FOR PAULA AND CHIC

Last Sunday as I was preparing to send an altered book for an altered book exchange/round robin, I decided for a number of reasons, that I would dedicate this book to my dear departed friend and artistic mentor, Paula Schaefer. The image that you see above is a portion of one of her many beautiful ceramic pieces. My husband and I discussed the fact that it had been far too long since we had seen Chic. her husband, and we were going to call him and make it a point to get together. Bob and Paula had initially worked together at a mental health program (she was the art therapist). We were married in their beautiful back yard. They were like second parents.

I was called yesterday morning, by another dear old friend, only to be told that Chic had passed away last Sunday (the very same day we discussed calling him and I was dedicating my book). Needless to say, we were very sad. Sad for the loss and sad for the fact that we hadn't called sooner. I will miss them both now.


-Chic with my son Daniel-



-Paula in a clay workshop we did together-




The above was the wedding cake that Paula helped me make for my wedding party. We made each letter a different flavor in a rectangular pan. After it was baked we cut out the letters and then iced it (we had a little help with that part). It was beautiful....

FROZEN IN TIME-Betye Saar

Last year, the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, had a retrospective of Betye Saar. I wanted to share her work with those of you that are not familiar with her. Anytime I see anything that has the key words "assemblage", "found objects", "mysticism" and "inspirational" I am immediately interested. This exhibit called "Frozen in Time" , was dedicated to her work with photographs, specifically.

The fact that she was born in 1926 and has been creating these works since the "60's is amazing to me. I find her use of color and materials to be extraordinary. Her inspiration stems from both social and political movements, popular culture and personal memories.

FOUND IN PORTUGAL

It has taken me awhile to discover that old postcards are the best thing to bring home from my travels. Not only are they beautiful to look at, weigh next to nothing, fit almost anywhere.....but, the hunt.....that's the best part. Searching out those old musty places that sell.......OLD STUFF. In Portugal, apparently it's called "brik a brac". Everytime I found a place that looked enticing, I'd point and ask "how do you say that in Portugese?" and that is the answer I got.

These colorful beauties are from a little old book shop in Porto on the Rue Das Flores called Chamine da Mota. One is postmarked 1907. I have no clue what I will do with them........yet. I like looking at the colors and the expressions on the faces.

I ran into this quote today that I found amusing.

"When I was a child, my mother said to me 'if you become a soldier, you will become a general'.' If you become a monk, then you will end up as Pope'. Instead, I became a painter.......and wound up as Picasso". -Pablo Picasso

PORTUGAL-DISCOVERED

I spent the last week visiting Portugal. My husband and I have been lucky enough to be offered trips like this through our business. I must admit, it was not on my list of "1000 places to visit before I die".....but when opportunity knocks....

Impressions- A language that would take me a lifetime to learn....nothing like I've ever heard, most likely a mixture of the many places that Portugal conquered centuries ago. ........great seafood, duh, it's on the ocean....speaking of which, I can't tell you how many people (smart ones, at that) that were confused as to where Portugal is actually located. I told our great guide, Margarida, that they need a major promotional department..........GREAT PASTRIES........an incredible mixture of styles and cultures.......art and architecture that I would like to see restored, PLEASE........good road system....beautiful wine country outside of Porto, where they grow grapes to make......TA DA...Port wine....yes, that's where it comes from....lot's of blue tile mosaics and majolica.....
.



One of our favorite places was outside of Lisbon called Sintra and the castle there called Palacio de Pena. Your fairy tale castle comes to life. Built in the 19th century over an old 15th century monastery...which in turn was built over another religious site....incredible "karma".




Oh....and I found Prince Charming.


....who then wisked me off to Cabo de Roca, the western most point of continental Europe.




The wine country of the Douro River Valley.....




Life is just a bowl of...fresh picked roadside cherries.

EXPERIENCE AND MEDITATION

"The human mind cannot create anything. It produces nothing until after having been fertilized by experience and meditation; it's acquisitions are the gems of it's production," de Buffon


This week will be time for me to experience and meditate. ....ooommmmmm

OOPS!

There is something going on with blogger. There was only supposed to be one goup photo in the last post and now I can't post any.....oh well.

ONE YEAR AGO TODAY

Ok, so my original plan was to post what is happening in my garden. It's spring here in the northeastern US and everything is alive!!!.....but, I went to visit my friend Judys' blog, Red Velvet, and I saw her reference to last year at this time. ITALY!!!! What a wonderful experience that was.


My dear friend Jerri and I traveled to Venice for 3 days and then took the train to Cortona for a week long workshop with Michael demeng (that's me on the right, slightly windblown but ecstatic and Jerri on the left.......also windblown and ecstatic). The workshop was full of great people.....many interesting stories.....to many to tell, I assure you.



Top row from left to right, Karla, Judy, Michael, Jerri....bottom left to right, Joy, yours truely and Kathryn. There were others as well.

Our first creative project was to drink alot of wine.......and then.....tada!!!! MAKE A WINE BOTTLE SHRINE. I don't remember which was more fun.

That's me working on mine, absolutely at one with the universe. Check out the Tuscan hills out the window. Every once in awhile I would say "reality check" and everyone would look out the window, just to see that "we weren't in Kansas anymore Toto".



That is the finished wine shrine after it had been shipped home...in one piece, I might add.
We ended our trip by visiting Rome for 3 days.
These memories will never fade and the friendships that developed are priceless.

Blogger was not letting me preview so I apologize if this doesn't make sense. CIAO!!!

EXAUSTED, BUT HAPPY

I returned from Art and Soul yesterday evening. It's amazing how "high" you are when you are there and creating and discussing and meeting people and ........on and on. Now I need a good week at a spa to recover....meditate, eat healthfully...relax......but, it's back to work!!

My first workshop was with Stephanie Lee. The most useful info that I came away with was mold making. I'm not sure how much I will use some of the other plaster techniques in my work , but I loved playing with it . I manipulated some plaster onto the boards that she provided and created textures and then attached some pieces that I made out of plaster with her mold making techniques.




The next two days were spent with Keith Lo Bue. The first day was mind bending. We were told to go on a quick found object expedition. Next we had to pick any three things we had for a sharing table and then these items were given out by number. Our assignment was to take one object from our outdoor walk, one from the share table and one of any item that we brought with us and put them together (without glue) into a "wearable object. What a thought provoking assignment that was. Unfortunately, I lost the use of my camera and had to use my friend Jerris. She has the photos, so I will post them at a later time.

The second day was spent learning various tool and attachment techniques. It was not much of a "product" oriented class but I learned alot.

Sunday and Monday were purely "deMengian".( Yes, Judy....soon you'll have your turn!)! Even though I did the Cortona workshop, I find working in a Michael demeng workshop to be so inspirational that I doubt you can take too many. Not only do you learn so much from him, but I find that most of the people in the workshops have so much to offer as well.

SODA POP ICONS..............





VOODOO DODAD DOLLS........






See if you can find some of the objects in my previous post in these pieces. I was very happy to transform the brushes into voodoo dolls. Constance, no one would let me transform the brush you gave me. They thought it was too special.

EXTREME MAKEOVER

It was difficult to come up with the best word to describe this entry. I realized though, this weekend, our store will be featured on the ABC show "Extreme Makeover-Home Edition. If you are not familiar with the concept, ABC finds a family in need.... They tear down their exisiting home and build them a complete new one from soup to nuts. This weeks show was in the Philadelphia area. We provided whole house wiring, a TV and a complete music system and the people to build and install everything. It was a "win-win" situation. The family is thrilled and our staff had an amazing team building experience in helping someone in need.

Why am I telling you this?......you may be asking yourself....well...I am headed to Art and Soul this morning and have decided to show you the "before" shots of many of the items I will be doing an "extreme makeover" on, at my workshops.




I will be returning next Wednesday. I hope to have some new things to post then. Have a great week!!!!

LOVE THIS WORK

So I found a great new place to purchase mosaic supplies www.cyclopstile.com. A friend told me to try it. As usual, I start wandering. I, of course ,checked out their gallery of artists and found the work of Patricia Helsing.

She is a painter, who is new to mosaics. Well......I just had to share. Her paintings are inspired by various other artists and then she builds a frame of found objects around the painting. Her mosaics are incredible!

Her website link is in my sidebar.....with her permission. Enjoy!

Meanwhile....I think I know where the term ...."back to the drawing board" comes from.

TIME ON MY HANDS

OK..so I'm still stuck at home, coughing and sniffling. I thought I'd throw in a shot of the beach in Cabo and think about how warm, dry and sunny it was. I love the starkness of the desert (of course, they've thrown a few golf courses in, that you can see off in the distance) against the fabulous blue water in the Sea of Cortez.

As an added bonus, I thought I'd show you some of the jewelry I've made. A little history.....a few years ago, I broke my shoulder skiing and couldn't paint or do much else with my hand and arm. A friend who also paints hurt her shoulder as well. A few friends would get together and draw or paint once in awhile and she showed up one day with a box of beads because she couldn't hold a paint brush for very long........I'm trying to make the story short here...but......I fell in love with beads. Putting the colors, textures, sizes and whatever else together,was very much like painting. The one thing I have a problem with though, is not actually making the beads themselves. Somehow it was difficult for me to think I was actually "creating" something if I wasn't making every part of it. I tried fusing glass beads....didn't like how they turned out. I love lampworked beads, but don't actually like to do the lampworking myself.

I ended up doing some jewelry shows and also had my work in The Liberty Museum in Philadelphia and a gallery and sold quite a few pieces. I haven't done much with it lately. These are some pieces that I still have. I will be taking a workshop with Keith Lo Bue in a few weeks and perhaps I will be inspired to create some "found object" jewelry.......we'll see.

SCENES (SCENE, SEEN) FROM MEXICO

>



So, this pretty much says it all.......no, not really. But this is the extent of my purchases. Two bottles of excellent Tequila and now that I have a better understanding of Dia de los Muertes (thanks demeng!) a commemorative statue.

My husband and I had an awesome time. I came home with some sort of upper resperatory bug...cough, cough...but that gives me some time to catch up on....what else?....my new adiction, blogging.

A few business meetings....4 rounds of golf (yes, I know it seems a bit odd) Bob and I started together about 7 years ago on a trip to Jamaica (an all-inclusive resort). We were bored one afternoon and decided to give the stupid game a shot. Well...we were lucky enough to have the "Bob Marley" of golf instructors....need I say more. Anyway......if you consider it more of a board (not "bored") game, like chess, where you strategically move your piece (ball) from one place to the next, in the least amount of moves....not a sport to get excersise....it becomes more fun. In the tournament we played this trip I won longest womens drive and closest to the pin....woohoo. ENOUGH ABOUT GOLF

It was difficult finding "found objects" on this trip. They keep the area , Los Cabos, pretty clean. I was able to find a few things, though.


Much of it I found on the beach. Driftwood, seaglass (love it Judy!!!), a piece of crab shell, the top of a beer can, a mule bit and a big old rusty key.

I prefer San Jose del Cabo (still a quaint old Mexican town) to Cabo San Lucas (where you can dance drunk with a chicken and buy a tee shirt). San Jose has an "art walk" every Thursday evening. All of the galleries and restaurants in town are open serving all kinds of food and drink. They have a pretty good gallery scene there.

Here are a few teasers til next time.....gotta go take my medicine.

I love faces.