After ArtFest…

I’ve been home a week and feel all the incredible energy slipping away. The dogs have taken me back as their mom. Mocha took several days to re-adjust. She was seemingly depressed at my leaving. Her energy levels have decreased. What a difference a week can make.

Class 1 taught by Melissa Manley.

The first class really opened my mind to new sculptural possibilities. Who would think Hog Gut could be so much fun! Paper could also be substituted in place of the stinky mess (a bucket of pig intestines looks remarkably like a mass of tape worms!). If you can put that all aside, the translucent qualities are fascinating.

So here is the front of the bug creation. Rebar wire rusts quickly after application of salty intestines! Eyes are stone beads.

Left side view….

You can see the armature of wire under the gut. I used 19g, 22g and 24guage rebar wire.

This was my spiral test pod for figuring out how to lay the covering. I also inserted small stones and sea glass to test durability.

Class 2: Abstracts by Mary Beth Shaw

This class was totally out of my normal comfort zone.

We started with 4 clayboards arranged as a single square piece and drew random lines.  Next we carved, textured and colaged over the surface. After that, we applied chalk pastels and matt media. This class was about building up many layers over the clayboard. Once the pastels were to our liking, we moved onto fluid and airbrush acrylics.  Here are my results.