No Guts No Glory, Grasshoppa Man and Michael deMeng

I’m starting a new adventure; well actually it started last summer when I went to Art Unraveled, a great artist’s retreat in Phoenix. I had a blast, learned a boatload and met a lot of amazing people, like I knew I would.

I took 5 classes and true to Emily nature, I barely finished anything. But right before the Made In Clarkdale show this last December I finished my pieces I started in Michael deMeng’s class – ‘What a Relief’. What an amazing class. I went to learn how to properly attach items to a relief and learned so much more. The biggest surprise was in learning how to paint again. I realize this statement would make my teachers in college spit. Yes, I learned how to paint traditionally, but it never was my thing, so I didn’t do it very much. Now, don’t get excited, I’m not going to start painting canvas; it’s still not my thing. But Michael said, “you’re just painting things, not painting”, and so I ended up painting my backgrounds for most of the class! We used acrylics, which have always been my favorite, but what I didn’t know was that there are transparent and opaque acrylics. I may seem a little naive in admitting this, but hey, it’s a great discovery anyway.

So here are my finished pieces. When I showed them to my husband he said, “You’re not one of those kinds of artists are you?” To which I didn’t reply to, I mean, we’ve been together for 21 years now…he’s well aware of the answer to that question. Anyway at Made In Clarkdale they were hung next to each other. Several times it was observed that a viewer would stare at them for a bit, run off and bring someone back to point at them together. I didn’t get to watch this myself, I’m always busy working the show, but my husband told me of these events, with some pride I might add. So overall, a resounding success!

Feel free to point and stare.

“No Guts, No Glory”

“Grasshoppa Man”

Thank you Michael for a great class. If any of you ever have the chance to take a class, any class, from this man, do! And as for the new adventure? We’ll talk about that next time. Enjoy!  -emm