learning

077: On The Road Again

March 18, 2018 by balzerdesigns Leave a Comment

It has been more than a month since our last podcast. My excuse: I’ve been busy. Most of the events we talk about on the podcast I haven’t yet shared here on the blog (I’ve got a major backlog of photos and stories to share!), so you’ll see a quick teaser photo for now and I’ll have to get to editing and sharing!

Connoisseurship Dinner:

Byzantine Tapestry Weaving Class:

The Met/David Hockney:

MoMA (This is a painting by Jasper Johns):

NJ Sewing Training:

Klimt/Schiele (I did a blog post on this one):

HSN (ScanNCut):

WhimSoDoodle Classes:

The Soccer Ball Art by Jared:

HSN (PTouch Embellish):

Housewares Show:

Boston Modern Quilt Guild Retreat:

Whew.

As I mentioned on the podcast, I’ll be on HSN on Wednesday (3/21) with all kinds of sewing machines! I’ll have the entire 12pm EST hour on HSN, so be sure to tune in online or on your TV!

Thanks for stopping by!

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here. And if you like the podcast, please leave a review on iTunes!

071: Jane Davies’ Abstract Painting

August 9, 2017 by balzerdesigns 1 Comment

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Our guest this week is Jane Davies.

Today’s podcast is full of excitement — dogs barking, Mom choking, and plenty of art talk! Mom, Jane, and I discuss creating abstract art, teaching, learning from students, making work your own, selling in galleries, and self-published books. It’s a great chat with lots of intellectual content.

Jane is a full time artist working in painting and collage.

She offers workshops nationwide, focusing on developing a personal and playful approach to art making.

After graduating Bennington College and attending the School for American Crafts, Davies began as a potter in the early nineties. She gradually transitioned into freelance art, using painting and collage as her medium.

Since 2010 she has been teaching, writing, and making art.

She participated in a residency at Vermont Studio Center in 2015.

In addition to The Elements of Visual Language, Davies is the author of three books on collage and mixed media, one on ceramics, and has one DVD on painting and collage techniques.

I love Jane’s work and could stare at it for hours! Jane was a guest on a previous podcast more than two years ago. You can find it here. I also wanted to share a blog post that an artist named Jacki Long posted after listening to that podcast two years ago. Take a moment and click through to Jacki’s post because I think it sums up the experience that many people have shared with me about listening to our podcast.

Thanks for stopping by!

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.
Today’s Podcast Sponsor is Van Gogh’s Ear

065: Tales from the Road & New Adventures Ahead

March 27, 2017 by balzerdesigns 2 Comments

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Today’s podcast features a conversation about my recent travels, teaching, and some new adventures.

Here are some photos from the surface design class I taught:

And here is Carol Anne Grotrian talking to us about how to critique quilts.

The two quilts in the photo are both hers — two variations on the same idea, one more successful than the other.

During the Workshop, there was a team of women stretching all the Ruby Red Quilts onto canvases. You can see my little owl on the table:

Most of the quilts had a red background, so I’m thinking my white-on-white background is going to pop in the big group of them. I’m super excited to see them all together!

Last but not least, I mention “Bullet Journaling” in the podcast. If you don’t know what that is, this a great article all about it: WTF is a Bullet Journal & Why Should You Start One? An Explainer.

Thanks for stopping by!

All podcasts are archived here. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

063: Julie Loves Learning

February 15, 2017 by balzerdesigns 3 Comments

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I’m delighted to bring you another episode of the Adventures in Arting Podcast! Today’s podcast features a conversation about learning in general and four particular learning experiences — the marbling class I shared in yesterday’s blog post, a lecture on Winslow Homer’s Summer Night (see a bit in this vlog), the connoisseurship dinner at the Museum of Fine Arts (see a bit in this vlog) and then a quilting class I took last weekend (photos below):

Class started with our instructor, Timna Tarr, sharing some of her quilts:

After some brief instructions….

…we were off and running with our own improvisational piecing!

The picture above is the quilt top that I finished in class. Kind of a hot mess, but I’m letting it marinate.

I don’t have a lot of photos because of the snow that day…

…most of the students left class early to get home before the roads got too bad. I was one of the few who stayed the whole day and at the end of the day, I took my little red wagon, and headed home!

Thanks for stopping by!

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

059: Lou Ann & the Gelli Plate

December 14, 2016 by balzerdesigns 3 Comments

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I’m delighted to bring you another episode of the Adventures in Arting Podcast! Today’s podcast features Lou Ann Gleason:

Lou Ann is CEO and co-founder of a growing company, Gelli Arts LLC. Gelli manufactures a unique gel printing plate that is used by teachers and artists. Gelli started with her partner’s great idea. Clever manufacturing, savvy marketing and lots of getting the little things right have turned that idea into a brand with an expanding customer base around the world.

Lou Ann was born and raised in Michigan, one of 10 children in her family. She worked at a department store to help pay tuition at her all-girls high school, and then put herself through college. She graduated from Michigan State. After college, she worked first for a department store, making decisions about which women’s clothes to stock, then for a bank. Eventually, she went to get her MBA at University of Michigan.

The MBA degree opened up new opportunities. Lou Ann worked at Procter & Gamble. There she worked in brand marketing, making decisions about product development and advertising on household brands such as Cascade, Dawn and Joy. She was also lucky to spend a few years developing new products—which became a big asset at Gelli Arts.

Lou Ann stayed at P&G for 15 years. Later she served as chief marketing officer for a vacation real-estate firm, then started her own consulting business. Today she divides here time between the consulting business and Gelli Arts.

Lou Ann met her husband at P&G. They have two children, one son in college in California (who has already started his own business) and a daughter who is serving in the Peace Corp in Ukraine.

The artwork samples in this post are by Joan Bess, Birgit Koopsen, Marsha Valk, and Lou Ann Gleason.

Find Gelli online:

Thanks for stopping by!

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.