In the Artfest Zone

Wow... I am back from my trip to Artfest... It was an amazing, eye opening, incredible time. It is everything they say, and SO MUCH more... Where to start.. At the beginning I guess.. I posted to the Artfest Yahoo group that I was looking for a ride to the airport, and this wonderful woman Ellen, offered me not only a ride, but a place to stay and a sightseeing tour of Seattle in the bargain... So she picked me up, and we went to the mall, caught they train to the Space Needle, and rode the Duck. An amphibious craft that goes on land and on water. I got to see quite a bit of the city, and learned some interesting things from the driver who was a local native... here are some fun pix of the Duck tour and Seattle.
Ellen took me to her favorite Stamp store Art and Soul, and we found some cool things to make her some trades for Artfest.

Then we went back to her home and I met her husband Dave and her daughter Daicia and her fur daughter Betsy. Dave made us spaghetti while we worked on her trades... Cute little stamped owl charms.

The next day, we got up and went to the airport to pick up the famous Jo McQueen... who is as sweet and funny in person as she is on line. We took a ferry trip to Bainbridge island. My first time ever going on a ferry that you drive cars on. I made them wear boingers, and they thought I was nuts, but several people came up to us and asked "Are you going to Artfest?" So they did the job, which was to identify us as "festers"... Here is Jo, me and Ellen, Freezin cold on the ferry, but excited and having so much fun. Poor Jo's suitcase was lost somewhere between Witchita and Dallas, so she didn't have a warm coat, any clothes, all her tools and supplies for her classes, but like a trooper, she forged onward... happy to be heading out on the adventure...

We drove another almost 2 hours to Port Townsend. A lovely little town, where they filmed the movie An Officer and a Gentleman. Sadly... I was in such a hurry to get to classes every day, I forgot to take photos of the fort, or of many people for that matter... but it is a really cool town and the fort was really cool. We went to the orientation and met the teachers of all the classes, and then the trading frenzy began. I was holding trades in my hand and people were taking them and putting things in my hands so fast, I had to shove them in my pockets... I learned a lot of things, which I will post in a list (you know how I love the lists) tomorrow... It was back to my room for a quick bite to eat, then Jo and Ellen went to their hotel and we arranged for them to pick me up the next morning for class.

My first class was Annie Lockhart's Off The Wall. It was an assemblage class where we took things that had meaning and symbolism for us, and created textural collages that we could hang on the wall as art. Here are some of the samples of the things people made in the class... Mine are not here, cause I didn't photograph them in class... I will post them in a day or so... Annie is one of the sweetest people you ever want to meet. With that sweet southern accent, she is all heart. She made all of us in the class cry when she was sharing a letter she wrote to us at 4 am the morning of the class. If you ever get a chance to take a class from her, do it. It was an awesome experience... I sat next to Michelle from the Bay Area Artfesters and in front of me was Danita, a lady who contacted me through the Creative Therapy website and we found we had so many things in common. She hung out with us for the whole thing, and we became instant friends. it is so Twilight Zone wierd how alike she and I are... Even shopping, we reached for the same things. She was doing a children's art program, I am starting one. We have the same amount of children, we both love Gypsies and vintage junk... It was meant to be that we meet...

Below are photos of me with Annie, and some pix of other people's work. If you see your work here, and don't want it shown here, please email me and I will remove it immediately. Or, send me a link to your blog and I will include it in mine.

There is so much more to tell, the beautiful Victorian buildings in the town, the awesome Thai food we ate, the shops that carried such beautiful and fun things... I will give you the run down of the next day with photos later tonight...