New Job Announcement

ArtWorks in Edmonds, WA

 It’s official: I will be the new Director of ArtWorks, a gathering place for artists in Edmonds, WA soon.  (http://www.artworks-edmonds.org/)

 I’m very excited about this job!  I hope to energize the facility with lots of artistic endeavors and have some ideas on how to do that.  I will probably start training Sept. 1st and then take over Oct. 1st, sooner than I expected but I’m *really* looking forward to it.   I think that I can bring some new energy to this facility and our arts community as well as build some great partnerships that will benefit all concerned.  What a fantastic opportunity for mentoring, supporting and helping artists!  How cool is that?

  I was told that I am the “Queen of ArtWorks” now and I’m thinking that I had better get to work on that tiara right away!    =)

Mp3 Player Update

 Just a quick update to let you know how I like my Creative Zen V mp3 player.  What a GREAT player! Here’s how I use it:

1. Being able to have my calendar and schedule with me in such a small, multi-use device is extremely convenient. I can answer scheduling questions on the spot without having to carry heavy, single use devices as well as my mp3 player.  VERY important when one works for 7 employers (HEY I’m an artist! I’m incredibly lucky to be employed doing my own thing in the arts!).

2.  I can carry pix in this device.  Nice to have when people ask me “what kind of art do you do?”. 
How cool is that?  And the quality is great though small.

Precious metal clay branch on polymer clay pin

3.  I have the Oprah with Eckhart Tolle class on it – the actual VIDEO! I can watch and listen. Since that isn’t a big action film or something, this is the perfect use for video, other than maybe a music vid.

4.  I have audio books loaded into it so when in a waiting room or hanging a new exhibit, I can actually listen to a book, too.  OR music, of course!

5. Speaking of which, it came with a patch cord/splitter to hook it up to a stereo with a line for each speaker.  So I load it up, plug the patch cord into it and it plays in my studio while I’m working. I don’t have to get up to change the CD and the sound quality is excellent!

  This device is easy to navigate, the bookmarks function for audio books is fabulous. I can switch around to do different things, like watch a vid, and then go back to my place in an audio book.  In fact, the device rewinds a touch so that you can get your bearings before launching into new territory in the story.  Thoughtful design note there!

Hopeless Brushes? Cleaning Tips!

  In this time of wishing to save money, be green and all that, I started researching ways to clean old brushes that I thought couldn’t be saved.  Brushes are so expensive and I use them like crazy to paint, glue and so on.  I figured if I found good stuff I could share it and I did so am!

  Dried glue or paint in brushes - Two options:
1.  Soak in Murphy’s Oil Soap for about a week
2.  Purchase Sax Arts and Crafts Brush Conditioner (clear, non-toxic)

  It’s reported that either of these methods will remove acrylic, tempera or oil paints and dried glue! Note that Goo Gone doesn’t work for any of these but will ruin the brushes for good.

I hope this helps keep those precious dollars in your pocket so you can buy more stuff to make art with! =)

Portable Studio: Organizing Collage Papers

   I hit on this idea for organizing collage materials and I have to say that I haven’t found a better way yet.  It’s been about 3 yrs. since I started doing this.  I had been saving those great cellophane or plastic bags with the gummed flaps on them from things I’ve bought.  I kept thinking that there must be a good second use from these great bags. You know the ones – nice and clear, kind of flimsy but everything is being sold in these things now.  It finally occurred to me to use them to organize my collage papers.

Collage papers sorted into a bag.

  So I sorted my collage papers into color ways or by category (travel, ethnic, plain, patterned, etc.) and put them into these bags (no larger than 8.5″ x 11″).  Then I slide all the papers to one side and three hole punch the bag.  Off it goes into a notebook!  The smaller bags I use for scraps from previous sessions because I always end up with some that I hate to throw away. Those bags slide into a page protector in the notebook and I can “organize” the scraps by bag, too. I try to sort them by color but  I do have bags of “potpourri” scraps, too – not organized at all, just bagged.

  Now when I am mobile, say  meeting up with people to make stuff or going to the beach and I want to do some work there, I just grab the categories or color ways that I want to work with,  pop them into a notebook, grab a glue stick, some base paper/ poster board and clip board for a work surface and I’m off!  The papers won’t blow away, I can see what I have easily and often because the “pages” are clear, combinations of papers end up in juxtaposition and I find surprising things that way. Like fire engine red and lime – colors I would not have put together as the dominants in a piece but I might now!

  In the studio it’s a lot nicer to find what I want by browsing through the notebooks and pulling the pocket pages of what I feel like working with instead of being visually overwhelmed by scads and scads of mish-mash in front of me.  This has made collaging more approachable and definitely more productive for me.  Maybe this will help you, too!

Collage papers stored in a notebook.

The Stillness Experiment

  I have been interested in training to be a Life Coach for awhile but it takes more money than this artist has at this time. I think the training would be beneficial since one of  my priority focus areas is as a mentor to other artists.  Also I’m sure I would benefit from it personally as well (how could I not?). So that in mind, I have been getting Stacy Mayo’s e-letter periodically for awhile. She’s a Life Coach and has a website, etc.  I usually don’t like to sign up for things for email because suddenly they’re emailing you nine times a day – but Stacy Mayo has always been respectful on that point.

  Anyway, she started the Stillness Experiment, an outgrowth from Eckhart Tolle’s ‘New Earth’ book that everybody is talking about.  (http://www.balancedliving.com/stillness_instructions.html)   She includes mp3 files for two meditations on the instruction page so I downloaded that to my player (the new one!) and tried the experiment.  Today is the 30 day mark which surprises me. 

  The basic premise is to take a minute or 7 to be still and meditate. It doesn’t have to be long – just one minute.  I have been able to do the longer meditation when I wake up and before going to sleep, then once in awhile catch a short minute during the day here and there and even with that little bit of capturing stillness more regularly there has been a difference in my frame of mind.   My favorite part has been when I first close my eyes I see all oranges and reds swirling around. Then as I relax everything changes to cobalt blues and finally to cool, calm purple and that’s the best.  Must be the artist in me that makes me see colors every time but it all translates into a calmer, more centered day.   Apparently this is a piece of the puzzle to maintain despite frenzied business and deadline after deadline.  It really works!