How to Train Your Dragon... and Other Animal Stories!

Have you seen this awesome Dragon! class taught by two of my favorite instructors Ty and Marcia Schultz at Art & Soul Virginia? It's a chance for you to breathe life into your very own mythical creature as you learn to create the basic form that supports your dragon and decorate it any way you wish! Ty and Marcia will be by your side to guide your sculptural side and share secrets of the prop-building trade. It's an evening that will have you breathing fire... in a good way!



Take a look at this fun little video as Ty explains what you'll get to accomplish in this unique evening workshop! 

And in case Dragons aren't your thing, maybe you have other hangups? Perfect! Then check out Ty and Marcia's Animal Hang Ups workshop. You'll get to make your very own animal to hang on the wall!

This impressive duo will magically show you how to create realistic-looking animals using everyday materials. You'll surprise yourself as these experts (26 years in the biz) show you how easy it can be to make something so beautiful!

Or maybe you don't want to sculpt from scratch yet but you've always wanted to make a mold from objects you already have? Awesome! In their Moldmaking class, Ty and Marcia can show you the step-by-step process of creating a two piece silicone block mold as well as a few other types of processes. If you ever needed more than one of the same item for an art piece, then this comprehensive class will be invaluable!

An Event Planner's Gotta Play Too!

What better respite for myself and my trusty sidekick Marie Kennedy, than to attend ArtFest, which takes place in Port Townsend, Washington, at an old military base. We got to meetup with old friends, make some new friends, and play, play, play! A much needed distraction after our very successful Virginia Beach event.

We got to take a class with Mindy Lacefield called All A-Flutter. She'll be teaching at our Portland event later this year, so it was exciting to actually be in a class of hers as a student! I just love Mindy's whimsical style and her childlike approach to art. Remember when we weren't afraid to try anything?

We got to spend some real quality time with friends and seasoned Art & Soul instructors Ty and Marcia Schultz. They are such dear friends and to be with them in such a relaxed and playful setting, well... it does this girl's heart good. Here's Ty passing the time with a bit of journaling... always up to something creative.

And hello, dolly! Or should I say... goodbye, dolly? Marie took a class called Steampunk Sally with Clarissa Callesen. This is a picture of her doll before and after... what a difference! Looks like she spent weeks on it. Too much fun.

We ran into Andrew Drydahl, who will also be making his Art & Soul teaching debut at our Portland event. He'll be teaching how to make these whimsical rag dolls and some gorgeous steampunk journals. It was great to have some time to get to know a new instructor. It's not very often that we get the opportunity to do so. Typically it's lots of e-mails and phone calls and paperwork going back and forth. So some real face time (and what an adorable face it is!) was a welcome change.

So, needless to say we had an amazing time here. It was a little bittersweet though as, after Artfest's 13 year run... this was their last event. The talented and artistic duo that put on this retreat — Teesha and Tracey Moore — are moving on to something new. It was time for them. But as we all learn together when we attend these wonderfully inspirational creative retreats... there's always something new to learn and discover about ourselves. Cheers to that!

Glenny
xoxo

© photos by Marie Kennedy

Art & Soul Portland... Make It Work!

Nope, you haven't landed on the wrong blog site! This is what happens when creative people get together for an opening night party and have a fashion (we're using the term very loosely here!) challenge — Project Runway style! Our brave models from left to right were Ty Schultz, Earl Zachery, and Dan Carell who are all winners in our eyes. Oh... our eyes!

The fun and frivolity was not only the final Runway challenge for this competition, but also watching everyone in action getting made up! Do you think Ty's hand is saying, "I surrender" or perhaps it's more like, "help me". Janne Robberstad looks as if she's about to get serious with that hair spray... look out Ty!

One of the fabulous things about how Art & Soul retreats has grown over the years, is the diversity of workshops and instructors that we now have. I mean — we've got practically everything you can think of! And this year we had so much more...

One thing we always have are students who love what they create and are so pleased with themselves! Being surrounded by hand made prints from Liz Kettle's Natural Beauty class — well, it's just too much fun! It's quite common to walk into a classroom and see recently created works of art strewn about all over the place, and the students all abuzz.

And speaking of things strewn about — ummm, uh-oh, wait! Oops you weren't supposed to see that! Pay no attention to the woman behind that door. Okay, since you already peeked... it's my friend Jean... and she's getting all the glorious items together to fill your goodie bags with. Weren't they fabulous?

Sharyn Sowell's Letterpress 101 was an amazing education in an age-old manual printing discipline — and such a lovely one at that. Look at all these cool letters and images — how can you decide what to play with? Isn't it funny how a lot of us mixed-media artists are drawn to the type cases, block letters and images... and now we can take a class where we get to actually use them! Fascinating.

I don't know how she does it, but Susan Schenk's Collage Your Pet class always ends up with amazing pieces. Can't you just see the soulful expression on this yellow lab's face? Adorable!

 And take a look at this radiant beauty created in Jessica Acosta's Doll Collage workshop! Simply stunning and such great detail with the shading and addition of dimensional objects. Lovely, lovely layers!

We even had a class on loom weaving with Kat Allison! Looks theraputic and fun! Another classic American craft kept alive through the mixed media art retreat. Hooray for history!

And what have we here? A wig workshop by Lana Guerra! Students totally got Wigged Out on this one. Check out Greg Clark's cool creation in pink. I bet you could learn a lot in this class and then apply it on a smaller scale for mixed media dolls! Now that's exciting!

And let's not forget about our Vendor Extravaganza — always a blast! All the mixed media art supplies you could dream of (and more) all in one place! Didn't Mary Fisher have some delicious looking fabrics? Yum!!

And now that we're all caught up, I'd really like to say thank you so much to all our instructors for their hard work, support and dedication to Art & Soul. You are a huge part of our succes — and not only that — you are a part of our family!

A big thanks to Patti Haltom of Stamp A Dee Do Da for bringing her store to the Portland event! She did a fabulous job gathering stuff for attendees!

The Embassy Hotel continues to be the best in the world. The staff is incredible and seems to remember every one of us and our individual needs. How lucky we are to have had our event with them for over 10 years!

And Marie. Woman of Steel. We love you!

So I hope to see some of you in Virginia Beach (our rooms have balconies on the water - Wowza!) or perhaps at the Green Valley Ranch in Henderson, NV. Until then my little mixed media mavens....

Glenny
xoxo