art esprit (10 unread)

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  Prom {the}

  Posted: 21-May-2012, 2:10pm CEST by Susan Schwake

  

  
  

  

  Chloe worked very hard designing and constructing this dress for her Prom!  It is beautifully made and she had a wonderful time at the prom. We can't wait to see what she does next ...

  

  
  

  
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  Happiness comes in threes!

  Posted: 19-May-2012, 4:27pm CEST by Susan Schwake

  working with some littles

  our mother's day brunch

  A busy month already - May is turning out to be spectacular! A couple of new projects in the works (more on these later) a delightful brunch in the garden with the ones I love for Mother's day and tonight is Chloe's prom. She has been working for three months designing her dress, making her dress and sweating each detail. I am very excited for her and bursting with pride that she was able to see her vision through. Will share photos just as soon as she "allows". Have a delightful weekend!
  

  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  
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  Ashley Goldberg + Alena Hennessy - In Our Nature

  Posted: 3-May-2012, 2:13pm CEST by Susan Schwake

  our May Exhibit! It opens on Saturday....

  
  

  

  
  

  
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  Workshops, New York and dragons, oh my!

  Posted: 1-May-2012, 5:16pm CEST by Susan Schwake

  From our Big Art Night Playful Printmaking workshop!

  Outside the Strand Bookstore on the streets of NYC

  
  

  Building a dragon with Rochester Middle Schoolers for the Mythology project

  
  

  So much busy art adventures going on at the moment that it almost makes my head spin! It's all good stuff though!  Don't forget to stop by the pages at FB for more Art Lab for Kids and artstreamstudios gallery! More later in the week as we are hanging a new show tonight which I am *so excited* about! Stay tuned for a post on the beauty which is going to blow your mind!
  
  

  Just  one of the many happy faces at the NH Children's Museum's workshop last Saturday

  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  
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  James O'Brien

  Posted: 18-April-2012, 3:37pm CEST by Susan Schwake

  Deep in the Void by James O'Brien

  I asked one of our current exhibitors, James O'Brien to speak to me about his process of his work in landscape painting. He currently has 8 paintings at artstream and they are all causing quite a stir. Here are his words on process:
  
  
  

  I want the painting and the viewer to have an experience together. My goal is to convey to the viewer a philosophy embedded in the art?for the viewer to see how natural light can reveal new truths within the objects it affects, bringing into focus an unexamined life. Our surroundings hold a hidden key to our emotions and by documenting the relationships of light values and focusing on the space, I can convey an emotion to the viewer in a carefully calculated composition. 

  
  

  When painting landscapes, I begin with hundreds of thumbnails, each sketch conveying a different point-of-view or idea. I attack the canvas with aggressive and energetic brushstrokes. I don?t worry about color or the placement of anything, but attempt to capture the level of intensity or tranquility surging in the moment. When painting a mountain, my goal is to get the mountain on the canvas, capturing it the way it is; strong, tall, mighty?accessing it?s mountainness. In studying both traditional and contemporary landscapes, I observe the way light reveals and disguises the world around us. 

  After grounding the canvas with a primitive feeling, I begin to construct the skeletal structure of the image, allowing the brushstroke to flow with the composition?building mark upon mark?until finally achieving a satisfactory image. 

  
  

  For me it?s the visual relationships between objects that are most interesting and not, necessarily, the objects themselves. Visual cavities allow light to be perceived as if it is a divine energy full of life, communicating the secrets of sight?it can be a source of obscurity too, instilling darkness, confusion, and fear. Values of light imbue the viewer with emotion and reveal a world beyond time. By studying light?s soft and harsh qualities I create fantastic locations for the viewer to explore and bear witness to a wholly new perspective of life. 

  
  

  -James Michael O?Brien 

  
  

  

  
  

  
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  Making art in the studio

  Posted: 12-April-2012, 9:21pm CEST by Susan Schwake

  mask making!

  starting very young ...

  
  
  

  large scale ink drawings

  Some scenes from the studio these past few days - it's been productive and fun -- we have been working on some lessons from Art Lab for Kids and some new ones which we will have to snap some shots of to show! Getting ready for summer with our new classes/camps/workshops ready to be unveiled tomorrow! Stay in the loop and get our newsletter right here...

  

  
  

  
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  Molly Grant Bags

  Posted: 9-April-2012, 9:22pm CEST by Susan Schwake

  
  Molly Grant Bags, a photo by artstreamstudios on Flickr.

  Yes! She's back! The wonderful unsinkable Molly Grant and her delish leather bags of all sorts. They start at the tiny wristlet and Chicklet style and move up to her calfskin braided drop bag. Come in and "feel the goods" with these beauties!

  

  
  

  
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  Monster making at RiverRun Bookstore!

  Posted: 2-April-2012, 4:07pm CEST by Susan Schwake

  

  

  
  

  

  
  
  

  

  
  

  A few shots from Saturday's book signing and workshop over in Portsmouth at RiverRun Bookstore. We had a full house making a taking home monsters from Lab 31 in Art Lab for Kids.  Tom was a wonderful host and the entire stock of books was gobbled up! Don't worry though - Tom assured me that more were on the way. What a fun morning at my favorite independent bookstore! 

  
  

  

  
  

  
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  Workshops with Megan Bogonovich + lots more!

  Posted: 30-March-2012, 10:19pm CEST by Susan Schwake

  

  super stylin'with clay and Megan Bogonovich!

  There are so many workshops planned for the next few months here at artstream it's going to be a nonstop art party folks! Check them out all here at our site! Megan will be teaching her winning ways with Handbuilding with Porcelain, Jess Greene will have two workshops offering Encaustic: Embedded Memories, and Mosaics to go! and Intro to Mosaics with Lizz VanSaun, and Playful Printmaking with me!  Stop over to the site and if you are around tomorrow we have two seats left for Psyanky Eggs!

  

  
  

  
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  WishStudio + Art Lab for Kids = fun morning!

  Posted: 26-March-2012, 1:30pm CEST by Susan Schwake

  

  

  
  

  

  Just a couple action shots from our fun times during my book signing/workshop at WishStudio in Newburyport MA on Saturday! A big thanks to Mindy for a fun time and bringing some exciting little artists to the table!