Latest News

Finally back in town after a very busy summer. I started off the summer by finishing a lot of new work for my show in Clayton. These are just a small sampling. I am still using nautical charts as my collage, experimenting with new colors and adding silhouettes. Then 3 days in Charleston and a 5 day cruise to the Bahamas gave me some needed down time.

My new studio space in Burlington is finished, though it still needs some organizing. I taught my first classes there this July! My studio will be open Oct. 15 and 16 for the Alamance Studio Tour. Be sure to stop in for refreshments, door prizes and to see my new work. I will also be doing demos on ATC's and Zentangles.

School has started and the kids will be back on the 25th of this month.
I am looking forward to a creative year. This will be my 22nd year teaching
art. I love working with the high school age students. I am hoping to teach
private and semi private lessons as well in my Burlington studio this coming year.
Let me know if you or your student is interested. To see some of my students'
artwork, visit my RHS art department page at
Randleman High School Art Department

 

I have a couple of workshops coming up. This Saturday, Aug. 27, I will be teaching a visual journal workshop at the Hickory Mountain Weavery
on Hwy 64 near Siler City. This is a great opportunity to learn an assortment of techniques for creating journal pages. A handout with 100 journal topics is included in the class along with all your supplies. I will be doing another journaling workshop at Barton College on Saturday, Sept 10. Hope to see you at one of these!

I also have 2 shows scheduled for this fall. The first will be at the Red Hat Corporate offices in Raleigh and will run from Oct. through Jan.
The second show is at the North Charleston Gallery in SC and will run during the month of December. The opening is Thursday,
Dec 1 from 5-7pm.

I am staying busy. Guess that is good!

New Show Opening in Clayton NC

Finally back from Charleston and the Bahamas. Had a great time. Now time to get back to work. My opening in Clayton is this Thursday evening. Hope you can make it!  show info

Helping Set Up a New Blog

Today, I am helping a friend get her blog set up. Wish us luck!

Got a picture edited today of my painting. Title: Drifting Past Cedar Island" , acrylic and collage. Trying some new colors and using a handcarved linoleum block to add texture. What is your favorite part?

Monoprinting Workshop

Had a great time yesterday with Debra, Lana and Didi during my workshop. They
were able to make over 45 prints using my printing press and supplies. Let me know if you would like to take this workshop in the future!

Newsletter Coming Out Tomorrow!

My newsletter is going out tomorrow. Ten Steps to a Creative Life is my theme for the year. This issue talks about Discovering Something New. Upcoming workshops and shows are listed as well as the poster winner for this issue. Sign up now for your chance to win one of my 18"x24" posters in the next issue!

New Zentangles

Finished these 2 zentangles at the open house at Hickory Mountain Weavery a couple of weekends ago. Hope you get a chance to go. If not be sure to visit this beautiful location. Check out their webpage for upcoming class schedules. There is a lot going on there!

Art Biz Coach Workshop

What an informative workshop this past Friday and Saturday with Alyson Stanfield of Art Biz Coach.

It will take me weeks to put into place all the tips I learned!

Posting your Blog to Your FaceBook Page

Just learned how to send my blog entries to Facebook through my RSS feed. Should save me a lot of time because I won't have to post to 2 different places. To see if this actually is working, go to my Facebook page, Melissa Walker, artist and look for this post. This is thanks to Alyson Stanfield of Art Biz Coach who gave a very informative workshop this past weekend. Pictures from the workshop will be coming soon.

State of the Art, Art of the State

I had a whirlwind trip through the east coast of NC this past weekend. It started with a trip to the Cameron Museum to drop off a piece of artwork for the State of the Art, Art of the State exhibit. Over 800 works of art were included by any artist that brought work in during a 24 hour period. The show will be up for 6 months and is a wonderful opportunity for me to exhibit in a new part of the state. My piece is below and is entitled "Afternoon Sail On Broad Creek". It includes nautical charts as well as scraping and stamping techniques in acrylic.

From Wilmington, I traveled to New Bern to drop off several pieces at the New Bern Artworks Gallery on Middle St. I was excited to learn that they will soon be moving to a much larger space on Pollock St. If you happen to be in either New Bern or Wilmington, stop by to see my work!

The Faces of Education

Over 2000 educators came together on May 3 to urge the legislature to keep the one cent sales tax and avoid massive public educaton layoffs and cuts. Keeping the sales tax, along with some much smaller cuts will almost single-handedly wipe out the state budget deficit. To me, it makes no sense that at a time when we need to be most competitive with the rest of the world, some in our legislature is hellbent on destroying public education, one of the main things businesses need to compete. Look at my photos and see all the faces of teachers and assistants who are in education because they truly care about their students, and not because of the money!

see more photos

Chihuly Glass in San Antonio

I was in San Antonio recently for my son and son-in-law's graduation from Air Force BMT. Had the chance to visit the San Antonio Museum of Art, located on the riverwalk. It is a large and beautiful museum and included this work by Dale Chihuly. These are just 2 parts of a large piece hanging from the ceiling. I always enjoy the colors, textures and massiveness of Chihuly's work.