Save the Date: The Blooming of Flora at Kai Lin Art

Dear Friends,

The opening of Flora is coming Friday, April 15 and will feature my latest series of paintings of the same name.

I am grateful and very excited to be showing in the very good company of three fabulous artists, Drew Watts, Karen Divine, & Lucha Rodriguez. There are remarkable similarities and differences between us and as a whole, we stand before you with power and grace.

In preparation for the show, I personified Flora in an attempt to explore the core of my journey as a female creative. Diving deep into my earliest memories, initial education as a painter and in homage to the most recent events of my life, I have rediscovered a wealth of subject matter to explore, expand and unravel. It is all truth and there is story behind every stroke.

Come to Flora to see all fifteen of my pieces, some of which you see here.

Below are details. I would love to see you!

~Anne

Exhibtion Opening: Friday, April 15th, 2011

Time: 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Closing Date: Friday, May 27th, 2011

Artists: Anne Elser, Drew Watts, Karen Divine, & Lucha Rodriguez

Concept: Flora is a group show featuring four talented local artist that work in a wide range of mediums from photography to painting to hand-cut paper pieces.

Location: Kai Lin Art / 800 Peachtree Street Suite D / Atlanta GA 30308

Promotions and Marketing: Large viral online, print, and television, media campaign via social media, FaceBook, Twitter, 944, Fenuxe, Midtown Patch, Project Q Atlanta, Yelp, Kailinart.com, MetroMix, Scout Mob, Daily Candy, Common Creativ, Atlanta & Company, GA Voice, Campus Style, Atlanta G Spots, in addition to on-site display. Key members of the art and fashion industry and strong word of mouth promos.

For more info: Contact info@kailinart.com or 404 408 4248

Purge

And this is PURGE, painting 6 in my Flora series at Kai Lin Art. The anthropomorphic shape at the bottom is still Flora, yet also serves as a flower vase. Our ability to not only recover, but over-blossom when pruned severely always amazes me. I love watching this happen in the garden and let me tell you - we are no different. Life always finds a way.

Last year we severely pruned ourselves by moving swiftly out of a house and lifestyle that drained us. It was chosen during a time when Doug and I didn't really know who we were as a couple, much less as individuals, and we just stepped into the path before us without much thought. So we left the church, sold more than half of our belongings, cars, clothes, furniture and other baggage and squeezed into a more comfortable setting closer in town, closer to Anton's new school at the time, and closer to everywhere I teach. It was a major downsize and hurt very much at the time, but DAMN, just look at the results. Blossoming everywhere. I am no longer hiding behind the facade of my past. I am instead, choosing the present.

PURGE is about purposeful change, transformation and all of its components. It is beautiful. We flourish simply from making a choice.

Private Bookmaking Instruction

If you're interested in private bookbinding lessons, I offer 2-hour sessions at $120.00 for each session. I teach several bookbinding and container (boxes) making techniques. We can set up at your kitchen table or my private home studio.

Below is a link to both general and extended supply lists of the products and tools you would need to bring with you. Before a class, you would choose a technique to learn and I'd provide handouts and instruction based on your selection(s).

To reserve a lesson slot on my calendar, a non-refundable down payment of $60.00 is required. The best time for a lesson is after breakfast on a Saturday or Sunday morning.

Call 404.509.9676 or e-mail me at Anne@AnneElser.com

Download bookmaking supply list information here.

Kiss

Introducing KISS, the 5th painting for the Flora exhibit at Kai Lin Art. Kiss is all about embracing beauty. I used a fair amount of linseed oil on this one - lots of thick, juicy paint and carved out some texture with a pencil. Painting flowers is nothing new, but it was really frowned upon during my initial training as a painter way back in undergrad. Flowers, pink and anything feminine was met with caution, as was applying sentiment. It was all considered cliché, as was any female art student who dared talk about that subject matter. I could go on and on about the experiences, but just know that I am grateful for them, because working through the issues I created surrounding them has been and still is an amazing journey.

Kiss is about self kissing, being kissed, kissing others, opening to, and actively surrendering into the feeling enjoyment. Flora here is finding her body and she's eating her dessert first before anything else. She rolls cake icing around with her tongue on the inside of her smiling mouth and it's the icing she's eaten first and she relishes in it. Maybe she'll have the cake later. She's sweet and pink and blushing and blooming. Her stockings are black to add contrast to the colorgasm she's experiencing now.

Variation on Pointed Pen with Barbara Calzolari

A note about signing up for both the lecture AND the workshop: If you purchase the workshop, the lecture comes WITH it and you do not need to buy it separately. I accidentally signed up for both, and Binders refunded me the $15.00 lecture fee. (You can, if you wish, only purchase the $15.00 lecture.)


Dear Friends,

I am about to burst with happiness at this wonderful news from Binders. Barbara Calzolari is coming this summer for a Lecture called "Passion for Calligraphy" and a 3-day workshop called "Variation on Pointed Pen."

I took a workshop from her last summer from FOTA (Atlanta Calligraphy Guild) on Fractur and am still quoting some of the things she said that touched me deeply. She talked about a "living letter" and used her whole body in the expression of that movement. She talked about slowing down, on focus, on letting go, and of course, technique. She was very exciting.


This workshop keys on calligraphy and the ability to mold and meld it to your message by stretching the mediums you've at your disposal. So there is a contemporary spin to an ancient art form. As artists, we are invited to interpret as much of ourselves and our worlds into our chosen mediums as we like. As we dare! And we can do it with an open sense of joy and reverence for our journey.

I will be bringing my pens and paper, but also skirts, tees and pillow cases. Shwing!

Variation on Pointed Pen with Barbara Calzolari
Beginner to Intermediate | Sale price until Jul. 14: $175, After Jul. 14: $190
Course fee is not refundable unless another student can take your space
Registration Deadline: Jul. 21 | Min. 10/Max. 15
Thurs.-Sun. Aug. 4-7
Thurs. Evening Lecture: Passion for Calligraphy, 6-8pm
Fri. & Sat. 10am-6:30pm, Sun.11am-5pm

Variation on Pointed Pen with Italian calligrapher Barbara Calzolari will be a once in a lifetime opportunity, not to be missed! Delve into the understanding of lines that become letters with pencil, letters with the oblique pen holder and nibs, focus on words...spacing between them, space between lines and how to give power to a simple text. Look at the object that can live a second life with our writing. Why not inside a coat, on a cigar box, on the pillow or your cat? Calligraphy can be wherever you envision it to be! Learn how to write with a round brush and ink to fit your desired surface. Celebrate your new found expressions at the end of class with merriment and presentation of your work!

Come Again

This is the 4th painting in my Flora series called Come Again. It's the story of my son's premature arrival and rearrival. But not just Anton's, my own in the sense of witnessing the birth of me as a mother, and my rebirth as an artist.

While I would never wish miscarriage on anyone, there was a gift and purpose to it. Of course in the moment it was hard to see. But from a distance, there is grace given you cannot see until you settle down and really listen to what god's telling you.

This woman is still beautiful. She is scarred. And her body remembers everything that happened. She is healing herself. And she's doing it with color and gratitude and anger and grief. All of those thing that make is human and nudge us forward. She has not lost her sense of humor. And one of these days, she's going to find that other blue stocking.

3 New Classes at Binders

Hello friends of ink and paper,

I hope you are all well and enjoying the promise of Spring.

Three new classes are starting in 2 weeks at Binders in Bookmaking and Copperplate Calligraphy. Two have made and have some seats left and we need just one more person for the 12-week bookmaking course to make.


Bookmaking 1: Beginning Bookmaking (DAY)
Need 1 more spot filled to make as of 3.15
Tuesdays, 12 sessions
Mar. 29-Jun 21 (no class May 10)
1:30-4pm
Beginning-Intermediate
Sale price until Mar. 15: $380, After Mar. 15: $395
Min. 3/Max. 7

Bookmaking 1: Beginning Bookmaking (EVE)
only 4 seats left as of 3.15
Tuesdays, 6 sessions
Mar. 29-May 3
6-8:30pm
Beginning-Intermediate
Sale price until Mar. 15: $190, After Mar. 15: $205
Min. 3/Max. 7


Calligraphy 2: Copperplate (EVE)
only 2 seats left as of 3.15
Wednesdays, 6 sessions
Mar. 30-May 4|6-8:30pm
Intermediate-Advanced
Sale price until Mar. 16: $190, After Mar. 16: $205
Min. 3/Max. 7

Live Love Laugh Learn

Recent logo created for a person who embodies the attached sentiments. Creativity is inspired by all four elements. And she's at the center. Bravo Becky!

Flora Info

FLORA is coming!

Exhibtion Opening: Friday, April 15th, 2011

Time: 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Closing Date: Friday, May 27th, 2011

Artists: Anne Elser, Drew Watts, Karen Divine, & Lucha Rodriguez

Concept: Flora is a group show featuring four talented local artist that work in a wide range of mediums from photography to painting to hand-cut paper pieces.

Location: Kai Lin Art / 800 Peachtree Street Suite D / Atlanta GA 30308

Promotions and Marketing: Large viral online, print, and television, media campaign via social media, FaceBook, Twitter, 944, Fenuxe, Midtown Patch, Project Q Atlanta, Yelp, Kailinart.com, MetroMix, Scout Mob, Daily Candy, Common Creativ, Atlanta & Company, GA Voice, Campus Style, Atlanta G Spots, in addition to on-site display. Key members of the art and fashion industry and strong word of mouth promos.

For more info: Contact info@kailinart.com or 404 408 4248

Tattoo

My first calligraphic tattoo to someday soon live on the chest of a man with a very big beating heart. The whole time I'm tweaking it, I'm thinking, "Is this going to hurt? All this ink? Too much stress? Do I really need all those flourishes? Should I be using a pointed pen instead of a broad edge? Will my client curse me while on the table?

This was wildly fun. :)

And if you're interested in the origins of the quote "Look at the sky: That is for you," here's a link he sent me. Thank you Ray!