Branching Out

I finally picked up my watercolors tonight. I have been drawing recently, and signed up for an online watercolor class. I still haven't started the class, but I did open the colors and began messing around with my drawings. I would say that I am not totally disappointed. I have lots to learn, but I am happy that I am overcoming my fear of failure!

I painted one of the Zentangles I did last week, and it looks pretty good for a beginner. I also have my cow I drew from the instructions in Carla Sonheim's drawing lab book. It's incredibly goofy, but is a good example of what your eye sees and what your hand draws! You just look at a picture, and then without looking at the paper, you draw what you see. It's pretty funny, but at least I can tell it's a cow. I doubt anyone else can, but that's ok. I added a goofy eye and some watercolors - the eye did not help, but the watercolor saved the day!

I've been making progress on my calendar art. I still don't have it done, but it's not due until April 8th. So far, I'm happy with what I've got - if I could just make up my mind about what I want to do! I think, though, that I've finally decided and now need some more small canvasses. Perhaps a trip to Hobby Lobby is in the works for tonight...

Moving on this year

So I have decided to devote more time to art this year and less time to being unproductive. I have made some pretty good inroads so far. I have found that making my colorful and fun felt beads is a good way to spend time and develop my sense of color. Putting the bracelets together with regular spacer beads is getting easier too. I will have my bracelets in a show/sale in April, and that's a first for me. This is a good thing.

I have signed up for Judy Coates Perez's online color theory class and have Carla Sonheim's drawing book. I have a sketchbook and watercolor pads. I bought fabric paints and graphite pencils. I have been drawing a lot and have been teaching myself the art of Zentangles.

I have put aside my lampwork beads and felting. I did one art quilt which was a big success, but have not done another one. I am ok with going from one thing to another - as long as I learned from it.

As I have mentioned before, I have "friended" many artists on Facebook for whom I have lots of respect. I am learning from them and the links they provide, and I am learning to throw myself out into the world a little bit at a time.

From Facebook, I have found several online groups for mixed media art, and have joined each one. One of them, CreateMixed Media.com (http://www.createmixedmedia.com/) has a weekly calendar that displays artwork in the form of a calendar from different artists who belong to the group. Heretofore, it has been pretty well-known artists in this particular art world. However, a week or so ago, they opened it up to unknowns and wannabe artists like me. My week is April 17th-23rd, and I am scared to death! I know this is good for me, but it is so terrifying to think that something I made is going to be seen by real artists...

It's a learning experience, and I am going to figure out the perfect way to display my numbers. I just haven't thought of it yet! I will. By April 8th. My first publishing deadline. Hooray! :)

Creative Weekend

I spent Friday and Saturday nights this weekend making bracelets. I have a number of them now, and I need to decide whether to hold on to them until the art show in April, or to put them on Etsy to see if anyone is interested. I am getting more creative with the bracelets, and more creative with putting the beads together with fibers and seed beads.

I will try to take some pictures and post them soon, but I find the best place to take pictures is in my office - I guess because the lighting is better than at home.

I really like my new camera for taking close-ups. It's just a point and click, but it's more than good enough for me.

Visions from a Mixed Media Desk: Home from the bead show...

Visions from a Mixed Media Desk: Home from the bead show...: "Anne and I went to the 'Intergalactic Bead Show' today. Starting early, we had breakfast at First Watch (unbelievably good). On to the sh..."

Home from the bead show...

Anne and I went to the "Intergalactic Bead Show" today. Starting early, we had breakfast at First Watch (unbelievably good). On to the show at the Sharonville Convention Center in Cincinnati. We found a good parking spot, which knowing how our feet would hurt by the time we left, was a good thing.

We walked in after signing up to receive emails from this bunch for the rest of our lives. I did not give them my phone number.

When we walked in the show area, it was instant shock and awe. Neither of us have been to a bead show before, and it was just amazing. Completely overwhelming just by the sheer size of the exhibits. We patrolled up and down the aisles for a couple of hours (we were very methodical) and found our fair share of treasures.

Anne does this because she actually uses the beads. I do it because I have a serious problem with stash! Tonight, I will start taking things out of bags and looking at them lovingly. Then the beads will go back into the bags until I need to take them out and look at them again! A great day was had by all.

And Speaking of Rowan Hall...

While I was cruising the web trying to find a picture of little Rowan Hall, I found the most interesting article regarding protests at Miami University in April 1970. This was, as the article sets out, right before the Kent State University killings. I had no idea that Rowan Hall had once been the ROTC Hall. It sure has changed (and is about to be demolished for a new student center).

I couldn't get the link to work correctly, so here is the article by Dr. Phillip Shriver:

1970, Vietnam War Protests:
Anti-Vietnam War protests reached their zenith in the spring of 1970 when the ROTC offices and classrooms in Rowan Hall were occupied in a sit-in on April 15. After the Kent State shootings in May, 720 American universities closed. Miami was one of them. We closed for a week. When we reopened, it was with a plan for pass or fail grades to replace letter grades for students who opted for that alternative.

It was something you lived day by day, night by night. We had students from campuses that were closed coming to our campus, camping out in tent cities at the edge of campus, north and south. Many of them from Antioch College, and they were out to close other schools.

We had seven fires one night on campus. I received a number of death threats, and I even had a Molotov cocktail left on the front porch of Lewis Place.

It was a very difficult time, but I would say that we had a lot of cooperation from students and faculty. We closed and when we reopened, we had 930 students with the faculty standing guard in our buildings so if any fires did break out, we could get an almost instantaneous response.

Their objective at Miami was to close down the ROTC and the Air Force and the Navy as a military presence on the campus, and my argument was … far better to have the military on a civilian campus where they’re interacting with students with varying opinions day after day than to put them exclusively in a West Point or Annapolis or out in Colorado, the Air Force Academy, where all they do is talk to each other.

The flush-in was one of the events that spring. The flush-in was a terrible, terrible experience. Never forget Bill Beck calling when they had the flush-in. He said, “Dr. Shriver”… he always called me Phil, but this time Dr. Shriver … “the water in my basement is up to the piano keys.” That water was suddenly dumped on the town. When they all flushed, it had to go somewhere, pipes couldn’t carry it away. And the town immediately reacted. “This has gone far enough.” Enough is enough, so it boomeranged.

After that experience in the spring of ’70, we moved the ROTC down to Millett Hall. It was no longer in the center of the campus and not quite as visible as it had been before.