantic.

55+ creative ways to use stencils - a project collection from Stampington & Company.

Love the work of Jim McElvaney, originally found on this post on We Heart.

Acrylic painting with a palette knife -- a short video from Bob Pennycook.

A beautiful series of artist studios and ateliers found on Yellowtrace.

Really loving the book sculptures created by Mike Stilkey, including this one that I saw in January at the LA Art Show...

Living With Art: 6

When we see art posted on the blogs from our community, by far the majority of times it is a cropped picture of a particular piece. We don't often get to see pictures of the art in the space where we actually live. Hanging art. Art on the walls. Art over the couch. Art leaning on the bookcase shelves.

Living with Art is about showing and seeing art in real life settings. Every Thursday I will be posting a series of images shared by creatives showing all of us just how art is displayed in their spaces. Each participant is opening the door and inviting us all into their surroundings. Please contact the artist if you would like any information about the pieces on display. If you want to share yours, simply email me an image, a few lines about your artistic aesthetic, and a link to your own online site. Now sit back, relax and enjoy the show.

---------------------------

Previous posts can be found here...

and here is week 6...

Barbara Kleinhans

I like to hang multiple artworks together with other objects to create mini stories. I have a lot of art, both my own and pieces I've collected over the years, so I rearrange quite regularly to keep things interesting and create new vignettes.

David Hayes

I surround myself with art that speaks to me at the moment. The works in this display are my own...I work digitally so it is nice to see these images in print form. The display is meant to be temporary which is why I am using clipboards and slip-in mattes so I can easily change when the moment changes.

Jen Cushman

(and see more of how Jen lives with art here)

Color, texture, composition, imagery all play key roles in my creative aesthetic, but the most import mat component is a glimpse of the soul.

Jamie Murphy

When one surrounds ones self with art pieces that others have made, we see the world through their, the artist, eye. It expands our world to include the voice of others, and hopefully become able to see things differently. 

Boo Martin

I decorate with things that mean something to me. I lean toward things that are vintage...old keys, old letters, a jar of spools of thread that belonged to my mom and grandmother. The set of brass keys in the upper left corner are keys that hung on my parents fireplace for years. I like to live with bits of my family history around me. 

Marie Danti

In the early 90's I was privileged to live in Paris for two years, a time when I began to paint seriously. "Apollo" was one of my take aways; I was no doubt inspired by all the gorgeous statuary in that great city.

Patti Sokol

I love to inspire myself with art that speaks to me. I never really know what that is until I see it. The painting of the car called to me and my husband was really surprised at ho much I loved it. He wasn't sure at first but after we purchased it and hung it in our home, it seems to completely fit both our personalities. It is mixed in with other art we have purchased as well as art that I have created. It all seems to strike the right balance.