Well, I see it has been a long time since I have written here. It is probably because I only write about art related activities, and I haven't been having many. We spent the last week in Palm Springs getting warm, so no art was being created then. I have so enjoyed my experimental painting group that meets at my studio on the first Wednesday of each month that I moved it to the second Wednesday this month so that we wouldn't miss it because I was out of town. So, yesterday the group (actually three of the seven artists couldn't make it) met and had a fabulous time creating and sharing. Most of the artists that I know are so generous that no one has any problem sharing new tools, ideas, papers, whatever. Recently I have been copying everything to do direct transfers with. An old piece of loose weave burlap, a tray with holes in it, a piece of wire mesh, decorative paper, whatever crosses my path gets copied on my new laser printer. Yesterday the whole group was involved in copying and doing direct transfers. Even though we were using a lot of the same copies to do transfers, none of our work resembled anyone elses. I had a wonderful time and it inspired me to get back in the studio today.
Because there are more experimental artists than I have room for in my studio, we are starting a second group that will meet on the third Wednesday of each month. So, I get to have all that fun twice a month from now on. I think that working with other artists really stimulates creativity.
Both of these paintings I created as a result of a Barbara DePirro workshop called "Collage De-Collage". It was a wonderful class involving sanding, tearing, carving and using various mediums. The first one involved crumpled paper adhered to the paper and the loose parts torn off after drying. Then there was sandpaper involved! It was a great class.
