I Was in the Desert

I got home late last night after a week away in the desert of Arizona and California. The trip was absolutely awesome! The Yuma Art Symposium was so much fun and my lecture went very, very well. I think it might be the best one I've given so far. It felt conversational and relaxed. There was a good order and flow to the images and story and my conclusion was better. (I always struggle with the conclusion.) It did start off with some technical issues that were quickly remedied by Andy Cooperman. This was the second time he's helped me out like this. This first time was SNAG 2007 and he held my computer for me while I gave my presentation! Thanks, again, Andy! The other extremely cool thing that happened was that my teacher at the University of Washington, Mary Lee Hu, introduced me and said some really lovely things. It was such an honor and totally unexpected. I didn't know she was going to introduce me until I got to the symposium. The rest of the event was great--I met tons of wonderful artists and spent quality time with dear friends. My favorite presentation was by photographer, Deborah Ford. Her narrative work blends photographs of landscape with map imagery.

I also ate some of the best Mexican food I've ever had.

thanks to Rachel Shimpock for the iPhoto pic!

Deborah Ford

Ring by Kaiya Rainbolt - it was part of the Yuma student show and my favorite piece there 

Next I hopped in a car and took a little road trip to Long Beach, CA with my friend and colleague, Kristin Beeler. We drove through the desert of southern California and visited some truly unique and unusual places: the Imperial Sand Dunes, Salvation Mountain, and the Salton Sea. We also went to a huge date farm for date shakes and then stopped near Palm Springs to take pictures of the hundreds of windmills that line the valley.

Imperial Sand Dunes

 Salvation Mountain

Salton Sea

On Tuesday I did two back-to-back lectures, one at Long Beach City College where Kristin teaches and another one I added during the Yuma Symposium (thanks Kaiya!) at Cal State University Long Beach. Both talks detailed my career, followed by question and answer time and then some one-on-ones with students. Both lectures were great and I loved talking with everyone afterward. That's definitely my favorite part. Thanks to Kristin at LBCC and Susanna Spears and Elise at CSULB for inviting me.

And, I managed to squeeze in two awesome tattoos, one in Yuma and one in Long Beach.

Alligator by Eric Jones

It was a very exciting and inspiring six days.

I posted lots of pics on Flickr.

Thanks for reading.

Conversations

Tia Dale

I have a Skype session planned for later today with Tia Dale and her students at MassArt in Boston. Tia invited me a few months ago to give a lecture and do a question and answer session with her junior sand seniors in her 3D Seminar class. I'm going to start with a short PowerPoint about my career and then open up the conversation to questions the students have. I'm excited to talk with them. I love casual, yet thoughtful discussions when I can engage with students on this level. It should be fun.

Kristin Beeler

I also just confirmed a lecture at Long Beach City College in Long Beach, CA. I will head there after my talk at the Yuma Art Symposium. Kristin Beeler is the instructor and this will be my second time there. I also gave a lecture in 2008 and I'm looking forward to seeing her again and meeting her students now. This talk will be focused on professional practices so I will detail how I started and grew my business and how I maintain it today. Plus, southern California in February? Nice.

Thanks for reading.

guest star friday #29...the west coast edition part 3

today's guest star is kristin beeler from long beach, ca. kristin uses silver, mother of pearl, antique photographs, baroque pearls, iron wire, and ink in her work. she creates miniature portraits of faces and objects with a reverence to the past. i find her work to be comforting due to both the subject matter and the delicate way she treats her materials and compositions.
in case you didn't know...i mentioned kristin in my post about my lecture at long beach city college. (she is the program coordinator and assistant professor.) i also mentioned her awhile back in a post about drawing on metal.

thanks for reading.

hurray for north carolina!

i am finally home from my west coast trunk show tour. i got back late last wednesday and immediately went to penland for the end of the fall concentration session which included the scholarship auction and show and tell. i loved being back with my students! it was so wonderful to see them again, but was sad to say goodbye so soon after returning. i really wish i had had more time with them.

the day before i flew back east i gave an artist talk at long beach city college in long beach, ca. i talked about my work and career and then gave my snag conference presentation. the talk became a lively conversation between me and the students with them asking questions as i went through my topics. the metals studio at lbcc is excellent. you can see pictures here. afterwards i spent time with kristin beeler, the associate professor and program coordinator, who was a lovely and generous hostess.
now i am very, very happy to be home. the trip was great and my trunk shows were successful, but it was also long and tiring. for the last couple of days i've been digging myself out from under a huge pile of mail, email, and studio work.

i'm looking forward to taking a little break in a few weeks for christmas.

thanks for reading.

drawing on metal

since i have been trying to draw with metal and due to my personal interest in line drawings of late, i have been noticing all kinds of jewelry with drawings. i find this stuff so interesting so i started collecting images a few weeks ago...

this first image is a brooch by kristin beeler. this drawing is ink on mother of pearl. you can find lots of other pieces at velvet da vinci. along with work like the piece shown here, you will also see some etched drawings and what looks like scrimshaw. all the drawings are very simple and very delicate.

here is a brooch by esther knobel - sterling silver with perforated (drilled) drawing sewn with iron wire. this is from the fantastic series "the mind in the hand." see more at sienna gallery.












joanna gollberg - these sterling silver earrings with little perforated drawings of familiar shapes are sewn with plastic thread and are one of many of jo's experiments.

ps...joanna just blogged about a a similar concept. check it out here.







iris eichenberg... more examples of perforated drawings - "heimat brooch" in sterling and bone. please also click here to see a perforated and stitched necklace by iris eichenberg.





so, like all my posts on pop-out/pop-up jewelry, i will continue to post images of work that include drawing on metal as i find them.

thanks for reading.