The Big 'Small Studio'

I just got back from teaching three workshops at Small Studio in Westlake, Ohio. It was my first time teaching at Ginny Carter Smallenburg's amazing shop and the last set of workshops there for the year. The workshop space and shop are sensational, the students there were uber talented, and Ginny & her husband John were incredible hosts.

THE SHOP

THE WORKSHOPS

52 Card Pickup

My demo cards from the workshop

Amazing work in progress from the students

The 52 Crew

For Your Eyes Only

Page by page

 Books in progress

 Book makers

Text Tiles

Making Layers

Adding paint

Panels and more panels

Thanks Ginny and John. It was a weekend to remember!

The Week Links: 23

Join me every Sunday when I share some of my favorite links I discovered in the previous week.

All previous links can be found here.

And here is Week 23...
(short list this week as I am in Ohio teaching workshops)

Studio tour with artist Emily Jeffords on Decor8.

I do love bookstores and this post on the Chronicle Books blog highlights four special ones.

The paint brush series from Ronda Palazzari continues: shapes and sizes.

Thoughts on artistic suffocation and the need to be fluid from Cat Giglio.

Making Art & Making Magic

If Walls Could Talk

We can all be found somewhere on the same dirt road, kicking up dust, gradually revealing, feverishly working toward finding new ways to form and mature. We build substrates from which we obtain our creative nourishment and the courage to inscribe our visual stories...constantly seeking where everything outside of us ends and where we begin.

Join Orly and myself for a five-day, texture-making, art-journaling, book-binding experience...



...at Pacific Northwest ArtSchool on the magical Whidbey Island, WA.

On day one we'll come together at our creative space of the week. Soon after we'll go out to explore our new visual reality on the island. We'll be visiting the forest and/or the sea to find texturizing and mark making elements and explore man-made objects in local stores to join the ephemera we brought with us. On day two and three Seth will guide us through the creating of walls, substrates on which magical processes will occur. We will build up these solid surfaces with layers, textures, colors, and marks. This will be followed by two days with Orly wherein each of use will be adding to the pages our own personal narrative, which will surface through the addition of words and images. By the end of day five will be ready to literally tie our individual stories together as we bind our own books, thereby creating the most intimate of personal dossiers. 

May 18-22, 2015

Registration is open and space is limited.

------------

And also at Pacific NorthWest Art School on Whidbey Island, join me for Cover to Cover, a two-day workshop where we all will create a one-of-a-kind, unconventional artist book. Designed to help you break free of artistic inhibitions and explore possibilities, we will be creating layer after layer of color, texture and dimension using a tremendous range of materials. In this class, we will be putting the "mixed" in the media. 

May 16-17, 2015

Registration is open and space is limited.

CHA Blogger Membership

I have been a Designer Member of CHA since July 2013. For those of of you who aren't familiar with the organization, CHA stands for the Craft & Hobby Association. CHA, according to their website, is an "international, not-for-profit trade association consisting of thousands of member companies engaged in the design, manufacture, distribution and retail sales of products in the nearly 30 billion U.S. craft and hobby industry."

CHA offers its members many professional opportunities throughout the year and you can read about these on their website. They are probably most known for their Mega Show. This annual event held in Anaheim, California every January brings together manufacturers, retailers, designers and other creative professionals for a massive conference and trade show. In The Marketplace, hundreds of companies exhibit their newly released product lines. Workshops, business seminars, and demos are presented as part of The Education component. Round table discussions and chapter meetings make up the Community component. And there are endless informal connections and networking opportunities happening round the clock.

I experienced the Mega Show for the first time this past January and am looking forward to attending and teaching this coming January too. In order to attend, you have to be a member of CHA. Happily, CHA has just announced a new level of membership: the blogger.

If you are a blogger and have ever been interested in joining CHA, you can read the press release for more information as well as a post from CEO Andrej Suskavcevic. Please be aware that bloggers must meet specific criteria to be eligible as members. Click here to read those requirements and to apply for membership.

And if you join by November 17th, bloggers will be eligible for an amazing opportunity to win a 2015 Mega Show travel package.

Hope to see you at the Mega Show in January!

The Week Links: 22

Join me every Sunday when I share some of my favorite links I discovered in the previous week.

Week 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21,

And here is Week 22...

The basics of color from Darla Kirchner at Creative Biz School. Thanks to Carmen Whitehead for the link.

Martice Smith II posts on the Mixed Media Art website 5 ways to share your creativity and get
discovered.

Holly from Handprinted posts a great review of the Gelli Plate for beginners and experts too.

Excited that there are two exhibits of the incredible work of El Anatsui at two NYC galleries right now: Jack Shaman Gallery and Mnuchin Gallery.

10 point checklist for an awesome art website as posted on the Art Business Institute site.

Ronda Palazzari continues her series on the paint brush with information on shapes.

Carole Leslie from ZenDotStudio shares her thoughts on trusting that whatever is happening is okay and on dealing with self evaluation and judgement. She shares some gorgeous abstracts too.

In My Bones

It thrills me to be able to announce that Orly Avineri has just released her third book In My Bones.

Orly is an artist who expresses herself primarily in the form of visual journaling. Her work is authentic, honest, and raw. Just as she is. Looking at her journal pages is like looking directly into the heart and soul of Orly. And through this book, we all have the privilege of being able to be a part of her  journey that is at once so intimate and personal and yet somehow universal.

Having seen her journals in person, I can attest to the power of her pages to move the viewer. Every page she makes tells a vivid and compelling story that creates a desire to interpret, to understand, and to know more. One gets the sense that every small detail has meaning and that no mark is random. This is clearly art that Orly feels in her bones.

From the book: Orly...opens her visual journal once again to express her belief in the boundlessness that comes from admitting incompleteness and and ambivalence - in the sheer relief that comes from one's willingness to exit the body in order to pour an intimate world onto pages of a visual journal and share it generously. All for the purpose of experiencing gentle journeys back to self and creating a true sense of belonging and connection.

You can see Orly's work, learn more about this book, and purchase it by heading to her blog One Artist Journal. Details about all three of her books, including One Artist Journal and 14 Artist Journals, are available here. And you can connect with Orly directly on her Facebook page.

Congratulations Orly. Thank you for opening the door and inviting us all inside. 

Artists Give Back

There is a column in every issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine called Artists Give Back. it is written by Elena Lai Etcheverry, who herself knows a lot about giving back. Elena is the Founder and Executive Director of Charity Wings, an art & craft center in San Marcos, California that is dedicated to the charitable and healing aspects of art.

In the new, November/December issue of CPS, Elena has chosen to write about The Pulse Charity Auction that I spearheaded in response to Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

Nearly 50 art-related items were donated by artists and more than $2,300 was raised and donated to the victims of Sandy. You can read more about the event in this blog post and on the pages (well, page 24 to be exact) of CPS.

The art community in NYC was hit quite hard and, nearly two years later to the day, are still struggling with the aftermath. Hmmmm. Perhaps it is time for The Pulse Charity Auction V2...

It's an enQoRe Giveaway

I love Golden Paints and their Fluid Acrylics are one of my go-to supplies -- as evidenced by this picture below.

And now I have heard that Golden has released a new product called QoR Modern Watercolors. I have not tried these yet but soon will. And judging by the description, these paints sound like they just might become permanent residents in my studio.

GIVEAWAY

Sally Lynn MacDonald is on the cutting edge of this release and has already prepared an online workshop called enQoRe. Class starts in January 2015 and is based around this new product line.

Sally Lynn has generously offered a free "seat" in this online workshop to one lucky reader of The Altered Page. To be eligible for this giveaway, simply leave a comment to this post. Comments will close end of day, Friday October 31st. The random number table will choose the winner and please make sure you leave your email so you can be contacted with registration information if you should win. Good luck to all!

Giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Stephanie, who has already been contacted by email, on winning a seat in Sally Lynn's upcoming workshop.

The Week Links: 21

Join me every Sunday when I share some of my favorite links I discovered in the previous week.

Week 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20,

And here is Week 21...

A different view of "found" objects as prized souvenirs from Stephanie Rosenbloom in the NY Times.

A stunning set of assemblages from Donna Watson.

Loving these clever examples of street art by Borondo found on I Need A Guide.

Mark Montano has an easy to follow tutorial for making your own paper.

This art journal from Jose Naranja leaves me speechless in the best way possible.

First in a series from Ronda Palazzari: the basics of a paint brush.

Grace Bonney shares 10 things she has learned about life from blogging.

The Sound of Authenticity

There is a noise in the distance. It started out as a faint hum but is getting louder and louder. People are taking off the earplugs and setting the noise free. And my hunch is that people are going to continue to turn up the volume. What am I referring to? The sound of authenticity.

I have been a blogger for 7+ years. Much has changed on the scene since then. Facebook took over the world. Twitter shortened our voices to 140 characters. Tumblr and Instagram came along and turned our words into images. Pinterest happened and now we are all boarded up. Don't get me wrong...I love and use many of these platforms. But they are very different from traditional blogs.

People frequently note that the world presented on these sites is skewed to perfect and beautified. Perhaps too much so. As if the sun is always shining, the house is always clean, and life is always good. Instead of spreading the joy, this message can actually spread envy and distress. Now truthfully, I also often see entries on these platforms that suggest life is far from perfect. But the sense that "the grass is always greener" can seem pervasive.

As often happens in life, I think the pendulum is swinging. There is a frustration with this sense of "implied awesomeness" and a movement toward authenticity. And I believe this move is being spearheaded by the blogging community. Just one recent example is the Studio Table, where 120+ chose to share pictures of what their studio spaces really look like -- in all their messy glory.

Initially with the flood of microblogging platforms, there seemed to be a shift away from what I term "long-form" blogging. The ease of the newer sites made them very attractive. Many bloggers noted a decline in viewers and, most prominently, comments. When clicking on an upturned thumb is so easy...who has time to actually comment in words? And fill in those annoying Captcha Codes? At the same time, the crew that began blogging in the "early years" were burning out. It takes a lot of time and effort to consistently maintain a blog. A lot!

However, I have noticed a shift in the last year or so. Many new people are discovering blogging and again infusing energy into the blog community. And, happily, many older bloggers have shaken off the dust and have started to blog again. Their newest posts often start with an apology and apparent shock that so much time has past since their last entry.

Most importantly, there seems to be more authenticity than ever before in the content (see perfect example here). And for me, authenticity is very attractive and compelling. Real words from real people about real life. As a blogger, I strive to present an authentic voice in the hopes of continuing to build a community of people who connect to what I am saying and find true value in my blog. As a blog reader, I seek out the blogs where the voice and personality of the blogger comes through loud and clear -- in an authentic and genuine way.

The beauty of blogs is that they can be anything the blogger wants them to be. Every viewer can choose to read through or click past. And when I find authenticity -- I want in!

Class is in Session

Next month I head to Westlake, Ohio to teach at Small Studio. The shop is run by Ginny Carter Smallenburg and I am excited to finally meet her in person after having known her for many years online.

There are less than a handful of seats still available and if you are considering joining us there, now would be a good time to register.

There are two spots left for Text Tiles, an evening workshop being held on Friday, November 7 from 6-9pm.

52 Card Pickup, on Saturday, November 8 from 10am-5pm is filled.

One seat remains in For Your Eyes Only, being held on Sunday, November 9 from 10am-5pm.

-----------------------------

Due to unforseen circumstances, I had to postpone my workshops last weekend at Artistic Artifacts in  Alexandria, VA. I am happy to announce that the classes have been rescheduled and registration has been reopened.

For Your Eyes Only will now be held on Saturday, January 24.

52 Card Pickup is scheduled for Sunday, January 25.


I look forward to two weekends filled with creativity and fun!

Going Urban

I am forever fascinated by the fact that when different artists use the same materials to create with, you will never see the same result twice. One hundred artists equals one hundred distinct artworks. 

I often notice this when making the rounds through the Internet and coming across artwork that has been created using the stencils I have designed. I love when other artists come up with ideas that I would never have thought of. A perfect example is Pam Carriker's journal spread. She used stencils from my new StencilGirl Products release, The Urban Collection. 

Loving the color palette, which Pam chose from her own, newly released line of paints. 

I am amazed by the depth and dimension she achieved in this section.

Pam used her own line of Liquid Pencil to make both the outlines of the stencils, the writing, and these drips. I do love drips!

These stencils were designed to be interactive, with the insides fitting perfectly within the outlines. I love the fact that Pam chose to overlap many of the different designs instead.