“Heat Embossing: Melt Your Way to Art”

I'm offering this free workshop workshop next Monday morning (12 Oct. 2009) at the Davis Senior Center. How this event came about is kind of cool. Every month, one of the art groups at the Davis Senior Center supply artwork for a show in the main hallway. There is a schedule of which shows which month; reserving September & October for ANY senior who got a ribbon at that year's County Fair. (Sept = first place winners, Oct = all other ribbons.) The "Watercolor Class" meets with a teacher and holds formal classes from 9:30-11:00 on Friday mornings. (They have a group of teachers who take turns month-by-month from Sept-June; skipping the summer.) Since they have a great many participants, they never have trouble filling the hall with work done in their class. The Monday morning "Open Art Studio", on the other hand, is not a class and has no teacher. People just bring their work and use the space -- sometimes asking advice of each other. There are very few 'regulars' and most of us spend lots of time on each piece, so there is not a lot of art actually 'done in class'. We often have a hard time getting enough pieces of art to hang in our months. When I got back home in mid-August, I found that the hallway was bare. It was a "Monday" month, most of us were away for the summer, and no one had put anything up. I talked with the other 'regular' who was still around and he agreed I could do a "Lois show" -- so I hung my favorite pieces, including not only paintings (done at the Center) but also photos, collages, and faux-stained-glass.
 The piece that drew the most attention was "Volcano" -- a heat embossed image on a black acrylic canvas. The Senior Center's Director was very interested in learning to make one and so I offered to teach her. Since I was going to teach one person, I suggested I offer a class to anyone who wanted to come! So we arranged for a day & time.  And that's how this workshop came to be!
 Below are the details from my press release:

The volcano that started it all!

    Local Davis artist Lois Richter will hold a FREE workshop on heat embossing -- a technique that melts special powders to create a raised surface on paper or canvas. Lois' inclusion of the art piece ‘Volcano’ in her August 2009 show at the Senior Center led some to ask, “How did you do that?” As usual, her reply was, “I’ll be happy to show you!” and so this workshop was created. Meet at the Davis Senior Center (646 A St) at 10:00 am on Monday (12 October 2009) to learn “Heat Embossing -- How to Melt Your Way to Art”. Please register ahead so I can bring enough supplies. Leave a sign-up message at 530-...

2010 guest exhibitor!

Great news from the Yolo County Fair! Betty Berteaux, who manages both the "Photography" and "Fine Arts" sections (i.e., Waite Hall), has asked ME to be one of the two featured artists at next year's Fair! WOW! What a surprise! What an honor! After initially blurting out "But I'm not good enough!", I quickly agreed to do it. I figured that since I had a YEAR to put together something nice, it shouldn't be too hard. Of course, I wanted to not just show "flat things" (photos & paintings); so I asked if I could include a bookcase to display other objects and Betty said "Yes, as long as you don't block the aisles." Great! The display they provide is made from 3 horizontal 4'x8' panels raised up about 18" on wooden legs. Hinged into a shallow "Z" shape, the display has pegboard on both side -- so I will have 6 panels with 2 interior angles to use. I'm already thinking about what sort of 'set design' I can add as a background for the hanging works and whether or not I want to put up some 'stories' about how certain pieces came to look as they do. Lots to plan!

Haiga 3

This is my third haiga, made August 2009.

The more I've seen about haiga, the more I feel that the IMAGE must be one of the elements of the expression -- rather than an illustration or inspiration for a stand-alone haiku.

To me, HAIKU uses TWO ELEMENTS to convey an impression -- a two-line "phrase" and a one-line "fragment" -- with no complete sentence involved. Either of these elements may be first; but the second line of text is generally longer than the first or the third lines. (I take 5-7-5 as an upper limit for syllables, with shorter lines being welcome and usually preferred.)

To me HAIGA uses THREE ELEMENTS to convey an impression -- a phrase, a fragment, and an image -- with all three being necessary to convey the impression and (conversely) leaving out any one element would change the meaning/feeling of the work.

This, my third haiga, was created using a photo I took of the sun behind a sunflower. The haiku does NOT mention flowers and, if read separately, could stand alone. The image adds another layer ... a specificity ... that directs the reader to focus in a certain direction.
I like this one. I hope you do too.

Haiga 2

This haiga only makes sense IF you know about the region-specific birds involved. In California's central valley, we have some birds which migrate up-&-down instead of north-&-south. Several species, including this Golden-Crowned Sparrow, hang out on my patio all winter long -- eating seed and socializing. Then mid-May they all fly up [east or west] to the foothills to make nests and babies.

So they migrate between food and fun!

I tried to get an up/down sing/song voice into the text, but it wasn't as effective as I had hoped.
(There is also another version on a white background.)

After sending this one in (March 2009), I decided that any future haiga would have the text WITHIN the boundaries of the image -- so that they are a seamless whole rather than looking like an ornamented poem.

Haiga = a haiku & image combo

Very soon after starting to write haiku, I discovered "Haiga" which includes an image along with haiku. Some examples can be found in the monthly Haiga contest at: http://www.worldhaiku.net/haiga.htm

Here is the first one I made (Feb 2009) -->

(The judge, who is Japanese, questioned my spelling -- mis-understanding the landing-pad allusion of "bee prepared".)

Haiku 3

These posts are of my first three haikus (all written in February 2009).

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chase string, chase tail
chase winter blues with sunlight
cat-napping kitten

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Haiku 2

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shadows on fall leaves
dappled orange red grey black
seasonal depression

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Haiku 1

I've recently (in 2009) started doing Haiku writing. Here are some examples. Each is intended to be read and savored individually, so I will put each in it's own post.
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bee-loved flower petals
bursting-sweet nectarine
dreams of a springtime bud

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