Hey friends! Time is flying around here. My little guy is two-and-a-half and about to move up to a new pre-school class and I'm nervous about the whole thing. He seems unfazed...of course. Here's the rest of the round-up for July 2022: What's happening at home? My Brother and his family are visiting! Yay! It has been a year since I've seen them (they live across the country) and it has been such fun to hang out. My son and his son are just six weeks apart in age and it's lovely to see them together. What's on your desk... Read more →

On Friday, I taught a live online class called, "Mixed Media Collage: Embellishing a Basic Design." We had a great time and I made three demo collages during the two-and-a-half hour class. When you're working from a formula, you can get a lot done really quickly! Would you like to see the three mixed media collages I made? In class we discussed how to get started with a basic design and then embellish it... ...how to fix a collage gone wrong... ...and how to work from a plan... Of course, you can't tell from looking at them which process was... Read more →

The Artful Holiday Class begins on Monday and I'm so excited to share all of the super cool projects with you, like this mixed media book made from recycled materials and featuring a no sew binding: The Artful Holiday class is packed with projects and each project encompasses lots of different techniques that you can use and repurpose. I've brought back some teachers that were student favorites before, like Susana McDonnell from the Carve December class. Watch this short interview and chat with Susana: And I'm introducing you to some new and exciting teachers -- some of whom are teaching... Read more →

Have you ever thought about etching glass? It's super easy to do and takes almost no time. Here's what you need: Etching Cream Tape Adhesive-Backed Flexible Stencil -- I made my own from adhesive-backed vinyl, but you can buy pre-made stencils too. Rubber Gloves Access to Running Water Glass Object Timer Good Ventilation Optional: Apron The process is simple: Place the adhesive-backed flexible stencil on your glass object. Tape off any areas not covered by the stencil and which you do not wish to be etched. Put on your gloves. Make sure you're in a well-ventilated area and near running... Read more →

Tomorrow night I'm teaching a live online mixed media collage class (just 2 seats left - grab one). As I was prepping for class last night, I decided to turn on the video camera and capture the process. Take a peek: Some notes about the process: If you're wondering what to do with your gelatin prints, you can see that I use lots of them in my mixed media collage artwork! The glue I'm using is Matte Medium, which I decant into a Fineline Bottle. It's AWESOME for collage. I used watercolor in this piece. Watercolor can be tricky in... Read more →

My art practice involves five major branches: Making Cleaning and Organizing Research and Learning Planning and Shopping Practice and Processing I'm currently mostly doing #2 today: cleaning and organizing. My current mission is sifting through all the pretty paper projects I've made recently and sorting them into three piles: sell, collage fodder, do more. SELL is pretty easy. If it looks great and I can imagine someone hanging it on their wall, it goes in the sell pile. 🙌 (This paper weaving is one of the tutorials from the Artful Holiday class, btw.) COLLAGE FODDER is the stuff that isn't... Read more →

When I told Mom that today's podcast topic was "failure," she said, "Again?!" Back on September 18, 2012 we published our very first podcast (almost exactly 10 years ago) and the topic was failure. I figured a ten year gap was enough time to chat about it again. I hope you feel the same way, here's our conversation in video: Or you can listen to just the audio: During the podcast we share concrete tips for re-framing failure as an opportunity, along with strategies for defining your own ideas about success and failure. If you enjoy the podcast, I really... Read more →

Have you heard the news about the new Vincent van Gogh painting discovered by the National Galleries of Scotland? "Hidden from view for over a century, the self-portrait is on the back of the canvas with Head of a Peasant Woman and is covered by layers of glue and cardboard," the museum said in a statement on Thursday. You can read this NPR article about it. It's such an exciting discovery and a fascinating conservation/restoration problem. Reading about it made me want to revisit some of the beautiful van Gogh artwork that I've had the opportunity to see over the... Read more →

In March, I established The Balzer Art Gallery just outside my house. It's like a little free lending library, but instead of books, it's filled with art. I seeded the gallery with some of my own artwork... ...but over time it has come to house lots of fabulous art from other folks. I've been sharing what's coming and going on the @BalzerArtGallery instagram account. Here's a peek at just a few images (these images and videos are embedded from instagram - if you're reading this on email and can't see them, view this blog post online.): I love checking the... Read more →

As I mentioned in my last post, back in April, I spent an afternoon at the MFA (Museum of Fine Arts) here in Boston. We saw 3 notable things: The Turner Exhibit Art in Bloom The Philip Guston Exhibit My previous post covered my experience of the Turner Exhibit. Today, I'm going to share some of my photos from Art in Bloom 2022. If you're not familiar with "Art in Bloom," it's an event that many different museums host. In essentials, different florists and/or garden clubs are assigned works of art. Their mission is to create a floral arrangement in... Read more →