Art & Soul – Rock ‘N Roll – 2009 Art Retreat
Well, I’ve finally had a moment since returning to sit down and write a little about my wonderful experiences at the Art & Soul Retreat in Hampton, VA this year. I had a total blast the first time I went last year in 2008, but I had even more fun this year. I think I was a lot more relaxed this year because I knew what to expect – and so I got a lot more out of it. There were familiar faces and new ones as well, and everyone I met and spoke with was super friendly and helpful. Well, all I can say is that I’m just back and I’m already yearning to do it all over again!
Here’s a short synopsis of each class, with pictures of the pieces I made beneath each class.
My first class was with the fabulous Michael deMeng. The class involved creating an assemblage out of a picture frame – and to make them dimensional using a product called “Aves Apoxie Clay”. It comes in 2 parts – clay and hardener. You mix them together in equal parts by kneading them well with your hands for a few minutes and you can form it into any shape you desire or use it as a support for other pieces- drying time is 1-3 hours, and when it hardens you can even carve it! It sticks to things really well and is also paintable. This stuff is amazing, and useful!
My next class ran two nights together – right after Michael’s- and it was called “The Scarlet Onion” taught by Leighanna Light. This was another really interesting and learning packed class – what we did was add some PVA glue to paperclay and mix them together well. Next step was to coat the 8×8 canvas with the PVA glue, then cover it with the paperclay and sculpt something with it on top of the canvas and use stamps to texturize it. For one canvas I just drew a bird and added some charms, on the other I pushed a harlequin mask into the clay and then formed a body around it. The clay had to harden over night, so we painted them the next night using Ranger Re-inkers, but I also used some acrylic washes and interference paints to get bolder colors.
The next day’s class was another Michael deMeng class – in this class we created matchbook assemblages – we again used the Apoxie Clay both to strengthen the matchbook sides and also to create 3D effects. I made a large matchbook similar to the altered electrical outlet I made in Michael’s class last year, so now I have a cool “set”! And I also made a smaller matchbook which I plan to use as a necklace pendant.
I took Saturday off to recoup and see a little of Virginia – I ended up going to the Virginia Aquarium and Virginia Beach, which I really enjoyed. I lucked out at the beach and caught a home made kite flying contest. Some of the kites were huge – they must’ve been 20-30 feet long, and it was really windy so it was a great day for that. On the way home I stopped at two bead stores near the hotel that the Art&Soul Yahoo Group recommended and found some really pretty beads to make some nice summer jewelry for myself, or maybe to sell in my Etsy store (there’s a link in my signature area). Later that night I went to the Vendor’s night and had a blast – I ended up buying yet more beads (heh) mostly focals, some way cool altered art/vintage goodies and I bought three small wall hangings from Lisa Kaus and one of Michael deMeng’s original outlet assemblages. (Gosh, I must sound like such a Michael groupie!!! LOL!!!) I had really wanted to buy one last year but I didn’t have the money, but he had them again this year and I’ve been saving my pennies all year so I bought one.
Sunday I took a bezel and bail making class with Richard Salley and discovered I loved making them. I learned to solder with a creme brulee torch, cut sheet metal, form and fit it around found objects, and how to make pins to hold items within the bezels (which do not have backs).
Monday I made a glass and copper journal with Tom Ashmann. Now, this was an aggravating thing to make, but once finished it’s so beautiful it was worth the teeth gnashing and finger scraping, fingernail breaking effort. I learned how to apply a patina to copper and then fire it with a large torch (and this was a major kind of torch, and it kinda intimidated me at first – holy cow, the thing actually made the cement pop!) The book assembly went like this: the idea was to first cut and hammer straight 1″ rolled copper stripping (think of 18 people hammering metal on steel blocks for about 2 hrs non-stop. Aiy. I got such a headache!), then patina it, then attach nuts, bolts and washers to every other hole to form two 5×7 rectangles. (Each rectangle had 8 pieces of stripping sandwiched together as so – two 7″ and two 5″ sides) Then we had to make spines of the same stripping, then we had to make hinges and run wire through them to attach spine to front and back frames, more nuts and washers and bolts. Then we had to hand tear 140lb cold press watercolor paper for the insides (we made 4 signatures of 4 sheets each). We attached the signatures with (what else?) more wire that we had to bend and loop at each end of the spine with chain nose pliers. The next, and most aggravating and hard part, was to loosen all the nuts/bolts and open the frames on one side, slide in the glass and transparency and then fit the frame around the book and then tighten up all the nuts and bolts again. Sounds easy, but it sure wasn’t!! It was such a tight fit. It was really hard to get the glass in between the stripping so you could thread all the nuts and bolts in and around it so the stripping would hold the glass. I finally gave up when I realized I’d put it together with the front transparency right side up and the back transparency upside down – aiy!!! I really don’t want to play with the glass and transparency again, so I think I just might leave it that way on purpose – half of the journal will be upside down and half will be right side up – one see’s books like that these days anyway! SO, maybe this was a happy mistake after all! (It’s true – there are no mistakes in art!!! and it’s a good thing, too!! LOL!!!) The last step (which I still have to do) is to attach some chain and charm bling to the spine. A picture of the unfinished journal is below.
And to top this all off, on my last day there the Art&Soul store had a 20-50% off sale! Wait, it gets better – while browsing I spotted a set of Alice in Wonderland cling mount stamps that I wanted to get, and they were 50% off so I put them in my basket with a big smile. While I was waiting in line, I flipped the stamp package over and noticed a tag with writing on it that said “Purchase this item and win a prize – come to the Art&Soul Office and bring this tag”. So, I checked out and then went over to the office and OMG! They handed me a large gift bag of assorted goodies AND one of the Art&Soul Fat Books that 45 artists had contributed to – well, I mean, how much better could things get!??!?!?! There had to be over $100 worth of goodies in that bag, but I would’ve been happier than a pig in mud just to get that fat book!! I think I drove home on cloud nine….
And that was how my 5 days went. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – if you can afford to go you definitely, definitely should. You will have a super amazing experience. The accommodations are first class. The teachers are awesome. The education is outstanding. The people are fun and helpful and just wonderful, and I guarantee you’ll end up making some wonderful new friendships and revisiting the old ones. The teachers are down to earth, friendly people who do not put on airs. On two different morning I had two different teachers sit down with me to have breakfast and to chat. There are swaps going on everywhere. All you have to do in walk into a classroom or find some people talking together and loudly say “Swap?” and there you go. I also got to meet another AFA member some of you may know – Miryea! I can’t tell you how nice it was to meet her! As it turned out, we had 2 classes together and we had so much fun! And, of course, we did a swap – this time in person. How cool is that? And now that I’m back home (with one suitcase full of supplies and one full of dirty clothes still waiting to be unpacked, aiy) I can’t wait for it to be May 2010 so I can go back to fantasy land. I’m already dreaming of it…
