Workshops

Monday, April 27, 2009

A Song to Spring, Teach to Learn


What a great way to spend a gray, spring Saturday afternoon: creating Fanciful Dream Houses at Stampin' Cat Studio. Eight women came together with bright and hopeful spirits to do some artful play. They were so eager and motivated, they began creating before I had even finished telling them how to begin!



At the end of the afternoon, the women shared their creations with each other in a casual Show 'n Tell.










The women were generous with their closing comments about the class:

I liked having so many choices to personalize our projects. You were very organized and generous with the materials.

I liked having enough time to complete art and I liked having a lot of instruction.

I liked the open creativity. Dayna, thank you for all the items you provide – so many choices – so fun. Your instruction and support is wonderful, so is your encouragement. I also like the show and tell at the end.

I liked the wide variety of materials. I loved instruction being ‘as needed.” I liked the support of fellow art students. And, I liked finding something inside of myself.

Every frickin’ wonderful thing. And the water.

Dayna you shine! You made something that seemed intimidating and made it simple and so much fun. I’ll be proud to hang this where I can share it with others.

I liked the instructor’s enthusiasm, the variety of materials, and the group show and tell.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

You roll it, and pat it, and mark it with a B . . .


Thursday night was Artful Play at the Salem Art Association and we played artfully with clay, Paper Clay, a very cool medium that air dries light as a feather. During our session we made Life Plaques, little squares that represent who we are (some just made cool little tiles, but I still think they represent the person).

You know how I love hands doing art:




Here are their lovely creations (we missed you, Beth!) - oh, and we've added a clue so Destree will know which tile is Shelby's!






We had a little time to spare, so we just played until our time ran out.





Oh, and in the upcoming weeks we'll be adding paint! Watch out . . .

Transformation


Back on February 1st, I did a post entitled Forme de robe. I wrote about my idea to do a two-person swap of a simple papier-mâché dress form with my friend Vicki.



We each took a naked form and then got together later in February at Vicki's Portland place, where we exchanged our arted up forms for the first round. Here we are holding our own dress forms.


And then, me with Vicki's dress form.


Vicki's dress form nestled safely in a box of sheer fabric for the ride back to Salem.


I set about transforming Vicki's dress form with touches of me . . . and ta da! here it is transformed and ready to fly back to Vicki.





I'll be getting my own dress form back later today. I can't wait to see what Vicki did to my form . . .

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Dinky Dippinfrack Pottytush


A while back, a friend sent me one of those silly little messages that invite you to do something, which you then send back to the person sending it and to a bunch of your friends. I'm not real big on doing these pass-it-on messages, but for some reason I hung on to this one. One day when I was attempting to clean out my in-box, I ran across the message again and so I did what the directions told me to do. It only took me about one minute (yes, 60 seconds) and it made me laugh. So I'm going to share it here. But first, when I sent it out to a select group of friends, these are the names I got in return:

Dumbo Featherhump
Goober Dippenhead-Chickendoodle
Liver Gizzard
Sloopy Pottybobhump
Snooty Chucklenose
Goober Dippinfanny
Sloopy Picklehump
Goober Dippindunkin

Oh, my name is the title of this post: Dinky Dippinfrack Pottytush (translated from Dayna Davidson Collins). I thought it was so much fun, that I added in my maiden name. Pretty cool, eh?

If you want to play along, here's the key for figuring out your secret name!

1. Use the third letter of your first name to determine your New first name:

a = snickle
b = doombah
c = goober
d = cheesey
e = crusty
f = greasy
g = dumbo
h = farcus
i = dorky
j = doofus
k = funky
l = boobie
m = sleezy
n = sloopy
o = fluffy
p = stinky
q = slimy
r = dorfus
s = snooty
t = tootsie
u = dipsy
v = sneezy
w = liver
x = skippy
y = dinky
z = zippy

2. Use the second letter of your last name to determine the first half of your new last name:

a = dippin
b = feather
c = b atty
d = burger
e = chicken
f = barffy
g = lizard
h = waffle
i = farkle
j = monkey
k =flippin
l = fricken
m = bubble
n = rhino
o = potty
p = hamster
q = buckle
r = gizzard
s = lickin
t = snickle
u = chuckle
v = pickle
w = hubble
x = dingle
y = gorilla
z = girdle

3. Use the third letter of your last name to determine the second half of your new last name:

a = butt
b = boob
c = face
d = nose
e = hump
f = breath
g = pants
h = shorts
i = lips
j = honker
k = head
l = tush
m = chunks
n = dunkin
o = brains
p = biscuits
q = toes
r = doodle
s = fanny
t = sniffer
u = sprinkles
v = frack
w = squirt
x = humperdinck
y = hiney
z = juice

Thus, for example, George W. Bush's new name is: Fluffy Chucklefanny.


All this silliness was excerpted from a children's book, Captain Underpants And the Perilous Plot Professor Poopypants, by Dave Pilkey, in which the evil Professor forces everyone to assume new names...

If you decide to decode your name, send me a comment with your alias!

I thought it was a bag of feathers . . .


. . . but it was a bag of wings!


Thank you, Jami, for all the fun surprises!

Red Letter Day


Jami. Moffett. Off the Hook Studios. Jami has been cleaning out her art stupplies (meaning glorious ephemera and bits and bobs) that she has been collecting for years. She's trimming down and cleaning out, she says. She had too much. She allowed me, ME, to have first dibs before she listed her things on Craig's List. I went to her home last Friday. I'm still sorting and shuffling (I have two boxes of ephemera that Jami gave me as a gift and I haven't even touched those!). But what I bought. Oh boy oh boy oh boy. I've purchased from Jami before, back in February. If you want to see what I scored back then, just click HERE. Back to last Friday. I was so excited, I almost hyperventillated just driving to her house. I wanted to take a photo of the ATM where I picked up some cash, but I thought maybe there's a law against photographing a bank . . . so I took a picture of me driving to Jami's.



Then when I arrived, Jami guided me to the room where boxes and boxes awaited my review.




Fast forward. I've begun the process of sorting (and snapping photos). When I did my first dive into the boxes, I discovered a wacky pair of glasses. Amy, who was at the house on Friday afternoon, tried them on. And so did I.



Yes, I'm clutching my goodies. Wouldn't you?


What else was in the boxes? A LOT!


























Oh dear. I think I need a bigger house.