Friday, August 4, 2017


i flew into smoky and moist seattle

to join john arbuckle and brian kasstle

(both are talented artists listed on my sidebar)

for a three day journaling workshop

on whidbey island.  smoky because of the canadian 

fires, and moist because, compared to the drought 

in los angeles, there appears to be lots of water, though

i am told they, too, are in a drought situation.






the predicted weather couldn't have been more perfect.

notice the word predicted.  it turned out to be warmer

and more humid than expected but this did not dampen

spirits or creativity. 










the project was ambitious.  we were to make a stack journal.  this is 

made up of 6 pieces of cereal box cardboard transformed 

into pieces of collage and painted art.  that's not all.  we 

painted watercolor paper on both sides for a cover to hold  these pages 

and 

made african style bizi sticks to hold it closed. 

in 3 days!





does it sound like a lot?  it was!! 

9-4 every day.  a number of us crazies

returned after dinner for more work on our own.

here are a few of my pages.  wish i had more 

process pictures but as you can see from the 

above schedule,  there weren't' enough time!!











 when i finally did get back to my room, i had to finish


the art forger.   i finished it on the plane ride 

home.  it's based loosely on the biggest art 

heist in history.  500 million dollars of art was stolen 

from the isabella steward gardner museum in boston.  here's 

a short description of the robbery.


in 1990.  In the early hours of March 18, 1990, guards at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Bostonadmitted two men posing as police officers responding to a disturbance call. Once inside, the men tied up the guards and, over the next hour, stole thirteen works of art valued at $500 million – the largest-value theft of private property in history.





and a current update.  



https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-06-20/the-hunt-for-the-isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-artwork


thank you for visiting!


please excuse the inconsistent fonts in this post. 
i blame it on the creativity of blogger this week.



i hope you had a lovely week.  today's post is
linked to paint party friday hosted by eva and kristen weekly.



14 comments:

  1. So happy for you ans know you had a wonderful time.
    Seeing you beautiful work I can picture the setting,
    the mood and the locale. So many memories.

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  2. It sounds like a wonderful workshop! The art you did is beautiful.

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  3. Wow ~ what a wonderful art adventure you had ~ and creations are magnificent ~

    I loved the book The Art Forger ~ great read ^_^

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  4. Sounds like you had a fabulous time creating those beautiful pages.

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  5. It looks and sounds as though it was a fabulous creative break...

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  6. What a wonderful way to be creating art. Your pages are vibrant with colors and images!

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  7. Irene,

    It was such a pleasure to have you in class. Your artwork is stunning. It is always so exciting to see you creating. It was so fun to be together and share and laugh. I charish our friendship.

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  8. Lucky you....you got busy too!!! Happy ppf...xx

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  9. Wow what a wonderfully creative week. Sorry you had to endure the smoke from our wildfires. I'm about 20 minutes from the border and it's all encompassing here. Yet the fires are so far away. Glad you enjoyed your time...at least you didn't get the heat that we did, the smoke actually shielded us from some of it! Love the variety you created this week!

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  10. Wonderful post Irene. Glad you had such a good time in the NW. You flew right over my house. LOL Have a nice Sunday.

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  11. So wonderful spending time in Coupeville together. I am glad you enjoyed the workshop and love what you accomplished. You are a driven artist and it is fun to see you work. Congratulations on all your successes. Love you! :-)

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  12. Sounds like you had a great time together.. I cannot imagine doing so much work in classes, I guess I prefer the process classes more than project.. but your work is stunning!!

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  13. I love your pages, and the workshop sounds awesome! The Bizi stick closure is fascinating (I had tho like then up, fun!!

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