 Another magical, educational, and exhausting experience at Penland! Our assignment was to find a small object from nature and use it as inspiration for larger scale, abstract drawings. I dont actually know what it is that I actually found, but it made for some wonderfully weird shapes and inspired some alien-like landscapes!    The start of my alien landscape drawing.....
   It unexpectedly snowed the last day and I found this.   
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 Gorgeous daffodils on the side of the road in Cullowhee, NC. Ahh, Springtime means daffodils! They smell so delicious. I think they are one of my favorite flowers. I love the scene in the movie, Big Fish, when Ed gives Sandra a field of daffodils . Spring is about regrowth, creating change, and coming out of Winter's sleepy, cold hibernation. It's kind of like my personal New Year. My birthday falls on the "Cusp of Rebirth" in the zodiac, and it just so happened that I was born over Easter weekend of my birth year, which, in its assorted cultural incarnations, holds lots of death/birth symbolism across various cultures and beliefs. Pretty apropos that my name is Dawn, eh? Nope, that wasn't intentional, and yet, its another little bit of "coincidental" magic. I've been reading about this year's Spring Equinox. Evidently, there is a new moon in Pisces and Supermoon Solar Eclipse. I'm not sure what all this means, but I'm digging learning about it and I'm setting some creative intentions for this next phase of the year. Something that I hope will jump-start this creativity is my trip to Penland! Tomorrow, I leave for Penland School of Crafts to take part in a one week, spring session drawing class, called Nature Series. This will be a wonderful way to celebrate my birthday, and rejuvenate my creative spark! Many thanks to the Jackson County Arts Council for making this endeavor possible for me, by means of a Regional Artist Project Grant!  I took this photo when I was at Penland in 2011. I dont remember what building these steps are on, but who cares? Every inch of Penland is this magical. Happy birthday to me!
xoxox  So, what exactly is the time frame for the "Holiday Season"? There are holidays that happen all throughout the year, so I wonder what makes up this specific season. I've heard that some people include any holiday during the month of December. Others think it starts at Halloween and runs through Valentines Day, and I'm all for that! How 'bout we just stretch the Holiday Season into March to include my birthday! Whew! That's a lot of celebrating! Its also why I don't have a problem with the greeting, "Happy Holidays!" I think its an inclusive, all-holiday greeting for a festive time of year, meaning "Hey, let's celebrate!" Of course, holidays also mean gift giving. I love giving and receiving gifts. Its one of my primary love languages. In order to make gift giving as meaningful and sustainable as possible, I am definitely an advocate of patronizing small, local businesses and independent artists. Our support means so much to them as business owners and craftspeople. It's also time for the 4th Annual Handmade Holiday Sale at FAM/WCU! Besides yours truly, a few of the artists that will be at the sale include: Julie Fawn Craig: Clay and Glass Rivers Marchesoni: Mountian Sunflower There will be many others, including the WCU Ceramics Club, which is always a big hit! So, needless to say, I've been busy getting super duper new scarves to debut!  I have 30+ scarves out of the dye, just waiting to be printed by next Thursday. Yikes! There's almost every color of the rainbow and a variety of fabrics. I'm so pleased with the color results. You just never know how a certain fabric will take dye and what color variations you'll end up with. It's like a guessing game. You must surrender to the process and be ready for whatever the final results are. There are definitely fabric-dying techniques that require preliminary tests, extreme precision and formulations, which will yield specific results every time, but that is not the way I choose to work. I like the magic. I like mixing a new color combination every time, not knowing exactly how the color will reveal itself on the fabric. One time, I over-dyed a light brownish fabric with a vibrant, robin's egg blue for the fun of it and ended up with a marvelous lavender-mauve color. So, go figure. I think this unpredictability is what makes the process so exciting.  Here is a detail of one of the new scarves. A lovely deep blue, azure, turquoise combination with a tree bark screen printed pattern. This photo was taken right after the heat process on the dye-discharge paste, so there's no telling what the now "orangey" printed part will look like once its washed. Its all part of the fun!
Happy Holidays! I'm working on a new screen print, mixed-media series. Actually, I've been working on it for a while. Sometimes you just need to set some projects aside and come back to them over time…. A while back, I visited with a friend and we played with some Tarot cards. Some of the themes that came up were about being tricky and innovative (devil), obstacles & authority (crown), feminine energy (pear), learning from the past (arrows), and turning a negative into a positive (bee). My heart resonated with these ideas and images and so of course, the Fortune Teller series was born!  Prepping my screen print images This is what the prints look like so far. Still in progress….. I'm really liking the feel of them so far! I've been going over some of the prints with watercolor to add another dimension to the images.  Hopefully, I can finish them soon! They really want to get out and about in the world. Enjoy. Spring Greetings! I think I am finally getiing out of winter hibernation. . . . I've got a couple of recent art projects in the works and would love to give you the update! Most recently, a few of my scarves were displayed in a art/fashion photo shoot entitled CRAFT TRAP. Get the full scoop here: Appalachian Fashion Craft Trap  I think my scarves look great flowing in the breeze and the model is gorgeous! Good stuff. My scarves are for sale, and my inventory changes frequently, so please use the contact form on my website to get in touch with me! The next bit of news is that I have a solo exhibit, Textural Organic, up at the Sylva Library! It is in the Rotunda Gallery in the Historic Courthouse Library Complex. It is up now, so come out and have a look! Click here: Textural Organic I have a little bit of everything in this exhibit; some of my large collage paintings, some encaustics, and some small works.  The exhibit will run through May 8 and I will be there for a little meet-and-greet reception from 2 - 3pm on April 27 during Greening Up the Mountains festival. I hope to see lots of friendly faces there! 
Happy Valentine's everyone! I saw this article online this morning and its pretty lovely... Evolve Your Valentine's Day Let's remember why we love and how we love. 
Anyway, I love making Valentines. I made a bunch of them yesterday and now they are totally ready to be given away! These were made with my favorite technique of layering screen printed images on paper. When an abstract, nature image is printed in layers of different colors, the visual texture really builds up and some unexpected beauty happens. I printed the image texture with reds and violets, cut out the heart shapes, and voila! Valentine City. I wonder who will be the lucky recipients? 
Spread the love!  ...and spread some OctoLove! Join me on Facebook!
Artwork by Dawn Behling Happy December everyone! Mercury is out of retrograde (thank goodness!), and the lunar eclipse of November 28 is expected to bring lots of positivity. Good things to think about as we head into the Winter Holiday Season.... Okay, so I'm now going to toot my own horn for a bit... I just sold some artwork! The WCU Program at Biltmore Park was looking to purchase artwork from WCU alumni to exhibit in their new buildings. I am so excited and grateful that they chose some of my work! Below are some pics of my goodies that are now gracing the walls of Biltmore Park. If you want to know exactly what Biltmore Park is, click here... http://www.wcu.edu/6249.asp Thanks for indulging me, everyone! 
Layered Branches, mixed media on paper
Earth and Skin, acrylic on paper
Octoprint V: Clay, mixed media on paper
Handmade Holiday Sale in 2 weeks!
Of course, I will have scarves and prints for sale, as well as other suprise goodies for your artsy pleasure. ♥ Thursday November 15, 2012 2-7pm Fine Art Museum Western Carolina University Wine and appetizers will be served! fineartmuseum.wcu.edu Happy Fall! I have the privilege of participating in Colorfest this year. It will take place in Dillsboro, NC on Saturday October 6 from 10am - 4pm. Click here for my profile!  During Colorfest, I will be set up outside in downtown Dillsboro demonstrating my work. Well, maybe not actually demonstrating, but I will be working on one of my collage pieces and will be happy to answer questions about how I do what I do. I will also have scarves for sale and more OctoLove prints! Since the prints were such a hit at my Hot Wax & Octo Love reception, I decided to have them available again at Colorfest. If you are out and about that day, please stop by and say hello! I will be stationed outside of Shirley's Boutique. Click here for more info about Colorfest  And speaking of Hot Wax & Octo Love, it is still up in Signature Brew Coffee Shop through October 11. I have to say, if you missed the opening reception, you missed out on lots of fun! There was wonderful, mysterious, underwater, ocean music! The wine was flowing and lots of my Octolove prints went to new homes!  Hello! I started a Facebook page for my art. I thought it would be an easy way to spread the word about new artsy stuff I'm doing. Check it out, and please "Like" my page to get updates! Click Here: ArtworkByDawnBehling  You can also click the little Facebook icon in the upper right corner of my website. Thank you so much for your support!
Lots of OctoLove! Dawn |
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