Category Archives: workshop

AWOL-Time To Get Back In the Habit of Art Journaling!!!

September 3, 2014 By in art at the speed of life, art every day, art journal, art journaling, pam carriker, visual journal, workshop 7 Comments

What a crazy busy summer! We moved, into an apartment waiting for our house to be finished, then moved my mom in Washington and then moved ourselves again into our new home! And in the midst of all of that I did the photo shoot for my next book, finished my manuscript, edited my manuscript, taught several workshops around the US and very nearly went crazy lol!

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Now school is finally back in session, and we are feeling pretty settled in our new home and I am looking forward to actually making some art of my own. I have 3 more teaching gigs before the end of this season (you can find them listed on my ‘Teaching’ page) and I’m really looking forward to spending time at home with my family for the holidays. 

I must admit that I feel in a bit of an art slump. I love teaching and writing books but I really am feeling the need to explore where my own art is going to go from here. I have a beautiful new studio space in our home that is as yet untouched where making art is concerned. 

I’ve been thinking long and hard about how to get back in the swing of things so to speak and while unpacking my journals I looked at the journal that I made for my book Creating Art at the Speed of Life. I’m thinking that it would be fun to make a new journal and create pages inspired by the techniques and exercises from my own book. It’s been a couple of years since I actually made that journal and it’s always great to revisit things and see how much your work has evolved. 

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To set myself up for success so to speak, I’m going to keep my book out on my work table with my new journal. I want it right there so each day I can try to work in it but I’m going to allow that some days will just be too busy to do so but I want to see it every day.

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I also thought I’d change the size up and make a larger journal to work in. If you want to join in I’d love it if you’d share a link to pages you’re making in the comment section so we can all go and see your progress too! It’ll be a sort of a blog hop where we can all share with no fear of commitment!

I always get in the mood to do something new at the beginning of the school year so I think it’s a perfect time to revisit the lessons in my book and expand on them! I hope you’ll decide to join in and please feel free to join the Creating Art at the Speed of Life Facebook group where you can always share your work and ask questions.

Fun Graffiti Journal Page Tutorial!

February 21, 2010 By in art journal, graffiti, ilovetocreate, mixed media, tulip fabric paint cannon, tutorial, workshop 9 Comments

Here’s a little tutorial on creating a fun Graffiti Style art journal page using Tulip Paint Products. The people at ILOVETOCREATE sent me a box of goodies to try out and let me say they’re way cool and lots of fun!

This page was created on the fly, no planning so you can see how easy it is to do a fast journal page using these products, under 20 minutes!

Stay tuned for a fun opportunity to win your own products, details coming soon!!

This is the last day of my shop sale, there are still a few things left and most won’t be offered after today so go check it out!

Also check out the latest Somerset Studios for my Workshop article ‘A Perfect Pair’ using PanPastels and encaustic medium.


This and That

October 25, 2009 By in cloth paper scissors, derivan liquid pencil, inspirational retreat, lisa larosa, mixed media, renee troy, self portrait, shrine, workshop 15 Comments
Here is the sample self portrait that I will be teaching at Inspirational Retreat in April. We will spend the first day working in the journals I provide, playing with drawing, mixed media techniques, and symbolism, getting comfortable in our own skin and then on the second day we will create a personal piece on canvas that will include a little shrine of the things we hold dear.

It’s a little hard to tell in this picture, but behind the optical lens is a precious little birds egg shell. The little birdie is long gone and this so speaks to how I feel about my own ‘birdies’ leaving the nest.
I’ve been asked if this is the same as my online Pursuing Portraits workshop and it is an extension of that, taking it to the next level putting into practice what I teach online. I will go into much more detail about different techniques I use to paint portraits.
The mail lady brought my advance copies of Cloth Paper Scissors which includes an article on Liquid Pencil, a fabulous product that is tons of fun to play with! I hope you give it a try. You can see an additional piece of work I did with it here.

A Visit To Stampington, Workshops, and More

September 29, 2009 By in art journaling, christen olivarez, jenny doh, lisa bebi, stampington and company, suzi blu, workshop 19 Comments

How do I even begin? I am still getting goosebumps about my visit to CA this past week. I guess I will just start from the beginning.

My trip started with a visit to my friend Julie Bergmann’s house. Julie and I met at the ZNE ConvenZioNE last spring and hit it off right from the start. She graciously invited me to stay with her and when I got the invitation to teach from Lisa Bebi, the plan was put into action. With good food, lovely wine and a trip to Pinkberry for yogurt we began our visit. The next stop was Stampington & Co. Jenny Doh and the rest of the editors were so gracious and wonderful. We were given the grand tour.

Thrilling Moments

Meeting Jenny in person

Seeing Magazine covers with our names on them on a wall

Meeting with the photographer, Johanna, right after she had finished shooting my art journal for an upcoming issue.
Seeing my name on Jenny’s white board!

Recognizing peoples work just by looking at it
Seeing my aubergine pieces getting ready to be photographed

Doing Lunch with Jenny and Christin

Being filmed for a New Reality Show-LOL

Doing a Tutorial

Having everyone sign my suitcase

Next stop Lisa Bebi’s

A total thrill to meet her as I have long admired her work. She is just as fun as I thought she would be. We stayed up late and decided to do some painting late at night. She showed me her ‘Paint Over’ technique.

The class at The Stamp Addict was full with a waiting list.

The gals, and one guy were really fun and to top it off, who should walk in to the class but the famous Suzi Blu! How fun is that?! She is even better in person than on her youtube videos!!

Off to the gallery for my final workshop and met with another group of fun gals. Everyone was so nice and their work turned out great!

Off to the airport and home again. A completely crazy, busy, fun filled experience that I will never forget.

Tired but happy, journaling my way home.

Make It Your Own

May 22, 2009 By in art challenge, art journal, creative workshops, crusade, green pepper press, green pepper press street team, michelle ward, online workshop, workshop 15 Comments

While drinking my first cup of coffee this morning, my blog browsing took me to Michelle Wards Green Pepper Press Street Team Challenge.

This is one of my favorite challenges because Michelle is so inspiring and pushes the envelope encouraging others to do the same. I have been too busy to do much participating lately, but when I saw this challenge it so hit home with me that I had to take some time to answer it today.

Make it your own. I think that all artists truly long to do this. It is a process though. We see someones work and think ‘Oh, I love that, I want to know how they did it’! Sometimes through workshops or classes we are afforded a glimpse of the ‘how’ part. We then take that new found knowledge and add it to what we already know and slowly but surely our own ‘style’ evolves. This is the process. Michelle said the difference between art and crafts is the ability to ‘make it your own’. Are you wanting to make the product or learn the process?

This is what I so struggled with when I kept getting asked to do a ‘face’ class. I truly love teaching and sharing techniques and encouraging people along their art journey, but I really don’t enjoy teaching a ‘product‘ nearly as much. That is not to say that there aren’t times when that is the only way to do something. Short, live workshops lend themselves to that type of teaching. So while I am completely open to teaching my techniques, giving tips, guidance and encouraging the creative process, I didn’t necessarily want to see lots of little ‘Pam’ faces all over. They may tend to look like that at first, but through this process they will become more and more your own.
My answer to this is Pursuing Portraits. I want to share the joy of discovering your own face with you! I share all of my techniques and guide you on the process of finding your own face! It is a continuing process as our art is always evolving. The class is open ended so you will have unlimited access to the materials and can revisit the videos again and again, working at your own pace and discovering the joy of Making it your own!
P.S. all of the journal pages here have been either inspired by one of Michelle’s challenges or made using some of her wonderful stamps. Thank you for the inspiration Michelle!