Kid’s Poetry and Book Arts Camp ROCKS!!!

Our first-ever group of young poets and book artists.

watching a demo…

Sandra uses an icer scraper to create texture in her paste paper.

Carlos happily pasting away!

Emi’s paste paper already is looking like a full-on painting.

Emi’s finished paste paper is too beautiful to cut up!

detail…

Mathis is finding good collage material.

Jazz’s finished book, poetry included.

Jazz’s bookcover has wonderfully colored paste paper.

Elena is working away…

What gorgeous, subtle paste paper!

What a poet! What an artist! Yay Chevi!

Elena shows us the inside of her accordion book.

Emi not only makes the coolest paste paper, he also chooses exotic multicolored twine to wrap his book with.

Emi’s beautifully illustrated book.

Sandra’s magnificent paste paper cover- made with an ice scraper, who knew?!

Sandra sharing her colorful completed book.

Maxence’s book is a great juxtaposition of words and images.

Carlos used watercolor paintings inside his book.

I think Carlos loves paste paper as much as I do!

Mathis and Maxence cooling off with fruit popsicles.

What can I say? It was fantastic! After a fun week of teaching a book arts workshop at the Mendocino Art Center,  I rushed home to set up the Art Barn for the grand opening and the Kid’s Poetry & Book Arts Camp. The kids really enjoyed their free-form writing and we made some fantastic messes while creating paste paper and wonderful poetry books. After four days, they each had three finished accordion books, one with a completed, illustrated poem. Thank you Crystal and Susan for being there to help, we couldn’t have done it without you!

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Boonville Art Barn Open House: Supporting our local firefighters

Our Art Barn open house was a great success! Thanks, to all who attended.

As most of Mendocino County, California, continued suffering from overwhelming, out-of-control fires, we used the Art Barn opening as a gathering time and space to create wonderful, hand-made “Thank You” collage cards for our local AV volunteer firefighters who have worked tirelessly on our behalf, saving hundreds of homes in the affected areas. We also made paste paper and wonderfully healing paste paper prayer flags. Tonight we are going to the Anderson Valley Firefighter’s Appreciation Dinner to give them a check (we raised some much-needed funds) and a huge pile of gorgeous and heartfelt cards. It was very therapeutic and fun!

Many special thanks to David, Dawn, Jessica, Taunia, Paula, Lisa, Mary, Neil, Geraldine, Susan, Susan, & Susan (whew!), Ann, Maureen, Vicki, Hannah, Julia, Sara, Julie, Mitch, Dennis, Jane, Regine, and everyone else who stopped in.

Painting with Paper

Kate Castagnola

Susan McClure

Julie Leibenbaum

These collages are what I call “Painting with Paper,”and they are incredibly fun to do. These are all fairly complex examples, but one can create very simple collages with this technique also. When I see paper, especially gorgeous colors from magazine photos- I think “COLOR! Tear-up! Piece together!” What a way to recycle.

White-on-White Collage

Ellen Springwater

Jessica Spain

Susan Addison (close-up)

Julie Leibenbaum

Susan McClure (close-up)

OK, so maybe they are more white-ish-on-white-ish. It was just a starting point. And these are just a few of the wonderful pieces created in the Anderson Valley Collage class. There are more to come!

Altered Card Decks

Julie Leibenbaum

Taunia Green

Susan McClure

Geraldine Rose
Since I am fascinated with all types of playing cards and Tarot card decks, I have been asking students to create their own deck for quite awhile now. They work on an old deck of cards, and–playing with paint, collage, sandpaper, layering, whatever–they create their own deck. Students can use the traditional suits or brainstorm their own. They can design an actual game, a divination deck, or just a visual exploration of personal themes– the deck is their own. The results have been a smorgasboard of personal expression.