Art and Soul: In the Beginning

I guess the best place to start is with the beginning. I just returned from six days of making art, well, six days and one night. Art and Soul hit Portland with a whirlwind of artists, trades, classes, demonstrations, and art-making; and I was part of it all. I think the best way to approach the daunting task of sharing what classes I took and what I created is by doing a post for each class. But I'm going to break this rule right off the bat as I took two classes from Katie Kendrick and I'm only going to do one post.

First, a word about Katie. I've taken a couple of classes from Katie in the past so I already knew what was in store: safe, creative, fun, challenging art making. Katie is a sweet and kind woman who encourages and cheers everyone on, no matter what their art background or experience. My first class was on Wednesday, Tales from the Land of Odd. There was nothing odd about it, just the challenge to use art and images from other artists as inspiration for our own pieces.

Ready, set, go!










I then had Katie again on Friday, this time for The Enchanting Place. True confessions: Howard cut out of work and was in Portland for the day, so I got to Katie's class, splashed some paint, then during lunch, I packed up and took off. I met up with Howard and we played our way around some of our favorite places in Portland: Laughing Planet, Rebuilding Center, SCRAP, Rerun on Fremont, and lattes from Blue Gardenia (forgive me, but I'm feeling too lazy to do links to any of these places. If you are interested, just search my blog for Portland favorites - I've written about them all on several occasions).

Back to the art. Here is what I got onto my paper before I skedaddled:





Tips I learned: I learned how to use a spray bottle of alcohol to get some amazing effects with acrylic paint. I also learned some new tricks with a simple razor blade.

Another confession: I didn't finish anything in any class.