Peace Day at the Labyrinth

Saint George Episcopal Church 
24219 Witte Road S.E. 
Maple Valley, WA 98038 

Cole and I were once again invited to paint next to the beautiful labyrinth on September 21st for Peace Day. As people come to walk the labyrinth in quiet contemplation or in fellowship with others, we will be there capturing the joy and beauty of the event. All are encouraged to join. We will have hands-on activities for the kids since it was such a hit last time!

Please invite others. Build a community of peace in your own part of the world!

Cash Mob at Happy Delusions

Sadly, our friend Mary Clymer is closing her store in Renton. Happy Delusions had been a bright spot in Renton as many businesses struggle to stay above water. Mary has given many artists and crafters a place to showcase and sell their work for the last 5 years. August and September will be the last chances to visit and support this great shop. A cash mob is planned on September 25th to show our love and appreciation for Mary. Don't miss it!!!

https://www.facebook.com/events/326103370815472/

Happy Delusions
924 S. 3rd St., Renton, Washington 98057
September 25th 12:00

ART CAMP 2012: SO much fun!!!

Our campers were all girls this year! We made tools, got brave and used them to make art supplies, and then got down to creating a whole bunch of fantastic and functional things!!! Hope you enjoy the pics and can see yourself joining us sometime. YES we mean adults too! Watch for one day classes. Some of them will be sure to fit your interests!

Featured Artists at Happy Delusions in March!

Cole Here ~ We had a great time rocking the windows at Happy Delusions - 924 S 3rd St Renton, WA 98057 from 6-9 pm tomorrow night.  Come for snacks & wine!

2011 Collected & 2012 Began - Part 3

Cole Here - Metal work done.  Now the rubber meets the road.  I am writing this in hopes that it happens in my own space.  "do what I blog, not what I do"

Tackling the bags of supply's a jumble after the Christmas dash.  Are any of you like me an in the insane rush to get handmade commissions & gifts made you now have no idea where your supply's actually are.  Cultivate is my word for my work in 2012 but "EVERY THING IN IT'S PLACE is my phrase for my home in 2012 (& Yes my studio is in my home... so no excuses).

I went out with my art sisters for holiday lunch this week and everyone was saying that they are the only ones who go into their studio so that is where the christmas presents are stored, wrapping, and in general piles.  Except for Sister Darcie - who let's just say - is a super hero of organization.  She has a small but mighty studio and keeps it neat.... I need to work on it!

So step one - WADE IN.... survey, breath and set a 15 minute timer.  Garbage bag in hand, and basket of doesn't belong here in the corner & goodwill bag in the other corner.  Start by cleaning out a path & table work area.

Step Two - Continuing to work in 15 minute incraments until you need a break, drink or just to sit down....

Step Three - keep your goals in mind.  Brenda Dayne from Cast On podcast (yes - I do not knit but I listen to a knitting podcast - I love her what can I say)  does an "annual airing of the stash"  I love this idea.  What do you really have, what can you make?  Try taking the first three month challenge.

• Challenge - Do not enter a craft supply store from Jan - March.  Works completely from your stash.  
• Air your stash
• Make project bags where you can gather all you need for a certain craft.  
• I make supply suitcases - one for felting, one for altered book journaling,

Tomorrow - Keep working on the studio!

2011 Collected & 2012 Began - Part 2

Cole Here - Now you have written down your UFO's, Successes & Learning you want to hold onto... and set free the projects that you never need to see again.  Today is looking 2012 beginnings and direction.

Five Medium Focus - I am one of those artists who just will never be able to pick and stick with a medium... so I pick five each year to stick with for that year.  This helps me limit my range and learn and work more deeply in these arena's.  Just from a stuff management perspective - I don't go shopping and have random stuff end up in my cart as much.  And I can put away supply's in deep freeze storage if I know they are not my focus that year.

• What are your five mediums?  Mine are acrylic painting (stick), Mixed media collage (stick), Rug Hooking (Stick), Sewing & Quilting (new to me), art journaling (new to me)

Project Focus - What projects are you going to attempt.  I try and list all the idea's I would like to fit it.  Last year I had twelve that fit into each month.  I finished 10 of 12 and one is left in UFO's and the other has been set free from 2011.

• What is your project focus?  A few of mine are Encrusted Baby Quilt (art quilt), Jenni's Sign (acrylic commission), Susan's pillows & painting Commission (rug hooking & pillow), Judy's Dog Flower Commission UFO (stained glass - because it is a ufo)

Learning Focus - What do you want to learn this year.  A magazine subscription you just must have, classes you always wanted to take?  I have often related my obsession with the library to a masters degree.  With as much learning as I do each year for free I feel like am working my way through an 'Handcrafted Masters'

• What is your learning focus this year?  Quilting, Quilting, Quilting for me - I am working on getting a new sewing machine and would love to USE every feature on the machine in the first year.  I am hoping to really learn what it can do!

Marketing & professional Focus - Shows you want to enter, blogs you want to start, stores or galleries you want to hang in.  Where is your focus?  How are you going to make the time for marketing?  

• Shows I want to focus on - 
• Blog Plan for 2012 - at least once a week for the year.
• Podcast ???
• Stores & Galleries - 
• Submissions - 
• Taxes & Billing - Smash taking over in 2012 Awesome!

Tomorrow - Tackling the studio!

2011 Collected & 2012 Began - Part 1

Cole Here - I am a self-confessed planner.  I love to look back and collect those things I loved about the last year & begin the new year with a vision-casting session for myself.  This is the start of a multi-part series on refocusing your art in 2012

I have spent a lot of time thinking, praying and talking through my art goals.  I believe it is one of the reasons I am as productive as I am.  Smash (hubby) said something to me this year that helped me focus - "climb up a coconut tree every so often and see if you are still going in the direction you chose, then hit the ground and go powerfully in that direction!"

• UFO's - to continue, to set free or to return to stash as a cuttable piece.  Let it go with grace!
• Successes - I love to Collect all my art successes on one journal page - it always makes me feel great.
• Learning I want to continue to incorporate into my work - do you have techniques that you just plane forget to do, even though you love it?  I have a technique page in the back of my art journal that I fill with successful techniques.  Just to keep track of them. I flip to it when I am stuck on a painting.
• I have a few learning binders where I put articles I want to keep.  I also try to flip through and purge these at this time.

More tomorrow.... Squirt is up!

Belly Casting - Oh how I love it!

Cole here -
Belly Casting is a rare and genuine way to memorialize an especially precious time in life.  Don in the last weeks of pregnancy, I cast your belly , bust and belly or bust, belly and sholdes for a forever sculpture.  Display in a nursing corner, in your bedroom or make a unique bowl that you know the true shape of.

I have heard of women using theirs to hold all the precious bits from the first weeks of the babies life as a time capsule.  The cloths they came home in, pictures & notes from friends.  We love our belly (hubby loves looking at it and remembering all we went through)... and our little one loves to hear the story about when Momma's belly had Squirt inside!

Contact me if you would like this special item as part of your birth experience - cole@woohoocreative.com

Help me name the Moose at the sale or comment on the blog!

Cole Here - I don't love the naming process of some of my creations!  Can you help me name this bad boy?

Sale info -  December 3 - 10-3 pm @ Studio Woo Hoo 

email for the address - cole@woohoocreative.com

Come see us & the Moose at the sale!  We will be working, chatting, snacking and probably drinking a little! Join us for the merriment and get a little shopping in too! If you are not local check out our Etsy shop for a handmade gift!  Give Local Art for the Holidays!

One busy week of...

Darcie here...
All in one week we managed to fit in taking a class with Jacqui Beck at artEAST in Issaquah, Cole teaching a labyrinth class at St George's Episcopal, and attending an art party at The Annex in Seattle with Traci Bautista. All this and we worked in our studios too!

Sometime in the middle of the week we sweet talked my husband Rob into helping us in the shop with some ideas we had. To see what some of these ideas and some of this busy week of art  inspired, come see us at our Open Studio sale on December 3rd! We always love meeting you and hope to put one of a kind hand made art into some of your homes!

Email us for the address to our open studio sale... cole@woohoocreative.com

Mini-Show at Gallery 3

Cole Here -

I spent a few weeks gathering bits & pieces of small collage to create an interesting series of Mini's for the Gallery 3 mini-show! My sub-straits were varied and so fun to work on - film canisters, flooring samples, cigar boxes & ping pong paddles. Who ever said a collage should be framed up and under glass? The hardest part is - how do I get things to hang on the wall? Loads of time investigating at the hardware store.

THE FACTS

Gallery 3

333 Meridian, Suite 103

Puyallup, WA

Tues - Sat 11 am - 5 pm

show comes down 11/29 so check it out!

Woo Hoo Creative Open Studio SALE

Give Local (if you're in Seattle) Art for the Holidays!

December 3 10-3 pm @ Studio Woo Hoo

email for the address - cole@woohoocreative.com

We will be working, chatting, snacking and probably drinking a little! Join us for the merriment and get a little shopping in too! If you are not local check out our Etsy shop for a handmade gift!

WOO HOO ART CAMP DATES 2011 & 2012

School Break Art Days

9-3 pm Lunch provided

Dec 28, Feb 21, Apr 4 & Apr 11

$60 per day

Woo Hoo Art Camp

Two times - 9-noon OR 1-4 pm

July 23-27

$150 for the week

Email me for the PDF Registration form - cole@woohoocreative.com

We are hosting School Break Art Days & bringing back the popular week long Art Camp this Summer 2012! Check it out and sign up now!

A day/week filled with hands on, messy, fun, recycled, outrageous art

projects.

All creations will be your own…no factory art here!!

Dress for mess and be prepared to use your imagination to put your

own twist on every project. 2 Professional multi-media artists will lead

you in the mechanics and help you to learn to use the materials. Lunch is provided for each School Break Art Day & a snack is served each day of Art Camp.

Woo Hoo @ ArtRagous this summer

Darcie & Cole will be at the City of Auburn's ArtRagous this August. Mark your calendars

http://www.auburnwa.gov/community/arts_entertainment/artrageous.asp

Saturday, August 6, 2011, 11- 4 pm

Auburn's Les Gove Park, 11th ST SE & Auburn Way S

It looks like a very fun event!

FROM THE WEB - CRAFTY CHICA

Hola ~

I am inspired by Kathy Cano-Murillo aka the Crafty Chica. CraftyChica.com | Official site of award-winnning artist and novelist, Kathy Cano-Murillo.

I will devote the next few blog entries to all things Chica-ee. Go check out her fabulous site and be inspired yourself.

SHOW & TELL - Rug Hooking Gallery

Rug Hooking Gallery~ In honor of the Royal Wedding I will be hooking & hooked to my TV tomorrow! These are rugs, pillows & rackets I hooked in the last two years.

EASTER & ARTIST CRUSHES!

Happy Easter! Had a great morning at church. Everyone loved the prayer flags and we had three baptisms this morning and I even learned how to ring the bell at church.

Sundays are my day to profess my love - for blogs & artists crush on.

Short but great list-

• http://web.me.com/annebagby/Anne_Bagby/home.html. Anne Bagby has inspired me to use layered paper. And given me my favorite new tool in the studio - DELI PAPER
• http://www.stephenbwhatley.com/ Yummy color and astounding paint.

GALLERY 3 - New place to see my work

My work is now showing at Gallery 3 in Puyallup, Washington. Thier website hasn't caught up yet. But, here is the site, look for updates soon - www.gallerythree.org

17 local artist- watercolor, acrylic, fiber, glass, sculture & jewelry artist. They are a fun group and I look forward to getting to know them better.

Please join us for The Mad Hatter Party, May 21 - 5-7 pm. It is the opening reception for the new artists. I am one of four in this new freshmen class.

Secret of Kells project will continue tomorrow... I am working at Gallery 3 all day and felt the need to annouce my new endevor today! Cheers.

INSPIRATION FROM NETFLIX - The Secret of Kells

Directors - Tomm Moore, Nora Twomey ©2009

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0485601

I adore this movie and so does my 2.5 year old (yes he is a little young for it but he loves it… he calls it his tiger one). I have had the opportunity to watch this movie a lot lately. I mean a lot. Did I mention almost daily…. Now I sit back with my sketchbook and watch with artist eyes.

It is beautiful – I did an imdb search and was disappointed to not see any more by the director or art director. So then I went to the library and looked for the Book of Kells, And found a beautiful book about it. I also found a book about the making of the Saint John Bible. Funny moment with this film, my painting partner Darcie & I often trade tips on "art obsessed" movies, books & the like. She said she saw something animated that I simply must see and I cut her off and said "Secret of Kells." We laughed and put it on the TV as we crafted away.

I wanted to start a prayer flag project and over the next week I will show you how the Secret of Kells inspired me to do more research then eventually do an illumination project of my own!

BLOGS I LOVE TO VISIT

On a lazy Sunday I love to stroll craft/art blogs I love... here is my current crush list

• http://www.oneprettything.com/ -OK this one I stroll everyday!
• http://www.terribleyelloweyes.com/
• http://alisaburke.com/home.html
• http://kollaj.typepad.com/
• http://www.teeshaslandofodd.com

For a short post - this took me a long time... yep got caught in the idle surf of the web again. Thank you to all those artists and crafters who are so generous with sharing their work. I aspire!