12 Dancing Princesses

If you've made your way over here from Carla's  Sonheim's blog, welcome.  I was delighted to contribute to our Year of the Fairy Tale course call for some fancy schmancy princesses!  Carla does a great job inspiring us and encouraging us. These online art classes are wonderful and I could easily take 12 at a time, though I know better….  My dad and I are going to begin a sketching class together this fall. We are a couple thousand miles apart, so how fun is that do something artsy together?  But, I digress.

My princesses came about as I glommed onto some techniques I've been learning this year. When I clean up my hands from messing with my clay sculptures, I am enjoying making another kind of mixed media mess. I have a theme here, do I not:  messes.  (Another blog post)

Here are some Princesses In Progress.

I love my iPhone for trying out positioning in art projects.  These dancers found their way all over the canvas before I settled on the final groupings.  I can take numerous shots then scroll through them on my phone to see which pleases me!

Dancers close up.  Tissue paper on collaged background.  I used water color pencils and Caran d'Ache water soluble wax pastels for the colors.  Water soluble crayons??  What ELSE do I have to learn!

And then I just decided: They are done. Off to the dances and to Carla for publishing…

Thanks for peeking.  May you dance in today's sunshine (or air conditioning if the humidity calls for such drastic measures.) 

Rock. Paper. Scissors.

This month has been full of adventure, learning and happiness.  If we could all begin all our blog posts just like that, what a wonderful world this would be, yes??  I spent a month in Colorado in 2013 and ten days of it were in October. A cause for happiness indeed! And the ROCK in my title…

I went to Art Camp for Women. I dreamed of it for several years and took the plunge this fall. They will no longer be leading these awesome retreats so it was a particularly good gift! I was so thankful to get to participate in the last one! We had three great artists come teach sessions too.

Carla Sonheim and her drawing instruction, loosening us up with silly animals and many excellent exercises infused with joy, account for PAPER.  Becky Nunn showed us all sorts of tricks and techniques for jewelry and Sara Rockinger taught us Theromfax silk screening. SCISSORS used here.

For me, it was a slice of the New Earth!  Time for art with like-minded women eating delicious food looking out at fall in the Rockies, with a little snow thrown in. For me and my sensibilities, it does not get any better than that!  No high heels necessary… no excuses allowed… walking in between classes encouraged… photos all around. It was grand!

I would not have been able to fully engage in an event like this in the past.  Having a new cochlear implant made all the difference. How?  Stay tuned….