A NEW YEAR A NEW HOME

Gelli Plate printing, Gelli Arts gel plate, mono printing, collage, stampmaking, brushes, learning, and fun...these were some of the subjects covered in artdemos.com during 2013. But now... Welcome to the new home of ArtDemos.com If you are visiting this blog for the first time let me say welcome! Check the FREEBIES page for a special offer on access to the classroom pages.

I've enjoyed the last fourteen months that I spent teaching on artdemos, my Ning network. Due to the rising costs of maintaining that community (approximately $100 for maintenance fees & advertising) I made the difficult decision to go into the New Year without the worry of those monthly fees. However, I have and will continue to have a Vimeo-Pro site to host all of my videos. You will continue to have access to your classrooms on Vimeo using the passwords that were sent to you prior to artdemos closing.

As many of you already know my husband suffered a debilitating stroke in April, 2013. The man I had depended on for 42 years was replaced by someone who needed more of my time and help. His stroke was a blow to us emotionally and physically but helped me to re-evaluate my life choices. I thought I could still maintain a large group of people and meet their needs just as I've done on the web since 1998. Admitting I could no longer do that has been difficult for me. But by moving to this new format I think I will be able to keep both promises...to my family and to my students.

I still welcome new students despite the change of venue. If you are interested in learning new ways to work with your Gelli Plate there are two workshops available called Art of the Gelli 1 & 2. I also have a classroom for taking care of hopelessly paint encrusted paint brushes...yes, they can be saved! There are other classes available and if you are interested in any one of these please contact me at artdemosdotcom@optonline.net and I will forward a PayPal invoice and send the passwords for immediate access to the classrooms.

Those of you who have expressed concern over my artistic angst be assured, I still suffer from it, but I have also gone back to my first and greatest artistic love, Photography. I anticipate spending the next 50 or so years creating and selling fine photo artistry prints. You can see a few of them right now in my Etsy shoppe:Photo Artistry Cafe.

Thank you all for your support of ArtDemos.com during 2012-13. It was a dream that I made happen and I will never regret having had the experience. Happy New Year and blessings to you all!
~Cat

It's been awhile...

Three and a half months since I last blogged. I have excuses and some of them are even good ones! I had to move my studio because my DD returned with her hubs so that they could save money for a home of their own. The move took the last half of February and ALL of March. They moved in on April 1st and on April 14th my DH suffered a stroke. It was a clot on his brain stem and it caused some damage that may or may not resolve itself. He is still partially paralyzed on the right side (he's a righty) and unable to do a lot of things he would normally be doing on a daily basis. BUT...that does not mean that life is sad or even hopeless. I am grateful for each little victory that he has achieved and thankful that my DD and her beloved were with me the day it happened.

I am in the midst of re-discovering my painting style. Took a BIG detour via online classes with Mindy Lacefield, Juliette Crane, Jane Davenport, Carla Sonheim, Christy Tomlinson & Tamara LaPorte. But the detour finally took me full circle and showed me what I DID love to paint so as the saying goes...'it's all good'. I hope to get back into blogging on a weekly basis. And sharing some of the things that I learned during my artistic detour. The biggest one being how to use a Gelli Plate! Hope you'll stick around or join me if you haven't already because I plan to offer giveaways & links to online vids that you may find helpful.

Technique Tuesday on ArtDemos.com

If you haven't joined ArtDemos yet, you might want to today. Because TODAY is Technique Tuesday and today I'm sharing how to make your own stay-wet palette for your acrylic paints. I've bought 3 stay wets over the years and they've never worked as well as the one I'll show you how to make today.
Be sure to pop over and see it on ArtDemos

Just One of THOSE days

Some days are like handling a whole lot of Grumpy!

Waiting

So here at the Jersey Shore we're still talking about superstorm Sandy, the once in a hundred years storm, as if it just happened last week. We probably always will. It's a storm that no one else has ever experienced...the perfect storm...the storm that left the shore in splinters & sand. Now we wait once again for the snow storm that may or may not be. The only clear prediction is that it will slam into New England but it could/might miss The Shore. After the disastrous snow storm that followed Sandy we are all a bit on edge. After all...no one expected a non-hurricane to destroy miles and miles and miles of beachfront. To leave tens of thousands of people homeless. To make Mother Ocean inaccessible. So we wait...

Fortunately for me waiting isn't without its rewards. I busy myself sketching and painting and video taping new demonstrations for Art Demos, my online workshop site. I feel so blessed to be able to do what I love, make money doing it and teach hundreds of people how to express their creative spirits. There are so many ideas whirling around in my brain that sometimes I wake up in the morning with a totally new idea of what to teach and how to teach it. When I was young my Daddy's mantra was...find something you love to do and you'll never have to work a day in your life. Daddy's gone now but his words of wisdom linger because he's right. When I realized that when Dad left this earth, an entire library burned. He took with him all of the knowledge and skills and stories and wisdom that had colored my world for almost 50 years. As I approach my 'golden years' I too realize that if I don't pass along all of the knowledge that I've gained over the years that I too will be taking a 'library' with me. So for right now, in this place I choose to pass along all of the 'secrets' I've learned over the years. All of the special 'I do it this way' skills that over 40 years as a professional artist has taught me.

The next time YOU think there is nothing special about you...stop and think of all of the things you have learned thus far and be sure to show someone how to do it 'your way'. If you are interested in creatively expressing yourself, join a community of like minded people. Within just the past week over 50 people have joined the membership rolls of Art Demos and are enthusiastically cheering me on to teach more things. Thanks to everyone who is there on ArtDemos...it is a pleasure to be your creative guide! ~Cat

What did I DO???

I'm always amazed when something I do without thinking brings unexpected good/bad results. So when my son asked me what did I do early this morning that caused ten new sign-ups to ArtDemos I had to stop and think. What did I do??? So in order these are the things I did:
1. Stumbled from bed and checked myFacebook account.
2. Uploaded a new art journaling rant to my YouTube Channel.
3. Posted to my favorite group on FB Magically Mixed Art Community.
4. Posted my YouTube vid to my own Ning groupArtDemos.
5. Joined an ACEO swap on Tam LaPorte's Willowing Group.
6. Screamed nasty words when our electric went off this morning for 4 minutes.
7. Posted links to my newest class Bunny & Valentine.
8. Painted more pictures!!

9. Did my mother's PT test as I do every Tuesday.
10. Bought two candy bars. My favorite Dove Dark Chocolate and a Snickers with Almonds.

So which of the preceding brought so many new members to Art Demos? I'd say it's a toss-up but my favorite part of the morning was eating my Dove Dark Chocolate!!

Newest Class Up & Registration is OPEN!!

I just added my newest classroom "Bunny & Valentine". It's a self-guided workshop on painting two mini folk art canvasses using a very unique and NEW (at least to me) technique. Using a palette knife or old credit card & white paint & pigments I'm able to create beautiful blended backgrounds easily. If you're looking for a way out of your winter doldrums join ArtDemos and learn something new. You're invited to attend in your jammies with hot chocolate in hand. @Cat Sadowski will be your instructor!