Broke that Cabin Fever right in Half today...

 One of student Linda W suggest that I should have Guest Artists  Lisa Cousineau with Artistceller Stencils  come in.  Well being I had a day already set up for collage papermaking this worked out wonderfully.

 Lisa showed up the kind of inks we would use with the polymer medium...don't want all that nice work to smudge way, we need something that's going to last.

 Students painted some drawing paper and deli sheet with just some solid colors so we could be ready for the stenciling and Gelli Plates.  Lisa is showing us the stencil and using a sponge dabber. Handy little tool or use some make-up sponges.

 Here Lisa is using a heat gun to relax the foam surface to a flat form and then she will print with it and emboss the surface with a stencil...

 Got to do it while it's hot...or the moldable foam won't work...

 Really a fun product to use...I've seen it around, just hadn't latched on to it yet.. It's called Moldable Foam

 The stencil Lisa used was a map of London or Paris or some place like that but the design was very interesting.

 Lisa is showing the students how a Gelli plate works.

 We all couldn't wait to get started.

 Oh and then out came the stencils...such a gift all the way around...guest artist demoing and then some fun stencils at our finger tips for a Sweet purchase.

 I'm still having a hard time unwinding....so much we did today.

 I ran around when I remember to take pictures and before my camera battery went dead...as you can see some great effects were happening.

 Loving the darker value's on the deli papers.

 Oh my gal Linda W.  she's is a nut and love wow she works and lets go and really gets into the process with great passion.

 Caught you Julie...I'd have to say no troubles here...just pure creative energy.

 Barb is using some colored pencil sticks to rub over the stencils to get even a  different effect.

Marge is using the sponge roller and seeing what kind of effect she gets.

Creating a palette of papers is important I think to any collage artist, sure we could all go out and buy papers but then what kind of artistic voice does our work say...."same old... and boring"  not going to happen with our class...we are exploring as much as we can and projecting our own artistic voice for all to see.

One last thing....just saw my piece won Best of Show at Naperville Fine Art Center and Gallery.

"Go Ahead Ask the Questions"
36 x 36 collage on Canvas