Classes this Semester

I absolutely love the classes I am taking this semester.  Of course, the Art History class with Dr. Sauls is on my schedule again.  Love learning about the artists and the times in which they were creating.  Seems different to me now that I am older than it did when I was much younger.  I feel a greater connection to the fact that living in a certain era provides more influence on what we do and how we create than we realized as we moved through life.  During much of my life I always felt a great degree of independence coupled with doing my own "thing", whatever that was.  Now as I look back I have realized how much the decade I lived in affected my path in life.  In any case, Art History has given me new view and a better understanding of the art that was produced.

 

 

This is a woodcarving from the Printmaking class I am taking with Geo Sipp.  Geo is great!  I learned so much just in the first class.  I have never carved anything in my life!  We were to create part human - part animal and carve into a piece of wood.  Now that I have the image carved I will be printing it on paper.  (I will post a pic once I have it completed.)

 

 

 

Self-portrait project in Painting, also with Geo Sipp.  As you can see I am not good with this but am learning and having fun.  That is what counts, huh?

 

 

 

This is another self-portrait.  I had so much fun with this and decided I should leave well enough alone.

 

 

Now am doing a picture of Einstein.  LOVE doing this!  Geo had us use a grid to create the portrait with more accuracy.  Lots of prep work up front but it is worth it.  This is the first paint layer.

 

This is color layer number 2.  Think this is looking better.

 

 

 

Color layer number 3.  Lots more layers to go but I really love doing this project.  It measures 24 inches x 32 inches so it makes a big statement. 

 

Will post the completed work once I have it done.  Stay tuned..................

FINISHED AND READY TO MAIL!

The Lady of Mystery is finished and ready to mail.  I hope the auction at International Quilt is a huge success.  If you are going to Houston please check out the donated quilts and bid on your favorite one.

This will be in the mail tomorrow.  Now to get to working on the items for the demos and classes.

Lady of Mystery Quiltlet

 

I decided I should work on the quilted wall hanging for International Quilt.  Wasn't sure what I was going to make until I got started.  It always seems like whenever I begin a project the creating just comes to me.  This was no different.  I grabbed my paints, brushes, fabric and a glass of cherry limeade.  Then, just stared painting.                                                                                               

 

 



 

 

 

As I began to paint the brush just seemed to take a mind of its own and I started drawing a woman's face.  I had made a drawing in my sketchbook of a woman with various colored spheres.  Then for some reason a veil across her face seemed to add mystery to the lovely lady.  I decided that she would become the center of the quilt.

 

 

 

With brush in hand a form began to appear then a flower stem rose from the bottom of the piece.  As I painted the face then the sphere the colors for the objects almost selected themselves. While yellow is my favorite color I decided that perhaps I should begin with its compliment - purple.  The large sphere would bear the color of royalty with the mysterious lady's eyes captured the color of emeralds.  She would have large beautiful eyes that peered over the veil covering her slight smile indicating she had a mysterious secret.

 

 

Her blue veil gave a hint of the sky above the garden where she spends most of her time reflecting on its beauty.  The colorful hues dance in the breeze as ballerinas sway with the notes of a musical telling a story of love.  Using silk flowers from my stash of recycled bouquets I decorated around her face.  Now they are ready to be stitched then I will need to decide what I will use to create the centers.  Rather than felting the centers I am thinking I might use crystals. 

 

 

 

Once this is completed it will be in the auction at International Quilt Houston.  Perhaps you could be the proud owner!

 

Time to get back to working on my Painting Class assignment for class tomorrow.  I will be painting a self portrait from photographs I had taken this week.  This is an exciting semester for me.  I love to paint and am looking forward to learning many new techniques.  Our first assignment is the self-portrait without using a brush!  Love my instructor.  He is so talented and has already shared many good ideas.

 

 

 

The Past Year

 

Hi All,

  

I am sure many of you have wondered where I have been.  Well, I have been on a grand adventure this past year.  Let me begin at the beginning:

 

Last year when my son, Brett, graduated from college he wanted to take a summer art history class and he ask me to take it with him.  Well, long story short.....I did AND I was hooked.  I loved the class and realized that I really wanted to learn more about art history as well as learn new techniques for use in my work.  Thus, I decided to go back to college on a full time basis.  It has been a fabulous experience.  Lots of hard work with little time left for doing anything other than art.  This is exactly what I needed.  I learned so many new techniques and the instructors at Missouri Western State University are GREAT!!!

 

Having graduated from MWSU with my accounting degree in 1984 I do not have to take any general education courses so I can concentrate 100% on doing art and following my dreams.  Can you believe that at age 66 I am a college student?  I can hardly believe it myself.  I have spent the last 47 years married to a fabulous man, raised 3 wonderful sons, enjoyed watching them marry terrific young women and have grandsons that are the joy of my life!  Now it is time for ME!  Sometimes I feel guilty that I don't have all the time I formerly had to spend helping them but I also realize that life is short and if I want to do this.....I MUST do it NOW!!   Time goes by too quickly.

 

Here are a few of the works I created is some of the classes:

 

This was a group project in 2-dimensional design:

 

 

Our theme was "Infinity".  There were approximately 20 students in the class.  I only took a picture of the section where my work was included.  My work is the light and medium aqua on the far right with the whales.  We had to make our work flow from the piece to the left across our work then to the piece to the right.  Eric Fuson was our instructor and he is great.  This was so much fun and looked awesome with all the pieces placed in the hallway.

 

The black, white and red piece I did during Drawing II.  It was drawn and colored with markers.  I did this one evening while trying to decide what to do for a class assignment.  Never did hand it in for a grade but I really like it.  Abstract was something I had not experimented with until Misha Klugman's.  He encouraged us to push beyond what we were familiar with and experiment.

 

 

 

 



When I made this piece I also used color markers.  Misha commented "Not bad" but it reminded everyone of a "granny quilt".  It does look like a quilt granny would make, yet I like it.  Actually I keep thinking I should make a quilt like it.  LOL!



 



 

 

 

The next piece is a 6x6 work bonded to an 8x8 black poster board.  It was a challenge to use a postage stamp and create a work.  LOVED working on this as I felt more in my element.  The background is white poster board painted aqua.  The textured background consists of a Styrofoam meat tray painted with acrylic aqua paint then cooked in the microwave.  It was cut to shape and glued to the background.  A postage stamp of the bird was glued to the background with the end placed under the edge of the Styrofoam.  The leaves are a fabric trim glued on top of everything.  Then I used acrylic copper paint and painted over everything except the postage stamp.  Fun, Fun, FUN!!!  Made this is Eric Fuson's 2-D class.

 

 

 

Duct tape in green, blue, yellow and red are the media of choice for this project.  It is the largest piece I created (24x36).  It has layers and layers of duct tape with lots of knots, twists and overlaps to create texture.  Project was to challenge ourselves with limited supplies to create a work in Misha's class.  Loved working on this!  I had never used duct tape for creating a design so I had to push myself to expand my creativity.

 

 

This is a fun self portrait using colored pencils.  It was another fun assignment in Misha's class!

 

 

In 3 Dimensional Design we were challenged to create a self sculpture using cardboard.  This was a challenge for me as I had never done anything like this before.  I made dolls but not using cardboard then cutting and designing it into a 3-D piece.  This was done in Neil Lawley's 3-D class.

 

 

Another 2-D assignment in Eric Fuson's class was to create four matchbook covers that were functional.  The black cover is constructed of black card stock embellished with small rhinestones and wisps of gold metallic paint.  The lime green cover is fabric painted with acrylic paints glued to white card stock.  The multi colored cover is the fabric fusion technique that I teach.  I made a small piece of fused fabric then glued it onto white card stock.  The last one is white card stock that has been covered in paste to create texture then painted with acrylic paint.

 

 

 

 

This may not be the best picture I have done but I love it.  It was fun to do and I love the colors!  The idea was to create dimension with unrelated objects.  Was another challenge by Misha to push ourselves with creativity.  I used oil pastels then smeared with an eraser.

 

 

 

 

Our first assignment in Ceramics was to bring a shoe as a model to create this ceramic one.  Dave Harris is the instructor.  I absolutely loved ceramics!  Dave is a super instructor and it was nice to do something totally out of my normal creative element.  Can hardly wait to take Ceramics II.

 

 

Well, this has been a small peak into my past year.  It has been busy and a bit stressful at times.  But I must admit it has been a good stress.  I have realized that without the stimulus of the classes I don't get to create as I would like although I did take an art history class during the summer.  The summer has gotten away from me and I have had very little time to create.  I am looking forward to fall classes.  It will keep me very busy.  I now have the basic requirements behind me so I can begin to take classes where I will be painting more.  As many of you know painting is my medium of choice so I will be more comfortable.  I know I will learn some new ways to create with paint and that I am VERY MUCH looking forward to doing!

 

For those of you that have faithfully visited my blog looking for a word from me I must say, "THANK YOU".  Your commitment is appreciated!  For those of you that were wondering what happened to me: I hope this has blog answers a lot of questions.   My intention is to blog more frequently now but I must admit there will probably be times when I will be lax in that area. 

 

While I am not taking three studio classes plus an art history class for a total of 12 credit hours, I will be taking 2 studio classes and an art history class (total 9 hours) this fall so I will definitely be busy.  I am taking Painting I, Printmaking I and Art in the Age of Modernity. I have already begun to make my canvases.  I learned how in Tools and Techniques so am using hubby's tools (invading his space just a little).