Friday, October 28, 2011

Show and Tell Saturday #9

Hello Artists in Blogland!


Welcome to our Ninth Show and Tell Saturday.


Show us what you have been working on! What inspires you this week? What have you started? What have you finished? Painting, collage, photography, digital art, greeting cards, scrapbooking, fiber arts... any and all artsy endeavors are welcome here. Any new art supplies or resources you have discovered?


What to do:


1. Write a post about your creative week.

2. Add your link to the list below.

3. The link MUST be to a specific blog post, not the general link to your blog.

4. You can double up... post about challenges you participated in or post to another sharing group as well, but in your blog post, please include a link back to Artists in Blogland. This will encourage other people to check out Artists in Blogland.

5. Visit other people's posts and check out what they are doing.


Thanks for participating!!







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Thursday, October 27, 2011

CREATIVELY FEATURED

 It's been decided!

Our interview posts will go under the name..........................

CREATIVELY FEATURED!

Now...I came up with a list of questions to ask...which in my opinion are downright boring after seeing Amy's interview questions and those of Andrea's

So I want to ask YOU...since this is all about you...What interview questions would YOU like to see asked? Just leave a comment to let me know...ok??!!?? 

And without further ado...Marcia, Artists In Blogland's most talented and generous moderator, has graciously answered some of my questions in a decidedly 'not boring' way.

Enjoy...  From Annie!



1.  Tell us about blogging and how it’s worked for you.

Kindergarten artwork
4th grade Paper Mache Mask
 I began blogging about my adventures teaching elementary art one year ago.  I opened the blog to inspire and connect with other art teachers.  At the time, I was posting about my own artwork as well as the artwork of the children in my classes.  I decided the blog needed more focus, so I separated the two and opened up a new blog about my own artwork.  So far, blogging has been really fun!  It keeps me motivated to make art as often as possible, because I know that other people will see what I am working on.  I follow over 300 blogs in Google reader (many about teaching children art and others about mixed media art) and I have been inspired by so many awesome artists.  I know, subscribing to that many blogs is crazy, but Google reader makes it easy to just glance at each post to see if it is something I'm interested in.   I have borrowed numerous lesson plan ideas for my students and have tried out new techniques for myself. 


2.  How did you discover your favorite art medium?
      My favorite medium is watercolor and inks.  I love to paint with vibrant colors.  I have dabbled in all types of art.  I was an art education major in college and I have taken many types of art classes:  photography, painting, ceramics, sculpture and more.  In the past year or so I have become very interested in watercolor painting.   I think I picked up my watercolors more after seeing some of Alisa Burke's paintings.  I enjoy painting in a loose and fluid style.  Here is one of my watercolor doodles:

This summer I took a watercolor painting class at a local recreation department.  We painted realistically from photographs. This is one of my landscape paintings from that class:

3.  What inspires or influences you artistically?
      I am inspired by repetitive patterns and shapes, maps, natural and organic forms, fruit, leaves, flowers and animals.  I often get sparks of inspiration by reading other people's blogs, by seeing photographs on Pinterest and by using my own photographs.  Sometimes if I am stuck for an idea, I will look through magazines for interesting images to draw or to use in collage.  I really enjoy the following list of artists/movements and consider them influences in my artistic life.  You might not see directly how they are similar to my work, but it all relates to the artistic process.

The Dada Movement, especially the Dada collages
Ray Johnson and the Mail Art movement
Sabrina Ward Harrison
Dan Eldon
Henri Matisse
Cy Twombly
There are so many artists I love it's hard to list them all!


4.  Which aspect of your art do you enjoy most?  I really love bright colors and creating contrast with lights and darks.  I love when an artwork really pops and shows depth.

5.  How do you see your future work and style developing?  This is what I am working on now.  I feel like I dabble in all different types of art, so I don't have a definite style now.  However, I suppose we all naturally have our own style in anything our hands touch, but I guess I am trying to find a focus!  Right now, I've been having fun with lettering:


Watercolor doodling has become one of my favorite pastimes:

Art journaling is also one of my diversions:


I suppose the common link among all these styles is bold and brilliant colors, swirling shapes and patterns.

6.  How do you manage your time? Well, I'm pretty darn busy!  I teach art full-time at an elementary school and have a 2 year old daughter.  I just prioritize, I guess, and get done what I need to do.  I work very efficiently at school and I'm lucky to have adequate plan time at school (which I know many art teachers are not so lucky).  I paint and make art while my daughter is asleep at night.  She generally goes to bed around 7:30, so I have a couple of hours for free time.  Also, I think people make time for what they want to make time for.  For example, I rarely just sit and watch TV.  If I'm watching TV, I'm also drawing or painting.  It helps to have things set up and ready to go so you can just spend a few minutes here and there.

7.  Have you exhibited work or taught classes?  Like I said before, I teach full-time to kids in grades K-6.  I have also taught numerous after school and summer workshops for kids.  Sometimes I give workshops and presentations at art teacher conferences.  I have organized and participated in quite a few exhibitions of children's artwork in my community.   I have had a few of my own artworks in exhibits.  Right now, I am a part of an exhibit at a coffee shop gallery in Chicago.  This is one of the artworks in the exhibit:
Red Configuration, 2011, Watercolor on canvas board

8.  Do you have any ambitions or goals you’d like to see fulfilled in the future?
Right now I am building up a body of work and I have been submitting artwork to magazine in hopes to get a few more published.  I had some published in Stampington and Co. publications but those were a few years ago.  I would love to make prints and greeting cards of some of my artwork and start selling them on Etsy or in craft shows. 

Thank you so much for reading my interview and I hope you visit my blog to say hi!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Weekend Recapture

Check out some of the fun things we made this week!















Thank you everyone for playing along!  DO YOU NOTICE A THEME TO THIS WEEKEND RECAPTURE?

Friday, October 21, 2011

Show and Tell Saturday #8

Hello Artists in Blogland!


Welcome to our Eighth Show and Tell Saturday.


Show us what you have been working on! What inspires you this week? What have you started? What have you finished? Painting, collage, photography, digital art, greeting cards, scrapbooking, fiber arts... any and all artsy endeavors are welcome here. Any new art supplies or resources you have discovered?


What to do:


1. Write a post about your creative week.

2. Add your link to the list below.

3. The link MUST be to a specific blog post, not the general link to your blog.

4. You can double up... post about challenges you participated in or post to another sharing group as well, but in your blog post, please include a link back to Artists in Blogland. This will encourage other people to check out Artists in Blogland.

5. Visit other people's posts and check out what they are doing.


Thanks for participating!!





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Monday, October 17, 2011

Weekend Recapture!

I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend!  I didn't have much time to do any art this weekend, but hopefully sometime this week...  Here's a little wrap up of some of our great artists!  We had 32 participants this week, which is awesome.  Don't forget to check out my "Just Journals" link party if you are interested in art journaling.













Friday, October 14, 2011

Show and Tell Saturday #7

Hello Artists in Blogland!


Welcome to our Sixth Show and Tell Saturday.


Show us what you have been working on! What inspires you this week? What have you started? What have you finished? Painting, collage, photography, digital art, greeting cards, scrapbooking, fiber arts... any and all artsy endeavors are welcome here. Any new art supplies or resources you have discovered?


What to do:


1. Write a post about your creative week.

2. Add your link to the list below.

3. The link MUST be to a specific blog post, not the general link to your blog.

4. You can double up... post about challenges you participated in or post to another sharing group as well, but in your blog post, please include a link back to Artists in Blogland. This will encourage other people to check out Artists in Blogland.

5. Visit other people's posts and check out what they are doing.


Thanks for participating!!





Grab a button for your page:



Just Journals Link Party

Can't get enough of the linky parties?  Do you have an art journal or sketchbook?  I am hosting a "Just Journals" link party on my blog every Saturday (to complement the Show and Tell Saturdays I post here).  Here is a link to the party!

BWS tips button

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Weekend Recapture Part 2

I'm thinking that if our group gets much bigger, I will randomly select some of the artworks each week to be featured in the Weekend Recapture.  How does that sound?   Here are some more wonderful artworks from our group members from this week.  Enjoy!!


Bohemiannie's Quilted Circles-- what's she going to make with them?




 Rh West's Vivid Photography-- it wouldn't let me copy and paste for some reason.


Jennie Bellie is making a Zine!!  I used to collect zines and I have at least 100 of them :)  I'll have to check out hers.

Geri's Princess Diana drawing:  she really captured her features in this, don't you think?


Weekend Recapture-- Part 1

It was another great artistic week here at Artists in Blogland.   So many people are linking up so I will post this in 2 parts!  If you are hesitant to link up to Artists in Blogland, I have made it as easy as possible!  Just pick any post you have already made this week and simply place a link to the linky party.  You don't have to come up with a special post for our group, you can "double dip" with other challenges.  If you don't want to type the link in every time, you can even just grab a button and put it on the side of your blog and that counts too.  We just want to see all of the exciting things you are working on!   Check out some of the artwork your fellow members have made this week: