Art Candy

Budding Artists

I have been teaching art camps this summer for the under 12 set and have had a blast. My children have had the option to jump in and make art all summer too. My first camp was called Mix it Up and was a mixed media camp where we tried everything from painting to sculpture. My current camp is a painting camp which we are currently at the half way mark. I love watching kids create. They never over think anything(unlike most adults, me included).

Video Killed the Radio Star

Okay, so I'm not on the radio but I am in a video segment! One of five that will air on local cable channel 6 in August detailing artists in the Northrup King Building in north east Minneapolis! I was filmed for an hour in my studio a couple of weeks ago and they managed to cut down my ramblings to a five minute piece that I thought I would share.

Escapist Art

I have been splitting time between working in my studio and at home now that the kids are off for the summer. Things are pretty busy with soccer games, music lessons and not to mention art fairs. I have been indulging in a few forms of escapist luxury- one being the always gratifying junk food novel and the other the escapist painting. I have been forced to work on my kitchen table to finish some paintings when I don't have time to make the trek to the studio. I have been working on this lady in a red dress. The painting makes me think of biking to the beach or picnicing near wild flowers in California.

Bird is the Word

The economy has made the art fair season slow going this year. One can really see the influence of the recession on spending habits. It has definitely made me think more creatively about how to offer high quality art at an affordable price. A few years ago I created a mixed media series of smaller canvases so I thought that I might go back to that model this year and create some mini 10 inch square, framed pastel drawings. Mini is not usually a word in my drawing vocabulary- my motto is usually go big or go home! But, big is not in the budget for most people so mini is the word of the day. In many of my larger paintings one can usually spot a bird or an animal of some sort so I thought that the focus of my first series of minis would be birds in all of their playful, whimsical glory. I'm planning on having the first set of six available at my next open studio July 2.