Sacred Heart

sacred heart, originally uploaded by Clarissa Callesen.

This is a bit of a new style I have been enjoying working with this summer. I did a series of sacred hearts that were constructed of different pieces and shapes but without any printed imagery. I am always inspired by folkart, but felt like I was channeling its influence strongly in this piece. One of my favorite pieces that I made this summer.

Recently listed on Etsy.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=14287796

"Fishing for Words" Blank embellished journal

"Fishing for Words" Blank embellished journal, originally uploaded by Clarissa Callesen.

A new embellished blank journal, painted end pages, original collages on both front and back and comes with a collage packet.
Recently listed on etsy.

ARt Fairs! aRt FAiRs!

So it has been a summer full of making things, long hours listening to books on tape, packing things carefully, driving (usually in the early morning), setting up a small 10x10 gallery inside of a pop up tent usually on the street, selling stuff and getting lots of sweet feedback (thank goddess!) and then tearing it all down, packing it up(trying to figure out how it all fit in the van), more driving, unloading and reorganizing, lay on couch recovering, drink margaritas...
rinse and repeat.....

The Bothell Art festival was held in a beautiful park along side the river. It was a first year festival which is always a bit of a risk, but the festival management was so sweet and supportive they continually brought around cold water for us which was heaven because the temperature soared in the late 90's that weekend. Which is way too hot for us coastal shade flowers. It wasn't the most financially beneficial show, but lots of good feedback and some good laughs...
The entertainment was over the top cheesy featuring world famous performing pigs (no I am not kidding) and the rock and roll hypnotist.... lol

Anacortes Arts Festival was good! This was my 4 or 5th year back, so it was easy set up, tear down. I camped for the first time in combination with doing a fair, which was both good and bad. I got a lot more sleep than usual during a show because I wasn't driving home and didn't have any of homes distractions to keep me up. But the down side was it was cold and rainy and it was bit like living in an apartment complex with no walls. Lots of dogs, children, lights, etc...
Financially was better than last year and that was with no functional pottery and way more mixed media work... YEAH!!! Figured out a new way to display my mixed media jewelry and it seemed to work well with lots of jewelry purchases....

Bella Strada, Bellingham's own lil art festival.. I was nice to do a show in my home town. 15 min drive, familiar people and food. It started off a bit, OK a lot rainy which is no fun to set up in, but got better as the day went by and had quite lovely weather on Sunday.. Sold lots of new bigger original mixed media pieces, which is always so exciting.. It means I can make new ones.. A fellow Artfester bought my new Mary cross to go in her room of crosses and was sweet enough to send me a picture of it in its new home!

ClASs FuN Part 2

My Altered Image class was FULL and so much Fun!... Thanks to all those that drove up from Seattle to participate. We worked on background techniques and composition to start and then moved into selecting and altering images to make them our own and then finished up with all kinds of tricks and techniques to integrate the images in to a cohesive piece. Every body did some amazing creative exploring. Leslie can back again and brought along her mom Lynn and friend, Rachel. Two classes with sweet Leslie and I failed to get a good picture of her either time.. my bad... Then Shanna and Stacy also both from the Seattle area connecting with me through the U District Street fair, and then my one local girl Laurie. All such sweet, creative fun people! I also got some creative play in and started several different pieces as class examples that I am excited about finishing up. Here is some pictures of everyone's creativity.

Shanna

Laurie

Rachel

Stacy

Lynn

Leslie

CLaSses FUn SuCeSs

So I have been a bit of a Blog Slacker... Been too busy living life to write about it.. But will try and catch up my devoted audience.. lol

So teaching classes went really well. I was nervous going into them, but I relaxed and enjoyed the experience of sharing my techniques and attitude towards creating..

Encouraging people to splash and smear paint around and for God's sake stop thinking and planning... Embrace the Chaos! Just Create!

(What do you think should I make bumperstickers?)

Cheryl

Leslie

Letha (aka my mom)

The Visual Journaling class had a smaller attendance but that was nice, because I could offer my mom a spot in the class. She was a bit resistant to coming, but made it and had a great time and created some really beautiful journal pages.

Here are some examples of the pages started in class

Cheryl's pages

Leslie's pages

Letha's page