Finishing Work

                                                                                                
I thought it was important to include my finished piece along with all of the others that I posted from Michael deMeng's workshop last Saturday.  I had heard that my dear auntie was dying and I needed a way to honor her presence in my childhood.  She was an extraordinary character, and we all loved her very much. I briefly shared at the workshop that my childhood at her house was filled with ponies and baby raccoons and ducks and chickens, and of course, dogs and cats.  It was a beautiful little Victorian with a full porch and a weeping willow on the front lawn (hence, my pup's name: Willow).  Gladys Chadbourne died today at age 84.  She will be missed.

CAVE OF PAGES with Michael deMeng at Zinnia

I have promised to be a bit more consistent with postings on this BLOG project, so since I shot a number of photos after working with Michael yesterday at Zinnia, I decided that this was a good place to share them.  This is the second time I have taken a workshop with Michael, and I am always struck by his mad, little professor mentality at resolving visual problems, creating new ideas, and using materials that are not traditional adhesives/products.  Although I have never been truly competent at manly power tools, he seems to overlook that flaw and indulges me when I need to insert a found stick through a riding boot to attach a cat skull, or to drill through a wooden block on which to place a nest and a maternal figure!

The Cave of Pages concept is very similar to many of his assemblage ideas, except that it focuses more on the "tunnel effect."  It reminded me several times of teaching the traditional Victorian tunnel book to high school students.  I was pleased visually when I noticed that a few students had placed their focal point on the next-to-the-last layer (as opposed to the very last "page"), so that the image created a shadow, thus implying deeper space behind that focal point.  I will try and post enough samples so that you can see that for yourself.

Because I have supported and held an informal "critique" time with my students at the completion of their work, I want to note an important quality of Michael's critiques.  Yesterday I had an "ah-ha!" feeling in my heart that made me want to say aloud, "You do good things for people, Michael, and that makes my heart happy."  He has a special way of pointing out specific details on each piece that educates, informs, honors, and appreciates each person's work.  Whether the artist made the decision consciously, or not, Michael highlights that visual choice and explains why it is successful.  He is able to say, for example, "This is clearly not my palette, but look at how successful it is with her choice of objects, and the way in which she distributed them across the visual field." I think every single student walks away with a good feeling.  I think that he encourages and supports creativity in a very personal way that is real and tangible.  I think some people are inherently good teachers.  Michael deMeng has no choice, really.....the gods of creativity touched him with their magic goop and sent him out in the world to create order out of madness with materials that a semi-normal person would declare as junk (I know no such people, of course).

Thank you to Michael for another inspiring workshop, and to all of the students that participated in such an industrious, creative day.  As always, I am grateful, and my heart is full.

P.S. ...and now you can see I have NO idea how to control the lay-out of these images with text in this blog world!! :/  I have tried 100 times, and ???

Rebecca's Gift

While thinking about former models I had designed for student projects, I was reminded of a middle school class I had taught several years ago when a high school student posted her most recent drawing on my Facebook wall for my input.  I thought, "Hmmmm.....Rebecca was in that class....what are the chances of her still having a little book she made when she was 12 or 13 years old?" 

SO I dared to ask her if she remembered that project, and to my surprise, a photo of the book appeared on my "wall" within seconds!! Is that an amazing gift?  Not only did she save it, but she knew exactly where it was, shot the photo with her cell phone, and I had it in record time.

Here is the photo Rebecca sent. As you can see, it is a flag book with her self-portrait, and when opened, the flags spread apart to reveal her art work.

It is evident that teaching visual arts is a miraculous experience!