The Art of Assemblage - click on picture for a larger view

When Kay Klose the Curator of two Spirits gallery bought my Frida Assemblage she asked me if I would be receptive to teaching assemblage art. Well it's just like me to jump in with both feet so I said great! I love to make assemblage art and I love to teach creative people what I know about my craft. I will be teaching the art of assemblage at the Two Spirits Gallery in Anchorage. This is an opportunity to do a little art therapy, one of the art fields I would love to learn more about. One of my biggest frustrations or should I say challenges is to create art that inspires me, or makes me think outside the box, or is beyond my comfort zone in some aspects (that way I learn) vs painting the things I think people will want to buy.

Assemblage art is a non-conventional art form using found objects. Based on the artists personal vision the objects are imbibed with new meanings and associations sometimes telling a story and sometimes unearthing feelings that need to see the light of day.

I enjoy workshops for that reason it's just a chance to play again ,mingle with creative people and make a piece of artwork that it uniquely one-of-a-kind.

To make it more affordable the class is $35.00.

Presenting My Slide Show of Costa Rica in no particular order

snowbirds; a person or persons who vacations in or moves to a warmer climate during cold weather.
It's too late to stuff the genie back in the bottle, we've had a taste of the snowbird lifestyle and want more.

The End of The Day

We've been back to my home over two weeks now and we are getting back into our routines.We are restored and renewed with our priorities back in balance. Peter and I are walking every morning and eating a more heathful diet. The added benefit is my creative juices are flowing! I've noticed my art work going through a metamorphosis. The raven triptych that I am working on is going to be outstanding! I am making it for a juried raven show at the Madd Matters Gallery in Palmer. It is the story of how the raven steals the light. Pictures and info about the show to follow.

With my computer woes I haven't been able to download my photos, do my taxes any of the hundreds of things that I use this tool we call a PC everyday. It's been annoying but now I am up and running. Oh except Photo Shop and that's still a pain in the ass.

Here is a short video of the sunset on the OSA Peninsula is was the last light on a beautiful hot Costa Rican day. We had hiked in the Corcovado National Park saw macaws, monkeys, raccoon like creatures with long anteater snouts. If I could only use Photoshop I'd make you a slide show perhaps I can figure something out soon. We did get some good pictures really....my holiday is slowly becoming yesterdays news. I want my slide show now so you can see it.

Gurrrrr its business as usual and my main computer is on the fritz.

It's hard to come back from a month of holiday in paradise and have to do crappy things like taxes.

My taxes are reaching the deadline and my computer is still out-of-service and needs a new hardrive. My techies ordered it last Friday and said it would be arrive the next day. Yea Right sure. April 15 is fast approaching and I have done nothing to get my taxes done. I guess I could sort receipts or something.

A phone call just came and my techies said the part came at 5:30 and the computer will be ready in the early afternoon. YAY I can do my taxes. If I had the money and I wasn't basically cheap I'd take them to H&R Blockhead and save myself the aggravation

I did start two new paintings today; St Jude the patron saint of hopeless cases and artists
and a raven with the northern lights (a painting that usually sells). Tomorrow I'm going to some art shows and Sunday is Easter so taxes will have to wait until Monday. Hows that for procrastinating and waiting until the last minute?

I'd rather be painting and playing.

Home at Last

We enjoyed Seattle after all saw Pikes Market, looked at art galleries and just soaked in the city. City life is where P and I disagree, I can see myself living in a big city like San Fran, New York, or Paris drinking coffee at Starbucks, shopping at the farmers markets, going to art openings, feeding the pigeons with a good book, jogging in the park, it's a total romantic fantasy.

I made a commitment to work in the gallery in Girdwood so a day after I got home I had to drive 2 hours up and 2 hours back for two days in a row. God I'm tired!
To complicate things my computer took a dump and froze up! Josh my techie said the hard drive is broken, but not to worry all my info is being backed up. This means that i cannot download all my photographs from Costa Rica which is frustrating I wanted to look at them by now and make a cool slide show for my blog. Oh well trankilo baby.

This vacation was good for my soul and it helped us to get things sorted out, rekindle our marriage and get our priorities sorted out. We had so many adventures and funny coincidences and met hundreds of cool people like Marty from Fairfax, CA, Adrian from Ecuador, Dan from Florida even Tom from Kodiak Island, Alaska whose mother Doris is my very eccentric (crazy) neighbor. The world is a small place after all and we should all take better care of her, ourselves and each other. We waste way, way too much paper in this country not to mention everything else we consume it's just not necessary.

This little old Dell laptop computer is a total pain so I'll keep it short aqnd blog again when I am rested.
Tired in Alaska