Jareth- a Labyrinth Collage

This is a large collage/painting that I made for my brother. I usually am way behind on posting pieces, but this is an exception- I just finished it last week. We both love sci-fi and fantasy movies, Jim Henson and Brian Froud (well, all of the Frouds actually- more on visiting their gallery show for another post- that wasback in 2011- wow! - where does the time go?)

Anyway, I'll keep it short- we decided to theme it based on the movie Labryinth, use Jareth (David Bowie's character) as the central image and to use favorite images and characters from the movie, including shots of Jim Henson and Brian Froud, for the collage. He gave me free reign to do whatever I wanted. My goal was to incorporate as much imagery as possible. The palette just evolved on its own- I don't even remember consciously making choices, although while glazing over Jim Henson's face, I thought it was fitting, as the creator of Kermit, that he was getting painted green. It may not always be easy being green, but I don't think he would have it any other way.

 Notice that Jim Henson is green! teehee

Marjie Kemper's Class at The Ink Pad

  I was just going through some photos and realized I am wayyyyy behind on blogging about classes I've attended in the past year.(actually I haven't blogged about hardly any classes, oops- So I'm starting with this fun and colorful one) Last February I attended a class tought by Marjie Kemper at the Ink Pad in New York. Here's a link to her blog post about the class- Sunday at the Ink Pad. If you scroll down to class photos, you can see me in the checkered apron. :) Her first class was a called Melt Art Madness, which looked fantastic, but unfortunately I was unable to make it. (I did however take a class from Suze Weinberg back in 2009 called Goddess Utee which was awesome, and by the way, the first class I EVER took at Art-is-You. What a way to start my journey! I never knew how much you could do with Utee )  I took the Demystifying Distress Stains and Dylusions Ink Spray Inks with Marjie. What I love about her work is the way she uses bright vibrant color and just the right touches of black to make the colors pop. She's a patient teacher, gives great demonstrations and was kind enough to share her large selection of rubber stamps and supplies. We had so much inky fun! I finished a lot of pages at the class, but had made so many backgrounds that I finished it at home with my little one as helper (studio assistant?)

Here's a pic of  Marjie's class samples- amazing- (used with Marjie's permission)

And here's a shot of all the class attendees- notice our smiles- I'm in front with the checkered apron. On the far left are Pamala and Karen- two regular Ink Pad class attendees and wonderful ladies and artists. 

And finally, one of me- hard at work- notice the amount of inks, stamps, sprays and who knows what else surrounding me- I'm in the zone here!  (Thanks Marjie for letting me use your pics!)

And here's my book- all done! Love looking at all the fun colors and textures.

With my 'studio assistant' at home.