Things take time!

Instant gratification… Who doesn’t love a little from time to time? I know I do, but things take time. Especially making art. I am often shocked by how long it takes to make things! Then I remember that it’s in the making, the processing, the imagining that the pleasure occurs. Once I remember, I remind …

Read more

In Light… Learning New Techniques

This past weekend, I had the good fortune of meeting and learning from Helen Hiebert in a 2-day workshop aptly titled, “Illuminating Workshop!” The workshop was filled with all my favorite artist friends from San Diego Book Arts. We learned how to make a flexible paper material lined with copper wire, which was then transformed …

Read more

Working with a Local Craftsman

Layachi has been working with leather since he was a child. He started at around 9-years-old. He was probably fetching pelts and tea at that age, his hands too small to hold the tools, but no matter he is a MASTER craftsman now, and an amazingly nice guy. While in Tetouan, Morocco in February-March 2016 …

Read more

Getting “Grungy” with Seth Apter

The San Diego Book Arts (SDBA) recently welcomed back Seth Apter for two two-day workshops in San Diego. I attended the first workshop, “Cover to Cover,” which was held September 16 & 17, 2015. This workshop was about using mixed-media techniques to create a one-of-a-kind, unconventional artist’s book. Using vintage book covers as the base, and making a series of double-sided “pages” filled edge …

Read more

Jesse Reno Rocks

Raw, open and expressive are the qualities that both describe the artist and his art. Intuitive painting, using the most basic essential tools which include red, blue, yellow, black and white acrylic paint, four brushes, four pastel sticks and a pencil, oh and Bristol board.

It’s what’s inside that matters not the materials. Jesse Reno teaches us to see in a new way…

Sign up for his next workshop. Better be quick He’s a rising star.

Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks

Every artist has a few other artists that not only inspire them, but guide and influence their work, whether in major or minor ways. At the top of my list is Jean-Michel Basquiat. My attraction to his work, aside from the beauty of his raw aesthetic, is the honesty and purity of his expression. As far …

Read more

Art Journaling with Orly Avineri

Over the past several months, I’ve been learning about and experimenting with art journaling. My teacher Pnina Gold recently urged me to sign-up for a two-day workshop with Art Journaler extraordinaire Orly Avineri to expand my technique and perspective. Twelve of us, including Orly, attended the workshop, which took place this past weekend at the beautiful home …

Read more

Art making is the new therapy!

Something is happening. Something is breaking open. Something is being born. Art journaling is the new therapy… and much like meeting with a licensed professional, it’s all a process. Sometimes scary, sometimes frustrating, but always worthwhile. What is art journaling? It’s an intuitive creative exercise that allows spontaneous self expression with no end in mind. …

Read more

It’s a Blizzard!

Fellow SDBA* member Gina Pisello gave a mini workshop on folding. This is the sample I made in her workshop. It’s called a Blizzard fold. It’s quite complicated and even with instructions I am not sure I’ll be able to duplicate it. But it was so fun. And dear, patient Gina is so adept at …

Read more

Abstract. Landscape. Figurative. Minimal.

Anything is possible… don’t “qualify” yourself. Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993) was recommended by a printmaking friend, as an artist I should research, because of the breadth of style which he explored and mastered throughout his career. Not one to dismiss his muse, Diebenkorn allowed the process to change course radically, and often. He was a master …

Read more

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER