ArTfEsT WoRkShOpS

So my first workshop at Artfest was with the fabulously inspirational and charming Michael deMeng. My work has been strongly influenced by Micheal and I am grateful for his willingness to share his skills with his students. It is also fun to see how his art work and teaching has grown and changed over the years..
The class he taught was absolutely right up my alley! Demented Toys
So we learned how to decapitate plastic horses, cut the arms off barbies, and the tails off dinosaurs all with a dremel and a little old cut off wheel. So many new possibilities for terrible plastic toys now... After chopping up our plastic prey into pieces, we then reassemble it with a product called apoxie clay, which is a two part low toxicity clay that drys to rock hard. We used it to create the transitions from barbie to horse or dinosaur to plastic Jesus. It was a bit challenging to work with, but I liked the effects it created.


Then to make everything work together we used paint washed to unify and accent.. Micheal is a master of the golden paint washes, with one of my favorite color combos being serial killer red.
Great fun! I am happy with my pieces, particularly the horse woman with the rat woman on her back. I need to spend more time with the technique making it my own, and playing with the possibilities. Yeah for Demented Demeng!