Attitude Schmattitude

Today was not my most productive day ever.  After struggling all day to perfect the background for a sculpted plaster feature here in my own house, I ran out of time to do the actual sculpting, about the same time I realized that the design I planned was not going to work with the mirror and light fixtures it's meant to accent.  Luckily, I hit the frustration point about the time I needed to leave for Open Studio at Maureen Carlson's Center for Creative Arts (maureencarlson.com), just up the highway in Jordan.  My friend Barb Kobe (barbkobe.com) had suggested we meet there to make paper dolls.  It was the attitude adjustment I needed.

Even though open studio is not supposed to include instruction, Barb loves to teach, and share new materials.

Renee was passing through the Twin Cities area, this evening, moving from Missouri to Tacoma, Washington.  A friend who once took a Barb Kobe class at Maureen's suggested she check on her way through to see if there was anything on this weekend.  Getting to not only meet both of these women, but also getting an impromptu Kobe mini-class was more than she ever expected!

Maureen worked on a project of her own, and joined in the laughs.

Kae, a photographer at the nearby Renaissance Festival, worked on prepping her equipment for shooting tomorrow, while Renee Carlson hung out and worked on a collage project started in a class a few months back.  Don't let Kae's sweet look fool you.  She was the instigator of a whole lot of the bawdy humor that had us laughing so hard.

Kit comes down from north of the cities every now and again.  She wasn't planning to get in on the paper doll project, but we were having such fun she couldn't resist.

Renee the Traveler's healing bird dolls.  She's a painter/mixed media artist, (whose work I meant to photo, oops), but she had never done anything quite like this.  We usually try to behave better, especially around new people, but Renee, fitting right in from the moment she arrived, threw plenty of zingers into the fray, helping to keep the laughter going.

Paper doll play by Barb Kobe (barbkobe.com)

This was the doll I started.  (No, of course I didn't finish)   Somehow, she came out a little, well, "passionate", and once the others started posing her, it turned into one of those truly awfully funny running jokes that had all the women shrieking with laughter, and the whole thing just went downhill from there. She'll go in my visual journal, collaged over the map Barb pulled at random out of a box of old National Geographics, as I was packing to go.  What she means I probably don't even want to explore, but she'll always be a reminder of one of those rare evenings where the laughter just rolled, among a combination of women not likely to ever convene again. 

When I'm not having an attitude adjustment at Maureen's, I can often be found painting and sculpting home decor for clients.  Check out the website theartofthehome.com to see my portfolio.

If you have DIY or decorating questions, email me at dawnmariedelara@gmail.com, and I'll do my best to answer them.