Home from Art Unraveled

I had a *great* week. Huge huge thank yous to my two big helpers (aka Mom and Tristan). Even more thank yous to Linda, Chuck & Family, all of my absolutely wonderfully amazingly talented students. We had a blast while we were there!!! Can you believe I took THREE pictures though the whole time?!?! How bad is that!? I was so busy (go go go non stop....I was hardly in my hotel room, contrary to popular belief! LOL!!). Art Unraveled 2008 was AWESOME. Here's the low down:

Tuesday-The day didn't start out too wonderfully. As I was loading the car up, our building manager gave Tristan a notice that he was sticking on ALL of the apartment doors...that the whole building would have another "inspection" on Thursday (of course it would happen while I was away). After I ripped him a new one trying to figure out WHAT they were "inspecting" when they never fixed anything from the last time AND then trying to figure out what in the hell is going on...after having lived here since April 1996, we have had more inspections in the past year then ever. We NEVER had an "inspection" before 2008. The only thing they did in the whole 12 years we have been here is to check the smoke detectors ONCE (and believe me, those puppies work...my Grandpa was a firefighter). I questioned him on why the building wasn't "inspected" after the earthquake. I pointed out a huge NEW crack on the stairs that hadn't been there before the quake last week. He said it cost the landlord a lot of money to inspect for quake damages and that it was their responsibility, not his. Yup, he's the building manager. Needless to say, I left NOT happy but my husband is a Saint and straightened things up while I was gone...grrrr...I left West Hollywood with probably sky rocketing blood pressure and feeling harassed and violated...(Previous inspection posts here and here).

By the time I got to Arizona, I had calmed down and was READY for AU~!

We arrived at the Embassy Suites (I *heart* this hotel) and checked in. Unloaded the car in the blink of an eye. Got back in the car and high tailed it over to Frenzy Stamper in Scottsdale. I'll be there in October the 3rd through the 5th (I can't wait!!! Debbie has the samples in the store now! :)). It was a fun visit with Debbie and Jeane stopped in too! After listening to Jeane and seeing the cool-o buttons she made on her blog in Rosie's class, I *had* to go to the dreaded "M" store to buy the neatest buttons that Debbie had pinned all over her purse. We ate that night at the infamous Saddle Ranch in Scottsdale. Debbie introduced me to this place and I fell in love with their western wrap sandwich (chicken and lots of veggies in a whole wheat wrap)...it's the only thing I eat there it's *that* good...and (yay, we have one in West Hollywood, too, on Sunset!)

Wednesday-Checked in, unloaded and got ready to teach AU 2008 class #1: Wonderful World of Color Theory. See my wonderful students:

We had a BLAST mixing colors and just going hog wild. In the class, I use Nova Color Paints (out of L.A.). I have NO affiliation with them whatsoever. They are just a wonderful paint company and where I get all of the wonderful bottles of paint that I use in my classes (and yup, I BUY the paints just like you guys!! I have to LOVE something in order to recommend it to my students and friends!). In my classes, you will learn that you only need a handful of colors to "color your world"! Quinacridone Magenta (!!!), Phthalo Blue, Azo Yellow Medium, Titanium White, Burnt Sienna, Paynes Grey, Titan Buff-these are my "musts". I don't need any other colors if I have these puppies by my side...

I ran into my friend Andrew who showed me the book he had made in Traci Bunkers' Zine Machine class. WOW! What I love about AU is seeing so many friends in one spot. In addition to seeing Andrew, I saw so many many MANY friends. OH, speaking of friends and cool artist blogs. Make SURE you go check out Julie Molina's blog posts about Comic Con!!!! Some how she disappeared from my fave blog list (sorry!!) I need to add her again. (For some reason this has happened with a few other people-has anyone else had this problem???)

Thanks to the extremely generous friend of a friend, I was able to take Carla Sonheim's Drawing Blast class. OMG. I had *so* much fun. This is a small sample of what I did. I realized after the fact that I left my first drawing in the classroom (eeps!). It was fun sitting and drawing a variety of objects and each other! :)

Thursday-I can't believe I didn't take pictures!!!! My friends Carmen & Staci arrived and we went SHOPPING. Oh baby! First stop, Frenzy Stamper. ANY store that I visit TWICE in a week is one helluva KEEPER!!! There we ran into several AU people including my friend Krista (with her Mom!) from San Diego. We also got to see what Debbie made at AU (drool-LOVE whatcha did!!)

A quick stop at Starbucks and we were on our way to the Paper Studio in Tempe. Every trip to AZ, I go to two stores: First-Frenzy Stamper (STAMPS and GOODIES) and then, Paper Studio (PAPER). We had a BLAST!!!!! (The pictures of what I bought at both stores are below...) Carmen and Staci are SO much fun!! I teach at Staci's house in Thousand Oaks and I LOVE going there!!!! It's a great group of women (and the classes are wide open to anyone who is interested in taking them-you can email me for more info). It was a fun afternoon filled with lots of laughs, paper and stamps ;)

Dinner that night was sandwiches from Whole Foods (yum oh yum). Mom & I also ate potato salad and macaroni salad (Tristan won't eat either). Mom quote: "This potato salad has a funny after taste...like marijuana." What?!?! LOL!!! I told my Dad later that night and he said "Mom would know. Ask her old dope smoking hippie boy friend." LOL!!! It was funny!

Thursday night I taught my "Few of My Favorite Things" class. LOL Best part of the class was when the hotel brought in the "swamp cooler" (holy shit!) to cool down the room (and boy, DID IT!) I can't find a picture of exactly it, but this is pretty close to how BIG it was. The hotel took *excellent* care of us this year. The class was a blast and I loved seeing the books that everyone made!!!! WHAT A STORM we had that night! I ran out in the rain really fast and it felt so good!

Oh, if I was teaching, here's where you could pretty much find my Mom and Tristan:

Friday-Pretty much chilled out Friday day. We slept in a wee bit late. Ate a very late breakfast/lunch at the 5 and Diner. I hit the bookstore near Target and bought David a copy of Kirby! by Mark Evanier ($20!! signed, too!) I worked on some of my "Swatches" samples (little paper booklets) as I had forgotten to give them to Debbie on Thursday and wanted her to have the samples in the store for my class there in October. That night, I trekked on over to the Orange Tree hotel and taught my Composition/Design class. It's a collage class and I love giving out "exercise prompts" and seeing what people do with them. This class did NOT disappoint. It was amazing seeing the responses that people came up with.

Saturday-Shopping AND teaching...oh can life get any better then a day like today??!?! I hardly think so! I set up at 9:30 and wolfed down breakfast before the ballrooms opened up to shopping. I could hardly believe the line to get in!!! WOW! Debbie was smart to get there early and be the second person in line!! I did some serious damage in 2 hours (and still managed to walk into my class on time! ;).

I LOVE Vendor day. Check out the list here. All of the vendors are working artists and/or small business owners so it's nice to see so many gathered in one spot.

First stop was Paper Studio who had TAPE that they did not have at the store the other day. I loaded up a whole shopping bag full (one for me, one for my classes...I will be bringing it to Massachusetts with me and those of you in my Fukuro Toji, Goin' Postal and Taped Journal classes are going to be very very happy!!) Oooh you can see the tape up close and personal here. I need to find someone who will order the ones I am missing!!!!!


The yellow flowered paper was a gift from my friend, Andrew. I got a print that I just totally fell in love with and a cool book on encaustics from Judy Wise. I also bought a print from Katie Kendrick. I wish I had been able to take workshops from both Judy and Katie as I am very much in love with their work-it just sings and sings LOUDLY to me. I saw several people walking around with this beautiful very long roll of small strips of magazines and newspapers sewn together. I *had* to have one so I found one at Sage Crafts (the lovely ladies there travel to Bali and keep one of the villages there very busy buying paper and paper related items from them.) I wish I knew who I bought the industrial strength waxed paper from...one of the few purchases where "everyone had one" that *I* needed one. I also bought yummy glassine paper (pink and red) and I can't remember where it came from (they were across from Paper Studio in the small room). I bought two books (a little Golden book-I love these) called A Child's Garden of Verses and then a book called The Artist and the Nude (Traci Bunkers kept referring to it as "art porn"...LOL! Make damn well sure you get over to Traci's site and check out her amazingly wonderful best zine ever called Tub Legs and all of the coolio goodies she sells. I LOVE her art and I love her stuff!!!!!) My very generous friend, Kara, gave me some of the yummy fabric that is sticking out under the prints on the left. I can't wait to use these on my pages.
Here are other goodies: paper packs from a vendor at AU (same person I bought the glassine from). OH! An Anne Grgich painting (I LOVE her work and LOVE Her classes!! I Love her!! She's awesome!!!) Tape from Andrew (where did you get this?!? I love it!) Goodies I bought from Frenzy Stamper earlier in the week...a cool ATC holder from Dawn. An adorable, easy to fall in love with owl (but oh, how I couldn't make up my mind on which one to buy from Carla) from Carla Sonheim.
To die for paper from the Paper Studio shopping experience on Thursday. OH OH OH Hannah Grey has the *best stuff* ever! Jeez Louise, you could not get NEAR her booth on Saturday. Oh YUM. See the wonderful goodies in the bottom right corner!?!? LOVE Shosh and her goodies!!! She finds the coolest stuff!!!! I also bought a cute cat with a bird in his belly necklace from Thomas Wynn. I got ONE stamp from the vendor show. Linda at Lost Coast Designs has *the* best rubber stamps. Oh man, this woman is AMAZING. She has got to be one of the hardest working women in the stamp business. I LOVE her stamps. Get on over to Lost Coast Designs and just drool!!!! Check out her blog too!
I had a blast teaching my Avant Garde journal class. It was a small, intimate class but boy did we have FUN! Everyone walked away with not one, but TWO journals-a regular size and a "small" one. It was a very artsy day!!!

We woke up Sunday and made the long trek home to West Hollywood. We stopped twice to gas up and to stretch our legs (at Wooten's in Ontario-would you believe that I didn't buy a thing there?!?!). Mom had a plane to catch that night (OMG, NEVER fly Air Tran out of LAX it was a frigging ZOO and a totally unorganized MESS. If I hadn't spoken up, I think Mom would still be in line almost 24 hours later. Insane!). We ate at Saddle Ranch in West Hollywood (again! You can tell I love it here. They NEED to open one in Boston.) Tristan kept taking pictures of the beer tower with my cell phone (you can tell I don't drink when I think someone who spends $55 on a tower of beer is insane. Why would I drink money away when I can buy books or paper or *boo hiss* pay bills?? LOL!)


There are tons of links in this post. If you move your cursor over the words and sentences (names of people, places, etc....), you can visit all of the places that I mention in the post above with just a *click*.

Today and tomorrow will be spent getting ready for my East Coast trip. Tristan and I leave via Southwest Airlines on Wednesday. Wish us safe travels. I'm looking forward to seeing the Gang at the Stamp Act this Friday and Saturday and the Gang at Ink About it a week later! Woo hoo! Boston, here I come!

I WILL be blogging from Boston. So, stay tuned! How many more days til AU 2009? ;)