Jenny Doh

1: Loosen up. 2: Alter. 3: Integrate.

I've been hard at work getting my Artfully Altered workshop ready! It is a one-day workshop that will happen Saturday February 21st and/or Monday February 23rd. I like to offer my workshops once on a weekday and once on a weekend so people with assorted obligations can have a chance to take it. :)

In the class, we will:

• begin with quite innovative and outside the box exercises to get us to loosen up and consider new ways of seeing and creating
• utilize approximately ten methods that I love to use to uniquely alter photos, and pages from catalogs and magazines
• create a monster journal using file folders and papers into which we will integrate the altered works
• discover ways to integrate altered works onto other substrates

Fun group has started to form. Enrollment is now open here. Join us if you want to. :)

Announcing :: Artfully Altered

I'm excited to announce my Artfully Altered workshop in Studio CRESCENDOh in February, 2015! A full-day class where I'll share prompts and methods on how to view photos and pages of catalogues and magazines with an artistic and playful point of view and then use that point of view to create alterations using my favorite methods.

After that, we will together discover how those altered photos and catalogue pages can be incorporated into art journals and other works of art that are fun, fresh, and unconventional.

The fun we will have. :)

Enrollment is now open here.

Life Book 2015 :: Registration is NOW Open!

Hooray! Today is the day! Enrollment for Life Book 2015 is officially OPEN!

I am excited to be one of the teachers. I will be teaching my approach that focuses on

• palette knives,
• acrylic paints,
• and watercolor pencils

to create abstract works of art like these:

I'm excited! Enrollment is now open here. :)

This cute little linky button to enroll will remain on this site at the upper right hand corner throughout the year for you to enroll today or any other day.

Life Book 2015

Life Book 2015 is coming!

A year-long online course hosted by Tamara Lamporte of Willowing where each and every week, you learn about the signature processes and methods from talented artists from around the world. This is the fourth year that this amazing course has been offered and I am delighted to be one of the artists teaching for Life Book 2015.

By the end of the year, you will end up with numerous art journal pages made through the online tutorials by the participating artists. These pages will be ones that Tamara helps you bind together to create your very own Life Book 2015 ... an epic piece of work that documents the celebration of you throughout the entire year. Amazing.

 Bet you have lots of questions, yes?

Click here to learn more details.

Once you read the details, please know that enrollment will actually open October 6th. :)
The Life Book icon button is on this blog's upper right hand corner where you can click and enroll starting October 6th.

In the meantime, I am honored to be part of a Blog Hop to get the word out. If you'd like a chance to win a spot in Life Book 2015, please leave a comment here on this blog post. I will announce the winner for the one spot that I am allowed to give away here on this post by October 2nd. Good luck!

Here is the complete Blog Hop schedule by contributing artists:

8th September 2014 – Tamara Laporte -  http://www.willowing.org/
9th September 2014 – Jane Davenport – http://janedavenport.com/
10th September 2014 – Joanne Sharpe – http://joannezsharpe.blogspot.co.uk/
11th September 2014 -  Jenny Lee Wentworth – http://jennyleewentworth.blogspot.co.uk/
12th September 2014 -  Violette Clark – http://www.violette.ca/
13th September 2014 -  Chris Zydel – http://creativejuicesarts.com/
14th September 2014 -  Danielle Donaldson – http://danielledonaldson.com/
15th September 2014 -  Effy Wild – http://effywild.com/
16th September 2014 -  Flora Bowley – http://braveintuitiveyou.com/
17th September 2014 -  Alisa Burke – http://alisaburke.blogspot.co.uk/
18th September 2014 -  Rachael Rice – http://rachaelrice.com/
19th September 2014 -  Jeanne Oliver – http://www.jeanneoliverdesigns.com/
20th September 2014 -  Andrea Gomoll – http://andrea-gomoll.de/
21st September 2014 -  Kristin van Valkenburgh – http://www.kristinvanvalkenburgh.com/
22nd September 2014 -  Jill K. Berry – http://jillberrydesign.com/
23rd September 2014 -  Alena Hennessy – http://www.alenahennessy.com/
24th September 2014 -  Juliette Crane – http://www.juliettecrane.com/
25th September 2014 -  Jenny Doh – http://blog.crescendoh.com/crescendoh/ :)
26th September 2014 -  Mati Rose McDonough – http://www.matirose.com/
27th September 2014 -  Patti Ballard – http://www.pbsartstudio.com
28th September 2014 -  Lynzee Lynx – http://lynzeelynx.com/
29th September 2014 -  Roben Marie Smith – http://www.robenmarie.com/
30th September 2014 -  Andrea Schroeder – http://www.creativedreamincubator.com/
1st October 2014 -  Lynn Whipple – http://www.lynnwhipple.com/
2nd October 2014 -  Donna Downey – http://www.donnadowney.com/

EDIT IN!
The winner of this giveaway is Julie Pencak, who left the 118th comment! Congratulations, Julie. Please send me an email at [email protected] and we'll get you enrolled into LifeBook 2015!

Announcing :: Lettering & Art Journaling Workshops with Pam Garrison!

I'm happy to announce two of Pam Garrison's upcoming classes in Studio CRESCENDOh!

• On Saturday March 8th, she will offer a 1-day workshop titled For the Love of Lettering. Enrollment for this class is open and you can enroll here.
• On Sunday March 9th, she will offer a 1-day workshop titled Art of the Page. Enrollment for this class is open and you can enroll here.

Hip hip hooray! Pam and I look forward to seeing you in the studio as we have fun with letters and art journal pages. :)

I See Boat People

Thought I'd share with you some altered art that I've made with pages from Anthropologie catalogs. With every page, I see boat people.

Ah yes, I see more boat people waiting to emerge. Do you?

And

During my recent session with Therapist, when I was expressing guilt related to some relationships in my life, Therapist said "You're being hard on yourself." To which I said,

"With all due respect, you are saying that I'm being hard on myself because of the nature of our relationship ... which is that I'm paying you to listen to me and to sort of be on my side. You are not objective."

And then I explained that if I were to be in a room with people that I didn't know and people I wasn't paying, that my behaviors could be assessed with true objectivity ... assessing bad as bad without any stories spun for sympathy.

Therapist's response was this:

"I am not sort of on your side. I am on your side. And, I am objective. How would it serve you to be on your side and offer assessments that were disingenous? How would that be being on your side? Can't I be on your side and observe that you are being hard on yourself at times that you are being hard on yourself and observe that you are being cavalier at times when you are being cavalier?"

And.

What a powerful concept. The concept that really defines my biggest insights this year.

Good and bad.
Serious and in touch with feelings.
On my side and objective.

Not naughty or nice, but naughty and nice.

Paint Paper Print :: 2-Day Workshop with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer

I'm excited to announce that Julie Fei-Fan Balzer will be returning to Studio CRESCENDOh to teach a very cool new class titled Paint Paper Print: A Mixed Media Collage Exploration.

It's a 2-day workshop that will happen January 18-19 and enrollment is open right here.

If you've ever wanted to learn how to make your own colorful papers with unique patterns, you won't want to miss this fun workshop where Julie will share her tips and techniques on layering, mixing colors, creating a focal point, and so much more.

Julie's workshops are full of energy and students have heaps of fun creating and learning to enjoy the process in the unique way that Julie teaches.
Hope to see you in the studio as we start the new year off right with paint, paper, and print.

Enrollment is open here.

The Art of Value

M.C. Richards writes eloquently in The Crossing Point:

It is dangerous for poets and painters and sculptors and musicians to think that their image, their composition, is the source of value—instead of the reflection of value, the making conscious of an experience of value otherwhere derived. The paint peels and cracks, the pot breaks, but the realm out of which it comes continues to reveal itself in more works of art and craft.

Nothing bores me more than convos where people waste inordinate amounts of time trying to protect what they think they own and believe as being the source of true value ...

"Hey, the thick down stroke and thin upstroke in lettering ... that's my idea. You can't steal that."
"The crooked lips and curly hair was my invention, you can't do that."
"The use of black, red, and white ... that's my color palette ... I can't believe you're copying me."
"Are you using images of birds and leaves? Don't you know that I did that first?"

And on and on it goes ... without regard of knowing that all of it ... the thick and thin strokes, the crooked lips with curly hair, the black-red-white palette, the birds and leaves ... were all born and interpreted a million times before us and will continue to be interpreted a million times after we are all gone. Forever.

Love Her Madly

Don't just love her.
Love her madly.

####

I've got an angel
She doesn't wear any wings
She wears a heart that can melt my own
She wears a smile that can make me wanna sing
She gives me presents
With her presence alone
She gives me everything I could wish for
She gives me kisses on the lips just for coming home

— Jack Johnson