I'm going to Artfest 2009

March 31, 2009I'm going to Artfest 2009!!!
This will be my 1st ArtFest and I am so excited to be going. They call 1st timers Festal Virgins.
ArtFest is April 1-5 2009 and is held yearly at Fort Worden in Port Townsend, WA. ArtFest is organized by Teesha Mooreblog) and her husband Tracy Moore . The theme this year is "Playing with Sea Monsters".

Artfest, billed as "A Creativity Retreat among Friends" is a gathering of almost 40 teachers and 500+ artist attendees who take 3 days of full day classes. I am taking 3 classes Thursday Richard Salley's Turning Leaves, Nina Bagley's (blog) Destination: Journey - Touch and Ty & Marcia Schultz's Heavy Metal

Most attendees make a item to "trade" with other artists, as a way to get to know and remember each other. I have made a octopus charm on a bracelet designed to allow attendees to collect other charms.
The bracelet is made up of copper, goldtone and silvertone thin bangles. the charm is a wooden bead painted with Metal Effects copper paint, patina-d with blue and then black aging solutions and coated with matte varnish. Artfest 2009 is written on back. Dangling from the middle of the bead are silvertone chains that make up the octopus tentacles. Finally a funny face was drawn on the bead to make it a comic octopus.

I added a heart shaped business card charm to each.
I had originally planned to make 100 of these but time would not allow it and I only made 50.
So on 50 of my business cards I printed a digital ATC on the back. The photos is a digitally manipulated image of a composite of many photos I took at the Monterrey Aquarium jelly fish exhibit.

I'm always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning... Every day I find something creative to do with my life.~ Miles Davis

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. ~ Pablo Picasso

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist. ~ Albert Einstein

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. ~ Thomas Merton