ArtFest 2011 Installment #1

My Christmas present this year was a trip to ArtFest 2011, an art retreat held every spring in Port Townsend, WA which is northwest of Seattle on the very tip of the Olympic Penninsula. I’ve wanted to attend ArtFest for years, and this was the year it finally all came together. I sent off my registration after Christmas, when spring was still a long ways away. It seemed like April would never get here, then all the sudden it was time to get ready to go! I scrambled around at the last minute (like usual, of course) putting together the supplies for my classes and making items to trade with the other attendees. I had to figure out how to fit all my art supplies, trades, my journals, and my journaling supplies in my luggage. Of course, I did need a few clothes and personal items as well, so I ended up doing some luggage juggling in order to get it all to fit. I really wasn’t thrilled at having to pack long pants and a jacket (!!) since it had already been up in the 90s here in AZ, but for ArtFest, I was willing to make sacrifices. (LOL!)

Wednesday morning, I got up at 3:45 am (ick!!), so I could catch my (early) flight to Seattle. I hadn’t slept much the night before, what with all the last minute packing and being excited about the trip… the flight was pretty uneventful, and even got into Seattle about 30 minutes early, which was nice.

In the airport, I got the rental car paperwork and met my carpooler Lydia, a fellow first-time ArtFest attendee. We headed out to find the Seattle ferry, which we did with only a few road construction headaches. (who does road construction in a tourist area without putting up detour signs, anyway?!?) Anyway, we finally found the ferry station (?? is that what you call it??), and below is what we saw:

There's the ferry, just pulling away from the dock-- darn it! But that did give us time to head into the local (and by "local" I mean right-next-to-the-parking-lot local) McDonald's for some badly needed caffeine while we waited for the ferry to make its way back. Once it did we all drove on; then Lydia and I hopped out of the car to go up to the observation deck.

Here is the obligatory "photo on the ferry" snapshot, LOL!! Just kidding-- it was pretty cool, since I've never been on a ferry before. It was pretty chilly, too, which is why we went back inside after this shot, but not before I snapped a pretty nice photo of the Seattle skyline.

There were plenty of other people taking pictures outside on deck, as well. It looked like lots of them were re-creating the "king of the world" scene from the movie Titanic, but we headed inside to hang out and watch the scenery for the half-hour ferry ride.

We checked out the vending machine snacks, and I thought about playing a video game or two when I saw this PacMan/Galaga game, but then I saw this:

A dollar?!? What the heck?!?!! I guess it's been a loooong time since the mid-1980s when I would hang out at the arcade after school and play video games for a quarter! Once the ferry landed on Bainbridge Island, we headed out on the highway across the island, across another bridge, and then up the eastern coast of the Olympic Penninsula. Lydia did a very good job of navigating (thank goodness, since I had no idea where I was going!), and we passed the time chatting about art-related and other things. Turns out we're both Geminis, and we have a lot of other things in common, as well- it's interesting how that kind of thing happens, isn't it?!? Once we found the town of Port Townsend, we stopped at the local grocery store for some art-making staples like paper towels and waxed paper (for my painting classes), along with other art-making staples like snacks, wine and chocolate. :D Lydia's friend Kim had been waiting for us at the Port Townsend ferry stop (wondering where the heck we were) but she finally found us at the grocery store and we followed her to the following mysterious destination:

Art supplies-- yay!! Akamai Art Supply was great- lots of fun. (and isn't that car the coolest?? I took a few more pics of it; it's covered with really nifty stencil designs.) The store didn't seem overly large, but it was definitely jam-packed with all sorts of fun stuff. Plus, we got an ArtFest discount; what could be better than that?!? Then we headed to Fort Worden to get our check-in information packets, and Lydia headed back to her bed and breakfast till the Orientation meeting that evening. I found my room, unloaded my stuff, and put on my running shoes to find the beach before it got too late. Here's one photo of the beach and the pier:

I walked down the beach a ways and out onto the pier; I have some more beach photos, but I think I'll finish up my post for now and save those pics for the next installment. The weather was very pleasant (although colder than I was used to in AZ, for sure) the entire time I was there, and the scenery was absolutely gorgeous, but I am sad/happy to say that I was so busy socializing and art-making that I didn't have any other opportunities to explore the area around the fort at all, so I am doubly glad I took the walk on the beach on Wednesday.

I'll post again after I edit more of the almost-200 photos I took. (thank goodness for digital cameras!!)

Lee, at the Do Stuff! leethal blog is talking about having a 24 hour Make-a-Long! event this Saturday... I'm not sure I'll be able to stay up for 24 hours (especially since I'll be getting up early to go to class and won't be starting my 24 hour countdown till the afternoon) but I'm definitely going to participate in some way. This will be a great way to work on some not-so-usual projects, and maybe get a few things done, even!! (that would be wonderful!) Of course, one of the things I'll have to work on beforehand is some cleaning in my art room, but that's always a given.

photos of my Women for Women project

here are a few more photo of my recently finished big project to follow up on the sneak peek I showed you in my last post. (They're not the best pics, but I was in a hurry when I took them- sorry!) The challenge was for all of us to use the same starting material, a color, and the biography of a specific person from the Women for Women website, and make any kind of art that we wanted. My color was Blue; my Women for Women survivor was Gloria, who lives in the country of Colombia. And this is the starting material: This is the "Before," and it frankly scared me a bit-- it's a department store torso, black plastic. (right here, she's enjoying some sunshine in our backyard- haha!!) So, the big question: what to do with her?!? Being a stamper, scrapper, and art journaler, I don't do much 3-dimensional work; I'm more comfortable with working on a much smaller scale, and working on flat surfaces. So, I decided to treat it like a 3-D journal page! I know I took in-process pics, but I can't find them on my computer, so you'll just have to imagine the process of layering on the paper, gesso, multiple colors of paint, stencils, and stamping-- when I got to the blue color (my color for the challenge), I kinda went a little overboard, so you can't see much of the underlying colors and textures unless you're up close.

I don't really know much about the country of Colombia, so I did some research at the library, which led me to the realization that I am really grateful to live in this country-- Colombia has been subjected to so much violence-- over 100 years of ongoing political unrest, killings, massacres... I can't imagine living under those conditions, let alone losing my husband to the violence and raising 4 children on my own, which is what Gloria has been through. This pic is the completed torso-- there is a lot of symbolism in the piece which no one might understand but me, but that's the way it is with journal pages, right?? The tree represents the country with its roots at the base, growing up towards the future. Since I use a lot of nature images, I decided on the bird/tree theme, and I love this particular quote from Emily Dickinson, so it had to go onto the piece. "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all."

This is a closeup of the base-- the black painted design is my interpretation of an early Colombian textile pattern, and the blue/yellow flowers are from a traditional Colombian pottery design... the city with flames represents the changes and the violence that the country-- and Gloria-- have been thru in its/her life.

Here is a closeup of the top portion of the torso-- the top of the tree is the ongoing growth of the country, and Gloria's growth thru the Women for Women programs. The leaves (which are cut from a vintage atlas map of Colombia) have words on that represent the future- hope, believe, family, peace, etc. The "nest" is made from shredded cardstock, and the chipboard bird and hearts represent Gloria protecting and raising her four children. And, since it's a "journal page" I had to do some writing-- my feelings about Colombia, Gloria's struggles, and the good things that the Women for Women organization is doing all over the world... I can't wait to see it, and all the other torsos, on display at the gallery!!

jobs well done-- and another in the making

The last few days have been busy around here, artistically and organizationally speaking... the photo below is a sneak peek of a project that I finally finished on Thursday (at the last possible minute, of course). I will show more photos of it soon- it's an artistic challenge that I had a LOT of mental problems completing, almost gave up a couple times, doubted my artistic vision--- but I am very glad I persevered and did what I wanted with it. Bonus-- it will be shown in a local gallery (!) along with art from 10 other participants of the challenge-- at the end of the show, they will be auctioned off to raise money for Women for Women, an international aid organization that helps women in conflict and post-conflict areas of the world. (Did I mention that my art will be shown in a local gallery?!?!! I'm really excited, but also a bit nervous about that...) The gallery is called Art on Boston, in downtown Chandler, AZ- more info about the gallery here. Below is a pic of another weekend job well done- like a lot of people, I seem to collect art and craft supplies more than anything (some of which I've had for years and never opened or used), and I also have plenty of things I bought for specific projects that I no longer even remember... so, I decided to go thru everything with the goal to de-stash, streamline, and have a garage sale. This way, they would no longer be cluttering up my space, and they would hopefully go to good homes where someone else would actually get some use out of them. I did pretty good, actually-- I got rid of some of my older stuff, and made enough money for use to go out for drinks and appetizers, and also enough money to buy some new stuff! :D Of course, the aftermath of a major project completion and looking thru my stuff for things to sell means that my art studio looks like this:

This has the makings of another major project, doesn't it??