About art collaborations, friendships and artcations

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Last week I had a little artcation with my friend Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. We spent the week at her Mom’s house near Boston to kick off our one year long art collaboration. We are both very excited about it and hope it will take us and our art further along the road.

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We have been hatching this collaboration idea for some time now and it was wonderful to finally get started with it. You can hear all about the art collaboration in the Podcast Julie recorded that week. We recorded part of it at the beginning of the week- talking about our expectations, fears, ideas and why we are doing this and then we recording a second part about egos, obstacles, our friendship and how it went along so far.

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You can listen to it here and we would love to hear what you think:

It was great to work together at the same time on some bigger pieces of canvas – here are some in progress and they are not done yet

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Besides that I was lured into a scary death bathroom by Julie and her Mom,

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we ate delicious food and …often

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and did some serious shopping

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We had a great time – thank you Julie’s Mom for an awesome time :)

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I came home inspired and relaxed – and I cannot wait for a new artcation in a couple months and see how our monthly art collaboration will have progressed by then …and our friendship ;)

Have a gorgeous day

 

 

Comments (4)

  • Laura S.

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    I finally made the time to listen to the whole podcast and Wow, this is such a cool idea. I am so intrigued…best reality TV show ever! Are you guys taking pics of your work, as each stage progresses? It would be fascinating to see how the canvas’ change, but picture taking during the creative lesson might be too interruptive? You both are brave to try this; testing your friendship. However, I only see your friendship growing stronger. There is always the possibility of squabbles, especially when you spend that much time with someone. Add the fact that someone is coming behind you and “jacking” with your art work and what if you just completed something that you loved and they totally wrecked it? This is going to be very interesting and fun. For the audience, anyway! Hopefully fun for you guys, too. Either way, I know you both will grow as artist and friends and the projects are going to be glorious! Looking forward to the saga and thanks so much for including us on this journey.

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  • Sue Clarke

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    I still have to watch the podcast, but I’m so happy that you two are working together more and more. I admire the creative work that you both do SO much. Julie’s Mom is so nice and I bet she is a wonderful hostess as well. Glad that you had a fun weekend!

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  • Donna

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    I heard the podcast last week and really enjoyed a glimpse into the collaborative process. I liked how honest you both were about some of the frustrations and challenges you faced. It sounds like despite some tension, you both had fun. Looking forward to seeing how things progress.

    Peace,
    Donna

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  • Jackie P Neal

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    Wow nat- what a very cool idea! As I was listening to yours and Julie’s comments, I could not help but wonder about myself and how would I be able to handle such situations. I have a friend in another state that we have talked about doing this through he mail, and yes, that might be easier- but I really appreciate the way you two friends and artists have taken this huge & scarey (in my opinion) project on! Can’t wait to hear more and I am so glad to see you working through those feelings as I think some of those same would be my issues also! “) Very cool!! oxxo

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