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December 7, 2005

artist's way: week 13

by gl. at 11:10 pm

as the final meeting of the fall creative clusters, we were treated to fantastic omega projects, delicious bowls of stone soup, and tearful goodbyes.

i love the stone soup exercise because the artist's way secret is not really about Art at all: it's about living a creative life, even for seemingly mundane things like soup. each cluster creates a unique soup that's symbolic of their contribution & synergy. the tuesday group created a sausage soup (and two people brought carrots, so we had a lot of carrots!), while the wednesday group brought so many types of veggies we couldn't fit them all in the pot! the wednesday cluster also brought dakota bread & a soft, sour brie cheese to accompany the soup, and we finished off w/ homemade guiness brownies. it was a feast, and an appropriate end to the 3-month journey we've traveled together.

the omega projects are like final projects but they aren't worth 50% of your grade. (as i kept reminding them, "you can't fail artist's way!") it gives cluster members an opportunity to explore one of the arts we've done during a creative cluster or to strike out on their own. because while i very much enjoy creating the opportunity for them to create art at the studio, the point of going through artist's way is to learn to create art outside the studio on your own. :) anyway, some really phenomenal pieces, including a beautifully packaged homemade tangram set & a set of collaged bowling pins!

i passed out comment cards, little glass scarlet stars packaged in tiny red envelopes & copies of sven's "notes on making art" which were requested last week. the best artist's way clusters spontaneously bring gifts for each other because they're so excited to share their projects: the wednesday group gave each other little "inspiration boxes" filled with tiny collage-able objects, little inspirational magnets, seashells from the oregon coast, and small homemade accordian books. one of the participants even made one an accordian book for sven, even though she had never met him. wow! how cool is that?

and now i have a little less than 2 months to promote the february clusters. *takes a deep breath*

centerfaith.jpg

center (faith): a red handprint w/ gold accents, anchored by flames and darker squares of painted paper, the hand is supported by a net of tiny golden stars that twinkle between its fingers, and a dark red tealight glows in the center of the palm. i created this as an artist response for my friend terrilynn, whose college-aged daughter has a brain tumour that's just resurfaced after an operation she had in high school. terrilynn & i created the handprint before i shaved my head in 2001 & the little squares are part of an art project we're working on.

music: kd lang's ingénue, which is a great album to listen to while eating a bowl of homemade soup.

posted by gl. | December 7, 2005 11:10 PM | categories: artist's way