Shrine Retreat weekend

"Let Peace Begin with Me" by Lynn Krawczyk

This is the second art retreat weekend that a group of us have gone on. Mary is the brains behind the organization and we are now calling ourselves "The Escape Artists." (Thanks to Joan for the snappy name!) We take a weekend, run away to the Comfort Inn in Livonia, and gorge ourselves on art. We chose to do shrines this time.

We were inspired by Carol Owens book, "Crafting Personal Shrines." Its stuffed full with inspiration and the photo above is my attempt at using the techniques in her book. I asked everyone at the retreat to write down their wish for peace on a slip of paper and hung it from the ceiling of the shrine. I also used a tile I purchased at the Plymouth Art Fair from an artist of the Village Potters Guild (forgive me because I don't remember the name). Leann was so good to me and carved me a pair of rubber feet stamps for the shrine too. It was the perfect touch.

I did like making this shrine but have to admit that I found cutting the foam core board for it tediuos. Its the whole making sure all the measurments are exact thing that started to drive me batty. So I reverted back to using wood boxes for two other shrines, one of which is "Broken" shown below.



I did one other one with a piggy in it but the picture didn't come out good so you'll have to wait to see it until I can take proper pictures of it for my website.

I wasn't the only one hard at work! Here is what everyone else was up to:

Here is Leann's shrine, showing off her specialty: skulls. The skulls in the paper are from a rubber stamp she carved herself and she made the larger skulls inside the shrine too.




Julia's shrine was really colorful and cool! She painted the papers she used to decorate it. I loved the texture of the papers, it really made the piece fun.



Joan was REALLY busy! She got FIVE shrines done and plans to hang them on her wall. I am so impressed with everything she got done and they all look incredible!!! From top to bottom they are: Peace, Lust, Hope, Passion and Joy.

Cynthia has done a phenominal job with the techniques from the book. She done a beautiful shrine as a wedding gift and a garden shrine to her passion for her gardening hobby. Here she is hard at work. :)

Emily was really kind to stop by the retreat and drop off a box of frames that she thought we might put to good use. (Thanks Emily!!) Here is one of Ruth's shrines featuring the frames, looks great!

Stephanie is a fellow engineer, you can kind of tell from the concentration when she is working! Her shrine is very cool, unique angles and really fun! Wish I had taken a picture of it when it was farther along to share but trust me, its cool!



And here is Sidney's shrine, again at an early stage. She has really added a lot of detail to it since I snapped this photo. She keeps insisting that she hates purple but for some reason I think she is lying to me. ;-)



There was a lot more going on throughout the weekend and I didn't get many more photos. I had my nose stuck in my work. Finally the artist coma is over!!! :)

We are planning on doing another one in June, maybe something fabric this time. Can't wait!!!