Part III: Road Trip - Art Classes

Art classes! I took two and a half. I figured as long as I was traveling 2,000 miles to an art retreat, I might as well sign up for a couple of classes. I took two full day classes and one evening class at the last minute. I took two classes from Serena Barton, a favorite teacher, and one from Jane Davies, a teacher I've been wanting to take a class from. Win. Win. Win.

JANE DAVIES: Abstract Landscapes - Exploring Color and Composition

Serena Barton: Papers Wabi Sabi

Serena Barton: Landscape of Dreams

Beneath the Surace - Searching For Memory: The Opening Reception

Thursday night was a RED LETTER day. It was the opening reception of my solo show, Beneath the Surface: Searching For Memory, in the Feature Area of  Guardino Gallery in Portland. Thirty pieces of my art were hung on Tuesday and Thursday night was the party. I had such a tremendous turnout that I'm still a bit verklempt. It sort of felt like an episode of This Is Your Life. Friends I went to high school with attended, members of my Salem Art Group, Portland Art Collective, and Lunaria Gallery all attended. So did friends from long ago and new friends from Facebook. Boating friends surprised me as did family members. Artist friends, former art teachers, and fellow artist classmates all came to support and cheer me on. It was truly a grand night. If you want to see dozens of photos of who all attended the party, you ca head to my art Facebook page:
Dayna J. Collins/Alley Art Studio. In the meantime, here's a glimpse of the night.

A sampling of the thirty:

Beneath the Surface - Searching For Memory: The Hanging

My solo show at Guardino Gallery, Beneath the Surface: Searching For Memory, was hung last Tuesday. Gratefully, my posse was with me and actually did most of the work. Stephanie, Tory, and gallery owner Donna all pitched in to make decisions about what and where to hang my 30 pieces of art (and then did the hanging!). Donna's son Galen helped with all the title cards and hanging a grid of 8x8s. It was a surreal day to see my art go up on the walls. When I left at the end of the day, four pieces had already sold!

Sacred Scraps: An Exhibition

I had this wild idea that it would be fun to bring a group of my assemblage artist friends together for an exhibit where we would share how we use old discarded items and found objects to make our art. The artists I invited were Stephanie Brockway, Tory Brokenshire, Shelly Caldwell, Jennifer Campbell . . . . and me. The result of our union is Sacred Scraps, which opened Friday night at Willamette University on the second floor of the Hatfield Library.

Here we are on Friday afternoon, happy and satisfied with our exhibit.

 

THE SET UP

Let me back up a bit to Friday morning when we all arrived on campus and used library book carts to tote our precious junk into the library (and Tory toted her famous deviled eggs). .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE RECEPTION

We hosted a reception on Friday.During the reception, two ot our artists, Tory and Shelly, offered demonstrations on how they make their art.

 

 

 

In addition to the demos, three of the artists (Tory, Steph, and Dayna) provided art for giveaways every 30 minutes. We had some pretty happy winners!

 

 

 

 

 

The reception itself was pretty darn sweet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The exhibit runs through the end of February and anyone can visit during the library's public hours (which are posted on the library's website).