Monday, November 25, 2013

Mosaic Owl ( Morepork) for the garden, exhibiting at Third Place Cafe, Lake Road, Rotorua.


These tiles are imported from Italy and I have also used stained glass pieces. 
Each has been cut individually

Graham, my husband took these series of photos


The price of the Morepork is $595.00 plus postage. 
Each one os an original and I don't make many of them. 



 They are well constructed with top quality materials and made to last. 

 
These designs are exclusive to me. 
This is a good luck Morepork.
I am surrounded by them as the live in a huge  cedar tree next door to me and across the road in the native bush.


My lovely husband Graham cut this Morepork out for me from exterior grade plywood with a jigsaw. 
I can cut my own shapes but he is faster and stronger and enjoys doing it for me. 
He is a very helpful, loving and sensitive man. I am lucky to be married to him.

 I will be exhibiting this Morepork  for one month at Third  Place Cafe, in Lake Road, (opposite the hospital), Rotorua. 


 The motto, Great company, great food, great coffee.
 Excellent coffee and fresh cabinet food plus a tasty menu.

 Lovely, friendly, welcoming staff.


 After this I will be exhibiting a flying Fantail. 
It's in the designing stage now.

Each month I aim to exhibit a different native bird that I see in or near my garden at 374 Clayton Road, Rotorua. 

 Owls are my favourite so I'm tempted to make more


Beginners Mosaic and painting classes Monday to Wednesday 9.30am to 11.30 am
Adults  $250.00 for a 4 week course. 
Pay each week $62.50 or pay all at once. 

After school and school holiday mosaic and painting classes Monday to Friday afternoons, except Thursdays
$25.00 per child per hour including materials. 
Adults $25.00 per hour plus materials.

Phone 07 346-3435 email: jkeen@clear.net.nz

Creative Quote of the day 
 “People expect the clergy to have the grace of a swan, the friendliness of a sparrow, the strength of an eagle and the night hours of an owl - and some people expect such a bird to live on the food of a canary.”
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Sunday, November 24, 2013

Garden totem pole bird feeders



I made seven of these for my  Rotorua Daily Post Creativity Column which appears on Saturdays  in the second section fortnightly. 
For those of you who haven't seen it, here is the lesson.
Start by collecting old glass plates and jars. 
Second hand shops are good places. 
Put flat backed marbles on top of the glass items with glue.

 Don't be surprised if you have sliding down challenges. 
This is not an exercise in perfection so if it looks a bit wonky and whimsical,  so much the better. 


 Assemble them up to eight layers high, any higher and you risk them toppling over.


Use a silicon gel type of glue with a gun to assemble them. 
This glue is waterproof and should be ok outside. 
Leave inside  for four days to cure and set before putting outside. 


 


Try to choose a sheltered out of the wind place for your totem. 
Put them on top of wooden poles concreted into the garden if you are worried about cats. 
The marbles and glass will glitter in the sun

See Pinterest for lots more examples of glass totem poles. They are really an American idea that I have adapted.


A good tutor of mine at art school said if you are going to make something, make it in multiples so they bounce off each other. 
A grouping will be more attrative to the viewer and sell far faster than something on its own. 
It's advice I  have always followed. 

Fill these with bird seed,  honey water or lard and see if you  have  winged  visitors. 
My husband is going to erect some poles to put them on top of out of reach of the cat. 

Mosaic and painting classes
Monday to Wednesday mornings, 9.30am to 11.30am 




                     Amber and her Beginners Mosaic Fish
 


 
Beginners Mosaic Mirror 

                               Beginners Mosaic Pot


 Beginners Mosaic Classes Four Week course. 
 $250.00 per person including materials. 
Pay all at once or $62.50 per week. 
Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday mornings.


Childrens and Young Adults  After School Painting and Mosaic classes
3.30pm to 5.00pm for one hour sessions, Monday to Friday except Thursdays 
 







School Holiday Classes for Children Monday to Friday, except Thursday 
Book your children or teenager in for mosaic or painting classes. 
These are small classes for gifted and really interested people. 
This  is not a drop off,  baby sitting service. 
All students  must be focused  and willing to produce work to exhibitable and photgraphical level, using artist quality materials. I make this easy by giving them lots of attention, encouragement and time.
$25.00 per hour including materials. 
Maximum number of people is six, minimum one. 
To make a mosaic you will need minimum of three hours. 
You can make a painting in one or two hours, depending on complexity 

 


Book your creative child or young person in. 
All lessons individually tailored, no-one's work will look the same. 
This is an exclusive Rotorua, New Zealand service which has been running for the past twelve years, set in my garden and studio.





 Email: jkeen@clear.net.nz
Any age suitable any time before 5pm on Mondays to Fridays, except Thursdays.
Phone 07 346-3435
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Thursday, November 21, 2013

Art in the Park Rotorua New Zealand April Hines and Janet Keen, February 2013

This is my great Friend April with our stand at Art in the Park. 
She makes beautiful angel dolls and I paint angel pictures and make mosaic crosses.

It is the first time I have exhibited with April.  
I don't usually go into art shows like this any more because of all the work in setting up and pulling it down and sitting in the hot sun.

But April made the whole experience fun  because she had done it many times before in America and New Zealand and she had great props to make our stand look professional and engaging.

Lots of people were attracted and they bought quite a number of April's dolls. 
I sold some cards and some people into my mosaic classes. 


Would I do it again? 
No I probably wouldn't, unless it was with April.
 But I can't do it with her because she is now living in Portland, Oregin,  America. 
This is sad but I communicate with her via the email  often so we won't lose touch. 

I am  planning to travel to see her in Portland  in the future. 
This is the place where all the famous  mixed media American artists live that I love. 
It will be so much fun to go there and view all the work and be inspired. 
I will also visit San Francisco. 
Fun,  creativity and adventure, here we come 

Creative Quote of the Day
One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood. Lucius Annaeus Seneca
 


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Monday, November 18, 2013

Mosaic flowers for the garden


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Monday, November 11, 2013

Dog and cat friendly mosaic and painting studio.

Mosaic cat


Spooky, adorable dog.













Keiko and her mother Sepsuko have  been coming to my studio on Monday mornings for the last couple of months. Keiko has been painting and Sepsuko has been making mosaics.

The other person who has been coming to help is of course Keiko's adorable Japanese Spitz dog  Spooky.
 I love that dog. I take him for a circuit down the steps to the sunken garden and up the other steps to the Japanese Garden and back into the studio.

 Spooky is so well behaved and always looks like he's smiling.

When I get a dog it will be a girl Japanese Spitz like Spooky.
It will be the prefect type of dog for me because they have nice natures, don't bark too much, sleep a lot, enjoy being nice to children and are self cleaning.

Creative doggy  quotes of the day
“Outside of a dog, a book is person's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.”
― Groucho Marx,



“Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer.”
― Dean Koontz, 







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Sunday, November 10, 2013

Sunday Star Times, New Zealand.

I had a great time reading Steve Braunias's  Secret diary column. If you live in New Zealand and you want to read superlative satire and black humour you should buy or subscribe to the Sunday Star times.
Excellent for a laugh.
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Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Tauranga Arts Festival 13, Inside the Crystal Palace with Steve Braunias.




Last Saturday and Sunday, I went to the Tauranga Arts Festival, mainly to see and hear my favourite author, Steve Braunias and to ask him to sign my books.









 

I have three of  them; How to Watch a Bird, Smoking in Antarctica and Civilisation. They now contain the words,  To Janet, Fondly, Steve Braunias, To Janet, on a lovely, Tauranga Day, Best wishes Steve and To Janet, very fond regards, Steve.

 

It's a curious feeling being a fan from a-far. I feel like I know him so well yet he barely knows I exist. He has thousands of devoted followers, so I’m not rare.

To quote Sandra Simpson, co-organiser of the Tauranga Literary Festival and prominent  haiku writer, "No-one else in New Zealand writes like him, he is unique.”

 





Steve is a bird watcher and chooses not to drive.
I used to have dreams about meeting him at the Rotorua bus station, so that I could transport him out to Wingspan to see the flight of the Raptors at 2.30pm with Debbie, Noel and Andrew.
 I'd even be prepared to clean  my car out, because I know he’s a neat and tidy person.

  I emailed him once with an invitation but I didn’t hear back, so I gave up because I didn’t want to appear like a crazed stalker.


I sometimes cut out his stories and stick them up on my cork board above my computer to remind myself to keep on writing and having adventures.

 
I like his stories partly,  because of his poetic  choice of words.

His  writing tone can be sardonic which makes him a bit scary when you want to approach him for an autograph.  
But in person he is kind and sensitive.

 
His latest award winning book, Civilisation, Twenty Places on the Edge of the World, contains a story about Rotorua, called Ohinemutu and Whakarewarewa, how to cook a fish head.

This is my favourite passage in it ... "And then the audience was told the love story of Hinemoa and her lover Tutanekai, how she swam across Lake Rotorua to Mokoia Island to be with him.
When the story finished a young man and a young woman sang Pokarekare Ana. The audience went completely quiet. They were entranced by the beautiful, slow song, the beautiful crystalline singing. I wept. I stood in the sunshine, wanting to rub the music and the smell of sulphur into my skin, to have it always, to keep some trace of the rare loveliness of the moment".


I've followed  him in a literary sense for at least fifteen years since he was writing for the Listener. I trailed after him to the Sunday Star Times and then to the back of the Canvas magazine.
Now he's at Metro Magazine and the Sunday Star Times where he writes the  hilarious Secret Diary series.
His stories are always the first that I turn to.

 He is a person who often examines the lives of people who are on the fringes of society  and who have a quiet dignity. 
He appreciates the humble and at times celebrates the exalted, especially if they remain humble.   


 When meeting a person who inspires me like that it's important work out what to do with new found knowledge I have gained on what ever i think they have to teach me.

I took a lot of notes from his interviews during the festival and I am going to write them out to examine them for clues. 

Travelling on the train from Hamilton to Wellington  while writing on my I-pad, will be one adventure I will be planning, I just have to finalise my dates. 

 My time away in Tauranga was one of the best, adventures I've had this year.
So thank you to Sandra and the team for fantastic organisation.
 I will be back next time and for longer.


Creative Quote of the Week
Do one thing every day that scares you.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt

Mosaic and painting classes Monday to Wednesday mornings for adults.
After school Art and Mosaic Classes, phone 346-3435. janetkeen.blogspot.com




To be continued with my writing revelations.

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Saturday, November 2, 2013

Steve Braunias talks at the Crystal palace Tauranga




 This is where I'm going to be all weekend. It's going to be a very exciting . I'll post some photos and a story about it when I  get back.

 

Final days of the Festival are full of enchantment, civilisation and whiskey


The Writers &; Readers programme continues over the weekend with best-selling authors Rob Mundle, Steve Braunias, Bill Manhire, Sherryl Jordan and Elizabeth Knox filling the TV3 Crystal Palace with insights, adventure and new worlds.

 






Tale Tellers, Bill Manhire, Fergus Barrowman and Steve Braunias discus stories - where they come from and how they're made, and what they might look like in future.

Where: TV3 Crystal Palace

When: 11.45am






Creating Worlds: Elizabeth Knox & Sherryl Jordan - two

of our most inventive authors - disucss writing for young

adults and the research, and leaps of imagination that results

in their hugely loved books.

Where: TV3 Crystal Palace

When: 2pm



Sunday 3 November ends the Festival with words and music to remember:

Articles of Faith, Sir Lloyd Geering talks with Steve

Braunias about his latest book From the Big Bang to God

which looks at how humans created heaven, hell and God

which in turn allowed us to dominate the planet.

Where: TV3 Crystal Palace

When; 10am






Civilisation: Steve Braunias' latest book, Civilisation, is

simply genius. In this session he discusses his three-

year journey to New Zealand's small places and the

observations he made, and the people he encountered.

Where: TV3 Crystal Palace

When: 11.45am






Poetry and Song
The final performance of Tauranga Arts Festival is very special. Bill Manhire's poems have been translated into music - of the jazz and blues persuasion - by professor music Norman Meehan. Hannah Griffin's voice and Norman's musicianship is a sublime combination that will reveal a new way to think about the poetry of our former Poet Laureate.
Where: TV3 Crystal Palace
When: 1.30pm

Get your tickets from Baycourt Ticket Direct | www.ticketdirect.co.nz | 0800 224 224 

Or at the door of the TV3 Crystal Palace (TECT discount does not apply to door sales).


Mental Health Break: The Eastern's If I Were an Animal Acoustic Session (they're playing in the TV3
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