Throughout my teaching career, I’ve taught young, old, male, female, motivated and not-so-motivated. I’ve had a genuine concern for all of my students. During the years I taught my course, “Women in the Visual Arts,” at St. Cloud State, I taught with the intention to bring the vast number of history’s creative women to the …
From the time I was small, I was interested in tools. I was fortunate to have a father who had a shop full of tools, and he didn’t mind sharing them. In fact, my brother and I had free rein in Dad’s shop with the exception of the table saw and the propane torches. Furthermore, …
I don’t know why it is, but I’ve always been attracted to patterns. Textures hold a special appeal, too, but an interesting pattern can stop me in my tracks. That’s what happened one day, a few years ago, when I was visiting my friends, Clive Hicks-Jenkins and Peter Wakelin in Wales. Peter was showing me …
All righty, then… there have a been a few days since I posted my first round of paper jewelry maquettes and meanwhile, I’ve been working on several others, punctuated by further progress on my new studio building and a very quick trip to Washington, DC. Here are the latest maquettes: A bracelet made up of …
What’s a girl to do? New studio isn’t completed and the old studios are in such disarray from packing that she can’t work in them. I know! She should make some jewelry maquettes with the extra enticements of a challenge. My friend, Clive Hicks-Jenkins, has challenged the regular visitors to his Artlog to make maquettes …
There are many, many tools an artist employs in the creation of his or her work. Among the standard tools I use [Xacto knife, brushes, pencils, scissors, gravers, saws, drills, files, etc.] I am a devotee of using the computer to aid in creating and analyzing my designs. A couple of years ago, my family …
Goodness, it’s been since December that I’ve posted anything here. What can I say? I’ve been waiting for a window of opportunity, I suppose. Was it the pre- and post-holiday stuff got the better of me? Or has it been the process of having a new studio built? By now, in mid-February, I have to …
I’ve been lucky to know, since I was about five years old, that I wanted to be an artist. Once, at about that age, I was painting in watercolor on sheets of blank paper, when a skeptical relative said with a sneer, “So, what do you think you are, an artist?” “YES, I AM!” I …
Let’s talk about “play” and the role it must have in the creative process. Often, from my students, I used to hear, “Gee, this can’t be serious stuff, this making art—I had too much fun doing it!” or “This seemed so easy to do, it must not be very meaningful.” There’s this concept that if …
