Check in - writing is happening

Checking in, again.

Again, I could write that I'm busy. I am. I am busy a lot.

Am I still writing? Yes.

Have I made any progress on the WIP? No. But I have written a lot, several times every week; not every day. All of that is okay.

I still don't know what I want this space to be. What to write. What it's for.

I don't want to let it go but I don't have a clear path. Which is funny, because this is pretty much the topic I'm working on in my general life (what do I want? where do I go from here? and so on). This is also - in a way - the topic of the current writing workshop I'm in, "Experiments in Story Structure" with Ariel Gore. We are exploring non-traditional forms of writing stories, which aren't really non-traditional, but they have new names and are described in new ways; but many of the examples are from what have been considered "traditional" stories.

I am still writing.
I will continue to write.
I am still working (of course) and I am fortunate to have a part of my work be creative and inspiring and something I love (theatre).
I am in need of some down time (note to body: no, I do not need to get sick to get down time; I will make time without it - please and thank you).

I have been doing a lot of writing, actually. The most recent workshops I've done were the 14-day winter intensive with Ariel Gore, and then the current workshop (also online) started about 4 days after the end of the intensive. So - writing. Yes. Keeping it on the "front burner." I also like a lot of what I've written.

This week I have a couple of uncommitted days, where I have a little space to breathe before jumping into March. Which is going to be one of the super busy and super creative months - starting with interpreting the Oregon Poetry Out Loud (high school recitation) competition, and the month includes mentoring for one play and watching a couple of other interpreted performances that my only role is as coordinator. Full, busy, creative month.

I am wondering about this space - what do I want it to be? Not for the first time. I liked the times when I posted prompts, when I shared more resources, shared articles and advice from others. I may bring some of that back. Maybe have some regularly scheduled writings to post.

Time to go back and look at my original intentions and see what still holds and what has changed.

*

Feeling Grateful

Last weekend I attended an in-person workshop with Ariel Gore, right here in Portland Oregon, It was a wonderful group a writers. We gathered in one participant's home, where we shared pieces of our projects and new writing. We played with editing in Ariel's useful, magical, inspiring "editing stations." We shared drinks and food provided by our kind and generous host. We talked about our writing and our process, about publishing and keeping on writing even when it gets difficult.


Two of the days were a little early for me; but I know that I'm the one with a non-traditional schedule and it was all fine. I survived. Now I'm getting back to my regularly scheduled schedule.


And I feel refreshed and rejuvenated.


I am still in the online three-month manuscript workshop with Ariel, which is also going really well. I am making some amazing progress on editing this draft, with a new deadline to get this thing done. To get it to where I can take it to the next level, meaning earnestly working on getting the book out into the world.


All this while working on a couple of wonderful productions: "Weaving Women Together" at Portland Playhouse (interpreted performance is this Wednesday 1/24 at 7:30 pm) and "2.5 Minute Ride" at Profile Theatre (interpreted performance will be Friday 2/2 at 7:30 pm). Both of these have strong scripts and strong, skilled actors to match.


Writing is happening every day, which was another goal with the manuscript workshop. It feels good.

Collage for my WIP

This is another assignment from the manuscript workshop with Ariel Gore.

Oh, first. My WIP has a new title. This change feels so right and it has injected the project and me with new energy. This is just what it needed. I'm not going to share here, yet, but I will. For now, the title I've been using has served me well and gotten the project to this point, but I have officially changed the name.

I also have the beginning and end of the book. It's not as easy as it sounds and has been one of the struggles for me. Where to start and where to stop. I've had all these pieces and possibilities. But now I know how it's going to go. Not the exact order of everything, but I do have the main thread and which stories belong in that.

This is what I made for the optional (but not really) assignment. This is a collage showing the feel of the project right now. This is radically different than the one I made last summer with the old title.

I am excited to be making movement in the project.

Manuscript Update

I was about 1/3 of the way through reading the manuscript when I took this photo.

I have completed reading all 429 pages of that manuscript. Don't worry, it won't be that long when it's published. I knew there would be some duplication of information or even copy/paste errors - but I thought there would be more. There are about 20 pages in total which are near exact stories. I say "near exact" because there have been some edits on those pieces, or small sections form within removed or moved. But those 20 pages are less than I expected.

Which is good news and, oh boy!

I do expect there to be a lot cut in the edits and some rewrites. I do still have a couple of gaps which need the stories written to fill. I will.

This is also printed double-spaced, 12 point font with extra margin on the right for notetaking.

I have also written my assessment of where the project is right now.

And am working on my Hopes and Intentions for the manuscript workshop which starts at the end of this week.

Next up will be to identify and prepare 10,000 words for submission to the workshop, since I volunteered to be in the first group of submitters. My 10k words are due next Sunday, June 11th.

A couple of months ago I set myself a deadline to complete this draft of the manuscript by the end of October 2017. Wow! I am actually putting that information out into the larger atmosphere. There it is.

And I do think I will hit that goal this time. I may even get it done a little early, thank you to the wonderful manuscript workshop I am about to embark on with Ariel Gore and some fabulous writers in the Literary Kitchen.

Here I go!
*

After NaNoWriMo

The challenge after the writing frenzy of November is to continue a solid writing practice. It is one reason that I participate in NaNoWriMo every year, to renew my own commitment and to strengthen my practice of regular writing.

And, this year, to move a project forward.

There were challenges this November. One being that I had a little more performance interpreting opportunities than I usually take during NaNoWriMo; good opportunities and I was thrilled to be able to do them. The other challenge was the direction things are going since the election. This event raised fears and anger and more. But I decided to turn those energies around into awareness and into continuing to write.

I also registered for two online workshops with Ariel Gore. The first is a workshop I've wanted to do since she first offered it, but the timing hasn't worked out - personal essay writing. This time it falls across a time where another workshop I was scheduled for canceled - so I had already blocked the time for writing; seems a bit of synchronicity in the timing. The second workshop with Ariel is outside of my usual writing style, and that is good. The second one is a Noir and Dystopian intensive, something I've wanted to check out, try, but haven't yet. This seems like a good time to dip into that genre and especially with Ariel.

So I'm excited about the two new writing workshops.

The publication of the excerpt from my memoir steal beats warm in my heart. I've received some wonderful feedback from people who've read it at Hippocampus Magazine, words of encouragement and people who want to read more. I have been working on that this month. I have compiled all of the pieces into one place and am going to print it out. It's a lot of paper, but I am at a place where I need to see it in print and I need to mark and cut and move and paste. And edit. Parts of the manuscript at this point need some serious editing and revision. And I have some new pieces to put in to the document and the writing of some of the old and new is of a different style and I need to get more consistency. This is a good place to be in the book's development, but it is a slower process - at least for me. The editing process is longer and harder; I like the writing part better. Although I do want to say that I have some great editing tools I've learned from Ariel and from Lidia Yuknavitch which make the process feel possible and productive.

So, onward. My writing continues. I will get this Work In Process done. And I will continue to write other pieces, as well.

It's Fall. Leaves Falling. Words Falling. Fall Introspection.

*
Feeling a little, something. A word popped into my head which wasn't the word I'm feeling and not the word I was thinking. That word was "nostalgic" but that isn't what it is.

I'm feeling. Some excitement maybe. After all, NaNoWriMo is coming!

And a Corporeal Writing workshop in November.

October brings me a chance to interpret "Trevor" at Artists Repertory Theatre and then a staged reading of "Hazardous Beauty" at Profile Theatre. And what will be an amazing wonderful experience of a second chance to interpret Profile Theatre's "Antigone Project" - but this time it will be at Oregon School for the Deaf.

I'm also doing a 30-day Lunar Challenge writing experience online. It is day two and I just finished up my intro. I haven't written day one yet, but I will. And then move on to day two writing. But I'm writing here right now instead of doing that. The facilitator is a writer I met in the Corporeal Writing workshops, who is a creative and energetic spirit full of heart. This is part of my increasing my writing time. My writing commitment. Because NaNoWriMo is coming; and I want to do this anyway.

Maybe this will be the year which launches me forward into writing. Maybe.

For now, back to the work and the script. After I write the two daily assignment, I mean.

So what was it I'm feeling? Oh, right, reflective; introspectively reflective. Nice!
*

Corporeal Writing Summer Session

*
heat words eros, breaking through timidity, first time second time many times returning to self to the body, speaking from the body breaking down personal limitations, being present in our messedupness not alone sharing space sharing wine whiskey beer soda water sharing breath and air and stories. standing swimming floating in pools of water cold hot. we. are. here. because words. 
*

On the Cusp of August

*
Where am I? Who am I?

Oh, me. Hello, again. Yes. Things have been busy. Good busy, but busy is busy. You know?

Yes, I know.

Hey - you know the coolest thing that happened to me today?

No, What?

The workshop I'm attending next week? They sent "this is the final email before the workshop ... important information ..." all relevant and all good. But. The coolest thing? They made a mix tape to listen to on the way to the workshop! How super awesome is that? I sampled a couple of the songs but am saving the full Listen for the drive next Friday.

Super cool.

Yeah. It is. They are. Super cool. Like that. Words and revolution. With its own mix tape.

August. The place to be.

Good night.

G'night.

*

Shift in Focus

Today ended a long run of interpreted performance events for me (interpreting myself, coordinating, working on an upcoming workshop). It has been a great several weeks and now I have a couple weeks of focus back on my writing.

Well, my writing and the writing of the writers in my cohort at the Writing X Writers Methow Valley workshop. 

At my last post here, I was at the coast. At the condo alone, with the ocean front view, my laptop, and everything I needed to stay in and write. And sleep. And write.

Which I did. My writing piece was due by April 10th; I made the deadline.

Then a few days later I received an email with all of the 15 to 20 pages of writing from the other eleven people in my writing cohort. Because of two plays and the first meeting of a new in-person writing critique group, I have barely started on the Methow Valley manuscripts.

That is going to change now.

The interpreted performances went really well today and there was a nice size of signing audience present, which always feels good.

My next interpreted show is not until the end of May, so now, I will dive into the manuscripts.

After a good night's sleep following a day of work well done.

workshop photos

More Corporeal Writing photos from the spring "Reinventing Revision" workshop with Lidia Yuknavitch and bunch of other wonderful beings. (photos by Domi J Shoemaker)

yes to corporeal writing

Not much more to say. Yes. One day in the Corporeal Writing spring/revision workshop. Revision in new ways. Entering the writing, entering community, entering through the pathways of the body.

Words.
Images.
Instinct.
Insight.

Revision like you've never done it before. This, on top of the revision workshop with Ariel in the Literary Kitchen, I feel fully provisioned to get through another edit of the bigger project.

Yes.

This.

Power in writing.

Powerful writing.

Synchronous Moment: Writing in Our Time

*
Writing in Modern Times? In Our Time? In the Age of _________, fill in the blank. I couldn't think of a better way to say it so I went with what I had.

This is one of those times when different aspects of my life are coming together with the same or a similar message. Meaning, in my opinion, pay attention.

I am now in week six of the seven weeks IWP online MOOC poetry class. The topics have been interesting and, while I am still not fond of the online classroom platform they've chosen for this round, it is still working. I just ignore what doesn't work and keep to my workarounds, and respond as I have been and read much more than I write on the boards - and it's fine.

Last week's IWP topic didn't resonate with me. It felt like a "duh" and I didn't get as much from it. I think some of that was because it had to do with "turns" in poetry and I think, as primarily a fiction and creative non-fiction writer, "turns" are commonplace in the stories. It was interesting to read about the different styles of turns in poetry, with some excellent examples and exposure to new poets, but it didn't spur me to write more poetry. And I will admit that the activity and busy-ness of the week also interfered with me jumping into it as heavily as I have been; so there is probably something to that as, well.

But this week's topic is inspiring. And right up my writing alley. And one of the video lectures mentions several of my favorite poets; the other video lecture talks about some of my favorite ideas and questions. I fell into this week's topic quickly and easily.

One focus of this week on the place of "anger" in poetry. "Anger" is a very general term - specifically they talk about politics and the personal. One of the "instructors" for this week put the question out on the boards if poetry can just be cathartic without leading toward a solution. It was a question to generate conversation and I think it will; it is still early in the week.

Another focus is on writing in the current times and all that goes with it - short and fast, hashtags, and the internet and tweets and posts; brevity. How does this affect us as poets, as readers? How do we physically experience our world and our work, our writing and our reading, with these new things. What does it mean to - or do we - embody this life with all of these things? When a "date" might be online and not in person. When we text or tweet or Skype rather than calling on the phone or stopping by or meeting in person in a coffee shop? Questions ... no answers.

Then I saw an interview with Charles Baxter for Tin House. And the section quoted reminds me of the topics and lectures and discussions this week in the MOOC. Which is what led to this piece of writing, although it took me this long to get to the point. Click through to read the whole interview, if you have a couple of minutes; if not, come back later and check it out.

Questions about time, our times, and writing.

"Everything now is supposed to go fast; everything is supposed to be so efficient. Since when was fiction supposed to submit to time-and-motion studies? Impatience and distraction are our great enemies and must be conquered somehow. We all know that some of our most profound moments happen with a kind of languor: pleasure and love and sorrow and prayer take their own sweet time." -- Charles Baxter, in conversation with Susan Tacent

Read the whole piece by clicking here: Urgency and Momentum: An Interview with Charles Baxter.

graphic from Tin House link for the Baxter interview

*

MOOC Poetry Class Update

*
I am participating in an online poetry class, a MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) offered by The University of Iowa International Writing Program. There are thousands of participants from around the world. The online platform is clunky and can be overwhelming. But I have developed a system to decrease the technology frustrations so that I can enjoy the amazing videos from skilled poets and teachers, learn about new forms, practice writing more poetry in sometimes new or different ways. The content each week is wonderful. Oh, and it's free.

We are in week four now and I haven't shared anything I've written. I decided it's time to put up one of my poems. It's interesting that I chose this one because this week's focus is meter and form. I tend to write free verse poetry, but I do enjoy experimenting with structure and am often happily surprised at the results. 

This poem is written with the Pantoum structure. This is a form I had not heard of before this course, which is one reason I chose this form. 

Working the Night Shift 

a pantoum

by Dot Hearn 

  

the look of a face at sunset 

when light switches form,  

the trees pull up roots, 

and life, as we know it, ends. 

  

when light switches form,  

inverting shadows, highlights, thought 

and life as we sense it begins. 

we prepare for vision and insight. 

  

inverting shadows and highlights, through 

closed eyelids and flickering minds, 

we prepare for vision and insight. 

the rocks float and rivers rumble. 

  

closed eyelids and blinking minds, 

the bodies wander familiar strange roads 

as rocks float and rivers rumble, remembering 

the look of a face at sunset.

*

The Flying Week

*

The week of the humor writing intensive has come and gone and what a week it was.

I learned that I am funny. At least on the page I can be funny. We practiced different approaches to writing humor and read famous writers' humor and read the writing of other writers in the intensive. We gave feedback. We tried to write and have it be funny; we tried to write without the mandate of humor by writing to a prompt and if it was funny, bonus!

The good thing about an online writing intensive in Ariel Gore's Literary Kitchen is that it is only a week. I can do anything for a week (pretty much), even if my schedule ended up not being as open and lazy as it was when I signed up for the class months ago. The bad thing about the intensives is that they are only a week.

It is true that time flies when you're having fun and the Humor Writing Intensive was no exception.

I did write every day. Even days when that meant posting my writing at 2 AM. And feedback at 2:30 AM. I did it. Every day,

Then, poof, it was over.

From that lovely week I have a few pieces to develop more. One premise I am letting another writer use for her own story (yes, she asked! very nice). And I have saved all of my writing and all of my feedback for future use.

I also signed up for an online poetry writing class through another source. It is one I wanted to do but avoided because the timing was terrible (it was supposed to start last week). Apparently there were technical issues so the start date was delayed to some unnamed time. Which is fine. Especially if it is later in April. So I signed up for that workshop/class and have a writing class to look forward to for after I get through the plays of April.

But back to the humor class. It was helpful, fun, informative, and I learned things. And I wrote. Ariel's workshops are always inspirational and she attracts supportive and talented writers. These are the things which keep my writing flowing and which keep me from going down the I'm-not-a-writer drain.

Thank you, Ariel, and all of the writers in the Humor Intensive!

*

Practicing Funny

*
This is the week of the humor writing class in Ariel Gore's Literary Kitchen.

It's kind of kicking my ass.

It's not that I didn't know that writing humor is hard; I already knew that. But trying to write to the prompts and make them funny is hard because some of the subject matter for applying humor is not naturally funny.

No, that's not explaining it well.

Okay. An example. On Tuesday we were to make two lists of things which we aren't supposed to write about or talk about for reasons which put them into those two lists. The things fell into the sacred-don't-touch column or the taboo-you're-going-to-hell column. Then we had to write.

It took me about forty-five minutes just to come up with five things in each column. And I wasn't even to the writing stage, yet.

I got there. I wrote. I wrote some funny stuff. And some not as funny stuff. It was a freewrite so it meandered a bit. Which was okay,too.

I am writing every day. And I am giving some feedback every day.

Sometimes I am surprised at what comes off my hands onto the page and it's not bad. Maybe I do still have a funny streak left. The next step will be figuring out how to integrate it into more of my writing.
*

How to be Funny. No, How to Write Funny.

*
This is not going to tell you the answer.

I don't know the answer of how to include more humor in my writing. I first typed, "in your writing," but I am talking about me.

Which is why I signed up for Ariel Gore's first ever humor writing workshop. Because I realized that I don't have a lot of humor in what I write. Not usually and not in the big pieces I have in progress (or in a stalled state).

Humor can move the story along. It lightens the heavier moments. It makes us feel good or breathe or think, I can read more even though the topic is a little too close to home or heavy or something.

One of the many things I admire about Ariel is her ability to mix in levity in serious subjects. Like her most recent book, "The End of Eve." It is not a humor book and it is not a humorous story. But there are moments which she weaves together as golden threads to keep the reader right there in the whole experience of the moments about which she has written.

These are the things missing in most of my stories. When I try to write humor I feel stilted or stupid and that the writing is too self-conscious or it outright sucks. Which may be a bit over the top but it is how it feels.

Humor in the face of big topics or big emotions. To bring a smile along with the tears.

This week before the week-long intensive we were instructed to find a piece of something we find funny. Then write about why it is funny. To us. To me. And I realize that I also don't read much humor. Or I haven't for a while. So my first challenge in the workshop is to find something that is funny. There have been moments in books, but only moments. I was reminded about Marc Acito's books, which I read several years ago. If I can't come up with something more current, I will go with one of those - find a passage I like and post it, with analysis of why I find it funny.

Humor. I'm not against it. But I realize it is an important missing ingredient in a lot of what I write. I don't aspire to be a comic, just to put more light and space in my stories.
*

Announcing TIPS I for 2014-15: RID CEUs Approved

*
RID has approved up to 3.6 CEUs (CMP and ACET) for the third session of the Theatrical Interpreting Preparation Series (TIPS), Part I, workshop. Preregistration is required and deposits must be received by November 25, 2014. The workshop begins on Saturday, December 6, 2014. See the flyer for full details (link below in overview).

This season I am also offering the TIPS III Study Group (currently under way) and I will be offering TIPS II in April 2015. For TIPS II, Sign Coach Irene Jazowick will be joining me to work with participants in the mentored intensive workshop.  I am also developing a new focused Study Group for spring 2015.

*

Theatrical Interpreting Preparation Series (TIPS), part I

overview

Description: This workshop will provide participants training in and exposure to the process of performance interpreting, using theater as a vehicle. This initial training is intended for new interpreters, but all levels are welcome. We will meet twice a month on Saturdays for four months, beginning December 2014. Participants will learn different approaches to theatrical interpreting and explore topics such as script analysis, incorporating characterization, translation, altering signing style for the venue and the production, linguistic considerations, and more.  Through a series of meetings, combined with exposure to specific interpreted performances, participants will gain the basic skills necessary for a variety of performing arts situations. Completion of this training is a requirement for the advanced mentored training, which goes through the entire process from receiving the script, translation, preparation, to interpreting a performance of the project show.

You can access the TIPS I flyer here, which includes the dates, fees, included plays, presenter bio, and the registration form.

Fee: $450 includes tickets to all four shows. Preregistration is required with a $100 deposit due by November 25th; this is non-refundable and includes a ticket to the first play. If paid in full by or on our first meeting, you will receive 10% off the workshop fee.

*
Presenter: Dot Hearn, CI & CT, has been doing performance interpreting since 1997. Portland Center Stage, where she has coordinated the interpreting teams since 2003, was one of her first theatrical interpreting venues. She has also interpreted plays at IFCC, Oregon Children’s Theatre, Profile Theatre, Artists Repertory Theatre, Portland Community College (PCC), OSF in Ashland, and more. Dot graduated from the PCC Sign Language Interpreting Program and went on to become adjunct faculty in that program for eleven years. Dot earned a BS degree from Eastern Oregon University, with a Liberal Arts degree and a double minor in Theater and Writing. In 2001, Dot attended the “Interpreting for the Theater” intensive week-long training in New York City, which was held at Juilliard. That training and the instructors have been instrumental in shaping Dot’s approach to theatrical interpreting and her mentoring of interpreters new to this specialty area. She also served on the RID task force to develop a performance interpreting standard practice paper.
*

Falling behind on posting - but not on writing

It has been almost two weeks since I've posted here. I didn't realize it had been that long.

The excuse? I've been busy. Really busy. Work and theater and preparation for my upcoming workshops (which includes a new one added for this season).

And I have been writing. I am doing well with my daily journal writing. Yes, I have missed a day here and there. But when I went back and checked, between my writing by hand journal and my in-phone app journal (a little program called Dayly, and no, I did not mistype its name), and editing the novel - I have been writing every day.

One project which has been keeping me busy is preparing to interpret Twelfth Night at Shakespeare in the Park in Bend, and the lush green park along the river, Drake Park. The event sponsors are great to work with and the theater company, Northwest Classical Theatre Company - is wonderful. They put on a great show, they are amazing to work with, they are kind and nice and welcoming. It is a joy to be able to interpret their performances. And the interpreted performance was tonight. It went well, we had a good audience, and I look forward to being able to do this again next year. We have been preparing this play for over 4 weeks. It will be good to get that time back - and I will miss this production and these people.

And it is on to the next theatrical adventure - which is that I will be part of a five member team interpreting the Series A Fall Festival of One Acts by Sam Shepard at Profile Theatre on Sunday, September 7th. This is a special interpreted performance on several levels. That there are five interpreters is one level. This is the newest addition to my performance interpreting training workshops: it is a professional study group, and we will be working with feedback about our interpretations to improve our work over the next several months. Another level is that this is the first time Profile has done a festival of one acts - and they are amazing. I had the pleasure of sitting in on the read through earlier in the week and I am excited to see these plays as they develop. I like the plays and the actors. It is great to be able to have this to use as our source material for professional development. And I love the format - six one acts, a strong company of actors, and several directors.

I will also be offering my Theatrical Interpreting Preparation Series workshops this season. Both TIPS I (the introduction and overview) and TIPS II (the more intensive mentored, hands-up workshop).

On the writing front - I am continuing to revise the novel. I have revision on three of the six chapters (up to 25 pages) mostly done for the writing retreat I will be attending in October. I will do revision on the other three, then go back in for more tweaking as needed if I have time.

With this space here, I am searching for a direction, I think. I had the plan of posting revision as I went along on the memoir, which I have put on hold. For a couple of years I had a weekly prompt series I did. Now, I would like to return to more regular posting - but I'm not sure what I want to write about here.

It will come.

In the meantime, I am writing - just not much here. And I am doing theater - which also feeds my creative soul and inspiration. I will return to more scheduled writing here - and other things.

VONA/Voices Workshop application deadline extended

This looks like an amazing lineup. And they received a grant which is allowing them to offer more scholarships - which is why they are extending the deadline.

The VONA/Voices Workshop (writing workshops for writers of color) application deadline for the summer workshop at the University of California Berkeley, June 22-28, 2014, has been extended to March 15th, because we have received a grant from the Surdna Foundation, allowing us to offer 50 one-half tuition scholarships.

*
After 15 years of successful workshops, we have expanded our offerings. Look at our many available workshops!

Apply these workshops by going to this link. www.Voicesatvona.org/apply

Fiction: Junot Diaz, M. Evelina Galang
Poetry: Willie Perdomo, Patricia Smith
Memoir: Staceyann Chin, Andrew X Pham
Travel Writing: Faith Adiele
Political Content: Elmaz Abinader
LGBTQ Narrative: Randall Kenan
Graphic Novel: Mat Johnson
Speculative Fiction: Tananarive Due
Popular Fiction--Romance, Mystery; Urban Fantasy:Marjorie Liu
Residency: David Mura, Chris Abani
*

Transformations in Oil and Wax with Serena Barton

*

Transformations in Oil and Wax

with Serena Barton

February 15 and 16, 2014 1-5 PM each day
Tuition: 200.00 for both days. Supplies included.

Cold wax mixes with oil paint and/or powdered pigment to produce a gorgeous paint surface with a subtle sheen. Unlike with hot wax, you need no appliances to achieve maximum waxy goodness. You can add and scrape off layers as you choose, so no need to be concerned about mistakes! In this two day workshop you'll play around with free and bold abstract work and also with graphic still lifes. You'll work on several pieces at once, using tools such as squeegees, bamboo skewers, rubber jar openers, combs, and more. In addition to painting, we'll explore incising, using paint sticks, painting knives, oil pastels, and adding collage elements. Join me in exploring this unusual and interactive medium. You'll leave with several gorgeous pieces!

Register at Serena's website and feel free to email Serena with any questions.

*