9th Annual Ceramics Studio Tour!

Hooray! A New Home for the Guild

After ten long years of planning and raising money, the Arizona Artists Guild will finally be able to have a place to call home! In addition to monthly meetings and weekly open studio sessions, the new building will host monthly exhibitions and events for valley arts organizations.

During the Opening Celebration & Ribbon Cutting Ceremony I will be stationed at the scholarship table to talk about one of the best things the Guild does (supports Arizona's young artists through an annual scholarship competition)! Olivia Timmons, a 2009 winner, will also be there to talk about why this scholarship is so important. Hopefully, people will open their pocketbooks and donate to the Scholarship Fund!

THIS Saturday, November 14, 2009 from 10:00am-12:00pm at 18411 North 7th Avenue in Phoenix, AZ 85023



Here is the info from ShowUp.com:
Arizona Artists Guild - Opening Celebration - Arizona Artists Guild - Arizona Artists Guild Building - ShowUp.com

For Fun

I sniped this from a friend's Facebook page . . . try it out! Here's mine:




1 - BAND NAME Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random article” or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - ALBUM TITLE Go to "Random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - COVER ART Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

I would love to see yours!!!!

How Did I Miss This???

I attended an AP Studio Art Summer Institute this past week put on by the College Board (basically, I received training to teach Advanced Placement Studio Art for my high school) . . . one of the discussions was how to push students beyond cliche or trite subject matter in their concentration (or focus) pieces . . . The instructor pulled out a book called Skulls -- which started as a blog, in which this guy literally created a skull everyday, often from ordinary, everyday things.

Love the concept!

Great Reference for Artists Books

Cover-to-Cover: Creative Techniques for Making Beautiful Books, Journals, and Albums by Shereen LaPlantz is a great reference for artists in the paper arts. Actually, not all the books are made of paper, opening up amazing possibilities. I've referenced this book quite often, and would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in creating artists' books.

Museum Curatorial Debut!

As the Scholarship Chair of the Arizona Artists' Guild, I have the wonderful opportunity to "curate" the scholarship exhibition. This year, it is at the West Valley Art Museum -- so I now have museum curatorship to add to my resume!

The show opens tonight, from 5-8 pm.

I will be giving out the awards to four scholarship recipients around 6:30. Each winner received a $1,000 scholarship towards continuing her art education. This year, artists from each of Arizona's three universities are represented.

Here are some pictures of the show:

Summer Arts Camps for Kids

This summer, I will be teaching arts day camps for 6-12 year olds . . . so I will get my fill of the little guys before going back to hormonal 15 year olds. I'm excited about the classes -- they are all themed, and will run for 2 hours every day for a week. Here are a couple of examples:

Pop Art Party will be a class where all the artwork made will have a party theme and will celebrate the Pop Art movement . . . think Andy Warhol wigs and Keith Haring's dancing dogs!

Diagnosis: Sculpture-itis is all about using everyday objects and transforming them into art. I did this one two summers ago, and had a blast!

These classes will be held at the West Valley Art Museum located in Surprise, Arizona. For more information, visit this site: http://www.wvam.org/youth.html

Pop Art Party will be held at Palm Valley Elementary in Litchfield Park through the West Valley Arts Council.

http://www.westvalleyarts.org/programs/camps.html

Blueberry Girls

Happy Mother's Day -- to mothers of daughters . . . Here is a beautiful little poem/wish that should be shared:

http://webcontent.harpercollins.com/images/om/sz/blueberrygirl-mothersday.htm



Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman, with illustrations by Charles Vess

Sunnyslope Raffle Winner!

Congratulations to Nancy Ausdahl, who won this linoleum print in a free raffle I held at the Sunnyslope Artwalk April 18th! Nancy proudly lives in the Sunnyslope area.

The lino-cut image is based on a cherub water fountain statue in the backyard of Andrew Mellon's former home (of Carnegie-Mellon University, and Mellon Bank/Financial) in Pittsburgh. The grounds of the Mellon estate were designed in the 1930s, and are now maintained as part of an arboretum. The mansion is now an administrative building for the all-women's Chatham College. It still houses America's very first indoor swimming pool in America in the basement, which I swam in several times. :)

New Dresses

Newest work in my studio . . . Spring Break was productive.



I have been playing with paper dolls in my studio . . . They are a theme I have played with before (Not Your Doll series), and have a million new ideas for new work, variations on this theme. I am playing with text, and with dresses. I LOVE that one of the women who came through the studio during Art Detour said my work is beautiful . . . "with teeth."

The paper doll dresses will intentionally be clothing that is representative of women's roles (wedding gown = wife, nurse's oufit = caregiver, etc.) . . . Right now, I am evolving the concept to have text that states "I am not the dress," and would like to push it into the positive realm with "I am . . ." (I am a welder, I am a nurse, I am a size 2, I am a size 18, I am a sister, I am a feminist, I am a dog-lover, I am an optimist, I am a pessimist, I am an independent thinker, and on and on and on . . .) I'm excited to see these develop!

I am not your paper doll

I am not the dress

I am an artist . . .