Seth Apter's Blog, page 110

Playing Favorites: Chapter 1

Welcome to the 5th edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. More than 130 artists have answered a series of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented in a series of online posts which will run every Sunday.
Style File, Techniques & Tools, Master Class, and It's Still Life were the first four projects posted and links to all these posts can be found on the sidebar of my blog. The fifth project, Playing Favorites, starts now...


Participants were asked to: share a picture of a favorite piece of art that you have created and explain its meaning to you...
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Holly Dean
"The title of this painting, ARCANUM, means 'a profound secret or mystery'. This dream-like piece suggests to me an ethereal fantasy world in which the observer can lose him or herself. As the creator, I am blown away by the fact that this painting has the same effect on me. That is not something that happens very often, I find."

Jacqueline Auvigne
"This painted collage marks a huge leap of faith in practice - life and art. I took a Nick Bantock workshop that changed my life. Nick knew how to push, encourage and challenge me to get out of my own way and let the inner brilliance out."

Jessica Walthall
"This is a mixed media piece I did in 2010 simply titled Kenilworth Castle. Much of the time, when a piece is finished, I'm left feeling like I've yet to make the art that I see in my head, that I just missed the mark somehow, but not with this piece. There's nothing I'd change, and it came out even better than I envisioned. This piece represents me more as an artist than maybe anything else I've done."

Bonnie Clark
"Decay 1 is a chine colle print created using a solarplate created from a photograph taken in Chinatown of a graffiti covered wall, Akua printmaking inks, and Chinese joss paper. It reminds me that beauty and meaning often lie beneath the surface and aren't always recognizable to everyone."

Jodi Ohl
"Evolve...this piece really speaks to the direction I want to go in with my art, more abstract, lots of layers but with funky contemporary colors. It is what I am...evolving."

Wen Redmond
"My favorite pieces usually represent a turning point for me - sometimes before I even realize it. The 'ah-ha' now I can do this! I created Tender Revelations in 2004 during some major life events. I was returning from a session at the Haystack School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine and was listening to the book tape After the Ecstasy, the Laundry by Jack Kornfield. Tender Revelations was inspired from this quote: 'What can we expect when we enter the forest? To listen more deeply to the quiet. The first steps bring us amazements of tender revelations.'"

Keron Lee (aka The Colourguru)
"Of all the art I have created over the last 10 years - this piece stands out as symbolic. Many of the great loves of my soul and spirit are expressed here - a key of discovery, meaningful words and the use of text, red slippers - for when 'heel clicking' is needed, pared back Gothic arches (one of my favourite forms), Italian art, pears (my other favourite form)...and of course angel's wings. Interestingly that only glimpses of my signature colors are in this composition - but I still feel that it is significant and quintessentially me."

Lisa Scadron
"Other Words III, a mixed media painting, is a unification of three styles I love creating: collage, works of color with metallic leaf, and highly layered and textured canvases. The title of Other Worlds refers to a personal and naturally occurring creative process I experience. I was inspired by the Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk's words, 'Other worlds are the best consolations," in reference to his process of living and writing. His observation perfectly captured my internal formation of ideas, which is akin to watching film fragments of an undiscovered story or world and fleeting color images in my mind."

Crystal Neubauer
"This collage is from a series called Utterings which I regard as a form of worship. I turn off all distractions and allow my thoughts and feelings to flow freely. At the same time I meditate on scripture or thoughts of what God is working on in my life and each collage then becomes a symbolic prayer. The process for me is based in scripture that says when we don't have the words to pray, the Holy Spirit will pray for us in words and utterances known only to God."

Eric Adama
"lost white is one of my favorite pieces. It has everything that I wanted to express: texture, subdued colors, some graffiti, some straight color and I am satisfied about the composition. In a certain way it's a key work."

Evie Zaccardelli
"This is a mixed media piece on wood of The Owl and the Pussycat. Layers of vibrant color laid down with scraping back in places gives it its distressed quality which I love."
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Next "Playing Favorites" will be posted on Sunday, August 26th.[image error]

Teaching Text Tiles

On Friday, September 7th from 6-9pm I will be teaching my workshop Text Tiles at Little Bird Creations in NYC. 
Text TilesLearn to work small with a big impact. In this workshop we will create mixed media paintings on a small scale using 4 x4 and 6x6 cradled wood panels. Even though this class is project-based, the emphasis will be on technique. You will learn a series of approaches to make layered and textured surfaces, which can be applied to an endless number of projects. We will be using text as the main foreground component of each painting, so you will be expressing yourself both in words and visual design.


Little Bird Creations is a new studio space in Manhattan opened by Michele Luxenberg. Upcoming workshops are being taught by Ingrid Dijkers, Dawn Devries Sokol, and other mixed media and scrapbooking artists. In order to view information about and register for workshops at Little Bird Creations, you have to go through their site on Meetup and sign up as a meetup member.[image error]

Industrial Chic

I am part of a blog hop celebrating the launch of Susan Lenart Kazmer's website Industrial Chic.

Industrial Chic is a found object jewelry component collection designed by mixed media artist Susan Lenart Kazmer, and manufactured by Horizon Group USA. Industrial Chic was created for jewelry designers of all levels. Pendants, charms, findings, and chain are available in several finishes to mix and match to create your own individual style. The collection is available exclusively at Michaels.

When Susan asked me to be a part of the blog hop I happily joined in, although I am not a jewelry designer at all. I don't even wear a watch! But the project sounded fun as I would receive a random mix of pieces from the line and had to use them to create anything. I thought this would be a good challenge and signed on!

This is what I received...
I decided to put the ice resin aside for another, future project. Although we were allowed to add any other supplies to our creation, I decided to make it an even bigger challenge and use only the Industrial Chic materials I was sent and to use every single piece. 
I took the materials apart and let them speak to me. And in the end, Orbit was born!




There are many bloggers participating in this blog hop, each of whom received a different random set of materials. You can check out their creations at the following links:
8/10  Barbe St. John8/11  Cheryl Bodkin Waters8/12  Cindi Bisson8/13  Gretchen McHale8/14  Jenny Barnett Rohrs8/15  Kari McKnight-Holbrook8/16  Lindsay Obermeyer8/17  Seth Apter - You Are Here Now!8/18  Suze Weinberg8/19  Tami Bayer8/20  Theresa Cifali8/21  Tracie Stivers Lampe8/22  Traci Bautista8/23  Jen Crossley8/24  Eileen Hull8/25  Pam Carriker8/26  Sandy Martin
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Memoire

Memoire: An Artist Book



















Art allows you to travel without ever leaving home...
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Survey Says.........

For those of you who have seen my book The Pulse of Mixed Media: Secrets and Passions of 100 Artists Revealed , you will already be familiar with the sidebars throughout the book that share the results of a series of survey questions I posted on my blog. For example:
Have you ever been jealous of another artist's skills?Yes: 69%No: 31%
Would you describe yourself as talented?Yes, I recognize my talent: 49%Yes, but I don't always admit it: 38%No, I just don't feel that way: 13%
What is your most creative or productive time of day?Morning: 41%Afternoon: 22%Evening: 22%Middle of the night: 15%
I am planning on including this same feature in my second book, which I am working on now and which will be released by North Light Books in December 2013. It is important for me that the content of my books be a reflection of our community. As such, these survey questions are your opportunity to have your voice be a part of the book.
Beginning today, and continuing on every Monday for at least the next several months, I will post a series of new questions on my sidebar. Everybody is eligible to vote and I encourage you all to make your voice heard. All responses are anonymous. 
So pull back the curtain and turn the lever. It is time to vote.....

It's Still Life: Chapter 11

Welcome to the 5th edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. More than 130 artists have answered a series of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented in a series of online posts which will run every Sunday.
Style File, Techniques & Tools, and Master Class were the first three projects posted and links to all these posts can be found on the sidebar of my blog. The fourth project, It's Still Life, continues now...


Participants were asked to photograph a still life that you create using an array of objects.
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Judy Shea
"bellishments"

Martha Marshall
"Martha's Collection"

Laura Lein-Svencner

Kelly Kilmer
"A photo of my journal with scissors, glue stick, ruler, bone folder."

Donna Joy
"Tribute to Halloween"

Svetlana Spasojevic
"First aid"

Terry Rafferty
"Eventually I will paint some of these blocks - but I get totally lost in the set-ups."

Jacqueline Auvigne

Stacey Merrill
"I kept adding 'everything but the kitchen sink' to my still life...the decided to shoot the kitchen sink instead ;)"

Debrina: Debbie Price-Ewen
"Alicia Caudle and I are always sending each other parcels and this is a selection of the wonderful things she has sent me. Pure inspiration!"

Alicia Caudle
"This is a still life of some of my favorite things -- undamaged Frozen Charlottes, a Victorian era doll and head, vintage watch parts, nature bits and some of my small animal skulls."
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This post is the last in the "It's Still Life Series". You can always link to all the posts from my sidebar.

Join me next Sunday, August 19th, for the next project from The Pulse

#PulseParty

You are all invited to a party. A Twitter party. Earlier in the year I held a Twitter Launch Party to celebrate the release of The Pulse of Mixed Media. The tweets flew fast and furious and we all had so much fun. I knew at that time that I would be hosting more parties on Twitter and the next one is now on the schedule.


Join me and many of your favorite art bloggers in a "real time" conversation on Wednesday August 21st on Twitter from 9-10pm EST. Everybody is welcome, but you need to have a Twitter account to join in. For this party, all tweets need to include the hashtag #PulseParty.

Like any party, you need directions to get there. There are two routes that you can take:

1. If you already use (or are willing to join) a Twitter client such as TweetDeck or HootSuite, you can sign up to follow the hashtag #PulseParty. In doing so, all the tweets that include #PulseParty will automatically show up on your account. But...so will all the other tweets you normally get. Remember, at the party you must type in the words #PulseParty for your tweets to be seen.

2. If you join TweetChat, you can spend the hour in a TweetChat room where you will only be able to see the tweets from people at the party and no other tweets from those people you follow. Signing up is quick and easy and I highly recommend this approach, even if you already use TweetDeck or HootSuite. You can try it out now.

It is simple. Sign up with TweetChat in advance here by linking your Twitter account. When the party starts, sign into your TweetChat account and enter hashtag #PulseParty. This will automatically take you to a "private room" where all the other partygoers will be. Chat in real time for the hour and when the party is over, just close the page.

Everyone is invited. Please spread the word. No need to RSVP. This is one party where you can just show up!

If you have any questions at all about this, please feel free to email me.

Weekend at Parallax

This past weekend I was an exhibiting artist at the inaugural Parallax Art Fair in NYC. The event was held at 82 Mercer Street in SoHo. Approximately 180 emerging and established artists exhibited and there was a tremendous variety of art on display.
Mercer Street
The opening on Friday night was mobbed. There were literally hundreds of people there and the atmosphere was charged.


I was very happy with the location of my booth, which was shared with two wonderful artists: Amanda Mudrovich and Eileen Williams.

I chose to display two series: Interior Angles (acrylic) and Passages (Mixed Media).

Passages
Interior Angles
Happy to be able to say that I sold a number of pieces.
Since you all couldn't be there to see the work in person, I decided to bring the work to you. 
From my YouTube channel AlteredPage...take a walk with me through Parallax:

It's Still Life: Chapter 10

Welcome to the 5th edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. More than 130 artists have answered a series of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented in a series of online posts which will run every Sunday.
Style File, Techniques & Tools, and Master Class were the first three projects posted and links to all these posts can be found on the sidebar of my blog. The fourth project, It's Still Life, continues now...


Participants were asked to photograph a still life that you create using an array of objects.
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Brian Kasstle

Rebeca Trevino
"After my father passed away, I found, among other things, a bucket of marbles in his tool shed. As a little girl, he and I would often go for long walks. On these walks he would always find 'things' like marbles, or keys, or coins. I remember that he would pick up these things, look at them closely and wonder out loud about who might have lost such a treasure. I never knew what he did with these things, but years later, here they all were, right where he left them."

Maria Avila
Trudi Sissons
"I felt compelled to use this image - it was such a magical moment! And at first glance...'a still life'"

Kim Logan
"This is an image I took at an exhibition in London at the Haywood gallery last year. It is Ernesto Neto: The Edges of the World. An incredibly inspirational and engaging artist melding sculpture with architecture in a fascinating way."

Ange
"I can't 'organise' a still life. I have them around me all the time comprised of objects that are casually discarded, or placed down haphazardly because there is usually something more pressing to attend to elsewhere."

Lisa Scadron
"Other Worlds II"

Deb Eck
"Eggs! My current obsession!!"

annie!
"A still life that I've created using objects...in this case a tablecloth and an eyeglasses case."

Jacquelyn Long

Pat Pintingolo


-------------------------------------------Next "It's Still Life" will be held on Sunday, August 12th.This will be the last in the 'Still Life' series.

Get to Work(shop)

Spots are still available for my Memory Box workshop being held on August 18th at The Ink Pad In NYC.

Think outside the box by going INSIDE the box and creating a unique, personalized time capsule for your memories. You can read more about the workshop here.
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 Art is...You is being held from October 4th to October 8th in Stamford, Connecticut. My workshop, 52 Card Pickup, is full.

I will also be vending at the Art Trunk on Saturday, October 6th, an event that is open to the public even if you are not attending the retreat. 
If you have been thinking about attending the retreat, now is the time. There is a fire sale ending today, August 3rd, where new registrations get $10 off full day workshops.

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I am in the midst of planning my workshop schedule for 2013 now. Hard to believe, but next year will be here before we know it. In addition to applying to teach at three major retreats, I am planning numerous classes in NYC - including both multi-day workshops and multi-instructor workshops, and am scheduled to teach 5 workshops in the Northwest in the month of May.
Please email me at shap97@gmail.com if you are a venue or know of a venue where you think I would be a good match. I would love to try to come to a neighborhood near you!