Artfest - what an absolutely incredible experience. It was like summer camp for adults. Honestly, how can you not be creative when you wake up to views like this each morning? Artfest was held at Fort Worden right next to Port Townsend, WA. It's a popular event - 500 people in attendence. Mostly women, but a few men sprinkled in the mix. I stayed in the dorm, which is actually the old army barracks. VERY primitive accommodations. I shared a bunk room with three other women and a communal bathroom with the rest of the occupants on our floor. We had one electrical outlet for charging cell phones and drying our hair.
The first day I took a class from Orly Avineri called, "A Deck of Roses." I started out by applying white and black gesso and pink, blue, and yellow inks to a huge sheet of watercolor paper. Then we learned multiple ways to apply rose images to our backgrounds - stenciling, stamping, applique, etc. We even made roses from torn bits of painters tape (top left corner). Then we tore the whole thing apart to make our "deck of cards." We learned to colorize a rose pencil sketch by wetting individual petals and dropping ink along the inner edges. I'm anxious to try this technique over again, but with a more diluted ink.
The second day I took a class from Roxanne Padgett (my favorite) called, "Mixed Media Portraits." First we learned the proper proportions to draw a face; then we threw everything out the window and made blind contour drawings (drawing a face without lifting the pencil from the paper). Then we really went to town with our mixed media techniques. I started with a printed piece of fabric, applied gesso and acrylic paint, collaged on some vintage ephemera and an old sewing pattern, did a crayon rubbing and some stenciling (the shirt), stamped the border, appliqued the nose and the collar, outline-stitched the entire face with a sewing machine, and then applied the left earring (it's a metal gromet). My head was spinning by the end of this class, but I had a ball.
The third day I took a class from Michael deMeng called, "Lonely Hearts." This was a 3-D assemblage class. I made my heart out of apoxy clay, and embellished it with red LEDs, resistors, metal tacks, and a big rhinestone button from an old sweater. The little box is actually wood, but we learned how to make it look corroded by smearing on bathtub caulk and then heating it up with a blow torch. Who knew all those years of house renovation would lead to an art project??? (Side comment: At the airport, my suitcase was flagged by TSA for inspection, and I have to wonder if this little gadget looked like a bomb on the X-ray scanners.) All in all, it was a great event and hopefully I'll get a chance to do it again some time.
