CREATE NJ July 2014

Okay, so it's time to start talking about the cool things I did at the CREATE NJ retreat.  On Friday, 7/11 my fellow retreater, dear friend and all-around fun traveling companion Dottie and I departed at 6am from my house to drive to Somerset NJ, to the Double Tree hotel. Just a note that it was the 2nd day in a row that I had to get up at 5am, yikes. No issues on our trip due to traffic, but we had an inept gas station attendant manage to overfill and flood my tank.  Then he tried to blame my car or tank, and then me.  Certainly I am responsible even though in NJ gas stations are full-service.  Anyway, Dottie has one extra story because this same dude tried to rob her of her change, then she was robbed again.  Second time by a Dunkin employee of breakfast, after he gave her a sandwich containing an allergy-inducing ingredient. We overcame these significant obstacles and marshaled on to our destination. 

We lug our considerable stash of supplies to the registration desk and take a look at some of the amazing samples for the classes.  Time to check in and don our name tags!  We are both so excited and we part ways to get set-up in our classrooms.

I'm so excited to get a great seat, plenty of room and my own outlet.  Just to have a spot for my large rolling suitcase full or art supplies, makes me so happy.  Let me tell you that I brought: acrylic paints, brushes, canvases, apron, water jar, magazines, pens, gesso, gel medium, heat gun, baby wipes, paper towels, art journal and a brayer.  I'm CERTAIN there's more I haven't mentioned, but I was proud that I was fairly self contained and essentially self-sufficient.

Our teacher was Nathalie Kalbach and the class was It's All About Layers. You can check out pictures at her web site (there are a couple with me totally engrossed in my own creative world):

Nathalie's studio and post from the CREATE retreat

I did take a couple pictures from Nathalie's journal:

We used images from magazines and got to play with her stencils, Liquitex paint pens and other supplies.  My biggest issue was that I didn't bring a good art journal with me.  I grabbed one that I had lying around.  The paper was not white, and the paper was not even low quality, it was horrid quality.  I did have fun learning techniques and I'll post some pictures of my pages in the coming days.

The class really flew by and I might have stayed all night if not for the fact that the AC in the classroom stopped working after lunch.  By the time 4pm rolled around, I was ready to move on and check in the room. The best part about checking in at a Double Tree?  The chocolate chip cookies.  I met someone very nice in the lobby, her name was Terri and she is an art teacher.  We struck up a conversation over one of those cookies.  Then I had to go see what Dottie had created, as her class had a gallery set up in their classroom.

One thing I want to say about this CREATE retreat is that I really enjoyed the artists who sat around me.  Everyone was very generous and quite friendly.  I got to meet Maura, who sat next to me in the class.  Turns out our rooms were very close and we struck up a plan to meet for dinner.  We ate a pre and post Artists' Faire dinner with Maura and Penny (they ate before and Dottie and I ate after).  It was really fun meeting both of them.

After we all agreed we would win something at the Artists' Faire drawing, we got to shopping. Again, walking around I found everyone to be so friendly and courteous.  If you've been to these type of events, conventions, etc. you know how nasty people can get when they are shopping.  This experience was nothing like I've seen.  Loads of smiles and lots of patience, it was a very pleasant experience.  There were a perfect number of vendors with loads of great merch.  I bought a load of new stencils, and we had to work together to peruse them.  So excited to have found some of the Dylusions Art Journals from Ranger. I got one in two sizes, much better than my bogus journal I used in the class. Then the awesomeness of the day exponentially increased when I won a drawing!!  I won a $30 stamp set!  I love the images, they are so my style.  Here's a link to the artist's Pinterest site where you can see her images.  Artsy chick indeed!

kecia-deveney stamp set

I have to note that I won a bet with new friends Maura and Penny after I brazenly went to the desk at the Double Tree and kindly requested an on-demand chocolate chip cookie.  They didn't believe I'd get one, and I did.  It was warm, and gone in 60 seconds.

So that pretty much wraps up Friday.  The day, and evening went fast.  We did a Facetime with our pal Brenda, where we did show and tell from the day.  It was then time for some sleep.  Hard to believe taking art classes can make you so tired, but it did for me.  

I'll have to post later about my class on Saturday with Julie Fei-Fan! My creative juices are FLOWING now!!!!!