SCAD Road Trip Part 1

A couple weeks ago I hopped in the car with my friend and fellow artist/ teacher Shelley Osowiecki and we headed to Savannah, GA for an Educator Forum at the Savannah College of Art and Design.  We made a few stops along the way, did lots of sight seeing, learned some new techniques to use in our own artwork and in our teaching and generally had a blast!  I took about 300 photos, don't worry, I won't bore you with all of them but here are a few of the highlights......

Made it to the GW bridge in NY at dusk, beautiful time to see it!  We stopped for a little fun in DC the next morning.  We hit the Natural History Museum and the Hirshorn Museum of contemporary art.  Shelley was dying to have a butterfly land on her and this one was happy to oblige....

A quick stop at south of the border for a photo op with Pedro because Joe was convinced it was a cultural experience not to be missed, and then we were on our way to Savannah!  SCAD welcomed us with open arms and plenty of schwag!  It was like being a college student again, staying in the dorms for the week!

Shelley and I took different workshops and learned lots of new techniques to use in our own artwork and with our students.  I learned a little about 3D printing, how to use Cinema 4D and a Wanhao 3D printer along with some awesome printing techniques to use on ceramics.  I don't know why I didn't figure this out sooner!  Back to my printmaking roots I go!!!!  Very excited to try more of this now that I' home in my own studio! 

Love this old warehouse that SCAD turned into part of their campus.  One of my workshops was in this group of buildings.

And of course, there was plenty of site seeing..... We took a walking tour around savannah and got to see the oldest building there, lots of the squares filled with live oak trees (I'm a little obsessed with live oaks now) and monuments to all of the historical figures that had a hand in making Savannah what it is and learned a little about Savannah's history.  SCAD's welcome center and Poetter Gallery is on Bull Street with lovely views of one of the squares.  This photo with the church steeple is taken from one of the balconies there.

As strange as it sounds we had quite a few people recommend that we check out Bonaventure cemetery while we were there. I took a photography class in grad school and the professor had a rule....Absolutely NO photographs in cemeteries!  I don't know if even he would have been able to resist at Bonaventure. The combo of old, new and live oak trees with drippy spanish moss was too much to resist!  Side note... it was 100 degrees the day we were at Bonaventure with a heat index of 115 because of the humidity.  Thank god we were able to drive around and get out of the car only when we wanted to take pictures!

 Had to stop and visit little Gracie Watson.  We heard quite a few ghost stories while in Savannah and a couple of them were about her.

Might as well see what the nightlife is like, right?!  This is the view from the rooftop bar at the Bohemian, Rocks on the Roof.  Great place to have a drink and take in views of the bridge and the river.  One of many bars we visited during our stay, including a speakeasy. (Shhhh, I might share a photo of that one too.) 

That's all for now!  I'll post more in a couple days!

Summer Road Trip Part 2

So, after NH and VT we drove North to Canada!!  My first time to Canada so we hit Quebec, visited the Old City and then did some camping and hiking outside the city.  Old Quebec feels like Europe, the people speak French but everyone is super friendly and most people (in the city at least) are bilingual.  Once we got outside the city my french was put to the test a bit.  It's been a while since I've been able to practice so it was lucky we had our lonely plant phrasebook to help us out occasionally.  Ordering Thai food in French is not as easy as it may seem!  Here's a few of my favorite shots from Quebec.  Every time I look through these photos I'm inspired to paint so I may take a break from the jewelry making soon to do some painting.

Lots of fortifications, of course we had to see all the canons.....

One of my favorite areas, the buildings, shops and restaurants are so quaint.

We didn't stay at the Frontenac but we did go inside to check it out.... very impressive.

The little old man approaching us on the bike is about to tell us his life story.  In broken English we learned about his cancer, how it's affecting his brain and he only has a short time to live but he was very excited to see his son Pierre again soon.  Pierre has been traveling a lot and doing important work but he's finally coming back for a visit.  We never did catch his name but he talked to us for about half an hour with us barely getting a word in before riding away on the bike that he isn't supposed to be riding anymore.  I wish now that I had taken his portrait but at least I have this shot to remind me of that experience.  I hope you enjoyed your visit with your son Pierre little old man on the bike.

I was going to explain this photo, but I think I'll just let you wonder about the pelts hanging from that 2nd floor window....

Had no idea we were hitting Quebec on the biggest party of the year.  Famous local band singing in french with irish accents to celtic music...... why not??!!!

Joe LOVES anything military historical so we visited the citadel and were able to catch most of the changing of the guard.  Yes.... that's a goat, the citadels symbol and mascot who participates in the changing of the guard.

Playing with public art outside the art museum..... seriously, how could you not?

Our camp site outside Quebec.  Roughin' it like I never want to rough it again.  Quebec has mosquitos the size of small birds that kept flying toward us even when sprayed directly with Deep Woods Off.  And it poured that night, hence the tarp over the tent.  You'd think that would have kept the water out, and so did we, but we were wrong.  Cold, wet night, shivering, cuddled close together for body warmth, trying to sleep, while water seeped into the tent from the sides.  Probably the worst camping experience I've ever had, but it looks like it might have been fun and it built LOTS of character.

The reason we dealt with the camping... Montmorency Falls.  We're about to walk over the bridge in the next photo down and then climb down the stairs in the photo below that.  Hiking back up that hill to get back to where we started was tough but the falls were gorgeous so the hard work was worth it.

After this we drove on to Montreal.... I'll save those photos for my next installment.

Summer Travels, Part 1

I've spent quite a bit of time traveling this summer and I'm just getting back to the studio so look for more posts about what I'm working on now....  In the meantime, I thought I'd share some photos from my travels!  If you have never been to Franconia Notch State Park in NH, GO!  The Flume Gorge is breathtaking, like a real live fern gully.  I was fascinated by the amount of moss and plant life growing up the rock faces and even trees growing on the tops of boulders, stretching their roots around to reach the ground.  It was probably one of the most inspirational hikes I've taken.  I took hundreds of photos there but here's just a few to give you the idea.....

After camping outside the park for a night, we headed farther north toward Canada and made a pit stop in Glover, VT to check out Bread and Puppet.  If you're a puppetry or performance art fan, it should be on your bucket list.  Unfortunately, they weren't doing a performance on the day we came through but we got to see a little bit of a rehearsal for the performances that are happening now and we check out the barn galleries full of all the puppets from past performances.  Based on the little bit of the rehearsal we saw, the performance looks like it'll be pretty cool.  Here's a few photos from Bread and Puppet to give you an idea of what the galleries are like.  That's Joe in the bottom one, it's hard to tell the scale of some of these puppets without a person in there for scale.  This is one of the coolest and creepiest places I've visited for looking at art.  The photos don't do it justice, it's definitely worth a stop if you're ever in the area.  Great recommendation from a great friend!  I will also pass on this little tid bit..... if you're in the area, stop at the general store in the center of town, you won't regret a walk around the store.  Where else can you see a taxidermy, buy fishing gear, toilet paper and have a sandwich made all in one place!!???

From here we drove up to Canada, but I'll save those photos for my next post!  

Stained Glass Window Restoration

I don't specialize in stained glass restoration but now and then, possibly a family member or friend of a friend convinces me to tackle a project like this.  I have done much more of my own stained glass work than restorations but this is by far the biggest restoration project I've tackled. Here are some of the before pictures for the stained glass restoration project that occupied most of my studio time this spring.  There were two panels, both the same shape and similar styles and colors.  As you can see from the photos, there were quite a few cracked glass pieces that needed to be removed, the cement around the edges of the panels was crumbling, as was the lead came underneath.  A lot of the leads needed to be replaced around the outside of both panels and some of the interior cames as well.  You may not be able to tell from the photos below but the window in the large image was buckled and pressed out in the middle, the leads broken.  I posted the after photos below showing how the restored windows were installed.

And here are the afters.......  Hope you enjoy!

Bunny Cutlet

Hit a couple Galleries in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn, NY this weekend with Joe Dinunzio and thought I'd share some photos of the mural outside Bunny Cutlet.  The gallery itself is probably smaller than the mural, but good things come in small packages, right?  The exhibit titled, Chasing Rainbows, of Kelly Denato's work was pretty awesome.  Her paintings have a very ethereal quality to them.  I love the way she uses acrylics.

We also checked out the Cotton Candy Machine around the corner which has a boutique gift shop feel to it and has a show up of work by Daniel Danger right now whose work has a slightly creepy but surprisingly intriguing narrative vibe to it.

And to top it off we stopped by the Brooklyn Art Library to check out a few sketchbooks.  I highly recommend checking out their site, participating in their projects is pretty cool but sitting in the library and flipping through the sketchbooks is really cool even if you didn't make one.

Inspiration in the Woods

It's amazing how you can find creativity and inspiration in places you least expect it!  Went hiking today at the Rocky Hill quarry and thought I'd share some of my photos from the hike.  I love finding creativity in the woods, the contrast between the graffiti at the quarry and the natural surroundings I find really interesting.  This spot is even MORE interesting because it has these great structures that continue to show wear.  Nature is slowly taking back the spaces these structures occupy, always cool to watch.  I hope you enjoy......