Alki Arts reception: so much love in the room
Can I just tell you how much looooove there was at Alki Arts Gallery last night? Maybe it was because there were so many PEOPLE at the opening reception.
I talked myself hoarse about my work with interested visitors, which is a lovely problem to have.
Like most art walks, it's a little more "walk (and see gorgeous work)" than "(buying) art (on the spot)." But My Wall, as I like to call it, will be up for another 23 days. So we'll see if someone comes back to collect a piece they've fallen in love with.
Special thanks to the following:
- my artist peeps who came out to show support, including Jennifer Chin, Mary Lamery, Mary Freiburger, Esther Ervin, Al Doggett and Earnest Thomas
- my new friends, including O. David Jackson and fellow artists Robin Weiss and Carol Braden
- and the enthusiastic people who've Liked my art Page.
These are the connections that support artists emotionally. And don't forget financial support: Rembrandt doesn't have bills to pay, but living artists like me do!
Serious play: teaching art classes
So... it's really gonna happen. In a couple of months, I'll start teaching classes! This week, I've been working on creating class samples:
The above collage is on an 8" x 8" wood panel, using specialty paper from ARTSpot and an wash of acrylic paint over one of my favorite images. The David Hockney quote is created using the paint-resist technique I'll be teaching in April. More info to come as soon as I have a link for you to click. (P.S. If you're on my newsletter mailing list, you'll get the details first! Go to the sidebar on the right to sign up.)
FYI, each class will be very small -- about six people, so I can give my students more individualized attention. So when I say "go," register on the ARTSpot site and save your space ASAP. Got it?
MLK Day: Teach your children...
At first I thought this Martin Luther King Jr. holiday would come and go for our family like it usually does: I... um... don't do much to teach my kids about The Struggle. (Bad black person. Go to your room and repent your thoughtless, privileged ways.)
But then I remembered... I'm actually helping a bit to educate TwoBoo and his kindergarten class about the 1960s-era civil rights movement. They're reading our family copy of the Ruby Bridges story. Ruby was the first African American child to integrate an all-white elementary school in the South -- she was only six years old at the time.
I also loaned the teacher two other books by the same publisher. Some of the kids are learning about Matthew Henson (first black man to reach the North Pole, with Robert Peary). Others are reading the story of Nat Love (African American cowboy and rodeo performer, also known as "Deadwood Dick").
If I'm brave enough (or foolhardy enough... same thing, really) maybe I'll volunteer to present some of my own historical work to one of The Boy's classes. I don't know, though... he enters middle school, and kids that age are a tough crowd. Wish me luck...