Workshop Week 3 classes announced; registration is open!
Thanks to Covid, a new type of “camp” was born last year, one that lets folks from all over come together without worrying about the high costs (in money and germs!) of travel and hotels. Those of us involved in In the Studio – brought together by Karen Miller – had such success and fun, that we did it all over again in Februaryand even invited a couple of other artists to join us. We’ve come full circle and are now planning WW3 for the last week of October, 2021. But this time we’ve got FOUR NEW TEACHERS!
Again, all Workshop Week 3 classes will be conducted on Zoom. I know, I know, it’s not the same as being there in person, but how else could you be part of this fabulous line-up? And we’ll have the two bonus sessions again during the week – an evening gathering and a panel discussion.
There’s a wide array of workshops available; some having to do with just rug hooking, others not so much. Scroll through the document below to find your favorite(s). Feel free to take more than one. Email individual instructors for registration and more info. Don’t tarry, as classes filled up pretty quickly last time.
BTW: If you see a workshop that you’d love to take with your guild or other social group, most of us are happy to run our classes again.
WORKSHOP WEEK 3 – Enlarge image by clicking on bottom right symbol.
Courtney Turner’s art as a means of healing and coping
Join Canadian Artist Courtney Turner on In the Studio as she discusses her artistic journey thus far as an emerging artist. She’ll give the audience a glimpse into what her creative process looks like and will share how she uses her art practice as means of healing and coping while living with chronic illness.
Courtney Turner is an emerging contemporary artist currently residing in Canning, Nova Scotia. Her unique combination of abstract rug hooking and representational self-portraiture painting is a direct representation of the connections between her current self and her child self, her healing journey of living with chronic illness, and memories of significant familial textiles that have brought her comfort throughout her life. Courtney graduated from NSCAD University in 2020, majoring in Textiles & Fashion.
The Zoom link for this presentation will be emailed to you the day before the talk (or after you purchase your ticket, if you purchase on the day of the event). If you don’t receive it, you can contact the organizer at info@karendmillerstudio.com.
Tickets will be on sale until 10:00 am Eastern the day of the event. After that time you will no longer be able to purchase tickets.
Please note that the time of the talk is 1:00 pm EASTERN.
Unfortunately, no. Due to the logistics involved, we decided some time ago to keep these events live. Hopefully if you can’t make it to this talk, you’ll be able to make it to a future talk.
* It’s the day of the talk and I’m having trouble finding or using the link for the talk. How can I find help?
It is very advisable to LOG INTO THE EVENT A FEW MINUTES EARLY to be sure that you have no trouble with the link, and if you are having trouble the organizer can help you out. You can email or message the event organizer up until one hour before the talk on the day of the talk for help. ONCE THE EVENT STARTS, however, messages and emails are not able to be monitored.
* I’m finding it distracting during the talk seeing all of the other participants on my screen. What can I do?
During the event the organizer will put the screen setting on “spotlight view” so that the presenter is the focus on your screen. Depending on your device, you may still see audience members on your screen and changing your setting from “gallery view” to “speaker view” should help with that.
* What Time Zone is the time of the talk in?
The time indicated on all ‘In the Studio’ talks is the EASTERN (EST) time zone. If you live in a different time zone, be sure to check what time you should tune in to ensure you don’t miss the talk.
*I can no longer make it to the talk. Or, I missed the talk. Can I get a refund?
Unfortunately no- the price of the ticket is so low that it is not cost-effective to refund those amounts. If you are unable to make it to the talk and you already have a ticket, or you forget to attend, please do contact me at info@karendmillerstudio.com. I always offer a ticket to the next talk to make up for it. All of the artist speakers receive a portion of the ticket proceeds so we very much appreciate your contribution to supporting artists!
Join Sayward Johnson on In the Studio as she talks about her work and her artistic process!
Sayward Johnson is a copper and textile artist whose work explores her fascination with fabrics and sculptures that adhere to the laws of metal-smithing as well as those of textiles and, furthermore, present traditional textile patterns in unexpected contexts. She finds beauty and meaning in natural processes that cannot be controlled, such as decay and the transformation of surfaces through erosion and new growth. In her studio practice, she focuses on weaving, knitting and embroidery.
Originally from Danvers, Massachusetts, Sayward is a graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. She currently lives in Chelsea, Quebec, with her husband and young daughter. She is an active member of the Enriched Bread Artists and 44.4 Mothers/Artists collectives in Ottawa. Sayward has exhibited across Canada and sold her work to private collectors in the US, Canada, and Europe. She has received grants from the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Ottawa, Craft Ontario, Arts Ottawa East, and the Canada Council for the Arts.
The Zoom link for this presentation will be emailed to you the day before the talk (or after you purchase your ticket, if you purchase on the day of the event). If you don’t receive it, you can contact the organizer at info@karendmillerstudio.com.
Tickets will be on sale until 10:00 am the day of the event. After that time you will no longer be able to purchase tickets.
Please note that, unlike other In the Studio presentations, the time of the talk is 7:00 pm EASTERN.
Unfortunately, no. Due to the logistics involved, we decided some time ago to keep these events live. Hopefully if you can’t make it to this talk, you’ll be able to make it to a future talk.
* It’s the day of the talk and I’m having trouble finding or using the link for the talk. How can I find help?
It is very advisable to LOG INTO THE EVENT A FEW MINUTES EARLY to be sure that you have no trouble with the link, and if you are having trouble the organizer can help you out. You can email or message the event organizer up until 12:30pm Eastern on the day of the talk for help. ONCE THE EVENT STARTS, however, messages and emails are not able to be monitored.
* I’m finding it distracting during the talk seeing all of the other participants on my screen. What can I do?
During the event the organizer will put the screen setting on “spotlight view” so that the presenter is the focus on your screen. Depending on your device, you may still see audience members on your screen and changing your setting from “gallery view” to “speaker view” should help with that.
Thursday makes it a year that “regular” life came to an end here in New Mexico. Not knowing what I know now, I rather welcomed it. No meetings for the foreseeable future! Remember – we never thought the crisis would go on for sooooo long, and Zoom wasn’t a BIG THING yet. I figured I’d have time to work on my own projects and actually get a chance to explore other ideas percolating in the back of my brain, maybe even move them to the front.
Some of that happened. I certainly had ample time to “play” with the Ribbon Rug Journal. In fact, without Covid, I’m not sure how I would’ve been able to log each day’s entry. (Now if I can only get to writing the magazine article on the damn thing!) I managed, too, to finish “Holes,” a rug about the effects of motherhood on women. But then Karen Miller came up with the idea for In the Studio with its presentations and two! online Workshop Weeks (keep watch; the third will be coming), my own class offerings, and, of course, rugs to make (I do have an Etsy shop). The forced time at home was not quite so restful. Such is our new reality.
A one-line, mirror sketching from 2019. Sadly, a self-portrait.
But some things didn’t change. This March, as I did in 2019 and 2020, I will participate in Sketchbook Revivalpresented by artist Karen Abend. It’s a free, online event whereby each day for a couple of weeks a different instructor presents a a different approach to filling up your sketchbook or journal. As much as I used to be good at that, I’m not anymore. Sketchbook Revival gives me a do-over each year and a way to learn new techniques. As Karen says:
Some sketches are colorful. A “creature” rug perhaps?
“Imagine waking up each day brimming with ideas, excitement, and confidence to open up your sketchbook and start creating, no matter what.”
As far as I’m concerned, sketching can be relaxing and enjoyable on its own, but more importantly, better sketching leads to more and better better hooked pieces. Click on the link above to join. While there are social media pages to share your work and to see that of others’, I generally prefer to keep to myself. And you don’t have to attend every session. I pick and choose. One comes out every day, but the videos stay up for a few weeks.
This was perhaps my favorite sketching session from last year. Who knew? Architectural drawing.
Day-hooking. I mentioned it last post. It’s not necessarily what you think. But it is another benefit of being stuck at home. I generally hook in the evening. Like many of you, if I don’t work with my hands after 8:00 p.m. or so, I’ll fall asleep. That’s when I catch up on TV and movies. But sometimes – like right now – I’m hooking a piece that needs: 1) good light, specifically, the light of day and 2) concentration. Like I said before, in another world in other years, my guild, AWAG, held three retreats and had a teacher visit us, usually for an open workshop. Each event gave me three whole days to work on more challenging rugs. And a multitude of folks to ask for advice when it was needed. Or even when it wasn’t. LOL
While I tend to do other tasks during the day, lately I’ve been trying to carve out some time for day hooking to get through this one difficult project. I feel guilty sitting on my ass, but the work happens, and I can even get some of those year-old NOVAs out of my DVR queue. So, day-hooking, yeah, it’s a thing.
Meanwhile, the night-hooking continues. Which is exactly what the boys bring to you today in the pic. I’ve started on the fourth of what I’m calling my #happyrugseries. I realized that after such a negative year, I’d prefer to mostly focus on the brighter aspects of life. For this one, I’m trying to really just go with the flow; there’s little advance planning in it. Other than the holes, which the rug dictated to me as I sewed on his tape.
“What’s on the Frame.” Bowyn takes being a High on Hooking dog very seriously while Tynan is quite blasé about it these days.
Nancy Hart of AWAG created a rug a couple of years ago that I really loved. I miss you, Nancy, but you’re here with me in spirit, and your rug is my inspiration for this project. Tom’s going to kill me as parked in the living room is a large shopping bag AND a laundry basket filled with all kinds of fiber to pick and choose from as I go. (Plus the day-hooking paraphernalia.) But I’m enjoying working on it all!
What’s got you’re attention these days as we head into the final stretch of the Coronacootie’s reign?
Join Textile Artist Anastasia Tiller as she discusses
her work and process on ‘In the Studio’!
Anastasia Tiller is a multidisciplinary artist based in Lethbridge, Newfoundland and Labrador. Her work ranges from monochromatic figurative referencing photographic imagery, gestural flat acrylic works on paper, and colourful landscapes. Her textile works move in a different direction altogether. Anastasia is actively involved in the provincial visual arts community as an art teacher, as well as a member of the Visual Artists Newfoundland and Labrador Board of Directors.
Anastasia also has an upcoming exhibit, “Room for Happiness” or “Welcome to my Bubble” at the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador in St. John’s Newfoundland from March-April, 2021.
IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ:
The Zoom link for this presentation will be emailed to you the day before the talk (or after you purchase your ticket, if you purchase on the day of the event). If you don’t receive it, you can contact the organizer at info@karendmillerstudio.com.
Tickets will be on sale until 10:00 am the day of the event. After that time you will no longer be able to purchase tickets.
Please note that the time of the talk is 1:00 pm EASTERN.
Unfortunately, no. Due to the logistics involved, we decided some time ago to keep these events live. Hopefully if you can’t make it to this talk, you’ll be able to make it to a future talk.
* It’s the day of the talk and I’m having trouble finding or using the link for the talk. How can I find help?
It is very advisable to LOG INTO THE EVENT A FEW MINUTES EARLY to be sure that you have no trouble with the link, and if you are having trouble the organizer can help you out. You can email or message the event organizer up until 12:30pm Eastern on the day of the talk for help. ONCE THE EVENT STARTS, however, messages and emails are not able to be monitored.
* I’m finding it distracting during the talk seeing all of the other participants on my screen. What can I do?
During the event the organizer will put the screen setting on “spotlight view” so that the presenter is the focus on your screen. Depending on your device, you may still see audience members on your screen and changing your setting from “gallery view” to “speaker view” should help with that.
Again, all Workshop Week 3 classes will be conducted on Zoom. I know, I know, it’s not the same as being there in person, but how else could you be part of this fabulous line-up? And we’ll have the two bonus sessions again during the week – an evening gathering and a panel discussion.
G THING yet. I figured I’d have time to work on my own projects and actually get a chance to explore other ideas percolating in the back of my brain, maybe even move them to the front.
