Preview Vendor Night - Art & Soul (and read for a special announcement!)

I've been busy in the studio preparing to head out to Art & Soul in Portland just 1 short week from today. There are so many things I've wanted to write about. So many things that God has been doing in my life, but time is flying by and my to do list seems to be growing the closer the event gets. I promise to slow down when I return and write in more detail about some of these things.

If you plan to be at Art & Soul drop me a note here to let me know and then be sure to stop by my table and see me at Vendor Night ~ I will be selling many of my Objects from Other Peoples Flowers and have prepared a lot of new art (which you can preview in the slide show above and still find a few pieces at OPF Studio on Etsy) ~ I would love to meet you face to face!

There are still several spots available in my class, Front & Center 3D Collage w/Story, if you are free on Sunday I would love to have you join us. We will be learning collage techniques, using our jewelers saws to cut acrylic, making tube rivets, and discussing ways that these techniques can be used in other applications. But the class isn't just about the technique, it's about you. The artist. The artist you were meant to be. You will learn how to observe, listen, and trust the artist within you and begin to create art that speaks about the stories you carry within your heart. I hope you can join us!

And if you can't make it to Portland then I am pleased to announce that Art & Soul has added a new venue in the Midwest, Madison Wisconsin, just a few short hours from home for me! Start watching for announcements for registration. The event will be held in July 2010 and I will be teaching my wax and wire techniques!


And if you are unable to make it you can always

Dwelling Places

It has been a whirlwind of activity here at OPF Studio with many fun and exciting things going on that I can't tell you about yet, but soon...

Meanwhile I have once again turned my attention to my first love, collage, and am so pleased to begin showing and listing a new series of works that have been mounted on archival mat board ready to be framed to suit your decor.

One of my favorite pieces yet began as one of the most boring and dissatisfying from the series. As I finished up a few pieces this one just looked bland and I kept pushing it aside knowing it wasn't complete.
One night on an after dinner trek through the neighborhood I came across this scrap of copper with a hole punched through. The next day I was cleaning the bowl I use to melt my encaustic wax and pulled out a piece of antique text to absorb the last few drops. As I tore it into strips I noticed it was a poem and in that moment the collage became what it was meant to be. I love these seemingly random, but connected moments. It is the voice, the storyteller, the Spirit within that guides me.

"And there were temples on the heights
And homes beneath the fruited trees
And never had I seen before
Beings so beautiful as these..... they laughed, and they loved"

from "The Tryst" by Harriet Prescott Spofford

~My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest~ Isaiah 32:18

"Dwelling Places" is an encaustic wax collage created from antique papers, textures and found copper scrap on gesso board. It is nicely mounted on a standard 11" x 14" mat and is ready for you to frame to fit your own decor. To purchase e-mail me at [email protected] or visit opfstudio at Etsy.

Free to Dream

Eight years ago on this day I was rushing around getting ready for work. The kids stood in front of the TV watching the news. They pointed out what was happening on the screen, but I was too busy to notice more then smoke coming from a high rise building. By the time I dropped my 12-year old daughter and 13-year old step-son off at school, I realized the magnitude of what they had been watching. I knew in my heart there would be a strong military response to this action against our country.

This week my, then 13-year old, step-son left for basic training after volunteering to enlist in the Army. He signed up knowing full well the likelihood was high that he will be deployed soon after his training. But he has a dream and he didn't let fear keep him from it. From the time he was a little boy he has wanted to be a pilot. He is also an avid watcher of the military channel and after exploring his options he knew this was the best way for him to become who he knows he was meant to be. On his facebook page he left this quote:

~ Live for nothing, or die for something. Your call." John J. Rambo- Rambo 4 ~

At 21 he already knows what he was created to be. Something many adults twice his age are still trying to figure out. Something I have only begun, in the past few years, to learn about myself.

It has been quite a journey from where I was then to the artist I am becoming today. The me that I was created to be.

I am grateful this morning for the men and women of our military who serve day and night to keep this country free.

Free to speak. Free to live and love. Free to worship. Free to follow our dreams.

~ Free To Dream is available for sale at OPF Studio on Etsy or e-mail me at crystal_opf@comcast.net for details~