July 17

As I said, I am back and I have big news! Next week's art camp now includes cartooning and face painting. Yes, you heard me right--we are doing face painting and cartoons. So, if you like crazy hair, out of proportion noses, paint on your face, and happy smiles, this is right for you. 

The past couple of days was spent re-arranging the studio, so now we have an extra work space where people can come in and do private work. Plus, my mom is looking for someone to help her at the studio. Call her if you have any questions.
This is the most advanced week with self portraits and pointillism. The classes are going  exceptionally well—besides the fact my mother accidentally threw away my self portrait and we just broke a mirror. (7 years of bad luck)  =(

June 27

Our Cowgirls coral their herd of horses.

Cacti made from clay, toothpicks and acrylic paint.

As I mentioned yesterday, we are doing the tempera-batik today but instead of using the India Ink which was called for in the instructions, we are using diluted black acrylic paint. My mom experimented a little bit and in the end the paintings turned out great. 
The campers created little cacti that we made by molding clay and sticking in toothpicks pieces, and they loved that. We have our own My Artz Desire Cactus Garden. They also played with toy horses while we got ready for the next craft.

One of the other crafts we did was sand-scapes (landscapes of the desert) -with inspiration from Georgia O'Keeffe. Check out her museum website.  Basically sand paper "painted" with glue and colored sand poured on it, the finished pieces look pretty and it was a really good craft for younger kids because it's so simple. 

Our final project was decorating terracotta pots.  We used paint markers instead of paint brushes because it dries quickly and it's easier to control. This was when we used the Native American symbols I found for my mom yesterday. 

A Sunday Afternoon by Seurat

Our next Summer Art Camp will begin on July 16th, and the theme will be Up Close And Personal. We will study impressionism and Pointillism, we will do self-portraits and thumb print art. 

It will probably be a couple of days until my next post because we are taking a break (or maybe a few weeks) but I will keep going.

Thanks for reading.

June 26

Today is  the second day of my writing the blog and it is also the second day of the Wild West summer camp. Today we are doing painting on terracotta pots like Native Americans. That should be fun. I drew little Indian symbols on a white board for the kids to look at while they are doing the painting.
Before camp we ran into a little snag-we were supposed to finish a project similar to batik using India Ink, but someone borrowed my mother's India Ink and didn't give it back, so we will have to finish that project tomorrow, hopefully.
After that we are going to be beading some bandannas to wear like cowboys. Later, we are going to paint some rocks like gold nuggets (think the California Gold-rush) and my mom will handout little napkins of Pops cereal. I am having so much fun doing the blog and I can't wait to do the next one.

June 25th

Today is the beginning of our third installment of Summer Art Camp. We are starting The Wild West. We will study a couple of western artists as well as drawing horses, making clay cacti and painting on terracotta pots.

My son, Ben, will be taking over the blog for the summer,
since I need so much help with office work.

I found a really cool idea for making wrapped bracelets. Check it out, folks.

 OK! I am Ben, and as my mom said, I will be taking over the blog this summer. Cool right? This means that I get to tell you guys about what is going on in the studio. Last week, the summer camp theme was Birds of a Feather, and that was all about flying things and things in the air. We made some cool mobiles with just some skewers, tape, styrofoam balls, pipe cleaners, and string. 

I led one of the projects that was making kites and I loved it. There is nothing that makes you feel better than seeing ten kids running around  a field dragging kites behind them and knowing you made them all so happy. That camp was really fun and I hope we have a good turnout for the other camps. 

After this week, we have three left and I think you might like them because its a good variety. They are Up Close and Personal (July 16-18) which is about fingerprints, self portraits, and pointillism; Lost in Spaces (July 23-25) which is about 2D vs. 3D, perspective drawing and aliens or robots; and the last one is Fabric Arts (July 30-August 1) and during this one we will make stuffed animals, do weaving, and recycle clothes. If you have any questions or would like to register for camp, you can just call 765-365-2750. The price is $60 per kid for 3 days of fun, Mon-Wed, 9am-1pm.

My weekend as a student.

I spent the weekend painting with Rob O'Dell at one of his watercolor painting workshops. It is truly a wonderful experience to paint with and to get tips from a master painter. While I was there I was so critical of what I was doing, but now, 24 hours later I can see that I did great work-of a caliber I would not have attempted prior to the workshop. He encouraged and pushed me. He stretched me and taught me. I have been doing art all my life. I have a formal art education. I define myself as a painter yet this was a great learning experience. You are never too old nor is it ever too late to learn.

This is just the beginning

Well, I never thought I would do this, but I'm gonna try blogging for a while. The studio is such a dynamic beast and it's always changing, so I thought this would be the best way to keep up with eveything folks want to know about My Artz Desire art studio. Once I locate a plug-in for my calendar and for event registering, this will be the hot spot for everything you want to know about the classes and the studio.

Wish me luck...especially with my 'u' key which doesn't always want to give up a U.