It’s a wrap, folks! Thank you for keeping me company each week, as I plotted out my artist life amidst a new city, with plenty of visits to the former one.
Viewing
This week in Seattle, I caught my last First Thursday of the year. Dodi Fredericks had beautifully quiet watercolors at Shift, and around the corner, Teresa Getty had another version of quiet that jumped off the wall at me.
I enjoyed digging into Teresa’s process in making this piece, and catching up with her hallmates Sara Everett and Paul D. McKee — what a warm welcome!
Meetings & Making
Another goal for my time in Seattle was to keep my studio mate Joan Bazaz company during her annual holiday open studio. For me, that meant lots of art time, with lots of company — perfect! I tried that trick of working on 4 pieces at once, interspersed with making little gift tags, when I needed a break from unresolved compositions.
Here are two sets of four innocent collages from my working stack, subjected to gobs of dark paint.
Once they dried, I enjoyed added colored pencil and collage to relieve the dark sections.
Now, I’ve got 8 reworked pieces, wildly different than before. This process holds a lot of promise. What if I tried the same thing with digital work? I had a few stabs at it:
Really, I only worked on the last 2 versions this week, but found prior iterations of the same piece, so I threw them in for fun. Some days, I’m fine with NOT saving copies of each attempt!
Up Next
It’s time to look back over the year — good thing I wrote it all down! — and see what I want to tweak for next year. Something I’ve been eyeing, an art support community, NetVvrk, looks particularly good for next year. They have a lot of community & curriculum for reviewing both my art and my presentation of it, and I’m looking forward to learning & sharing on their site.
Then, as I caught up on my Instagram feed, I saw a call from Linda Plaisted, an artist I’ve long admired and followed. She was proposing shared online studio time, something I’ve really appreciated over the last few years. I’m looking forward to working in the same space as someone I’ve learned so much from.
And of course, this project is done, so I’ll be back to topic-based posts here, as themes arise. I look forward to pushing in a few new directions with my art, continuing to extend my community, and hopefully, staying in touch with you! How does your year look, in review?