ArtFest.......A Retrospective Part 2

March 30, 2012

Today I attended the class "Postcards To The Edge"  conceived and taught by Orly Avineri.  This was the second year that I participated in a class taught by Orly and I was eager to participate.

The main premise of the class was to "Create....not produce".  Orly has a way of getting the student to dig deep and bring out elements of the creative spirit long hidden.

The method used for creating was interesting.  We used cereal boxes as our substrate and found objects as collage elements.  We painted, made images of our hands and spray paint as we designed cards using prompts given by Orly.

The picture below started out as my least favorite post card; however after working with it and using the Prompt, "This little Piggy...."

As we built layers on our card we made a template from craft foam of our hand.  With the instruction to get as much of your hand on the card as possible, I closed my fingers so that the hand would fit.  When I looked around the room, I was the only one who closed their hand.  The effect was that the molding paste rimmed the outer fame of my hand giving the image of a door instead of fingers.

I went up to Orly for another piece of foam so I could start over and she told me to try and use what I had, there are no accidents and it should be used.

Well, I painted and sprayed the image and it captured my heart because it looked like my hand was waiting to hold and help.  But back to this little Piggy.  When I heard the prompt, the following came to mind:


This little piggie (sic) went to surgery.
This little piggy had radiation...
This little piggy has spent time healing
This little piggy has hope.

I am going to frame this card, I love the colors and the meaning.....This trip to ArtFest is the first trip I have taken since completing treatment for Breast Cancer and so the entire retreat has special meaning for me.

FRIENDS FOREVER.....

This picture is of Friends I met at the first ArtFest I attended in 2010, Brenda, Karen, Jenny and Anita.  For the past three years we have talked in between retreats, shared emails, encouraged endeavors and planned.  When we get together at ArtFest, we share meals, classes and laughter.  Now that ArtFest has ended, we plan to get together once a year and create.

I could go on and on, but I will stop and save the rest for part 3.    Take care dear reader and remember to "Create....not produce."