Photographers Workroom

After two years of COVID we are proud to announce we are back in action with our annual photo show at “The Art Barn” on West Hill. We hope you will all come to the opening, but if you can’t make it, we can do a private showing, just send an email to me or call. Come on any week-end, we will be there until the middle of August. See the information below.

Postcards

Last weekend I went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and happened upon their latest exhibit of old postcards. This should not be missed if you are in Boston. What a treat! Postcards in all different categories: play, events, celebration, work, documentation, mementos. I have always been fascinated by these postcards. It is like being a voyeur into the lives of people long gone.

Kodak developed the folding pocket camera in 1897. This opened up a new world for amateur photographers. Now the camera could be carried everywhere. People would put these pictures in albums. However, it was not until March 1, 1907, when the United States Post Office allowed messages to be written on the back that the “real photo” took off. No other single format has provided such a massive photo history of America, particularly small towns and rural America.

MAKE YOUR OWN POSTCARDS:

There are many ways to make your own postcards

1. The easiest one is to download “Postgram”. You can take any picture, customize it, and it is sent by mail.

2. Buy postcard paper for your printer at Staples and print your own cards

3. Buy old postcards, draw on them, embroider or paint on them.

4. Collect any kind of postcard and make a collage with them.

5. Buy blank puzzle postcards, print them or decorate them and send them off.

6. Just be creative, it is so fun to share these. Start a group of friends, decide how many postcards you will make, and then send them to each other. Or send them to random people and ask them to send one back to you and to x number of people.

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Mud Season is Here

It’s spring in some parts of the world, but it is mud season in Vermont. Roads are closed due to large ruts and cars are being towed out of them. This is the time of year people flee from Vermont and head for warmer climates and the beach.

It has always been the season for “spring cleaning.” My mother would take down the drapes, air them, wash everything in the cupboards, and clean the basement. There was a whirlwind of activity for a month, in the end, the house felt fresh and less cluttered.

Is your art space having its own mud season? This is an excellent time to close shop, step back and give a critical look at that space. Yep, it’s time to throw away old tubes of paint, clean the space, and reorganize. Think of yourself as an excavator sweeping through your space, scraping all the old paint, wax off the surfaces.

After you are done, your workspace will be organized, and your mind will be clear of clutter too. Perhaps while you were cleaning you came across materials you had not used in a while. Why not give them a try again?

I have collected so many pieces of fabric, old sweaters, buttons, fringe, and yarn. They flow over my bins. I recently got quite excited about “slow stitching’, (a fancy word for embroidery), and I have granddaughters that are always drawing monsters. I decided to start using those pieces of fabric, etc., and make monsters. The best part is I have my own built-in critique committee.

Good Luck Spring Cleaning (or not).

Step 2 to bBecoming an Artist

To build confidence, creating a journal is the perfect venue to express your art. Some of you may have kept a diary when you were younger. You may have kept it under lock and key but your parents or sibling probably sprung the lock. This was where you poured all your hopes, dreams, anger, and thoughts. Others may have started one later in life. Or you may never have created a journal. Journals are great, they help you sort out your life, they can leave a legacy for you, and they can feed your creativity. Why? Because no one is looking at it, unless you decide to allow them.

How to start:

1.     Find a bound notebook, the paper you like, a sketchbook, even cloth. Decorate it so you own it, and you know it is yours. You can even embroider it.

2.     Treat it like a new friend.

3.     Buy or find colored pencils, markers, paints, scraps of paper, material, photos, anything you want, even cuttings from magazines.

4.     Put all of this in a special box only for your journaling.

5.     Now sit down in a quiet space, look at your page and start.

Ok, I hear you saying: Start what? I have no idea what to do. Here is how:

1.     Draw a line, any line, run it around the paper

2.     Take a different color, or take paint, draw circles

3.     Now start to fill in spaces. Don’t just fill in with markers, fill in with bits of fabric or clippings from magazines.

4.     Don’t think about staying in the lines, paste over them, combine them. Stitch on them, add a photograph.

No one is looking, so be as stupid and silly as you want, but DO NOT erase anything. Just add something to it. Do not try to create a masterpiece, just be free.

Keep this up for a month as your goal. At the end of the month go for another month. It does not have to be every day, but you should try. I am making an embroidery for stitching an icon for every day in the year 2022. I made a circle and sectioned it off into 12 segments. I put the month at the top of each segment and then each night I stitch an icon or word for that day. I love doing this. It makes me think creatively and it relaxes me while I am doing it. You can dedicate one page for an entire month if you like. Or you can divide it into weeks or days.

Here are subjects to help you:

1.     Childhood, what was it like, how did you feel growing up

2.     Siblings, Parents, Grandparents, Friends, Pets; express how you feel about them

3.     Something you are angry about

4.     What makes you happy

5.     Favorite time of year, a favorite activity

6.     Travel: postcards, pictures, etc.

7.     Dreams

8.     Just doodles

Here is a sample of a page from my journal.



Step One on Becoming an Artist

What Does It Mean to be “Artistic?”

I often hear the comment “I am not artistic; I can’t create anything.” I have found throughout my life of teaching art this statement does not hold true. This feeling starts at a very young level and gets worse as we get older. It is the fear of failure or criticism you may have received at some time. Or it may be that you feel you can never achieve that level. But it is not about someone else’s abilities, it is about you.

Do you remember being in school and being bored? Do you remember picking up your pencil and starting to draw shapes, squares, circles, faces? Anything to keep you from fidgeting. Where you afraid to put those shapes on paper? NO.

I maintain that all those doodles you made are art and as you continue to do them in meetings or just because you are bored, you are making art. What if you took a large piece of paper and made those same doodles all over the paper, and what if you came back with crayons, markers, watercolors and started to fill them in? After a while you will notice you have relaxed, you have not thought of anything but what you are going to do in the next shape. No one is judging you, including that voice in your head. You are just having a good time. That is being artistic.

When you are finished get a cheap frame and frame it. Your reaction will be “WOW, I made that!” I guarantee that you will be so proud of what you have done. Study it as if it was in a museum. What shape did you like best? What stood out to you? How did you color it? Did you use monotone colors or bright colors? Perhaps you used all dark colors or light pastel colors. Do you think this was because of your mood that day, or are those the color tones you tend to go to? Think about the clothes you put on. What are you most comfortable in? This will also be a clue to acknowledging your own color palette.

Try doing these small doodles for a week, look at them and think about the mood you were in when you did them. Perhaps, write it at the bottom of the page. Get a notebook, doodle on the pages, or paste your pictures in. (You may have been at a meeting without your notebook), make sure you date them. Now you have the beginning of a journal.

Next blog we will talk about how to turn that notebook into an exciting journal. And for those of you that just want to doodle and not make a journal, I will have more steps for you to make art and prove you wrong that you are not artistic.

“Don’t worry about how you ‘should ‘draw. Just draw it the way you see it.”
Tim Burton