Collage Up a Storm: When To Let Go

I taught my free-spirited collage class on Wednesday night, Collage Up a Storm. It's three hours of low-key, non-threatening art making. I had six ladies sign up (with five on a waiting list! Holy Cow!) and it was a fun, spirited group. The technique I used was taken from Sally Jean Alexander's book, Pretty Little Things, and is called Abracadabra. It involves techniques and prompts from a hat (paint, smudge, text, photograph, etc.). It is a great exercise for breaking through a creative block, as an introduction to new art materials and techniques, or just as a way to have fun. I always forget how long it takes to get set up for a class, especially this one where we use so many varied and different art supplies. But by 5:30 I was ready and waiting for the first artist to walk in the door . . . .





Here are the creations the ladies made during our class. They were so beautiful and had some deep meaning for the creator.







And I'll end with a couple of comments from the ladies (my heart is going pitter patter after reading these messages):

What’s more fun than being in a space with the happy energy of people playing, the lilt of delightful music in the background, yummy eye candy all around, and letting your imagination run free. The Idiom Dictionary definition of “like a kid in a candy shop” is “A state of utter fascination, with many good or tempting things all around you." The Collage Up A Storm class experience was not only that, but also that of tasting the yummy candy too. It was much fun to experiment and play with so many products. Thank you, Dayna, for your generosity in sharing all of your goodies and giving just enough direction to get us flying on our own. Most of us clearly need to be taught how to let go and fly.

I loved this class. I like having no rules other than to just listen to you. Kind of reminded me about my two trips over to Europe when everything and everyday was planned by someone else.....all I had to do is wake-up and go for fun (it was like I was a kid again and not a Mom having to take care of everything!)....even the 2 inks in a row was fun! Thank you Dayna for doing these classes for us!