February Guest Artist - Keri Luiz

Join us on Tuesday, February 9th at the Concord Library, 1-3pm. The public is welcome!

Our guest artist for our next meeting is Keri Luiz. She will talk about her exploration with ink through the Inktober Challenge, a global event that takes place online every October, where artists create a new ink drawing or painting each day and share it on social media.

Keri will also discuss and demonstrate some tools and techniques for working with ink and combining it with other mediums. 

Be sure to follow her on Facebook and find her on Twitter and Instagram under PhoenyxArts.

"My artistic journey has been about exploring different mediums. Sometimes that desire to explore gets me into trouble…I find it hard to settle down on just one technique or medium. I want to learn them all!

I have been creating since I was old enough to hold a crayon. My desire to be creative got me into a lot of trouble when I was a child…modifying things with scissors that should have been left alone, decorating things with nail polish. I caused my mother a lot of grief!

Through school I kept drawing, doodling, creating. High school was bearable because of Mr. Wong’s art class. He challenged me to explore different mediums. I earned my BFA in graphic design, and worked in the publishing industry for most of my career. Graphic design can be confining at times, especially when you want to be more hands-on with what you create, rather than relying on the computer for all of the output. I needed creative release that didn’t involve sitting in front of a monitor for hours on end, so I started exploring metal sculpture, jewelry-making, and pinstriping with acrylics and inks.

Currently I'm a gallery artist at Gallerie Renee Marie in Benicia, and I work as an independent jewelry maker, graphic designer and artist at large."

Tips for Sparking Creativity

CutoutsStudio.com

Our guest speaker for January's meeting, Julia Linsteadt, shared her own journey to becoming a working artist and showed off several of her wonderful cut-out paper silhouettes. She also gave us some tips for sparking creativity and getting yourself out of that creative rut:

• Word dump - write down whatever words are in your head, even gibberish
• Tinker table - have a small container of art supplies at the ready so you can doodle or draw on the spot
• Take a break - a few minutes just for you does wonders to get unstuck
• Look at art - see what you can learn and wonder about from other's work
• Challenge yourself - a deadline can create "positive pressure"
• Go outside - the wide, open spaces will help clear your mind
• Meet up - get together with people and socialize

A few other great take-aways from Julia's talk -

As a child, her parents set up an environment that naturally nurtured her creativity (although she didn't realize it at the time) - she spent a lot of time outdoors and using her imagination.

A college professor once told her that "art is chaos in a fixed structure," and those words still echo in her head today. It's important to remember that the creative process can be very chaotic and uncontrollable - which is actually a good thing! From such chaos comes amazing experiences and creative visualization. But whenever the chaos feels overwhelming or unproductive, we artists can always return to the structure of our work - themes, materials, techniques, etc.

It's also important to be aware of the limits we might put on ourselves as perfectionists. "Perfectionism is just fear dressed up in high heels," Julia said.

Three Feathers

She also shared an old fable that compared the negative words we often express to feathers in the wind - once they are released, they can't easily be retrieved. The lesson is to stay positive - with yourself and with others - positivity promotes creativity!

January Mini Art Show

Three Pots by Bobbe Anderson - acrylic 

Broken Water Balloon by Annegret van Gemeren - watercolor

Daisies by Bev Kenyon - watercolor

Gazebo at Heather Farms Park by Carol Husslein - watercolor

Oh Really? by Mary Frances Crabtree - pastel

Morning Flowers by Farhana Naqvi - oil

Winter Show and Artist Reception

Our Winter Show is on right now!

Paintings from 16 of our members are on display above the book shelves at the Ygnacio Valley Library in Walnut Creek.

Join us for our Artist Reception at the library on Thursday, February 4th, 6:30-7:45pm.

Most of the paintings are for sale, but the library is not handling transactions. Please use the contact information listed with each piece to purchase directly from the artist. Click here to download a price list.

Read a good book, look at beautiful art, take a class - so many great reasons to visit the library!

Click here if you'd like to download our exhibit flyer (3 on a page) to print, trim and hand out to friends.

Thank you!

Thanks so much for your payment!

Email us at concordartassociation(at)yahoo(dot)com if you have any questions.

We look forward to seeing you soon and supporting you on your creative journey.