Outside the Comfort Zone
Two more applications are out, for shows in June; the Frederick Festival of the Arts (MD), and the Boardwalk Art Show & Festival (VA). Both are on Zapplication.org, which makes life easier; no slides, no mailing, and the site is very easy to use. 'Keeping fingers crossed that my first two weekends of June will be extremely busy ones!
I have also accomplished one of the things I set out to do to venture outside of my comfort zone: Last week, I joined my local mixed media artists' guild. I attended a meeting, showed them two shadow boxes (to raves, amazed expressions, and lots of 'how did you do that?' questions), and listened to the plans for the coming year's activities for the Guild. And, I also volunteered to do a marbled paper demo for one of the 'play day' meetings. The women of the group were funny, creative, encouraging, imaginative and serious about mixed media art. I enjoyed meeting them, and I'm looking forward to getting to know them and their work better. I also look forward to picking up some more tips and information about new techniques and media.
I say "more" because at that first meeting, an artist mentioned she'd been introduced to a product in the Golden paint line, called Fiber Paste. She said she'd used it on freezer paper, let it dry, and peeled it off, to produce a fabric-like sheet. My ears perked up at this; I'd been thinking about how or if I could make my own fabric (or fabric-like) backing material for the Ancestress shadow boxes. This could be it! Even better: when I got home, I mentioned it to my husband, and he said he'd bought some fiber paste a couple of months ago, but hadn't had a chance to try it yet! How cool is that?!
Off to experiment...details later.
I have also accomplished one of the things I set out to do to venture outside of my comfort zone: Last week, I joined my local mixed media artists' guild. I attended a meeting, showed them two shadow boxes (to raves, amazed expressions, and lots of 'how did you do that?' questions), and listened to the plans for the coming year's activities for the Guild. And, I also volunteered to do a marbled paper demo for one of the 'play day' meetings. The women of the group were funny, creative, encouraging, imaginative and serious about mixed media art. I enjoyed meeting them, and I'm looking forward to getting to know them and their work better. I also look forward to picking up some more tips and information about new techniques and media.
I say "more" because at that first meeting, an artist mentioned she'd been introduced to a product in the Golden paint line, called Fiber Paste. She said she'd used it on freezer paper, let it dry, and peeled it off, to produce a fabric-like sheet. My ears perked up at this; I'd been thinking about how or if I could make my own fabric (or fabric-like) backing material for the Ancestress shadow boxes. This could be it! Even better: when I got home, I mentioned it to my husband, and he said he'd bought some fiber paste a couple of months ago, but hadn't had a chance to try it yet! How cool is that?!
Off to experiment...details later.
Comments
Good luck with Frederick. I hear it is a very hard show to get into. I'd love to say I know someone who made it! It's supposed to be a *very* good show!
Boardwalk in Va - Va Beach? That's another one someone mentioned last year as growing.
Sounds like you're definitely venturing in the right direction!
I'm keeping my fingers crossed about the shows; I've heard good things about each, and would love to do them both!