Art Playing with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer

Art Playing with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer

Julie Fei-Fan Blazer and Me at the Weekend Workshop

I spent the weekend at an art workshop at CRAFT taught by mixed media artist and author Julie Fei-Fan Blazer.  I first discovered Julie several years ago when I was looking for art tutorials.  Her style is bold, energetic, and full of bright colors.  Among other things,  Julie is known for her daily art journaling, scrapbooking (see Scrapbook Soup for her TV hosting and instruction), and stencil designs.  These days I particularly enjoy listening to her bi-monthly podcasts "Adventures in Arting," co-hosted with her mother, Eileen Hsu-Balzer.

Originally from Boston, Julie lived and worked in New York City for 17 years before returning to the Boston area.  Without question, she is as lively and humorously edgy in person as she is in her videos and podcasts.  Dare I say salty!  

Julie Giving Instruction

The workshop began with each of us creating stacks of colorful papers which we produced by putting acrylic paint on paper.  We used old credit cards as tools for smearing/scraping the paint  onto the paper.  Gel plates and stencils were also used to create one-of-a-kind mono prints.

My Work in Progress

Later we applied matte medium to collage the papers onto our canvases and added more paint to make whatever our hearts desired.  Julie gave us basic instructions; then we were on our own to take our projects in whatever directions we chose.  I had a blast!  I'm still learning this process and how the paints work (i.e. how to blend colors, how to keep colors from getting muddy-ugly, etc.)  Part of the fun was seeing what other people created.  A spirit of creativity and enthusiasm infused the weekend, and everyone walked away with at least two collaged paintings they'd done.  

Julie created an atmosphere of warmth, self-acceptance, and play.  While initially the thought of attending three 7-hour days of doing painting and collage seemed daunting, the time really flew by.  

Here you can see one of my works in progress.  For this one, I started putting collage papers on the canvas first, then added paint and more collage.

And one more, an abstract, still in process:

This piece started with me painting colors on the canvas first, then adding colorful collage papers, and more paint.

Neither of these paintings is what I consider finished. I'll continue working on each of them in the coming week or so.


Finally, a closing photo of Julie and the rest of us showing off our work: