Sharing the art...

This has been a remarkable February.

Me in my work apron showing off my painted boots!

Not only are we having a string of ABOVE average (like WAY above) temperature days we are gearing up for what surely awaits in PAY BACK for we are in the heart of winter. 

As a winter person, I can only hope!!

Last weekend was also an extraordinary extension of my life as an artist.

Friday evening as part of Madison and Main's participation in downtown Greeley's "First Friday - Night of Art," I was invited to do an artist's demonstration on creating fused glass jewelry.  I couldn't resist saying, YES!

Set up near the front entrance of the gallery I set up my table with glass.

I haven't ever done an artist's demonstration before.  I've talked about it (a lot) and exhibited other types of art, but never fused glass.

To make it fun, I ordered some sample packets of new dichroic glass and created cabochons to use as examples of what results from what glass combinations.

I'm always surprised at the results I get so it was fun to share my astonishment with guests to the gallery that night.

Honestly, never participating in a "First Friday" event other than as a guest artist I didn't know what to expect as far as turnout was concerned.  I foolishly had the idea that I would be sitting by myself creating pieces to put into my kiln when I got home.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  This photo that Ken took is the only moment I had to cut glass the entire evening!

I thought I would have lots of empty time in
which to create glass to fire later but I was wrong.

I am a student of glass.  Even though I've been creating fused glass work for 10 years (can it be so?) I am continually amazed and usually delighted at the integral part that the kiln plays in the creation of each piece.  

Whenever I feel the slightest bit superior in thinking that I must surely know what I'm doing by now, the kiln is terrific at reminding me that it is THE KILN that adds the magic through heat.  IT always has the final word--regardless of how much I think I might know that day.

Still, I tried to share what I DID know in my demo. It was great fun to share my examples and have people hold the glass to feel the differences that heat levels can produce.

I also enjoyed meeting other glass artists and sharing our glass stories as well as learning about suppliers in this area.  As a relative newcomer, I always appreciate the research and endorsements of other artists.

Sharing examples of glass to see origins and results.

 I am delighted to also share with you that Madison and Main has extended an invitation to me to join the gallery.  I will be part of the next two exhibits as a guest artist but my fused glass will be a consistent feature in the gallery now.  Woo-hoo!!!

My fused glass jewelry will now be a consistent display in the Madison and Main Gallery.

The next day, another sunny 68 degree winter day with perfect bluebird skies, I conducted a workshop on creating "found art" at the Art & Heritage Center in Windsor.  Keep in mind that I knew "winter weather" like this was likely to influence how many people opted to spend it inside creating art!!

Hearty souls willing to deprive themselves of a near 70 degree day
in order to create art. (God love us!) 

To my grateful surprise we actually attracted a few "art-willing" folks to our workshop and spent a merry afternoon together enjoying the shared process of creating art from "found" ingredients.

For those of you who might not be familiar with the term, "found art" refers to basically anything that one chooses to use in an unexpected way. 

Kali Dhayatkar, Museum Educator,
creates her own "found art" work.

Kali, the Museum Educator and coordinator for our workshop, was amazing in collecting a wide assortment of objects for our art.  Assisted by Caitlin Heusser, Museum Curator, we had sticks, twigs, buttons, ribbons, bottle caps, bracelet beads, seed pods, plastic curiosities, old magazines, feathers and other choices that appealed to us all!

I brought bags of cardboard in various sizes, brown paper, packing bubble wrap, styrofoam, plastic bags and toilet paper rolls.

I use found relics in many of my river driftwood sculptures--odd pieces like baby pacifiers, broken earrings, fishing bobbers, all found during walks along the riverbank. Often it's the found relic that influences the name of the piece.  Sometimes I need to find the relic to reinforce the name!

We held two workshop sessions and our hearty stalwart artists created the most wonderful works of art!  

Caitlin Heusser, Museum Curator, with her finished piece.

 

Her finished piece on display in her home.  Beautiful!!

Other afternoon artists and their work...

With gentle persuasion several pieces of "found art" creations were left to be exhibited in
conjunction with my exhibit, "River Remnants," until March 29.

To spend an afternoon making art is a marvelous treat for me--and to share it with others was really quite exceptional.  It was so much fun, in fact, I'm thinking of doing it again!