Now, where was I ???

Pleasantly sidetracked! I've been keeping busy with art and working towards completion of my degree in Art Therapy.  One of the things I really enjoyed doing over the last few months was being a guest artist for two Sensory Serenade live art shows. Organized by poet-musician Rick Barnes and artist-musician John Victor, the shows were in November and April at Schlegel's Coffee House, just around the corner from my studio.

That's me putting the melting butter on a stack of pancakes I was inspired to create by Rick's humorous "Prayer of a Hungry Child" poem. I used prismacolor pencils on pastel paper, and attached a Dura-Lar Mylar overlay that I painted with opaque watercolors and archival ink. 

The finished piece, "More Pancakes!" was 23x23 and sold at silent auction at the end of a wonderful evening of musical performance and poetry reading (and lots of laughs) to Schlegels' owners, Greg and Liz Corzine (they have four hungry children who enjoyed a memorable pancake breakfast made by Dad just the morning before the show!). Liz makes fantastic sweet desserts (she's famous for her tasty puffcorn!) and put on a fabulous gourmet dessert and coffee buffet for the showgoers. 

You can see John Victor's awesome artwork just to the left of my head, but you can get a much better view on his website: http://www.johnkvictor.com/, designed by his wife Melissa (http://www.horsehousedesign.com/). 

We were fortunate to have world-traveled photographer Rob Gough document the November show, he was back visiting his hometown and family for Thanksgiving. Rob gets the credit for the shot above. http://www.rpgough.com/

Coming up: several free-lance jobs for portrait parties, collaborative art, private commissions, facilitating a creative writing group at an assisted living center, organizing the CAL exhibit for Berger Hospital's ArtsaRound Gallery in July, putting final touches on work for exhibitions and shows this summer and fall, and taking on art students for fun summer art sessions a la my serendipitous style! 

Who knows, maybe you will be the next person I draw or you'll join me for a creative adventure in art!?

~ ellen.

Photo by Rob Gough © 2009.  Ellen Doerres creating "More Pancakes!" during the Sensory Serenade at Schegel's Coffee House, Chillicothe, OH.