The Visual Storytellers Journal: explorations in imagery, color and mark-making
with Karen Michel & Traci Bautista at Artfest Annex, Seattle, WA
November 18-20, 2011

Create and capture the magic of everyday adventures and discoveries through the visual artform of the art journal. Explore the realm of the visual story teller, using imagery, collage, paints and colors as your vocabulary. Telling your stories through images and minimal words creates a personal language that is uniquely yours, and in this workshop we will conjure our stories within our journals which we will build & fill with wonder & soul…

Thursday- Art Journaling party/open house 6:00 – 9:00pm – Open Art journaling & Art sale with Traci & Karen

Friday – November 18, 9:00am – 5:00pm – Building the journals inside: painting, printmaking and collage 

Explore spontaneous painting & mark-making with Traci Drizzle…drip..spray…splash…finger paint…PLAY! We’ll start our workshop making marks with found and handmade tools on a variety of surfaces to prepare pages for our journals. We’ll explore a mix of simple printmaking, painting and collage techniques to build mixed media layers. 

We will then move on to creating our journal covers with Karen, creating them from fused recycled plastic bags! Who knew recycling & collaging with plastic bags could be so beautiful? We will be fusing the plastic bags at a low heat, so there is NO offgassing or stinky fumes… Simple embroidery stiches will be explored for further embellishing our covers.

Saturday – November 19, 9:00am – 5:00pm – Building the book: book binding, altered photos & the hunt for inspiration. 

The day starts off with twisted & torn adornments journal binding with Traci. We’ll gather all of our artistic creations from Day one and bind them into a visual journal with simple hand stitching and create a fabric wrapped embellished spine. Photography has become more accessible than ever and in the afternoon we will move on to integrating our personal photography within our book pages through the process of Photo Altering with Karen. We’ll discuss and experiment ways of altering our images by hand as well as digitally using both photo processing printed photos .

Sunday – November 20, 10am–5:00pm Working on the inside..journaling techniques Paint & Potion making with Karen Ever wanted to make your own paints that aren’t filled with nasty preservatives and chemicals? In this workshop we will explore both ancient & modern paint recipes by making our own paints from plants, minerals, essential oils and more…. we’ll document our paint making potions in our journal pages… Doodles Revealed with Traci Storytelling with lines, colors and marks…we’ll work through creative jumpstarts for crafting a personal graffiti. Explore drawing stylized faces, scribbles and letters to create colorful art journal pages. We’ll finish up the day with some journal play..open time to explore all the techniques, some more Q&A’s & chat about the possibilities of combining digital arts with art journaling? NOTE: if you are only signing up for this day, you need to bring your own journal.

PRICE: To sign up for workshop students can choose from all three days, 2-day {Friday/Saturday} or Sunday. $385 for Friday & Saturday $150 for Sunday

you can register here –>

If you are on the fence for signing up for Art is You Petaluma, they are offerring a $50 discount of you sign up TODAY!

Use the coupon code JULY4 and get $50 off your full registration- but it is only valid for one day – July 4.

Come Join us! Click HERE for info.

I thought I would take a moment to spotlight one of my upcoming workshops this summer at the beautiful IDYLLWILD ARTS in Idyllwild, California, July 22-24, 2011.

On July 22nd I will be teaching my MIXED MEDIA WOOD COLLAGE TOTEMS Workshop

In this workshop we will create our own personal mixed media totems, exploring the idea of using art to create objects of personal power, to evoke and inspire magic and inspiration in our daily lives and spaces.

Just bring along a handful of varied objects you have been collecting that speak to you and we will craft them into personal and unique works of art that sing your personal story using a variety of mixed media applications.

This is one of my favorite workshops to teach as it is the perfect marriage of 2d and 3d. And as an added bonus we will also be making our own paints from earth pigments to further infuse our pieces with a bit of extra good mojo.

Next up on July 23 & 24 is a 2 day workshop, GREEN ART JOURNALING for the MIXED MEDIA ARTIST.

In this 2 day workshop we will explore the idea of mindful & sustainable art making through the practice of art journalling (classes can be taken together or separately).

Day 1: The Recycled Fused Plastic Artist Journal

In this workshop we will explore making our own beautiful journals from everyday recycled materials, including including collaging and fusing ordinary plastic shopping bags to make our journal covers. Inside pages will be bound with remnant papers you have laying around your work area (don’t forget to check the junk mail pile for fun patterned envelopes!). Simple bookbinding techniques and embroidery will be explored for embellishing our covers.
By the end of the day everyone will have created their very own beautiful art journal made completely from recycled materials.
note: we will be fusing the plastic bags at a low heat, so there is NO off-gassing or stinky fumes!

Day 2 : Inside the Green Artist’s Journal: Paint making & Altered Photo Documentaries

Art Journaling is fuel for your creativity & in this class we’ll explore different ways of working within the books pages.

We’ll start by exploring how to mix up earth friendly paints and adhesive recipes from scratch from materials such as plants & minerals (and even items that may already be in your pantry) using and documenting our creations within our new journals pages.

In this new age of digital photography we have all become advid photographers with hundreds of photos to prove so. Let’s integrate these photo documentaries of our lives into our journal pages. We will play with a variety of fun ways to alter the photographs & integrate them into our journals.

I taught at Idyllwild last year and had a wonderful experience and their facility is both inspiring (surrounded by the beautiful wild woods & fabulous. I hope you’ll join me!

You can visit their website here: IDYLLWILD ARTS

♥