Something New - Monoprint Class Results

Monday night I had the opportunity to take a class with Tally Oliveau at VIVA Gallery in Sherman Oaks.


I met Tally in Juliana Coles class that was taught at Carol Parks Studio in March. Tally has a wonderful greeting card line that can be found at Whole Foods and other places. The class interested me because it was a technique class advertised as monoprint making using gelatin.



Tally is a wonderful teacher and the class proved to be both fun and informative. I met several new artists in the class including a woman who was visiting from Utah and got to re-visit with Julie Molina who I met at this year's Art Unraveled.

I didn't bring any paper to print on but found some discarded papers from the architect who rents space in the building. Tally suggested that I use that paper and really liked the results.



You can see the architectual plots peaking thru the prints I made.



Tally is into using found and natural objects and provided the class with lots of leaves, grasses, etc. to use in our monoprints.




One of the things that became problematic for me was that my gelatin began to melt and absorbed my paints. So rather than throw it away I applied paint to my paper with a brayer and stuck the leaves in the paper to get some interesting results.






This was so much fun. I will definitely try this again at home. Thanks, Tally!

Withdrawal from Art Unraveled 2008

Had an easy trip home from AU 2008 - Elvis was at the door to greet me (no...not that Elvis - my orange kitty Elvis Bear) and Vinnie (my gray boy) gave me that look - you know the one - I'm going to act blase' at your homecoming because I told you I didn't want you to go but you went anyway look - and of course the yellow duckies were just where I left them!

Elvis & Vinnie lounging





My rubber duckie collection on my bathroom window!

Will post details later but wanted to begin to update my thoughts and art work -

First a very special "thank you" to Linda Young and family for a wonderfully organized and well planned week - and once again a thank you filled with gratitude for asking me to be the keynote speaker to start things off - I enjoyed speaking and had lots of comments throughout the week that led me to believe that people were actually listening! :)

Chuck & Linda Young, Art Unraveled Creators/Producers

"Yours truly" delivering the "keynote" speech - Art Unraveled 2008 8/03/08

Had a special surprise when my name was called and announced that I won 3rd prize in the art contest - the first time I ever entered my artwork anywhere - and it was especially rewarding because it was a piece that I had created to teach in a class in LA earlier in the year - thanks so much!

Art Unraveled 2008 - 3rd Place winner - 1st panel of my 4 panel Freedom Banner

4 panel Freedom Banner - paper, acrylic crackle paint, collage, stamps, inks, ribbons - (click on photo to see close up)

2008 Art Unraveled Art Contest winners - 2nd place Cecelia, 1st place Geri and 3rd place Reva at Awards dinner

To all my new and old art friends - I send out big hugs and want you to know how much your friendship means to me - as I unwind and slip into sadness that AU is over I know that I will have many conversations with all of you until our next meeting in 2009 - the Yahoo group and our "get togethers" keep me going - I agree with all those who said they wished life could be like AU - it's nice to be in the company of like-minded talented creative folks -

Thank you to all the wonderful instructors this year - what a difficult choice to narrow down the classes I wanted to take this time - but a very special thank you to my teachers - Anne Grgich, Robin Dudley-Howes, Jane LaFazio, Carla Sonheim, Leighanna Light, Raina Gentry and Michael de Meng - it doesn't get better than that! Each class took so much planning and each was wonderful in it's own way - Most of my projects I worked on are works-in-progress (okay, I didn't finish them) but am posting them as they are today and will post them as they are completed - I did finish my work in Anne Grgich's class, Michael de Meng's and Carla Sonheim - I am very pleased with all three -

Instructor/artist Jan La Fazio - Sketch & Watercolor class

My first ever sketch and water color attempt
2nd attempt a flower from class


Robin Dudley-Howes holding finished Tassle- what I hope mine will look like one day!


The under "skirt" and base of my tassel - I painted the blank wooden cup

Outer skirt and weaving of my tassle - the weaving took forever! The underskirt and painted wooden cup are under the outer skirt -


Instructor/artists - Carla Sonheim and me - Drawing class


My first attempt at drawing class - we chose a picture from a magazine and drew it - using pencil, charcoal, and water soluble crayon - My lion -



Instructor/artists Leighanna Light and me at the end of her Metal Deck class - thanks for introducing me to metal and all the fun it holds!


These are the metal cards in my deck - I have only started with semi-completed backgrounds - next I will add the embellishments like buttons, etc that I will wire (not glue!) onto the cards


This close-up shows the blank metal card before anything has been added - the only thing done to this is that I snipped the corners to round them -



The fabulous Michael de Meng - could students and traveling be too much for him in this photo?


My assemblage (with a French accent!) piece from Michael's Outlet class - The rooster at the top I found at Hannah Grey's booth and the round letters say "Shalom"


My 'work-in-progress' from Raina Gentry's class - my first painting class

From Anne Grgich's class - can't figure out how to turn it right side up :)


A right-side up view but bottom of piece cut off in photo :)


My 2nd piece from Anne Grgich's class - love her classes!



My new friend Amy from Simi Valley and I are starting an AU art group for the LA area - we are fashioning it after the successful one in Phoenix - watch for an announcement about our first gathering here in LA -

Tomorrow I'm going with Kara and Terrill (AU friends from LA) to Pasadena to Harbor Freight to look at power tools - a phrase I never thought this "nice Jewish girl" would be uttering - but I must say I'm excited and can't wait!

Will be in touch with all those I met but for now this blog will have to do - I got home to a stack of DVDs to view for voting on the Emmy Awards - so have my work cut out for me - and will be doing some work for Shirley Jones (yes - Partridge Family Shirley Jones) who we work with regularly -

Also am offering a free tele-coaching session to anyone who attended AU - students and instructors - just e-mail me and we can set something up - am looking for a couple of full time coaching clients, so this is a good way to see if you might want to sign up - to find out more about coaching check out my Scribe Wizards website -

Stay in touch - continue to make art - and see you next year in Phoenix!