Art on Exhibit!

I spent the morning hanging my solo show. I have been working all summer to get ready for this exhibit -- making new work, and matting, framing and mounting existing work. It was fantastic to see it all hanging together on big white walls!

The opening reception is tomorrow night, Thursday September 23rd from 7 - 8:30 pm. The exhibition is held at the Edward J Duffy Art Gallery at the Canterbury School in New Milford CT. The show runs through October 14 and the gallery is open to the public weekdays from 8 -3 and Saturdays from 8-12 or by appt (860-210-3800).


On exhibit are over 50 pieces, including the first public showing of the first half of the Loteria series and many other new works. I've discovered one drawback to working on a small scale - it takes a LOT of work to fill a gallery!

Many of the Loteria series are on display, as well as an assortment of gyotaku fiber and paper collages, insect work in a variety of formats, some new pieces inspired by cell phone photography and a few three-dimensional fiber houses.

I hope you can stop by!

El Cotorro

Lotería Collage Project

24 - El Cotorro (the parrot)

La Luna

Lotería Collage Project

23 - La Luna (the moon)

Finally! A few new pieces in the Loteria series. I'm nearly halfway there at this point and have started matting and framing the finished pieces.

Join me at Art-Is-You

Take a class here on the East Coast! Art-Is-You, the hippest mixed-media conference on the right coast, is around the corner and registration closes tomorrow. I hope you can join me (and a slew of other talented mixed-media artists including my uber-cool co-author, Elin Waterston) for a fun roster of classes in Danbury, Connecticut over Columbus Day weekend this October.

I'll be teaching a Bricolage workshop on Saturday, Oct 9. We'll be starting with paint, illustration board, stamps and a pile of found objects and will create unique, personal shadow boxes, a la Joseph Cornell but with a modern edge.

On Monday, October 11 we'll be constructing 3-dimensional Fiber Art Houses. These clever houses incorporate all sorts of imagery and can tell a story, pay homage to a favorite artist, express an idea or feeling, or be a neat way to show off all of your favorite things. I'm working on a whole village right now and am having so much fun!

If you want in on all the hip happenings, don't delay! Registration closes on Monday, Sept 6 at midnight.

Rubber Fish Chronicles

Have a hankering to paint some rubber fish?  Holy mackerel! You'll have your chance in Chicago this August with me at the Cloth Paper Scissors Create conference. I'll be bringing all of my fishy friends for a day of gyotaku painting fun!

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish - big fish, small fish and a seahorse and starfish too. Don't let this one get away. :)

I'll also be teaching a 3D fiber house plus a workshop on Jump Starting Your Art Career - now's the time to get serious about your art and I can help you. This is an evening workshop with lots of hands-on activities to help you develop your personal marketing plan for your career. Tons of useful, practical information about branding, dreaming big, approaching galleries, selling more art and much more.

Bricolage revisited

Remember the bricolage shadow boxes I made last July? Well, if you have a hankering to make one of your own, come join me at the Art-Is-You east coast art retreat in Danbury CT this October. I'll be teaching three different classes over the weekend and know that we'll have a rollicking good time.

The theme this year is Art Is... Wickedly Good and you can adapt your bricolage to that theme - oh the possibilities!

This retreat is about 15 minutes from my studio and I'll be able to bring tons of goodies to show and share. I'm so excited!

Colliding passions

I'm working on a new series of fiber art postcards and am exploring something different this time. I purchased an absolutely spectacular assortment of 60 jacquard batik squares from Lisa Shepard Stewart of Cultured Expressions a couple of weeks ago at a quilt show in Warwick NY and decided that they'd make gorgeous backgrounds for the postcards.

The fabrics are from Ghana and the colors are so luscious and vibrant  -- very different from my usual more muted palette. I don't know if it's the season or the weather or my mood, but I'm going with it.

I'm thinking about adding some photo transfers of the images I've been snapping with my iPhone using one of the several apps that give lomographic effects to photos. I've been noodling around with Camera Bag, Toy Camera, and Plastic Bullet but my very favorite is Hipstamatic.

I LOVE these hands. They're antique glove forms that we found in Judy Gula's booth at the Art Opera in NJ in April. They live on a shelf in my office and wave happily at me every day.

Stay tuned to see what happens next!

Recently I signed up for the Art Sketchbook Project from the Brooklyn Art Library and I got word today that my sketchbook has shipped. I picked the inside/outside theme and I can't wait to get started. It's not too late to sign up if you're looking for an inspirational and creative project.

On the Radio

Creative Talk Radio - Live today!!

I'm so excited to be a guest on Pat Sloan's radio show at 4 EDT this afternoon. You can listen in live here: http://toginet.com/shows/creativetalkradio or you can catch it in the archived version later at the same address - click on the 05/10/10 show in the Recent Shows sidebar or download on iTunes.

We'll be giving away a copy of my new book, Jane Davila's Surface Design Essentials, on Pat's blog. Go to her blog to enter until this Friday for a chance to win.

Workshop opportunity in New Jersey

There are a few spaces left in the Sketches from Nature workshop I'm teaching at the Garden State Quilters' Guild next Tuesday, April 13 in Chatham NJ. If you're interested please contact Becky at the guild to sign up. You don't need to be a member to take the class.

We'll be free-motion quilting with black thread and then adding acrylic ink to create the look of pen-and-ink drawings with watercolor effects. A really creative and easy process that looks more difficult than it is, this technique is from my new book, Jane Davila's Surface Design Essentials. The supply list is minimal and I provide all of the inks for use in class. I hope you can join me!

La Bota

Lotería Collage Project

22 - La Bota (the boot)

I'm making progress on this series, slowly but steadily. I have been collecting some wonderful square frames in Ikea to frame the whole collection (with an eye toward a potential show) and yesterday discovered that I'll have to recut all of the mats. The openings on the mats included with the frames are about 1/2" too small. Bummer.

La Mano

Lotería Collage Project

21 - La Mano (the hand)

I love this one. The card is cool and these are some of my favorite colors.

Jump Start Your Art Career

I'm very excited to announce the first of my online classes. This is a topic near and dear to my heart and I'm thrilled to share the knowledge I've gained over the last 20 years as a professional fine artist, author and teacher.

Jump Start your Art Career

What do you want to get out of your art career? Do you want to exhibit more often? Sell more art? Teach workshops? Get published? Create a polished, professional online presence? This practical, hands-on class will guide you through an individualized course of study to attain these aspirations and more. Start by defining and setting your specific goals, create your brand, come up with a marketing plan and put it into action, all with step-by-step guidance from an industry expert.

Learn how to -
     create a brand that will help you stand out from the crowd
     outline a marketing plan to help you reach your goals
     put together a professional portfolio
     find, research and approach art galleries
     start an etsy store and promote it
     build up a mailing list and use it effectively
     analyze the success of your marketing plan
     get published - start small and think big


With interactive lessons, homework, brainstorming, critiques and more you will be well on your way to realizing your art career goals.

6 online lessons beginning Monday April 5          $60.00


the workshop includes pdf handouts, worksheets, resources and references plus a forum for sharing questions, answers and progress all in a supportive, encouraging and empowering environment.

A surface design tote for the American Cancer Society

Tote Tuesday is a fundraiser held to benefit the American Cancer Society dreamed up by the incomparable and indefatiguable Virginia Spiegel. I'm so pleased to be able to help out again, this time by donating a tote for the auction. I've included a copy of my new book, Surface Design Essentials, 5 bottles of Liquitex soft-body acrylic paints, 3 bottles of Liquitex acrylic ink, 3 different Liquitex acrylic mediums - fabric, matte gel and, my favorite, iridescent - 6 Derwent Inktense water-soluble ink pencils and a small piece of art made with these yummy colors. With this tote full of goodies, you can dive right in and start creating!

For all the details about this auction that will be held next Tuesday, February 23, head over to Virginia's blog. There are lots of fun totes up for bidding and it's for such a good cause!

Loteria - first 20

Lotería Collage Project

This is what the first 20 lotería blocks look like next to each other. Progress is being made and things are happening!

This weekend, among other things, I've been working on my first offering of online classes. Stay tuned for the full descriptions and sign-up information. There will be a project class, a process class and a class focused on how to jump start your art career. Whee!

El Pajaro

Lotería Collage Project

20 El Pajaro (the bird)

It feels good to get back into this project. The first 20 of the total 54 are done. I've collected 10 frames from various trips to Ikea and will start matting and framing some of these little blocks.

An update on La Garza from yesterday: I had not heat set the ink on the letters I had erroneously stamped and this morning I tried blotting them with a damp paper towel. Wouldn't you know, they came off, completely and totally! Project save.  I stamped some innocuous flower shapes where the letters were, as the space still needed something.

19 La Garza (the heron) revised

Workshop in the Hudson Valley

I hope you can join me for a workshop at the beautiful Hudson River Valley Art Workshops in March in Greenville, New York.

I'll be teaching Layers of Meaning, a workshop where you'll make a series of small art quilts incorporating a variety of techniques.

The official description:

Working within a theme, Jane Davila guides you to create a series of small art quilts. Develop your theme using techniques such as direct and indirect inkjet photo transfers, block printing and found object printing. Explore the concept of personal imagery by creating your own motifs to incorporate into your work. Layer your compositions with collage and printing, use quilting as the element of line, and end with a wide assortment of very unusual edge-finishing techniques.

Jane will be bringing an Epson Durabright all-in-one printer with her so that you will be learning and practicing the image transfer techniques hands-on with your own photos. She will also be bringing a number of interesting supplies that are for the use of the students, so it's a great opportunity to experiment with things you may not be familiar with without having to invest in those supplies before you're sure if you like them.

And... they have chocolate! Amazing, handmade chocolate. Really, what else do we need?

La Garza

Lotería Collage Project



19 La Garza (the heron)

I was all excited to get back to my loteria project and I laid out this block and stitched and stamped away and stepped back happily only to realize that La Garza means the heron in English, not Flamingo, like I stamped along the lower edge. So here's my conundrum: do I re-do the block because, although a flamingo is a type heron (I think), the translation of the Spanish word is not technically correct or do I leave it alone and risk looking silly? Oof.

Playing with Paint

Some artist trading cards made by playing with paint and matte medium and stamps and fabric on watercolor paper using techniques found in my new book Surface Design Essentials.