Sometimes you turn around and it's there

I always tell students to put a drop cloth down when they print on fabric. 

Not because it's tidy (tho' it is) but because you'll create unexpected marks, 

and who knows where that will lead.

 The raw material for this started as the drop cloth for one piece (blue) and

the clean-up rag for a student's excess paint (red).

It hung around my studio for a long time. Then one day I was printing circles on another piece, 

and a voice said "what if?"  The results startled me. 

I hung them on my studio door and waited to figure out what next.

This piece now fills my living room window. 

It says "More please. And bigger, too."

Need Stuff?? In the Boston area?

Have you been to EXCL? Non-profit and membership-based, EXCL (Extras for Creative Learning) is dedicated creative reuse.  It  warehouses castoffs from local businesses, and makes them available to anyone who sees their potential.  EXCL is a gift for teachers and artists.

They need your support to stay in business.

I cannot tell you how much wonderful stuff I've hauled home from there:  fabric, paper, stationery, office supplies, wood, tile. And then there's the cool stuff, like pipettes and wheeled tables.

 Saturday April 21 try out ExCL for the day; $20 per person. 

All materials that are free for members will be available for you. This offer is for Saturday ONLY. We are not issuing passes that can be used on another day.

email Jodi with questions

Pass on this info to all your mixed media friends, art teachers, and lovers of things to collect and create with.  Happy art making.

Reflections

 I live near Fresh Pond, a wildlife refuge disguised as a reservoir, a hidden green-blue gem at the border of two towns. We can just see it from our house, past the houses and beyond the main road to the suburbs.

This piece was an attempt to explore reflection of trees at the edge of the water. We think we know what that looks like, but it changes minutely with the seasons, the light, the wind, the time of day.

 

Laraine Armenti's post  today reminds me that more than one approach, more than one piece, is the path into an idea. Time to work.

art with Alzheiemr's patients

Every two weeks I lead a watercolor class for Alzheimer's patients.

  

Every class starts with loss, disorientation.

Then, gradually, focus displaces doubt.

 Color appears on the page.

An hour becomes timeless, the minutes

articulated by mystery 

and the eternal surprise of creation.

Thermofax Workshop

 Six students and I gathered at Lowell Fiber Studio this past Sunday to print with Thermofax screens. The class included artists Linda Germain and Deb Dugan, 
along with a Bard student and fiber artists from Lowell, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

Once you start, the Thermofax printing moves fast. 

You need to keep moving and respond to what happens on the cloth.

These students embraced the challenge. 

 Everyone produced beautiful samples.

You could see ideas generating more ideas.

No one wanted to stop, not even for lunch.

All my life I've heard teachers say how much their students teach them.

It's true. 

This Sunday was another amazing group of talented people. 

I'm so glad they took the leap and came to work with me.