Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Artfest 2010 Continued

Time to write a little about the journey and fabulousness that is Artfest.

WEDNESDAY:
I arrived in Seattle to meet up with my sweetest friend and Artfest roomie Lea. (Thanks for the Lea Delivery Service, Dave!)

We drove into Seattle and took the ferry over to Bainbridge Island. I'm sorry to report that I didn't even get out of the car to take in the view. I get motion sick fairly easily, so that's just probably best.

We then took the lovely little drive to Port Townsend and then to Fort Warden. Fort Warden is a collection of buildings - dorms, officers housing, a castle looking building, and a commons building that houses the cafeteria.

We found the registration area (thanks to Lea who had been there before - I would have been so clueless without her!) and got checked in. We got our keys and headed over to the officers house 6E. We met our AWESOME roomies who started to arrive too. Saving more info about them for an upcoming post.One of the fun parts about Artfest is just finding a table in the Commons and chatting with the other people there. There was always someone new to meet and make trades with...OH, and my trades were a hit which made it even more fun! Here's a photo of the eating area - well, half of it anyway.

THURSDAY:

I showed photos of my Prayer Flags class with Karen Michel in yesterday's blog post.

In the Prayer Flags class, we painted as much of the background as we wanted white, then we painted a second layer of colored paint over that. Then we glued down imagery to express our intentions through the flags. The idea behind the flags is that your prayers/wishes/intentions are carried off into the wind as the flags fray. I had been thinking about my art and Artfest a lot, so I tried to find words to express my intentions for my time at Artfest. My flags say: Take Risks, Create, Let (Happy) Accidents Happen, Be Inspired-Inspire Others, and Seek Adventure. I pretty much got three of the five done.

Karen is such a genuine and kind person. She took time to chat with each of us and give constructive feedback about our work which I really appreciated. For some reason I thought Karen was going to be intimidating, but she was the exact opposite of that.

For Thursday evening, I don't have too much to report... Lea and I crashed at 8:30 PM! I guess our roomies thought we were out partying all night long. They left us a sweet little beer offering outside our door. (I miss you Michelle, Lori, Lisa, and Kari!)

FRIDAY:

On Friday I had Michelle Allen's "Getcha Paint On" class. We used black caulking to draw outlines, smooshed it in a bit (yes, that's the technical term) for texture, carved a stamp while the caulk was drying (my first stamp!), and then painted and assembled. I could go on and on about how awesome Michelle Allen is. I almost wasn't in her class - I made a switch after registration - and boy was I glad that I did switch! Michelle is SOOOOO talented... her work is whimsical yet complicated, colorful and fascinating.

This is my "finished" piece. I say "finished" because I'm pretty sure I'm going to change the eyes on my bug and restamp in white over the blue. We'll see what happens when I get home.The FABULOUS Michelle Allen wielding power tools.

Even more coming soon.... exhaustion from a full work day is setting in!

2 comments:

  1. Hi Shelly,
    it was great to meet you at artfest. i love your work and your blog. i put your trade pin (my favorite) on my blog + gave you credit. hope this is okay. if not, just let me know & i'll remove it. happy arting.
    take care,
    erin

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  2. It looks like it was a great experience. Anytime you are surrounded by creativity and learning...its just amazing!

    -c
    yapping cat

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