The Game of Art

The “Arts de Mer Cruise” is an annual three-day art and craft excursion on the high seas of the Pacific Ocean that sails from San Pedro to Ensenada, Mexico. Anne Garcia, the cruise organizer, gathers some of the top crafted arts instructors on the circuit who teach a series of workshops to the cruisers on a variety of projects and art processes. This year’s theme was, “The Game of Art”.

This year marked my fourth year of involvement with the event and Susan and I treat this as a fun getaway and reunion with dear friends and like-minded art / craft enthusiasts. The workshop I presented was the making of a wooden box using picture frames and bits of wood lath. In essence, we altered the frame to serve as the bottom and lid of the box.

The blank wood served as an empty canvas onto which various surface design treatments could be utilized. The lid also provided opportunities for interpretation and design as collage elements and other embellishments could be applied or by using the acrylic sheet that came with the frame, the box’s lid could remain clear, allowing one to look inside. Oh yeah, the interior of the box also offered opportunities for decoration or other treatments.

As is the case with all my workshops, the students always come up with unique approaches and ideas. I was delighted with the quality of the work and the creativity displayed with each finished project. Shown here are just a few of the many interpretations expressed by the workshop participants. Good work, folks.

Although we look forward to each Arts de Mer cruise, we were informed that due to the reassignment of the ship, there won’t be a 2009 cruise. Anne is furiously working on a new event for later this year or early 2009 but until things are more settled with the cruise line, it appears that we may need to wait until 2010 to cruise with this fun crew.