ARTzona, part deux

Hello all my awesome bloggy friends,

First of all I want to thank all of you for your continued support in the way of comments.  You are all so amazingly sweet and it's absolutely my pleasure to supply you with graphics.  I wish we could all get together and craft and play, like I did last weekend, as I get so inspired by all the different styles and methods in which you all craft.  Last weekend was ARTzona, part deux in which ladies from all over the country got together and basically "played."  I mean let's call it what it really is......we played, some more seriously than others, but it was pure enjoyment.  There were ladies from Ohio, New York, Michigan, Utah, California, Oregon.....literally all over the country, and I felt extremely privileged to be amongst them.  There were some extremely talented artists there and it was all I could do to stand by quietly and watch them work.....I just wanted to gush praise upon them........how annoying would that be?  So with that said, this post is large with images, so please enjoy and consider joining "ATC's for ALL" so you can be able to come to this event.  There is a disclaimer though........next year they are limiting the amount of ladies so that we may have more crafting space, so join up and keep your eyes out for the notification about this event next year.

This is a view from the furthest front left corner.  When those
who didn't opt for the "day trips" stayed there were probably
20 of us, but when everyone was present there were close to
50 of us.

Demo's were going on in the back of the room.

Some ladies had fun on the second day wearing goofy hats
or head decor.

There were many "fine art" ladies there and they did amazing
watercolors, but this image shows that they didn't always craft
there was lot's of drinking going on in the later hours.......they
definitely knew how to have a good time.

A view of one artists workstation.  Oh, I've got to mention
that this was a terrible set up for me as I've lost close to 50
pounds by cutting sugar out of my diet.......well in the middle
of every table they loaded it up with piles of candy.
My willpower is strong, but not that strong....curse them. LOL

This lovely lady, whom I didn't get a picture of, sat directly
across from me.  Her name is Sharon and she's one of my new
good friends because I only pick the best to be my friends!
She lives here in Arizona so I'll be seeing more of her for sure.

There was a lot of frenzied trading going on with everyone wanting
everyone else's art.......so much fun.

Our hostess, Trina, set up this lovely display table of various
art she's collected from other artists.  Of course I had to display
some of my sculpts cuz I'm just pushy that way......

Trina displayed her book of trading cards and other artists put
some of their different mediums on display as well.

There were lot's of different versions of art dolls.

This lovely lady, and please don't kill me but
I didn't get every one's name, demonstrated the
use of micro pens in the use of "zentangles"
which is a type of drawing of various shapes
and designs.  I asked her if it could be
considered as "stitching" with a pen and
she liked that explanation.

The types of markings made for zentangles
look like the various embroidery stitches such
as "bamboo," "daisy chain," etc.  Please
google zentangle images and you'll be treated
to some amazing art.

Each attendee received a bag decorated
with vintage Arizona Highways magazine
pictures and filled with so many goodies.

This is my amazing baby sister, Jen, who
helped organize this event.  Yes, she's wearing
a silly hat.  Up close the hat looks like the
rear end of an ostrich......very funny.

Some of the ladies caught in action.  The gal
with blond hair is Amy Sargent from Oregon.
She had some amazing ATC's to trade and I was
fortunate enough to get one.

These are some of the "chunkies" I traded for.  I was blown away
by the one in the lower right corner of a horse head.  It was drawn
and made by the daughter of our hostess Trina, and she's only
9 years old.  Her talent is amazing!

These are the various arches I received in trades.  I
can't say enough about the talent of these ladies.

These are some of the ATC's I got in the trading wars.

I have to spotlight this lady....she's absofreakinlutely
amazing.  Her name is Ruth Morris, from Albuquerque
and I'm definitely going to start learning more about
her.  This piece is watercolor markers, but her
illustrating talent is off the charts.

This is another piece Ruth Morris made in which I almost
got in a cat fight over........LOL  I tell you, I wanted this
so bad I could taste it, but the lovely she cat that got it
was smaller than me and I don't beat up people smaller
than me........whew, she got away with her life just barely.

One of our assignments during this three day event
was to decorate a cactus shaped image any way
we wanted.  On the third day we raffled them
off "white elephant" style.  The first two
cactus I chose got stolen from me in the raffle, but this
one had already been stolen once so when I stole it,
it became mine to keep.  A lovely artist named Karen,
from Iowa, made this and it's stunning.  I feel very
privileged to have this piece.

Well I hope you enjoyed my piccy's.  I had a great time, and will definitely plan on attending next year.  As far as the snarky lady talk there, well, all I'll say is that whatever was said there......stays there!  It was so much fun.

Hugs,

Meri