Studio is Almost Ready!!

Flamingo Rose Studio is almost up and running!! I ranaround Saturday after getting back from Art camp and moved out the things I was storing and brought in my kitchen table, chairs, and loveseat to the space. All this got set up just in the nick of time before my studio friend Darby had her open house. All of us at The Factory Art Studios were there to support and celebrate with her. It was a very fun evening, lots of old and new people visited us up on the 2nd floor. If you don't know where it is, we are located at 321 S. Hamilton in Sullivan, IL. The building used to be the Old Brown Shoe Factory and now is home to AbSeals on the 1st floor, and us, The Factory Art Studios, on the 2nd floor. Each of us have our own studio names, mine being Flamingo Rose Studio. There is also John McDevitt's Yellow Dog Studio, Mark Seeley's Old Man & His wood, Darby Harden's Underground Vintage Studio, and new artists are adding studio and shop space each week it seems. There is usually someone around the building Monday-Saturday during the day. I create ceramics and paintings. Darby creates all kinds of items out of vintage fabrics. Mark creates lamps out of all kinds of different found objects, from beaver chewed wood, sink plungers, tricyles, wooden boxes...all kinds of things. John creates furniture out of reclaimed wood from barnes, houses, etc. He also creates modern wall art as well. If you are ever in Sullivan, stop by and see us at the studio we love having visitors. Our next open house will be in October, there will be lots for sale!! Check us out on facebook at The Factory Art Studios!! :)

ART CAMP WEEK!!!

It's the best part of my summers off from teaching...its ART CAMP WEEK! This is my 8th year being a camp counselor and its the best camp around the central Illinois area. Eastern Illinois University offers this program for 8th grade to just graduated high school students. They come and spend a week taking art classes all day long and then in the evenings there are different activities planned for them to do as group. This year the students can take any of these 3 classes- Sculpture (cold casting with clay, flexwax, and plaster of paris), Exploring Media in Drawing (exploration in dry and wet drawing medias), Color  Monotypes, Abstractions from Life (learning about monotypes and creating colorful abstracts), and Altered Books (create a sculptural book using the interior spaces and pages of hardbound books). The classes change from year to year as we have lots of repeat students each summer. Its $460 per student, but that not only includes your fees for supplies, but room and board in the dorms, 3 meals a day, night activities like tye-dying, build your own sundaes, pizza party, movie night at the local theater, bowling at the campus bowling alley, arts and crafts where the highlight activity is making your own buttons, swimming, and lots more. Many of the students that come to camp, come on scholarships from local civic organizations. They spend all week creating these great projects and then on Saturday we have an art show to highlight what they have made all week. It's a great program, we have kids from all over the state. This year we have 61 high schoolers, I can't wait to see what they can do!! If want more information on the camp, let me know, and we will get a mailer to you next spring.