For those of you lucky enough to take all five Dina Wakley’s classes this weekend, you probably had one of the best weekends of this month! Our customers were exposed to five classes packed full of art education and techniques by guest teacher, Dina Wakely. If you are not familiar with Dina she is a mixed media art journal artist and author who lives in Arizona. You can visit her website to learn all about her adventures here: http://www.dinawakley.com
Friday night kicked off the weekend with “Art Journal Play Series: Beyond the Ink Pad”. The class started promptly at 6 pm and we took a whirlwind ride to “Dina Land”. Wheeeee! Dina started us off with a few basic rules, rules we decided we loved too. It is very simple to summarize, “no planning, no thinking and no complaining”. It was not too long before the class was putty in her hands and gave Dina their full trust. She led them out on an inky limb with stamps in hand with a promise that everything would work out, and it all did. In three short hours there was a lot of beautiful artwork to be admired.
Susan Brown’s shared her first portrait with us.
First thing Saturday morning, after a late night with Dina “Listening and Layering” was our next class. I know right, asking a room full of women on a Saturday morning to sit quietly and listen might be a challenge, but not with this group. The class of students was anxious to get through the door, some arriving an hour early, to set up to get right to work.
It is 9:15 and this is only part of the group waiting outside the store for a 10 am class!
Learning to layering all kinds of media was interesting and fun. Dina promised us we would get 25 layers on one page. That is not a typo, she really did get TWENTY FIVE layers on ink, acrylic, gesso, Dylusions, Pan Pastels, gel medium, etc. When pushed hard it is amazing what the students created.
“Graffiti of My Life” was a four hour journey in creating a personal, small journal filled with your own meaningful quotes and thoughts on layers of colorful backgrounds. Making more layers on canvas and water color paper, collaging and cutting, journaling, this class had it all!
Denise proudly shares her first art journal page.
Again on Sunday morning our students beat the staff to the store. That is a good sign that they could not get enough of Dina Wakely. In my opinion, the most challenging class of the weekend was “Facing the Facts”. Dina promised that she would teach everyone, even those who can not draw, how to draw a face. Remember her rules, no complaining! Dina promised and she delivered, look for yourself.
In a very short while look what Kimberly produced!
At the very beginning of the class they all had to draw a face, prior to instruction. I wish I had the camera to catch the sheer panicked look on some of their faces. What? Draw a face, but you have not taught us yet! It was great that they did because it was fun to look back at that first drawing and compare it to the finished project. Their portraits really evolved into some creative artwork.
Faces before and after instruction.
Timing is everything. The faces class was very intense and it was nice to follow it up with “Marvelous Mark Making”. This was an exploration and adventure playing with Sumi ink, chopsticks, string and straws. Sounds like something we did in kindergarten doesn’t it? It was free and relaxing. The class made many marks on their pages and learned how to isolate images and develop their marks into works of art. Show and tell was fun as we asked one another “what do you see”? It was reminiscent of the Rorschach tests for sure.
Series of inked up pages ready for paint.
Christine’s Masterpiece – “Honor your Heart”
We had a great time with Dina and everyone made fantastic art.
You can see more photos on our facebook page.
The creativity was amazing. We can’t wait for Dina to come back soon.
Dina Wakley - Recap of an Artistic Weekend
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