Linda & Opie's Burnt Offerings

WE'RE Back.....

art and soul hampton was amazing and we're almost unpacked (not quite - but we're working on it). our studios look like a disaster area, so we've got our work cut out for us as there's not a lot of time between artfest and hampton and opie's mom's health has been problematic since april (lots of doctors - lots of tests - not a lot of results) so this has been our first opportunity to post.    

thank you for your emails and comments... it seems as if we know you all and we love hearing from you.

blogging is truly a great way to connect to like-minded souls and so many of you have become friends in such a short time.

our classes were great and our students were fantastic.

here's a peek at some of the Dada's... aren't they awesome!

this workshop and the entire Dada series of workshops are so eclectic that we never tire of teaching them.

in fact - Who's Your Dada: Redefining the Doll through Mixed-Media is the subject and title of our next book which we're very excited about it.

yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well - more later. happy mother's day... it's a beautiful weekend here in northeast ohio and one of our favorite bi-yearly flea markets is happening tomorrow and as they say...

the early bird catches the worm ;-)

Deities, Dada's & the Chapel at Artfest

the chapel at artfest is a magical place and over the years some really fantastic art has been created in it. but on the last day this year, a serendipitous moment occurred proving the adage - timing is everything!
at the exact moment that opie was leaving the chapel to get something from his vehicle, a student was entering and they met face to face in the threshold of the center of the foyer.
she genuflected before him and opie immediately threw his hands on his chest like Jack Benny, then waved them about saying " Oh  Please, Please... Stop! Stop! "
she looked up at him as if he just landed from another planet and said: "I wasn't genuflecting at YOU... I'm in a CHAPEL. when a friend who was visiting us during the lunch break heard this, she asked opie when had he achieved Deity status as she hadn't been informed. he innocently replied: what was i to think... she genuflected at my feet.
we laughed until we cried, i'm still laughing as i type this and we'll laugh whenever we think of it. i only wish we had it on tape.
we're always humbled by the work our students create and this year even more so, especially opie... LOL!  for some unknown reason our camera had issues, but here's a peek at some of the Dada's that we're displayed at the show and tell on saturday night.. 

we're now in the process of getting ready for Art & Soul in Va. in two weeks, there's still lots to do, especially for the upcoming generation of Dada's that will created there, but we'll try to post again before we leave. in the meantime  we wish you all happy creations.

Talk About a Head Case!

Well - we saved the best for last and these little disembodied, soon to be dada's, are now enroute to artfest anticipating their creative transformations.

i can only imagine what they must be talking to each other about - or the postal service for that matter!

one of the nine boxes we shipped to an artist friend who lives in port townsend, contained only found materials that we collected on our lakeshore and the carrier suggested she open it as it seemed "rattly" -  ohh... is that what cool "junque" sounds like!

she called us and we said she could open it but cautioned her that there was a dolls head in it somewhere that required an advance viewer warning, she offered to give her a good hair conditioning and the postal guy... well he just went postal!!! oh well - you know what they say about one mans trash...

Parting is such Sweet Sorrow!

I received the following email from a close friend today and since opie and i will be offline and artfest bound before we know it, i thought i'd post it with this picture until we return from seattle. the picture is me and my girlfriends at Most Holy Trinity, the catholic school we all went to, back in the 50's. some of us still keep in touch and sometimes it feels as if we're right back in Trinity... still young at heart. i turned us all into rubber stamps along with most of my family and opie's, and years ago created an artpiece titled "Bad Girls Training School"..... can you guess which one is me?

anyway, here's the email i received today and i do not believe i could have answered it any better:

The other day a young person asked me how I felt about being old. I was taken aback, for I do not think of myself as old. Upon seeing my reaction, she was immediately embarrassed, but I explained that it was an interesting question, and I would ponder it, and let her know.

Old Age, I decided, is a gift. I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be. Oh, not my body! I sometime despair over my body, the wrinkles, the baggy eyes, and the sagging butt. And often I am taken aback by that person that lives in my mirror (who looks like my mother!), but I don't agonize over those things for long.

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become more kind to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend. I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko (in my case saxophone playing frog) that I didn't need, but looks so avant garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant. I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until  4 AM and sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60&70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ... I will.

I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to (well maybe not...LOL!), despite the pitying glances from the jet set. They, too, will get old.

I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.

Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet passes on?  But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore. I've even earned the right to be wrong.

So, to answer your question, I like growing old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day. (If I feel like it)

All Work and No Play

Between this ungodly weather and preparing for our classes at Artfest at the end of the month, opie and i haven't come up for air. we've been making class kits non-stop for the last two weeks and there's plenty more to go.

All of the handouts, resource information and paperwork are nicely sorted and packed. we've cut and sanded 30 wood substrates for our DADA class, as the focus on this particular class is working with wood substrates, dowels, altered heads and more. 

here's a sample of a few of them.

We've etched endless nickel silver panels for both our flat to stacked bracelet class which focuses on patination using a torch, riveting layers of metal together as well as riveting through acrylic and working with bezels and cabochons. the results are always so cool and the level of diversity always amazes us, since everyone starts out with pretty much the same basic supplies.

here's a couple of samples:

our last class on saturday is called fe fi faux and then some, because it transforms ordinary materials into more than the sum of their parts. it's a  pendant-book class which begins with a very cool water torch patina that sort of looks like old gold. as you've probably figured out by now, we love using the torch - which is evident in our studio name... LOL!

In this class we will etch a panel of nickel silver to demonstrate the process of blue-paper etching but being as involved as it is and because there would be so much etchant to dispose of, pre-etched panels will be included in every student kit.  this class will also focus on a relatively new PVC material called faux bone, which was developed by the talented and very funny, robert dancik, teacher and all-around excellent person. drawn bead copper jumprings will finish the piece once everything is riveted together. i think this is a great class for making pin rivets, because there really is no end as to how many layers can actually be riveted together.   

and once that's done, it will look something like this:   

And it's Bambi by a Nose!

when we looked out our window the other day, this is what we saw in our yard. now we know why they were running...LOL!  the ice storm came last night knocking out power everywhere. it was kinda cool in a surreal sort of creepy way, having to immediately stop what we were doing (we're in the midst of preparing for artfest) and just be content in the majesty of it all. we listened to our favorite audio tape from the agent pendergast series by the glow of a lantern, wrapped in blankets with our two cats curled up by our side. opie tried to capture it on film, but he couldn't do it justice. it was an icicle fairyland. unfortunately in the light of day, the aftermath wasn't quite as beautiful. trees fell, branches are everywhere and while our power returned this morning, our neighboring village (just a few blocks away) is still without power. stores are closed even now and they evacuated the assisted living facility where opie's mom lives, so she'll be with us until her power and heat is restored. fortunately she has the soul of an artist and understands our non-stop let's get it done teaching mode attitude. we're like possessed art demons making 85 student kits for two jewelry and a dada doll class and she just watches in amazement as we pack boxes of disembodied doll heads, cool beach-combing finds and other strange yet wonderful things we consider precious. but i just had to stop and take a few minutes to share this with you as life can be so unpredictable from one moment to the next.

...AND... ( doing the happy dance ) our updated website is finally up and running!

I've Been Tagged!!!-(whatever that means)

apparently i've been tagged, by the talented monica magness from girl gone thread wild and will spend the rest of this afternoon figuring out exactly what that actually means and then how to add a link to a post (which i have been creatively avoiding)! thanks monica - i was soooo looking forward for something to do today...LOL!

the rules are simple: 1. link to the person that tagged you - 2. post the rules on your blog - 3. share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself - 4. tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs - 5. let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their site.

ok - if you must know:

1. i'm very spontaneous and must do things the minute the spirit moves me; like on jan. 27, when i jumped up and announced to opie that we were starting a blog right that very second.

2. i live in "linda-land" a beautiful place where all is well and everything just works itself out. needless to say, i do not watch the news, read the paper, or wear a watch.

3. as a teenager i drove my mother crazy by playing my dylan albums over and over again, especially the song: the times they are a changing... one day she broke the album over my head.

4. i like the food on my plate to "work out" proportionally. this drives opie nuts, even though i've been doing it my entire life.

5. speaking of food... i love to cook, hate to clean up and always leave something on my plate. i think the last is a result of an incident from childhood when my cousin and i had to eat everything on our plate and drink our milk for a period of 3 months, in order to go on the howdy doody show and sit in the peanut gallery!

6. i'm a contradiction! i do not like crowded places, loud noises and consider myself a shy person, i'm perfectly balanced at home in my studio with opie and our two cats - and yet i love teaching art workshops to large groups of people at large noisy art venues. for whatever reason, when i'm teaching, i'm completely at peace and feel as if i'm one with my "tribe".

ok...here's the next tag you're it people:

1. leighanna light thing maker 2. lisa cook opengate 3. ro bruhn my life in color 4. ginny's small studio 5. deb trotter cowboys sweetheart 6. kathy mcelroy my life in pictures

Is This Cool or What!

this is apparently my month for receiving the coolest cards ever!

the very talented artist Jill Shulse made this for me for my birthday and those of you who know me and my love of what i consider my "trinity of tools", can appreciate just how accurately she captured both me and my brooklyn, n.y. accent. opie and i met jill a few years back at the fantastic valley ridge art venue in muscoda, wisconsin, where we've taught every 1st weekend in june for the last 3 or 4 years. the surroundings are heaven on earth and the hosts, kathy and her husband bill, are the best of the best. the minute she walked into class i did a double take... she was my younger me. the resemblance was so uncanny that everyone there could not help but notice and as we got to know each other, our life similarities were even more so! the weirdest thing was that even though i'm adopted, i felt we were somehow related and we simply became "sisters" from that moment on. her talent is as amazing as she is and both nina and i encouraged her to contact somerset studio who recognized her diversified talents and have published her work in several of their publications... so here's here's to you jill - my mini me... now go start a blog!

Our Square for the Pink Artist Project

through the wonders of blogging, we discovered this project to help fight breast cancer. recently, our forever friend christine, lost her eight year battle with it. she was a unique, strong, free-spirited woman, with a heart as large as the universe. she and i were one month to the day apart in age. we didn't get to say goodbye. her memorial service and birthday party was celebrated jan. 19th, but opie and i were teaching in mexico and couldn't be there, leaving us saddened beyond words. while i've always described myself as "the sewing impaired", monica magness, gave me the encouragement to try. Happy Birthday Chris...we miss you.

 

A Funny Thing Happened on Valentine's Day

there have been a lot of late nights lately, between a long overdue revamp of our website which is almost done ( yipeeee ), starting this blog and opening up an etsy shop. we're from the "in for a penny - in for a pound" school of thought. so i woke up after too little sleep and made my way into the dining room for my must have first cup of coffee.

there was opie with a card and a gift waiting for me. the little monkey was just too cute and i opened the card. the saying inside very funny and i laughed... but it wasn't until i closed the card, that i realized that opie had altered and collaged his face over the monkey's and i never even noticed! then i really laughed until i cried. i just never saw it the first time! opie being opie, took it all in stride in his dry humorous way asking if i always see him that way (i almost would have felt bad, if it hadn't been so funny) and then in the time honored tradition of women everywhere - i opened my gift!

isn't she a beauty. a 3 foot high vintage black cat  folk art doll, who's now hanging in my office.

we think our cats are a bit jealous, so we'll have to post pictures of them soon, as they love being the center of attention!

for today though, it's back to work adding finishing touches to both our website and our square for the Pink Artist Doll Project to fight breast cancer.

if you're not familiar with this project, please check out the link in the sidebar.

happy sunday.