Art Journal- Pages in Progress

Update on Art Journal Page

I started this page the last night of Artfest back in March. Here is the page finished.

Art Field Trip: Las Vegas Wrap Up

I always like to visit the gardens inside the Bellagio hotel while I am in Las Vegas. When you go, remember to look up, the ceilings are just as beautiful as the gardens below. There is an incredible installation of Chihuly glass on the ceiling of the main check in area for the hotel. In the gardens they had parasols suspended from the skylights above the gardens.

I took in two show while I was in Las Vegas. The Cirque du Soleil show Mystere which was very good, and the new show Absinthe which is a mini vaudeville/circus show performed in a small tent set up outside in one of the courtyards in front of Caesars Palace. I loved Absinthe! What an entertaining show featuring incredible acrobatic/balancing acts interspersed with comedy (it's raunchy so be warned!) and music. I was so glad I went.

Las Vegas Part 3- Neon Boneyard

The best art field trip I've ever taken in Las Vegas was to the Neon Boneyard, near the old section of town (Freemont I think). Here is a link to their official website: http://www.neonmuseum.org/. They are a nonprofit that works to preserve and restore the old neon signs from Las Vegas landmarks. This place is a visual candy store of color and texture. It was very bright and sunny the day I went and I was using my iPhone to take pictures, which means I was shooting blind because I could not see the screen in the sunlight. I was amazed at the pictures I managed to get. Here are just a few of them. Enjoy!

My next post will be about the Bellagio gardens, and a wrap up of other things I saw in Las Vegas.

A Week of Art in Las Vegas- Part 2- Books

Staying at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas for a week while my husband attended the NAB convention, I spent some quality time in the room reading art books. (What can I say, I'm not a gambler or a drinker/party girl!) The room was decorated with these great books. The one I spent the most time on was 30,000 Years of Art

This is a monster of a book, in size wise as well as scope. Each page featured a picture of an artifact and a brief description of how it was made and why it was important. I got about halfway through this book (600 pages in) and realizing I didn't have time to finish, I browsed through the artwork on the remaining pages. If you love art history, this is worth the time and weight lifting involved to read it. On the lighter side, this book was a fun quick read: They Called Her Styrene

This book features the work of Edward Ruscha, who works with words on canvas, etc. He finds many of his subjects (words and phrases) in the course of everyday life. My favorite was "Smelled like the back of an old radio."

The book I wished I had more time to spend reading was The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher. This was a book of creative thinking and a sideways sort of philosophy.

While I was out shopping I bought this book, And The Story Is Happening by Sabrina Ward Harrison (I'm a fan of her work and own several of her previous books.) I didn't realize that this book just came out. The pages are pure color and emotion that definitely take me to another place. The book also features a packet of ephemera based on images from the pages of the book that you can incorporate into your own journaling. What a great idea!

My next post will be about my trip to the Neon Boneyard (the highlight of the trip!)

A week of art in Las Vegas-Part 1- The Cosmopolitan Hotel

I spent all of last week in Las Vegas accompanying my husband to his annual National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention. Left to my own devises while he worked a full schedule at the convention, I had brought my art journaling supplies with every intention of camping out in the room we had at the Cosmopolitan Hotel (since I don't drink or gamble, I figured my options were limited, especially since I have been to Las Vegas before and had seen most of the hotels and free attractions on the strip). Little did I know how this hotel with the great commercials caters to artists and people who love art. So I spent the week on a series of art field trips and reading art books that were scattered throughout our room. But I digress. Let's start with an overview of the hotel. The lobby is amazing, with huge video columns in the check in area that run different visuals from their commercials to fractal art, swirling fall leaves, bubbles, and pine trees with falling snow. Here is a short film from Youtube that features some of the hotel's interior spaces: (Some of those things have changed since they made the video- no giant high heel shoes or dog statues). I missed the artist in residence in P3 by a day) The parking lot features art on the walls by one of my favorite graffiti artists, Shepard Fairey.

This steampunk sculpture was on the second floor just outside the elevators from the West tower where our room was.

Did I mention the killer view of Las Vegas and the fountains at the Bellagio that we had from the balcony of our room:

Next post I will talk about some of the books in the room that I spent time reading, as well as my trip to the Neon Boneyard. In the meantime, enjoy this elevator stories commercial from the Cosmopolitan Hotel on Youtube.

Artfest- Saturday March 31, 2012

Story Pieces with Sunny Carvallo Last day of classes at Artfest. Sunny Carvallo gave us each a small piece of plywood which we painted and stenciled and stamped to create a background for our 'story' characters. This was a great class for me to learn some painting techniques. The idea was to write the last line of a story (you know, before the "...and they lived happily ever after." My line was "Returning home her dog was there waiting for her." (Yes, I was missing my dog very much, couldn't you tell?). My table mate, Mardie was also missing her dog. Here is a picture of the two of us with our finished projects:

After dinner was show and tell where we got to see work displayed from all the classes. I really wish that more people had displayed their projects, even if they were still in progress. I did take some photos at the show and tell, but since I didn't have time to get permission from the artists I will not post them here. Back at the dorm we had another art journaling party, where I started another journal page, which I have posted below. I will continue to work on this page and post a followup when I have finished it.

Sunday, April 1, 2012 Barely getting on the shuttle to the airport (there were supposed to be two buses, but one was an hour late, so having an early flight I was lucky to get on the first shuttle that was on time) it was a sleepy ride to the airport and a smooth flight home. Artfest is over in real time, but the magic will last for quite a while to come. My thanks to the entire Moore family and their support crew for making Artfest a smooth running and magical event.