Artist Spotlight part 3: Jane LaFazio - DVD Review

I'm sitting here watching Jane's DVD "The Small Art Quilt" and can I just say this right up front? I like Jane. I wish I lived next door to Jane. There is something about her personality that comes through on the screen that makes me think she would be a LOT of fun to hang out with. She talks with her hands. Her voice is nice. Her studio, her clothes, even the stuff on her table, are visually stimulating.

In chapter one Jane takes you through the entire process of making a wool felt, journal sized quilt. She shows you how to sketch out a pattern, choose your materials, cut them, glue them, stitch them, and assemble them. She talks about her materials along the way, her design process and the "why" of the "what" she is making. She truly makes the creation of art look simple and - yes YOU CAN do it! 

Gotta say, it's making me want to make a wool felt quilt. No fraying edges to worry about - not that I actually worry about my fraying edges. I do think about whether I want them there or not and what they add to the design of the piece.

In chapter two you get to follow the creation of a painted quilt from the design process through to the finished piece. She works from a photo of her cute little kitty cat and shows you how to block out shapes and create a pattern. If you thought you needed to know how to draw before you could make a piece like this you are mistaken. Again - she shows you how easy it is.

The other techniques covered on the DVD include raw edge fabric collage, applying embellishments to your quilt, adding words, journaling for inspiration, stamping, and composition. I love the gallery section where she shows you an artwork she's made and explains the details and inspirations.

So - if you are an aspiring quilt artist - I really think you would love to own this DVD! As I mentioned, Jane is a great teacher and she generously shares a plethora of techniques and inspiration. Yup. Two thumbs up from me.

So - do you like to work small? Why? What are the advantages? Leave a comment here letting me know. You can also leave comments in the last two spotlights on Jane here, or here, and you will have a chance to win a copy of Jane's DVD. On Monday morning (early EST) I'll add up all the comments from the three spotlights and throw the total into a random number generator then announce the winner. I wish you luck! Happy creating!

Student Spotlight: Stephanie from Paducah

I always get so excited to see students happy with what they have learned in class! One of my Paducah students, Stephanie from Maryland, finished her painted/printed/beaded journal and blogged it. Pop on over and tell her how wonderful it looks!

Stephanies Journal cover from the class

Surface Design Sampler Platter
stamp carving, stenciling, screen printing, foiling, photo-transfer, beading
all in one crazy fun class!

Artist Spotlight part 2:Jane LaFazio - teaching

You all know how much I love teaching! I think that's another reason I love Jane LaFazio - she is a fantastic teacher - someone who willingly and generously shares her creativity and the joy of art! Here is part two of my interview with this lovely artist. 

Lyric: What do you gain as an artist by teaching?

Jane: On a concrete level, it keeps me making art. I’m always creating artwork to learn the process so I can then teach it to my students. I get great ideas and inspiration from what my students create, based on the so called assignment or technique I’ve shown them. And, teaching suits me. I enjoy it very much, I love to get people sharing stories and art with each other, I love to laugh, and make people laugh, I love seeing individuals access their own creativity, and I love sharing and encouraging the process of art making.

L: Tell me about the work you do a Mundo Lindo.

J: I created Mundo Lindo, a free afterschool art program for 4th and 5th grade kids in low income Escondido in 2007. It was funded by a grant for the first two years, and now the center, where the classes were held, has hired me to continue the program. For 2 hours each week, I teach about 20 kids an art project. We've painted palm husks to look like African masks, created papier mache sail boats, drawn and collage Trees of Life, woven watercolor landscapes, made Haiti House pins sell and donated the money to UNICEF for Haiti, sewn small quilts for the Dream Rocket project... wonderful fun projects that I think up each week. The arts programs in schools are nearly non existent, and I'm thrilled to be able to give these kids some creative time each week.

L: Tell me about some of the upcoming workshops you'll be doing, and where we can find out about them. 

J: My workshop page on my blog is always updated, and tells me I have a very busy summer ahead! In July, I’m teaching for the first time at Idllywild Summer Arts program, it’s a beautiful mountain community about two and half hours from LA and San Diego. I’m teaching a two day mixed media workshop on July 4 & 5 and a wet-felting workshop July 6. I'll also be teaching at the Long Beach Quilt Festival.

Another new venue for me is a Utah retreat, July 15-18. Limited to 8 students, and I’ll teach 6 hours or so each day. Should be very fun!

MIXED MEDIA Retreat
WHERE: Huntsville, Utah
WHEN: Thursday, July 15 – Sunday, July 19, 2010

Utah Retreat

So - do you love what Jane does as much as I do? Leave a comment and tell us about what you think makes a really great teacher. Have you had any fantastic experiences during a class? What was it about that teacher that really opened things up for you? Remember to leave a comment here or here to be entered to win a copy of her DVD (which I'll review next week).

Color Relationships - David Briggs

David Briggs teaches at the Julian Ashton Art School in Sydney Australia. He has put together an amazing site that helps painters and digital artists understand color in a very technical and thorough way. I've read through most of his stuff and if you are a student of color I encourage you to do so as well.

http://www.huevaluechroma.com/index.php

His explanations are very technical. I find them fascinating.

Figure 10.1. Colour relationships for a red ball on a white table.  Specular reflection on tabletop and sphere both move along lines of uniform saturation between light and dark (Principle 1). Dotted lines shows table and ball maintaining the same ratio of relative brightness in light and shadow (Principle 2). Sphere painted in Photoshop CS2.

Figure 7.4 Hand-painted colour circles from the 1708 edition  of Traite de la Peinture in Mignature, attributed to Claude Boutet, including the oldest example of the symmetrical 12-hue artists colour wheel (right). Picture Credit: Kuehni (2003)

Article: Durham's Herald Sun Newspaper

There is a very nice review of ARTQUILTSillumiations in
 Durham, North Carolina's paper on May 14th.

I was surprised to see my quilt, Soar III featured.

Local artists Jana Lankford and Jenny Williams were also interviewed and quoted.

They were two of the instrumental women, along with Ann Flaherty, that made this exhibit happen. Great job ladies!

ARTQUILTSilluminations review

ARTQUILTSilluminations

The 8th Annual PAQA-South International Juried Quilt Exhibition

at the Durham Arts Council
Allenton & Semans Galleries

March 26 – June 7, 2010

Curated by

Jan Ru Wan

Works by:

Pamela Allen

Wen Redmond

Jenny Williams/Jennifer Fouke

Laura Gaskin

Lynne Harrill

Christine Predd

Marcia DeCamp

Barbara Watler

Eileen Williams

Lyric Kinard

Cathy Kleeman

Sherry Kleinman

Gerrie Congdon

Kathleen Loomis

Denny Webster

Diane Wright

Nancy Lassiter

Debbie Langsam

Beth Carney

Janet Windsor

Gloria Hansen

Paula Swett/Cathy Stechschulte

Ann Flaherty

Jana Lankford

Sally Wright

Jeanelle McCall

Jeanette Thompson

Hsin-Chen Lin

Diane English

My personal favorites include:

Best of Show

Red Bioluminescence

by Barbara Watler

An almost monochromatic color scheme yet the value contrast makes it luminous. Those hand worked zig-zag stitches are amazing in their frenetic motion - almost shivering in your field of vision.

Sunset Composition

Gerrie Congdon

Simplicity of composition. A complementary color scheme yet no screaming loud brightness. The contrast of hand stitches next to solid machine lines.

Sticks and Stones

by Diane Wright

The beauty of the work is the the details. I love the repetition of the the stone shapes in the cloth, in the machine stitched line, in the hand worked knots. All of them work together to lead the eye on a journey as the texture draws you in.

Blinded by the Light

by Beth Carney

Line, both broken and continuous holds all of my fascination here. The dense stitching flattens out the texture of the artwork but brings a continuous vertical feeling to a rhythmically irregular piece. That and I tend to love subdued color scheme.

For Your Inspiration: Jellyfish

I am fascinated by this life form.

Affordable Memories Photography on Flickr

wire sculpture

Johnn Bine Fauvel on Etsy

Kevin Eddy on Fllickr

papercut

Foldout Cards on Etsy

Coda's Photostream on Flickr

jellyfish bustle belt

Marian Alexander on Etsy

Nurpax on Flickr

Moonbeads Glass Art on Etsy

Glass Model, Leopola Blaschka (1822-1895) 

Museum Wale's Photostream on Flickr

Jellyfish Queen

Orange Willow on Etsy

I could keep going and going and going and going.

What enchanting creatures!