blur

Last week was spent at St. Augustine Beach with my aunts and grandparents. It's the off season which means the beach is nearly deserted and comfortably cool, yet still perfect for swimming. Unfortunately I nursed a cold all week and didn't spend much time drawing as I usually do, but played in the sand with little cocinas and took lots of photos which I'll share more of this week while I figure out my studio life and hopefully a Halloween costume.

Photography is a new medium for me, something I have never studied or pushed until I bought my little point and shoot camera and began blogging. It seems appropriate that most of my images are oriented on tiny details of the world as without contacts, I own nine inches of perfect vision and then a progressively blurrier world. The photos above are another way I see, which could be a frightening way to live but make for beautiful images, yes?

My adult sculpture class at the museum ended Sunday, and I think I left happy students, as a few asked about the next sculpture class with plans to take it. It always makes me so satisfied when I have such an enthusiastic class, so often it is one of the first things they have made in clay since gradeschool, if even then. I inserted a little plaster mold making demo in the last two classes and a few were very excited about the possibilities of handbuilding with plaster which I did with Bone Mother and Daughters. I'd love to offer a course on that, though I don't know if the museum would welcome it as it's so very messy. . . have to mull on it.

Royal Mail

So sorry I have been away so long. Topics abounded and I happily wrote them down, but the ideas being safely written down and thus captured, the impetus for completion slipped my grasp. My studio practice follows this pattern on occasion; I have lists upon lists of projects yet to be begun, but with all the wonderful work I am seeing online I am constantly reminded, lists are just lists, but work must be made to be fully enjoyed. Thank you all for providing the motivation. My studio is ready and waiting. . .as are you. Without further ado, a little news . . .

My dear friend in art, Jillian, sent me Royal Mail straight from the land of the Queen, England. She wrote the letter on a paper silhouette and included rubbings of praying women from a church in Kent. Love the spurs on one (reminds me of the Joan of Arc), and the flat floral design peeking through the folds of the dress on another.

...and my Aunt Suzanne has sent me this navy blue handkerchief hem skirt. Beautiful. Wearing it here a bit like a flapper dress, I must find a cloche.

At the museum on Saturday, I taught a class in bookbinding. We used the coptic stitch which was taught to me in school by a printmaker and I deviate rarely from it for my own sketchbooks. For a left-hander like myself, the way it lays flat is a blessing. Now I've made it a few times, I can churn them out relatively quickly.

As soon as I figure out how to photograph wax without too much reflection, I'll post about some studio experiments I've been working on.

Paper Critters

Suzanne mentioned artist, Alain Douglas Park, last week, and it happens to be completely related to my activities this week. One of my jobs is teaching art classes at the local art museum. This week I've been teaching kids in a class "Capturing the Jackalope". We made mythological and hybrid creatures out of paper mache. I loved it, they loved it. Here are two seven-year old artists works.

This one is a dog headed-bee-bear-duck.

This one is a rare spotted unicorn bird. Notice the pink toes.

I am really enjoying working with kids, it is such a challenge for me to grasp where they are in their skill development and focus and try to alter the project to their needs, or assist them in problem solving. It's also really satisfying seeing their faces light up while working on a project that is their own. I am reading Mona Brookes' Drawing with Children and it has some insightful information on to how to talk to children about their work and creating a safe creative environment.