April 23, 2008~
Just a quick shout out to my friends over at Memories from the Attic! I'll be chatting tomorrow night! Come on over & join us! And...without further ado:
my report on Art & Soul at Asilomar!
Day 1. Sunday. Sande & I met at the airport. All went well, flew into San Jose...roasted our toes off! It was like 85 degrees & neither of us knew what to do.
not complaining....loved it!
Photo thanks to Sande...
Rented our car & made our way down the coast to Monterey...wow! It was breezy & oh so beeeeutiful! Checked into Asilomar which is a State Park & has the charm of the early 1900's Arts & Crafts style architecture: complete with our Historic room. (we had a room on the 2nd floor & while schlepping our luggage up the stairs kept reminding each other we chose to stay in the Historic Rooms; hence no elevators!) The rooms were very cozy & minimal; no TV, no phone....sheer heavenly retreat!
Got ready for dinner & went to the Dining Hall....cool place. Met some of the other Art & Soul artists & then walked around the beach after dinner. Simply gorgeous!
Day 2. Monday.
Woke up early to go running. Sande is an early riser, so it was lovely to get up with someone & walk the boardwalk. I ran along the beach as she walked & took photos!
Got ready; breakfast.
Took Soldering For Virgins class by THE Sally Jean!!!!! It was amazing. The first part of our class she walked us through preparing our art. She's so cool...totally makes everyone feel great, relaxed & creative.
She kept saying; Embrace & Love your art. LOVE that!
I printed out some of my art before hand & then she also gave us a little box tied with her signature blue tulle filled with fabulous ephemera, glass, buttons, etc. yum! She's the best!
LUNCH break....at this point, I'm flying high....loving my art I was making...had it all copper taped as seen here & she told us we'd be soldering after lunch.
Ok, easy enough!
Well, after lunch the hard, scary work began...heat irons!
Being as graceful as I am....i only burned myself once. I will have a nasty scar to prove I soldered with Sally!
But, all in all, I enjoyed the process, loved the whole learning & creating and only AFTER I saw Sally's first pieces, did I embrace & love my pieces!
I'm finishing the jump rings & putting them on chains...I'll take a pic soon! DINNER: the food was all quite deelish. They had Vegetarian options & I quite enjoyed them all! Stayed away from the desserts & thank goodness! I know the sugar would have reeked havoc on me!
Felt wonderful by the seashore! That evening we met each other at an Artist Greet & Meet....met some lovely people. laughed with Sande some MORE...i tell ya...we laughed the entire trip...it was marvelous for the abs!
the sunset was amazing...love the outline; the trees, the cool Arts & Crafts buildings.
gotta say:
I"M SOLD on those travel sound machines! The Historic Bldg. was creeky & walls pretty thin, but thanks to Sande's Rain Storm she conjured up nightly, we sawed logs...or maybe Sande was doing the sawing! hee!
Day 3. Tuesday.
Again, awoke before the sun rose. Sande took fabulous pictures while I cranked my playlist on my iPod & ran my little heart out! It was seriously one of THE most amazing runs I've ever had....wait...i dare say it was THE most amazing runs of my life. LOVED it all!
got ready; breakfast.
Took Ann Baldwin's Texture in Collage class. She's from England & is quite delightful. Her dry humor was wonderful. We were able to get our hands dirty mixing & creating & painting all sorts of textures: gel mediums; soft gel, heavy gel, light modeling/molding paste, granite paste, etc. ahh...totally fun to get dirty & paint again! It's been far too long!
It was lovely to listen to my music whilst I created....
lunch break.
had to go back to my room & take a little napsie! felt great!
back at it...painted & loved my collage!
Now, I just have to finish! LOL!
But...I"m so excited...I'm using a lot of the textures I created in some new digi kits coming!
Dinner & then the instructors came with their 'wares' & sold some scrumptious stuff. I got a necklace by Sally that is deeevine! And, I WISHED I could have thought of how I could get these old painted doors & windows by an artist named Stephanie Lee . Sande had taken her Plaster class from her & boy...her stuff was amazing! LOVED it! It was so fun to walk around & just be inspired by everything I saw!
Drove to Monterey...took pictures, walked along the shops...most were closed, but had fun!
back to room;;; bed. tired again!
Day 4. Wednesday.
Early morning walk with Sande...I wanted this morning to be filled with a photo lesson from the great photographer, so she kindly shared some fab tips with me....Loved my photos. Of course, not HALF as good as hers, but for me; i was very happy!
Last class: took Traci Bautista's Flourish with Layers class . Now, she is seriously amazing. First off; you see her EVERYWHERE...she's funky & ecclectic & I was so excited to learn of her whays ( nacho libre style). She has such a cool way about her...they way she talks, the way she teaches, the way she creates...She shared a lot of her portfolio & it was so fun to hear of her new line: Collage Pauge coming out next month in JoAnn's! She's the master at color; painting; using every single bit of paint & surfaces to create amazing, funky pieces of art. She taught us how to dye paper towels & not only use them for papers, but also to sandwich them between stamps, other papers, gesso them with textures, etc. Her whole philosophy is to use it up with flair & funk...make several backgrounds out of 1 or 2 things. And...she introduced me to Pipettes ! Wow...I tell ya, I'm in LOVE with this whole look! Very cool, inexpensive & I see so much possibility! Will have to take pics of my pieces...I loved them!
Last evening: show your art night...said good bye to new friends..it was so fun!
Drove to Carmel...found some cool shops, but they were closed...good thing is: Sande & I didn't spend much money!
Lots of inspiration, lots of memories, lots of art & soul!
Loved it all...will do it again!
ciao for now: have a gReat day!
R
