Art Is You (Stamford) recap

We are back from Art Is You (Stamford CT) and my goodness was it a GREAT time! Every time we do Art Is You we are once again reminded that it is just such an incredible event! Sallianne & Ellen (the founders of Art Is You) do an amazing job, the teaching faculty is so diverse and so talented, and everyone there is just so generous and kind and we are so honored to be a part of it all. We taught at Art Is You in Memphis back in May and were so excited to see all of our friends again, and to make new friends of course! We normally teach a few full day classes, but this time we opted for just one nighttime class, which is about half the time of our normal classes. So instead of the usual 6 hours, we had to design our project to fit into a 3 hour time frame. It was a Friday night class, and it worked out great! And then early on Saturday we set up our table at the vendor fair. 

For the vendor fair we made some cute little plaques and pins with my new favorite mantra. My take on the Saul Bass quote. 

I'd like to think I speak for us all…the lovers of cute and fun. Whether it is our art, paintings, art journals, aprons, our decor at home, or the outfits we wear. 

 We may add some of these cute talk bubble pins to the shop soon. 

We always like having some sweet favors for our students, and these cute aqua lollipops were perfect! I just stamped some quick little tags to tie to each one using our new cakes stamps.

Yep! They are in the shop and available for pre-order in case you'd like some of your own! 

One of our favorite things ever is when friends that had never heard of Art Is You, hear about it from us and decide to come! I was so so excited when my friend Lizzy aka The Connoisseur of Cute, messaged me on Facebook to say she wanted to take our class! She had never been to one of these events, and would be driving all the way from Rhode Island for it! She didn't even stay over…just drove there…made art...and drove back. That is so hardcore.

 It was just her birthday and I had found the most perfect gift for her. I was so excited that I'd be able to give it to her in person! We met through Instagram this past year and totally hit it off Instantly.

How adorable is she? She posted this pic on instagram earlier on Friday...all dressed and ready for Art Is You! Look at her Barbie and Midge suitcase! And the girl is brave for wearing white to a painting class! ha! 

My brother Walt drove us and dropped us off at the hotel...which was only an hour and a half drive. When we arrived we weren't in the lobby 2 minutes before the adorable and ridiculously fun Kim and Kiki ran into us! Kiki is queen of magical selfies! This pic was sparkling on Facebook within minutes! 

The Stamford Sheraton is pet friendly! How great is that?! So of course Lieutenant Dan came! Look at how tiny he looks on this big big bed! ha! You can see his little trail leading to his spot…it looks like tracks in snow. Doesn't he look like a tiny deer? Carlos stayed the weekend with his grandparents. 

And here he is in the morning without his bow tie…a little nudie! HA! 

The hotel had a great area for walking the pups. There was even a bag dispenser for picking up after them. 

And here we are just before leaving our hotel room to go down to teach our class Friday night. 

The class we were teaching was Ancestral Abstracts. Abstract/mixed media paintings incorporating old photos…or new if you prefer. 

Class was so much fun! Everyone jumped right in! Some gals were pros and some gals had never used some of the materials or mediums before. We provided a few portraits for the students to choose from but some brought their own ancestors or instant ancestors (flea market finds). How great is this dapper fellow in the top hat?

Lt. Dan couldn't get enough of Sandra and Liz's table. If he wasn't asking to be picked up, he was making a bed of a purse. Ha!

It was so great getting to walk around and see the canvases coming to life! And getting to chat with gals we had only known on online like Pamala. She is a sweetheart! 

And in the background I can spy Lizzy and Nancy…who are most likely talking about Rhode Island or handlebar mustaches…what a coincidence that they happen to sit next to each other and both hail from the same place and have a thing for manly facial adornments.

Everyone really knocked our socks off! The colors and unique textures they achieved using the knives were fantastic! 

One of our fave duos are the Totire's…Katie and Aleta. It was such a pleasure having them in class again! We had met them a few years back at Art Is You and have been fb friends. We love that they brought their own photos to use. This little guy is too adorable 

And here is again! Older and serving our country! 

A shot of Pamala, Aaron, and Francine working away.

And here is Lizzy working on a bright, colorful and fun canvas.

Lt. Dan napped most of the class in his "good boy bed". And yes his water bowl is a pink vintage melmac teacup. 

Here is an in progress shot of Maureen's beautiful piece. You may recognize this trio of friends. We used this photo in our book! In our "Sweet Spot Necklace" project! 

And here they are finished! Wow right?! All so unique!

Look at that texture! and color!

Francine's gal is on the left with the shimmering shoulder! That's german glass glitter embedded in the gel medium, which will eventually tarnish and have a fabulous look to it! 

I just love seeing them all together! What a great time we had! And we were pretty psyched that we all finished within the three hours! 

Here's Lt. Dan and daddy hanging in the lobby on Saturday. We had such an amazing time! Artsy people every way you turned...conversations in the elevators, getting coffees, everywhere you looked there were people making incredible art, catching up, and trading stories. If you've never been to an art retreat and have even the slightest interest…GO! Seriously! they are sorta life changing! 

This here is a gift from our other fave duo…The Gabels! Another mom and daughter. Brittany and Deb! We met Deb way back when we taught at The Creative connection in St. Paul, Minnesota! We told her all about Art Is You and now she and her awesome daughter Brittany are part of the Art Is... Family! They were in Memphis too! Both are total crack ups! Also generous, kind, and funny! You wouldn't believe the costumes they were in this weekend! I wish I had a pic! They really went all out! I'm cracking up right now thinking about it! This adorable necklace was a gift from them. It's hand sculpted and painted by Doreen Kassel. Doesn't it look so so much like our little Jack? Oh my gosh… all he's missing is the bit of orange. It melts my heart! I love it so so much! Oh it's quite big too! 

These tiny adorable handmade book pins were a gift from Aleta. She made one for me and one for Aaron. Using our scrapbook papers! This photo doesn't do them justice at all! Oh and ignore that paint covered thumb nail. I had been making lots of art! ha! And Katie baked us the most adorable and delicious sugar cookies…which we devoured as soon as we got up to our room…sorry no pic! ha!

Oh and this is funny…way back at one of our very first Art Is Yous, Katie and Aleta had taken an Art Journaling class with us and Aleta borrowed this paint brush. She has had it this whole time! Years! She was patiently waiting to return it to us! ha! And she presented it to us in it's very own chalice. We told her over and over that it was no big deal...to keep it. But nope...she brought it to us this Friday! So funny!

And Lizzy brought me the cutest gifts (ya know…because she's the Connoisseur of Cute). This vintage honey bunny soap on a rope, and sweet pink plastic nut cup! She knows me so well! So cute right?

And our sweet online friend Terry, who we met for the first time this weekend, gave us these cute pins she had made using vintage scrabble tiles. And yep...she made sure to add some pink and aqua glitter! 

I bought this these great old portraits from Kim and Kiki at the vendor fair. I can't wait to use them in some future projects! 

We had such a great time! It all went so fast! We wish we could have stayed longer, and maybe taken a class or two. We both vowed to do so next time! We've been saying it forever, and we have to make it happen! We'd love to take a class with Andrea DeMeng or Jodi Ohl. or Kecia. Oh geez…we'd wanna take everyone's class!! So hard to choose! 

There are so many more pics over on fb! Be sure to like the Art Is You page!

Thanks for catching up with us!

xo, Jenny…and Aaron says hi!