If you be a lover of instruction, you will be well instructed.
        —Isocrates+

When I insisted on attending art school instead of a traditional university, my mother balked.  She kept insisting that I at least study teaching art, so I’d have something to “fall back on.”  However well intentioned and practical her advice was, I determined never to be a teacher.  So — how odd to find myself teaching now that I’m in my 50s and have much less patience than when I was younger.  I tend to be less than organized, to be polite about it, and often can’t see the forest for the trees, but I’m learning.  It never dawned on me that a grown person wouldn’t know you had to rinse your brush periodically, until a student asked me why her entire painting was brown. 

Instruction does not prevent waste of time or mistakes; and mistakes themselves are often the best teachers of all.
         — James Anthony Froude

I thought it was lip service when I heard teachers say they learned as much from their students as the students learned from them.  It’s true!  Preparing lessons forces one to really think through their process, and watching others come up with solutions for their ideas can lead you in all kinds of new directions.  Creating ways to teach what you do in a limited time frame is also a great exercise. I’ve been silk painting for over 20 years and was stumped when Jerry’s Artarama asked me to teach a two-hour class.  After wandering around the store with my hands in my pockets for a while, I came up with a short project idea that would whet students’ appetites.  It came off quite well and each student’s project was completely different from mine or anyone else’s. 

Sharing knowledge does not diminish one’s talent.
— Me

Which leads me to a point often brought up by artists and crafters:  why teach someone else to do the thing you’re trying to make your living at?  Aren’t they just out to steal your ideas?  Am I shooting myself in the foot by sharing my ideas?  No, no and no!  Teaching a person to read doesn’t mean they can write your story, does it?  Teaching someone a skill can often make them appreciate more fully what goes into the making of your art.  Altruism pays!          

+Isocrates the orator, not Socrates the philosopher, in case you were worried about that.

The most recent silk painting group at Pullen Art Center was an especially great class, since the group included women whose countries of origin ranged from Denmark, Greece, Israel, Poland, France, and Russia.   It was a culturally wealthy, not to mention very talented group of women!  They hit the ground running, so eager to get started, and made wonderful things in and out of class.  It’s always mesmerizing to me to watch the way color floats across the silk.  It was such a gift to watch each of these women get hooked on the process.  I’m always tempted to say, “the first one’s free,” at the initial class, as if I’m offering something illicit.

I really hope you all keep up the good work – you’re all so talented!  You’ve encouraged me to work on proposals for continuing and advanced classes at Pullen Arts! 

(You can see more class photos on my Flickr site.)

Hub and I took the train the New York this month, and it’s a good thing he loves museums as much as I do.  The crowds were amazing considering it was January and frigid.  The city is so outrageous, I think we could spend each visit just people watching.   

The Guggenheim‘s Kandinsky retrospective was the biggest draw in getting us to New York.  We spent hours going through it, mostly on the early and transitional work.  Considering the Spiritual in Art and the phenomenon of synesthesia have contributed more than anything else to my art journey.

Georgia O’Keeffe at the Whitney didn’t do much for me, but the Roni Horn show was mesmerizing.  I was also looking forward to visiting NYU’s Center for Ancient Studies.  The exhibit was great, but the signage was irritating.

Hub is the greatest travel agent, researching everything beforehand and taking me to sites previously unknown (to me, anyway).  The Rubin Museum was such a treat — a beautiful museum and each show on its six floors was fascinating and beautifully presented.  They’ve got a terrific web application so you can build your own mandala.

We were both smitten by Andrea Dezso’s tunnel books at the Museum of Art and Design.   If you can’t make it to the museum for Slash: Paper Under The Knife, visit the website.

From Klimt to Klee at the Neue Gallery celebrates the museum’s founder more than the artists, but it’s always worth it to see Klee’s work.  (And they’ve got a terrific book shop.)

Now I need to get to the Cloisters to see The Art of Illumination.  The Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry is unbound for the first time in many years.  I’ll have to convince Hub that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. 

Well, my advance copy is here . . . although the book won’t be available until January.  It’s called Paper Cuts and it’s a beautiful how-to book with project photos, directions, and patterns for 35 paper cutting projects.  Four of them are mine!
Publisher: Lark
Published: January 2010
128 pages
ISBN: 1-60059-512-X
ISBN13: 9781600595127
$17.95 US, $23.50 Canadian

I’m really humbled to be in the company of these designers, ‘cause all of the projects are beautiful and some of them are just incredible.  My submissions are relatively simple.  Hopefully, they’ll help get beginners started!  Here’s a sample page from the book, showing one of the projects I submitted.

I’ve also got lots of Scherenschnitte decorations and ornaments in my Etsy shop if you’re not ready to make your own.

I’m lucky to have a Habitat for Humanity store and a place called The Scrap Exchange not far from where I live in Raleigh, NC.  These are both terrific resources for finding good materials that can no longer be used for their original purpose. 

The Scrap Exchange is having an extravaganza of events between now and the first of year, including Craftland, a show celebrating the creations of artists who make art from reusable materials or from materials that have an earth-friendly component.  Craftland will be up until December 31st. 

The Scrap Exchange is visible all over the Triangle area (which includes Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill) for hosting open craft sessions at various craft venues.  There’s nothing more joyful than watching children parade their headdress creations at First Night, an annual new year’s celebration in Raleigh.

The natural world centers me spiritually, yet I’m prone to forgetting that fact day to day because of my struggles with the heat and itchiness of my home state.  It’s beautiful, too, but six months of the year it makes me uncomfortable enough to estivate, a word I learned when I moved to North Carolina.

The beautiful landscapes I’ve visited crop up often in my work.  These two are from my travels in the Southwest US:

This rushing river under the Northern lights is based on a photo from my friend Scotty’s trip to Alaska.

This is the view from my wide bedroom window (lucky me):

Some of my landscapes are based on fantasies or juxtapositions of places I’ve been.   This large silk scarf includes a view from the courtyard of the Cloisters in New York City,  a tree from my imagination, a woman from Renaissance art, and a dragon from ancient Chinese art. 

This tree in the snow with a pink sky is pure fantasy.

This long hanging landscape uses some artistic license, as the landscape is based on walks in North Carolina, but the cranes are Japanese.   It’s a beautiful piece on which to meditate!

I’m grateful for all of the beautiful places in the world I’ve been lucky enough to visit and meditate on.