LOOK OUT ...WE HAD AN ART ATTACK!

Well, last Saturday Antoinette and Nicki dropped by in the early afternoon with a delicious Caribbean lunch from Ms. Ena's and their art supplies in hand. Nicki(artist and jewelry designer) came prepared with a beautiful black handbag filled with her infamous puff paints, while Antoinette(doll maker and seamstress) brought cowrie shells, cloth, needle and thread. Since I'm still unable to move about much(see Hard Cast Blues post)they were good for both my sanity and creative juices.

After lunch my husband brought the latest issue of Cloth*Paper Scissors in from the mailbox...right on time. In the January/February issue is an article by Alisa Burke called Paper&Plastic, which outlines how to make some funky handbags out of plastic grocery bags. We decided to give the technique a try and it actually worked quite well,but we never got as far as constructing the actual purse. Needless to say the plastic bag fusing technique held so much promise that we found ourselves looking at a plastic bustier, bows, faces and beautiful lacy textures that would serve as phenomenal backgrounds in my collage work. It's amazing to find yet another opportunity to recycle another throw away item. Probably sent my youngest daughter up the stairs looking for more precious items(washers, screw eyes, small canvasses,etc.) that would be added to the heaping pile of materials we shared over the next eight hours or so, more times than I can remember.Imaginations and creative juices flowed as we huddled over the kitchen table grooving to music, talking and making art in "the zone" until 11:30 p.m.


Yes, how time does fly when you're having fun! Talking about having an art attack...yes, it was quite an experience. By the time the evening had wound down, pizza and wings had been consumed along with coffee and those delicious Godiva biscuits Olivia sent me. We looked at what we had created, new techniques learned, insight we had gleaned from each others creative flow and realized the importance of sharing and encouraging each other as artists. In the meantime I'm looking forward to the next Art Attack!

God Bless and Happy New Year!