My spot in the world

Whenever I think about the past places I've lived, fond memories of walking on busy streets among all the people coming and going, shopping and talking.  Recently I visited my childhood summer home and realized that of all the places I lived there is ONE spot on this planet, yes a spot, that is my favorite place in the world. Granted, the weather must be good to enjoy this "spot" and mother nature did not disappoint. I stood facing out to the Atlantic with the sun shining down on me, as the waves of refreshing salt water crashed on the shore. It was in that moment, that I realized my favorite place wasnt about the people that lived there or the shops, it was the feeling that this spot gave me. Tranquility, peace, fresh salty air that filled my spirit. It was the sun shining on my face as I stood in the sand with the waves of the atlantic rushing up my legs. It has always been that spot that drew me back each time.

On this trip, I realized a few things. It doesn't matter where you live to pursue your dreams. It takes babysteps no matter where you are.

Experimenting

Last spring I took a silk screen class with Gail Stouffer at her new studio, Roadhouse Art. On the last day of class, Gail introduced a.new a technique called "rusting" using iron oxide and a silk screen. I was intrigued by the the metal and the end  result of the little project we did on paper, so I ordered some and finally did my first experiment.

I mixed the iron oxide with water and painted it on my Tekta glass. I allowed it to dry and tac fused it in the kiln.

The interesting part was that in this experiment, it did not "rust", The color remained black, and with just a tac fuse the texture of iron is still there, solidly there.

I will be running a few more experiments using a solution to "rust" the iron before firing. Then I will see how the tac fuse does capped with a full fuse,. Wondering how many bubbles will there be......

So here is my first experiment with iron oxide and glass. Just to make it more interesting,  I painted a sunset background in acrylic on canvas and added the glass in the shadow box frame. The clear glass is muted because I added clear powder frit over the entire piece of glass before firing.

I picked up 5 sheets of Tekta this past weekend form Helios glass so I am looking forward to many more experiments!!

(I will be working on my drawing skills too!)

Sunday = Studio time!!!

My monster kiln arrived recently, a Skutt GM-1414. I love my new kiln, but it  is really HUGE for my studio.  I couldn't stand being in there for too long, it felt so overwhelmingly cluttered, so I spent the day rearranging, cleaning, and getting rid of unwanted items. Particularly, about 75 pounds worth of scrap stained glass. I love social media, one artists scrap glass turns into another artists beautiful mosaics!

With all this cleaning and rearranging, I now have a dedicated area for painting/drawing/glass etching, a cold working area, my light table for color choices,  and my desk to write and think.  I also designed the back splash for the cold working area!    It's been a very productive day!

                                          back splash design
                                         

Alone time, quality time, adventure

We had a death in the family so my husband and his brother left town to take care of everything. I was left at home alone. This was the first time in many years that I was totally alone.

On Saturday, I had an appointment with the volunteer coordinator at the local emergency children's center to check out the facilities and see if I could volunteer some of my time holding babies.  I  figured the babies need love and I could to provide some love to them. I filled out the application, and now waiting for my final reference to come back so I can send it in.

When I left the appointment it was already lunch time and I thought of Bakery Lorraine. Thank you techy people who created the navigation system in my car! 14 minutes later and I was there!  I ordered a grill pressed sandwich that consisted of spinach, sun dried tomato, Fontina and goat cheese on thick slices of sourdough bread. Yum!!!

Treated myself to a salted caramel macaroon as well. Lunch was absolutely scrumptious!

One of the nice things about eating alone is getting to read. I picked up the Current and scanned for things to do.  I ended up at a Pagan Pride Day festival that afternoon. Never been to one before, so I figured, what the hell, I don't have anything else to do! So off I went and browsed the arts and crafts, candles and baths salts. Not much to the festival, they all kind of reminded me of a crowd of friendly hippies.

Sunday, I spent the afternoon at the McNay art museum. Wandering around, enjoying the new exhibit "Intimate Impressionism". They had a real treat that afternoon, French themed food and a movie. Croissant sandwiches, cheese and crackers, french cookies, fruit and drinks. Everything was so good! The food was followed by the 3pm showing of Je T'aime. One of my absolute favorite movies, or should I say 18 short films in one. I must have seen it at least 5 times before, but thought it would be nice to see on a big screen with a bunch of strangers :)

As I passed one of the drawings in the museum it made me smile so I thought I' share!

                                        "Art Lovers" 1939 by Adolph Dehn (1895-1968)