Workshops I will Teach at the Alabama Folk School

If you will look to the right of this post, I have listed the workshops that I will be teaching this summer, as of this date. I'm really looking forward to teaching and love doing it. I'm also working on the news release for Serenbe http://www.serenbe.com/ and will post as soon as it is completed. I've been looking for someone to work with me on my web site and I have found a couple of people that I believe will do a good job. My friend Debra also has been looking for someone and we shared the name of the guy that will help me. We often share resources. It is great to have a good friend with whom you can talk. Sometimes just by talking with someone else the solution becomes crystal clear. The link to the Alabama Folk School is: http://www.campmcdowell.com/FolkSchool/ Check it out!!

The Serenbe Project

I am very excited to announce that I will be collaborating with a designer and another artist on The Serenbe Project. Serenbe is a "green" sustainable community and you can learn more about it here: http://www.serenbe.com/ The community is located about 32 miles south of Atlanta, Georgia. Here is a map describing the location. We have been awarded this commission to build an entrance way to the Serenbe Property Development offices. Serenbe wanted something that was more like a landmark than a sign. The project will be located on the corner of Selborne Lane and Garny Way and will grace an open breezeway. The project is to build a "gateway" which will resemble a white oak tree. The white oak will be adorned with glass leaves.

I am very excited about this project and hope that it will help in building my springboard for leaving my day job in about 1 1/2 years. It is often frustrating when you want to be in the studio all day creating, but work a full time job. Basically what you end up doing is working two full time jobs. Anyway, I'm very excited about creating full time in a short while. My Mom always says "to every thing there is a season" and I do my best to remember that. I have worked extremely hard for the past five years to move my career forward. You can check out my work and my web site at http://www.donnabranch.com/

Since I have been devoting more of my attention this year to the business side of an art studio, today I drafted a news release for The Serenbe Project. I will be posting the news release here after the designer and the other artist "sign off" on it. Robert Rausch, an award winning designer, whose studio is in Tuscumbia, Alabama, contacted me to ask if I would be interested in the project. Naturally, I was thrilled that Robert wanted my involvement in the project. We are working with a blacksmith, Jason Smith, from Alabama. You can visit Robert Rausch's web site at: Stellar Idea http://www.stellaridea.com/ and GAS http://www.gasphoto.net/ Hopefully, I will have a web site in the next couple of days for the blacksmith and can post his link. Over the next few days and months, I will be posting often about the development of the Serenbe Project.

"The Laramie Project"

This writing ties into what I was writing about in my previous blog about the many talented people in Alabama. I wanted to write tonight about the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) Theatre's presentation of "The Laramie Project" written by Moises Kaufman , members of the Tectonic Theater Project, and directed by UAB student Luke Harlan. The show will run February 20-23 at 7:30pm and at 2pm on February 24, in the Alys Stephens Center's Sirote Theatre.

You can find all of the details here: http://main.uab.edu/show.asp?durki=116374 which is the site of the press release from the University. The Laramie Project was written in reaction to the 1998 murder of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. The play is based on hundreds of interviews with the town's citizens. Please use the link to read about the awards that this young director has won.

I had planned to go with my friend Julian, who paints these wonderful tiles, see the tiles at www.home.earthlink.net/~julianhazlett/maxie to see "The Laramie Project" tonight, but have taken a cold and sore throat. I'm very disappointed that I will not be able to go because after the play, the cast will hold a discussion about the making of the production. Cliff Simon, who is also a friend of mine, is the set designer and hopefully he will be a guest blogger one evening. It would be great to hear about his process of creating the set for this play, what he was thinking, and how he arrived at his designs. His site can be found here http://www.cliffcakes.com/sets/ Cliff is very talented guy and we are very fortunate to have him teaching at the University. Visit the Sets Website at:http://home.earthlink.net/~set-designer/sets/

Perhaps this blog will be a place where there can be a dialog about the issues explored by the play. If anyone sees the blog, please feel welcome to post a comment. I hope there will be a post by someone who attended the play and the discussion afterwards.

Teaching at the Alabama Folk School

As I wrote the other night, I will be teaching at the Alabama Folk School at Camp McDowell in Nauvoo, Alabama. Camp McDowell has been a camp and conference center for the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Alabama. Since 1948, people of all faiths and walks of life have used it as a place to rest, learn, grow, worship and play.

In 2007 The Alabama Folk School was added to the Camp McDowell offering and I am truly honored and excited to have the opportunity to go there to teach during Summer of 2008. It is an 1100 acre playground of forests, canyons, and waterfalls. Located in the northeastern quadrant of Alabama http://www.campmcdowell.com/FolkSchool/Directions.htm the Alabama Folk School promises some wonderful scenary. Megan Huston, Director of the School, is great to work with and if that is any indication, we will have a great class. It has been a longtime puzzlement to me how Alabama can have so many talented natives and yet, for a long time had no folk school. I am very glad about this. I will write about Alabama natives on another post. sometime.

I will teach two classes. Each class is one week, and June 22 - 27, I will teach "Let's Kick Some Glass!!" and it will entail all of the basics of how to work in kilnformed glass. The class does not require prerequisites and will include basic design theory and basic studio practices. Glass selection, glass cutting and grinding, and firing schedules will be covered. I hope that we will have a good reception to the class and I think it will be fun.

The second class, August 24-29, will be Mosaics: Telling a Story or Painting a Picture with Stones, Twigs, glass and ceramic tiles, broken china, yarn and anything else we can find.

That is a long title, but I want anyone who reads this to be inspired and motivated to come and spend a week with us. This class is going to be a blast! At this point, I plan to lead the class on some walks around the campus to find unusual materials that they can use. I have not completely decided on each and every project and I may give a choice of projects. Hopefully, we will have time to conquer a class project that we can leave at the school as contribution. Each person will leave with at least one (large) project or a couple of smaller projects.

The last class that I taught was at the Birmingham Museum of Art. http://www.artsbma.org/ and, yes, when you go to the main page, that is a glass gallery. More on that at another time.

Where I will be Teaching this Summer

Just a quick post today. I am posting a photo of a piece of my work. The title of the piece is Relic of a Memory No. l and it is cast, kilnformed, carved with battuto, sandblasted and acid-etched.

Just got word that I will be teaching at the Alabama Folk School this summer. Please join me in a later post for announcement of the dates and titles of the classes. You can visit the Alabama Folk School here:http://www.campmcdowell.com/FolkSchool/ You can visit my web site at http://www.donnabranch.com/

February 14

This is my first blog post and I'm glad I finally started my own blog. Lately I've been working on my business plan. That means looking for demographics, market segments, defining customers and doing a lot of writing. Tomorrow the Birmingham Business Journal, http://www.bizjournals.com/birmingham/ is going to publish an article about me doing my business plan. At a workshop organized by the Cultural Alliance, http://www.cultural-alliance.com/ I was asked if I would mind being contacted by Birmingham Business Journal so that they could do a feature article on me. Of course, I was thrilled to talk with the editor of the paper. She was very nice and complimentary during the interview and made it a fun time. Anyone who works in the arts knows how important it is to obtain good publicity. It just happened by being in the right place at the right time and having a previous relationship! It is very encouraging when something like that happens. Sometimes, it is hard to remember that it is important to constantly work on this part of the studio when you would rather be in the other part studio. I'm looking forward to the article.