Opening up

As I mentioned earlier, Denise and I were so busy being guests of honor at our opening reception that we totally forgot to document the event. Fortunately, Sherri was there with her cell phone to fill the need. Here's a representative sampling; see if you can find: 1. My college pottery professor (bonus points if you can guess where the math professor is), 2. My sister, the bank VP, 3. The other guy named Frank, and 4. A Peruvian exchange student.

Workshopping

Our last responsibilities as visiting artists were to each present a two-hour workshop. Denise's was publicized as "Sketchbook Workshop," mine as "Clay Workshop."

Neither was completely accurate. Denise was presenting on making your own sketchbook using artist's paper, card stock and the Coptic Stitch bookbinding technique. I, of course, was teaching brush-making and ceramic decorating techniques. Both were quite full: I had fifteen students, Denise had twenty-five, including my college color theory and watercolor prof. We both also had ten students from the Decorah Iowa High School Art Club.



As usual, I took requests from the audience for the decorating demo. This time's "stump the painter" champions: stingray and harpy eagle. Considering I painted the eagle from memory while the requestor looked for an image on her phone, I think I did pretty well.