I just came back from Artfest - an artists' retreat at the tip of the Olympic Peninsula in Port Townsend, WA. It's actually held at Fort Warden, an old military post that has been turned into a state park. Since this was the last Artfest, I hit the ground running, taking 3 different classes on 3 different days, and then attending all the night time functions. I flew into Seattle on Wednesday, and then took the shuttle with about 30 other people to the fort. I stayed in a quad bunk room in the old barracks - luckily I had 3 really great roommates who went to bed at the same time and didn't snore. On Thursday I took a class called
Visual Memoir with Photos by Erin Faith Allen. The teacher flew in all the way from England to teach at Artfest (she's originally from L.A.). She was a really nice person - very friendly. My piece turned out a little on the weird side, because I took pictures from magazines rather than personal photos of family, plus I was a little too heavy-handed on the white paint, so everything looks a little washed out. We were supposed to let the photo speak to us, but I don't think mine was saying much.
On Thursday night, we went to a journaling party and a bonfire on the beach. That was really fun - probably my favorite night time activity. They had a belly dancer and a country western band as entertainment at the journaling party. Sounds strange, but it seemed to work, especially when accompanied by a beer or glass of wine.
On Friday, I took a class called
Shine On by Lynn Perrella. She was a fairly strict task master, but I guess you'd have to be in order for us to get anywhere near finished. This piece was 20" x 36". I'm not used to working on something nearly that large. I only had smaller brushes with me, so I ended up using my fingers in order to get the paint spread around the entire piece (it's Leonardo da Vinci). You can't even begin to realize the depth of this piece from the photo, but trust me, it's got tons of layers (lots of background images of his inventions). By the end of the day, I was exhausted, covered in paint, and I felt like this doll done by a girl in another class. She's called
Steampunk Sally (the doll, not the girl).
On Saturday, I took a class called
Collection or Obsession by Roxanne Padgett. I took a class from her last year and really enjoyed it, so I thought I'd try another. I wasn't disappointed. She gives so much information in such a short time. We made this beautiful journal. It's all done in neutrals with just a pop of red here and there. I didn't finish sewing in all 9 signatures, nor did I get time to string all the beads and baubles I made for it out of Sculpey clay (yes, I made all those embellishments by hand - I told you Roxanne was good). On Saturday night, we had a Show-n-Tell gallery night. It was fun seeing what people made in all the other classes. But this was the last Artfest. Teesha Moore, the organizer, is moving onto other things - what, we don't know, but she assures us it will be something fun. We'll see.
