The Portland, Oregon edition of Art & Soul is underway! After a full day exhibiting at an art therapy conference (see below) Judy hopped on a crack of dawn flight this past Saturday morning to the West Coast. We’re hoping she slept on the plane, as these creative retreats keep you busy!

Art & Soul is taking place April 7th through the 13th at the beautiful visit The Red Lion Hotel on the River. While online registration is closed, those local to the Portland and surrounding Pacific Northwest area can still register in-person at the hotel…so if you find that your schedule has freed up and you can squeeze in a class or two, there’s still time to indulge!

Image above courtesy of Art & Soul Facebook page.

And even if you are not attending the retreat, you can visit the Red Lion on the River to shop at Artistic Artifacts on-site store! As always, Judy has a huge supply of new products and vintage/found treasure available for your fiber and mixed media art, and she’d love to meet you to say hello.

Plus a Vendor Night takes place on Saturday, April 12 from 6:00-9:00 pm. This event is free for all attendees but is also open to the general public with a $10 admission fee. More than 20 vendors will offer finished artwork, supplies, vintage findings, jewelry, ephemera and more.

Art Therapy Conference

Mindfulness, Compassion & the Arts in Therapy: from Neuroscience to Clinical Practice and the Mid-Atlantic Play Therapy Training Institute both took place on April 4-6, 2014 in Alexandria, VA. Artistic Artifacts was thrilled to have been invited to take part as a vendor!

This event was a continuing education opportunity for play therapists as well as those of of many disciplines: Art, Music, Dance/Movement, Poetry, Drama and Movement, plus arts educators, psychologists, social workers, counselors and more in the medical, clinical and academic community.

Of course, those dedicated to the idea of how the arts can heal are artists themselves, so we received a very warm welcome in response to our tables of fiber and mixed media supplies, as well as our demonstrations and make and take activity (supplies pictured below).

Special thanks go out to our volunteer friends from Judy’s Altered Minds (JAMs) who helped us out in so many ways throughout the weekend — we couldn’t have done it without them!

• Diane Herbort (pictured right), who intrigued attendees with her beautiful hand stitching and embroidery with Tentakalum fibers
• Carol Hamilton and Chris Vinh demonstrating monoprinting on a Gelli Arts™ Gel Printing Plate
• Carmen Goyette showing off many options on using recycled materials (food boxes, dryer sheets, etc.) in mixed media, and
• Jocelyn Corderot, Joan Grandy, Kelsey Grandy, Theresa Koenig and Suzanne Langsdorf guiding the creation of ATCs (artist trading cards).

We bought in a wealth of tools and material to create ATCs: rubber stamps, inkpads, paints, book text, washi tape, tissue paper, fabric, trims, art and inspirational quotes and more. And our starting pile was continually refreshed with beautiful monoprints from the Gel Printing Plate demo (example below) using paints, found textures, stencils, wooden printing blocks and more.

Many of the attendees took advantage of this opportunity to have a creative break in between the academic sessions, and it was really rewarding to hear their appreciation and enthusiasm. Pictured below are a few of the ATCs created by Artistic Artifacts staff and volunteers while guiding the participants.

Below, two monoprints created featuring the TCW356 SallyCarley stencil.

P.S. While at the hotel, Diane Herbort took an intriquing photo for her website. She has been posting weekly inspiration photos — and writing wonderful prose about each — for a number of years now. Check them out!