Art of the Carolinas 2009

The Carolina Mixed Media Art Guild will be out in full force at Jerry's Artarama's Art of the Carolinas (AoC).  Scheduled to take place in Raleigh between Friday, November 13 and Sunday, November 15, it promises to be a fantastic event!  Here's a preview:

• Guild members will assist with classroom preparation, maintenance and breakdown, supporting the outstanding staff at Jerry's (including Guild members Christina and Sharon shown here)

• Our members will host a "Make and Take" event, encouraging everyone attending AoC to create Artist Trading Cards (ATC) to keep or trade.  Kudos and tremendous thanks go to Strathmore, Ampersand, Winsor & Newton, and Jerry's, for donating supplies for our Make and Take activities, including papers of various kinds; stampboards and clayboards; paints; pastels and glues.  Some of the ATC created during AoC 2008 are shown below. 
• Members' work in the World of Art Challenge will be exhibited in a boardroom in the workshop area. We encourage you to visit to see where it all began, with a canvas showing all the components of the kit, then to explore the vision of 25 artists confronted with the challenge of design with those components.  You'll be amazed at the innovation, diversity and creativity! 
• Guild members will also be demonstrating various art techniques throughout the weekend.  Check the schedule when you arrive to see who will be doing which demos including painting, stamping, clay and much more.
• And of course, there's the trade show area on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, where we'll shop till we drop! 

So, plan to join us for all the fun, art-filled activities...it'll be a great time!  For more information, visit the AoC site here.  See you there!

World of Art Challenge

In August, CMMAG accepted a kit challenge from our favorite art supply store, Jerry's Artarama, entitled "The World of Art". Our challenge was to create a piece of 2-D art on a supplied 16"x20" canvas, using at least a part of every item in a Jerry's Art Stuff bag, which included: a wine cork, a small piece of torn canvas, liquid graphite, playing cards, clayboard tiles, a piece of twine, foreign language magazine pages, origami paper, several pieces of balsa wood, a rubber band, and a very limited choice of paint colors. According to the rules of the challenge, two items may be added to the piece, which must somehow convey the "World of Art' theme. Twenty five members received their kits at our August meeting, and the completed canvases were due at our October meeting.

Here, thanks to Lucy, our official Guild photographer, is a photo collage of some of the completed World of Art canvases. All twenty five will be displayed, along with biographical information about the artists at Jerry's Artarama's Art of the Carolinas next month. Details about Art of the Carolinas are in the sidebar at right. Come see what we've done...they're all incredibly creative and as always, as different as the members who created them, which is amazing, considering that each was designed with the same items.

CMMAG 2nd Annual Charm Swap

CMMAG members met in early October for a jam-packed business meeting, and the 2nd Annual Charm Swap. Forty four members (including the elusive yet prolific 'Johnny Jumpup') made charms of all descriptions, and Roberta (also known as the Charm Queen--who wore the crown to show it) led us all in the distribution of charms into bags for each of us, which by the end of the swap, were filled to overflowing with arty wonderfulness. Charms were colorful, fanciful, thoughtful, creative and as different as the artists who created them. Thanks to our official photographer, Lucy, we have these photos which give just a hint of the Charm Swap fun. We can't wait to see what everyone will create with their charms; we have visions of necklaces, bracelets and just maybe, and charm-filled vest? Watch this space for photos of our charm-ing creations!