How to Use Chance Encounters to Create Weaving Patterns
Have you ever heard of the Dada art movement? The movement began in Europe in response to the brutality of World War I. Writers, actors, artists, and other creative thinkers adopted the philosophy of the Dada movement as they experimented and explored new ways of making art and defining what was considered art. Surrealists Artists […]
How Materials Create Meaning in Art
If you’re taking or even thinking about taking an advanced placement studio art class, you might have heard people talking about making connections between your ideas and the materials and processes that you use to bring your ideas to life. At first, that sounds hard and confusing. You select your materials and processes, based on […]
I Spy…..
Think back to when you were a kid, do you remember playing I spy? You might have looked around the room and said something like, ” I spy with my little eye something green and round”. Then those playing the game with you, were challenged to look around the room and see if they could […]
Reading Images
Do you know how many images you see in a day? Do you realize that you regularly read and interpret visuals? Artists and designers use the elements and principles of art and design as a language to communicate visually. Whether you have spent years studying visual literacy or don’t even know what it is, you’ve […]
Why You Should Learn Paper Weaving
It’s likely that at some point during your time in elementary art class, you learned about paper weaving (and if you didn’t, I’m sorry). You selected a few strips of pre-cut colored paper and then practiced going over and under, over and under, resulting in a simple pattern. In weaving terms, you learned to create […]
How to Declutter Your House
These are not traditional cleaning tips like how to have a dust-free house in under 10 minutes. I don’t know how to do that. Please send me suggestions if you know how to have a dust-free home in under 10 minutes. A better title for this would have been creative ways to pretend to clean […]
Recommended Reading: Books about Textiles
It’s been a few years since I’ve had the week off between Christmas and New Year, so when it was announced that we would be closed for the week, I quickly requested a pile of books from the library. My goal was to spend my week off, snuggled by the fire, reading books, and I […]
How to Scaffold Your Learning
I never learned how to do paper weaving, at least not that I remember. You might not think that’s a big deal, and in some ways, it’s not, but since I spent ten years designing and selling woven textiles, it made my learning curve steeper than it needed to be. In my college weaving class, […]
Why You Aren’t Getting Anything Done
No matter who you are, you probably feel behind on something. Before we get into practical ways to catch up, let’s determine if you need to. We often feel behind because we’ve made up false rules or expectations. Or, we’ve created a list and aren’t taking the time to reflect and realize that if something […]
Make it an experiment
I’m working on at least 5 “experiments” at any given time. I may be experimenting with propagating plants, planning illustrations for a new book, testing a new marketing idea, and exploring new ways to engage online students. You might call them projects on things on your to-do list. I call them experiments. Experimenting implies that […]