Category: art discussions

New Year, New Art, New Opportunities

by Amanda, posted in 2016 Artwork, Abstract, acrylic, Art, Art Classes, art discussions, Art Jewelry, art supplies, Enamel Abstracts, Fort Saskatchewan, Home Studio, Jewelry Classes, Pebeo paint

Well I’m back after a longer than intended break from blogging which honestly is pretty much how all my posts start it seems *sigh* oh well, I suck at maintaining a blog we all know it and the sooner we accept it we can get on with talking about Art…

We good?
Great!

So I’ve started off the year pretty busy actually, we’re not even a full month in and I’ve already
taught two Art & Jewelry related classes through the city’s leisure guide program.
The first was “Silverware Jewelry” and the second which is a 3 session course is “Intro to Acrylic Abstract Art”, the first class was last night and we played around with types of acrylic paint and acrylic mediums.

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I’ve also been nominated for the Women in Arts award as part of a local International Women’s Day Awards Gala which funnily enough I was approached last year by the committee to create their Jewelry Trophy Awards for the Awards Gala. So I’m finishing up some hand stamped sterling silver charm bracelets with swarovski crystals.

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And on top of all that, I’ve also been busy working on hand stamped Jewelry orders and painting and experimenting with fluid paints and my enamels.

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I picked up one of these awesome panels over the weekend and had been dying to test it out but didn’t have time until today so ce I’ve been prepping things for my Art class.

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So I just finished a piece this morning. Here are the in progress pics, I’m just waiting for it to dry now 🙂

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Well that’s me, what have you all been up to 😉

Cheers,
Amanda

Shiny & New

by Amanda, posted in 2015 Jewelry Creations, art discussions, commission, creative, events, female artist, For Sale, Fort Saskatchewan, Guitar, Home Studio, In Progress creations, Inspiration, Jewelry, Musical Instruments, My Creations

OK so I came down sick with a cold and haven’t had a chance to start on the guitar asides from prime it. I’ve been passing out pretty hard after the kids are in bed the last few nights so haven’t gotten anything done really asides from basic survival lol.

BUT a new order of supplies arrived today…

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I’ve been wanting to dabble in hand stamping for awhile now but just haven’t gotten around to it until now, when I was asked to do a custom order as a Father’s Day Gift. So much fun 🙂 I’ll post pics of the completed project later.

This week however, I have to finish that order, go to the Farmers Market Thursday and I have the Downtown Sale on Saturday so I’m thinking the guitar will have to wait til next week sadly…but I do have yet another project stewing in my brain that involves a pair of wooden clogs 😉 but I’ll save that for another post.

For now I’ll say goodnight & Cheers!
Amanda

Home Parties!!!

by Amanda, posted in Art, art discussions, Art Events, Artist, canada, Christmas, commission, creative, Etsy Shop, events, female artist, For Sale, Fort Saskatchewan, Home Parties, Home Studio, ideas, Jewelry, Make & Take, Musical Instruments, Paintings, Virtual Party

The other thing that has been keeping me busy with limited blogging time has been this “Home Party” initiative that I’m rolling out!

I figured after setting up at so many venues and meeting so many wonderful customers it was time to bring the venue to them. So be it ever so humble or virtual Parties are now an option!

Hosts can earn free Jewelry and have it custom made & designed specifically for them.

Theme parties are also available.
Celebrating a Birthday (kids & adults), Girls Night, Wedding, Graduation, Christmas, etc. Get Jewelry designed to suit your special occasion.
Make & Take Party Packs are also available (must be booked 2-3 weeks in advance to allow for supplies on hand)

If you’re in cyberspace and want your friends worldwide to participate then you can host a virtual party, get a unique code for your party and shop online through my Etsy shop. Best of all you still earn all your Host rewards and your guests receive free shipping or some other discount for participating. Great way to get inexpensive or custom Gifts. *hint hint Christmas* 😉

Even cooler, make it an ART & Jewelry Party. Have a soirée, serve some appetisers, glass of wine and have a private Art viewing with your friends plus earn a discount towards a custom piece of Art.

The possibilities are endless.
Contact me to book today!

Happy Tree vs Trashy Tree

by Amanda, posted in Abstract, Art, art discussions, Art Musings, Artist, Life, musings, Social Commentary, WTF Art

So I saw this today
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/france/parisandaround/11169917/Paris-sex-toy-sculpture-causes-a-stir.html

And was reminded yet again why I get so frustrated with the Modern/Abstract art community.

First off the next person that gasps and calls my art riské is getting a list of MUCH more evocative pieces than mine and told to suck it up, because I am positively conservative in comparison…you know who you are!

Secondly, artists like McCarthy frustrate me. Didn’t you study Art History? Duchamp made his point with his “Fountain” now move on, learn from it and stop peddling crap (in some cases literally).

Just because it worked for Margritte does not mean you can pull it off especially when the piece you are trying to re-create is giant, bright green and clearly resembles a sex toy. “Ceci N’est pas une…” Um yes, yes it is.

I’m sure the Slap Happy Parisian was just trying help Mr McCarthy snap  back to reality.

As good old Shakespeare said
“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet;”….
Hmm wait, You say “Tree”, I say “Sex toy”…it’s still a Potato.

The other trouble with pieces like “Tree” and many, many others like it is that they cause the non Art community to question the value of Art as a discipline, especially a government funded one that will cause lil Timmy to have grand thoughts of someday creating giant inflatable sex toys and sticking them in the middle of a major city and also tends to add fodder to the grand debate to cut Arts from schools altogether.

So just a thought, for future reference (and to keep the non-Art community off our backs,) the next time you want to evoke the whole identity switcheroo you aim for subtly.

For example

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How about a giant inflatable Green Lego Tree called “Sex Toy” 😉

If nothing else, Bob Ross might rest better knowing that “in our world there lives a happy little tree”.