Mosaic Beginners Classes, fish, bird, paver and mirror making or tailor make your own Saturday workshop with a combination of mosaic making and painting for 2014.

Hi this is a book which I bought for the cover  and that's about the best thing in my opinion about it .
 I don't  like criticising other people's travel  books  ( so  I feel a bit mean saying this) because I have never written one, even though I want to. 

I  bought the book to have a frame of reference, so I could start one 
Never, ever be seduced by the look of a cover. If I'd read online reviews first I would have  had my impression confirmed.
 
It is more like the opposite of what a good travel writing book is to me.
I found it to be a superficial, upper middle class woman's touristy tour of Italy based on the food she consumed in  high priced hotels.
 She didn't engage with anyone much on her trips. Made endless references to the decor and quality and quantity of food. She may as well have stayed home and eaten in the Ritz every day.

She dragged her long suffering husband along to lots of places as he sat next to her reading the paper. 
Her tone was imperious.

 Nevertheless, I see it as a sign that I am going to Italy soon to see the mosaics and the Vatican.

I am envisaging a good year coming and  I am grateful for the happy things that happened in 2013

Have a look at some of my clients' work....

 

 This was a mosaic commissioned by Patrick Walsh, (Principal of John Paul College, Rotorua) and his beautiful wife, Paulene who is an RE and English teacher at John Paul.

Their youngest children Orla and Eamon helped to cut and glue all the ceramic tiles and grout it. 
They were lovely, intelligent people to work with and the finished mosaic looks happy, quirky and beachy. 









 Sometimes people want to do different projects.
This was a larger miror than normal,  it was a round mirror instead of  a rectangle

A natural theme with butterflies and flowers

On MDF

                   
Mosaic interior mirror with ceramic tiles.

              with grey grout.           

                           Mosaic pukeko paver using glass tiles

                          Mosaic Mirror, using ceramic tiles

                      Mosaic pot, using recycled crockery

                                     Mosaic fish using glass tiles.

                     Mosaic and painting weekend workshops

                         Family groups welcome.

 Children's book illustrations a specialty

 Mosaic hippo with bird,  using glass tiles

                            Mosaic mermaid mirror, using glass tiles and marbles

                           Beautiful calm colours

                           This was a designed for the clients bathroom

                                                

Mosaic glass bird

Weekend, January, February and March workshops, available.

 Priced From $300.00 and upwards per person, including materials.

 Email  jkeen@clear.net.nz now to book your place

Angels and Owls Mixed Media

At the moment the kind of painting I am doing is centred around collage, making images of angels with animals. 
I have a lot of canvases that I need to cover in my spare room and so I will need to sort out a plan of action next year.

I am into pastel colours at the moment, which is contrary to what most New Zealanders are doing and that's fine with me. 

 I teach classes for children and adults in mixed media and mosaics. 
Everyone is encouraged to explore their ideas in a nurturing environment and no two people's art is the same. 
I am wanting to nurture and encourage creativity as opposed to everyone doing the same thing. 

I am enrolling for next year now. 
Mondays to Wednesdays, from 3.30 to 5pm. $25.00 per child for one hour, including materials. 
Friday from 3.30 to 5.00 for one hour. 

These classes are small and only for people really wanting to develop their creativity and artistic skills while having fun. 

Phone 346-3435
Or email jkeen@clear.net.nz 
Limited spaces available

Breaking out with Bill Burr

If any of you have not seen the satirical humour of stand up comedian Bill Burr, I  recommend it.
Just google him on u-tube.
I first saw a reference to him when I was reading one of Steve Braunias's twitter posts.
Steve is also a satirist and is an entertaining speaker and can always make his audience laugh.
It's a rare and special gift to be able to entertain people to laugh like that.

I don't generally go for stand up comedians but Bill is the best I have seen.
I was having breakfast with my husband the other day and I showed him a clip on my I-pad of Bill's and he thought it was hilarious.
He also finds Steve Braunias's 'diary of' columns in the Sunday Star Times, extremely funny.

Bill is an American of Catholic /Irish descent.
 He no longer goes to church but he still believes in a higher power.
He has a long time Afro /American girlfriend who he very recently married while he was travelling through Italy. She attends church regularly.
He always refers to her as the lovely Mia, which is romantic.

Bill does a weekly Monday morning podcast where he talks about what is happening in his life.
He frequently sounds grumpy and angry during these podcasts, which makes him a bit scary but probably quite representative of a lot of aggrieved males, especially the so called blue collared class.

I think you could describe him as damaged and maybe  from a dysfunctional family, but it is often people like this, (Roald Dahl comes to mind) who are the very creative.
You could never describe him as boring or pedestrian.
 His hilarious mimicking of women's and  Southern American, red necked, men's accents will have you falling off the couch. His piece about marriage and nagging girlfriends is hilarious.

Men often write in to Bill and ask him questions about their relationships with women and Bill hands out blunt but helpful advice.
His chief attribute is that he voices in public, things that most people are too afraid to say or admit  due to a prevalent climate of political correctness.
In doing so he also sends himself up which is where the irony lies

Why is it that Irish Catholic people often have such well developed senses of humour, I often wonder?
Perhaps it's the oppression, perhaps it's the alcohol.

If you are a devout Catholic, extreme left wing Feminist, or a person who is offended by profanity you may feel outraged by some of his humour; especially his attitude towards his so called gold digging women and priests.
But that's the point of satire, it's not supposed to be taken seriously.

In some  ways I wish my writing was more like Bill and Steve because it's obvious they don't worry about offending people.

 My writing is not like theirs but it doesn't mean I don't have similar views about some chauvinistic men, mean women, narrow minded, racist people or authority figures who try to box me in.
I don't write about it because that's not the attitude  I want to broadcast.
 I don't feel that angry towards the world and I have the belief that you get back what you give out.
 I would never refer to women as the w word and I don't  agree with using the c word in public.

I believe in Bill's right to free speech and the fact that he brings so much joy to so many people, surely should assure him lashings of good karma.

Bill is brave and brash, but also articulate and topical. Some may say he's a bully
The public love him, he appeals to women and men in equal numbers. I wouldn't recommend him to children.

Give him a go but don't blame me if you are offended by him.

Mosaic and Painting pupils 2013 and general overview.

Hi, this is a brief overview of my year, 2013 

Goal setting is fine but if you keep on focusing on what you have to do instead of stopping and taking a breather and reflecting on all the great things that have achieved; you can start to feel like a rat in a lab.

In this photo I'm on the balcony outside our resort  apartment in Noosaville, Queensland during our mid winter break.
These were probably the happiest two weeks of my year so far. 
Although all year has been pretty good on the happy front. 
I would estimate it's been up around the 8 out of 10 mark all year.

I am really happy to say that I share the creative time with Cicely every week. 
She is only six and is adorable and she has a seven year old brother, Ryan who comes too and he's so caring towards her.

Cicely and Ryan both love reading my large collection of children's  picture books for inspiration.

They are born performers infront of the camera and have a great sense of drama and fun.

Hanwei and Hanxi have been a hive of industry with their ability to focus and work so well with quite complex projects. 
They are a credit to their parents. 

This was a heart project we did around Mothers Day
I was able to get five child pupils to do them and a couple of adults.

Yuhko has been coming for about two and a half years and she is a quiet person with a high skill level and she enjoys being creative,  She has completed a wide range of  projects.
 She loves landscapes and flowers and is skillful, imaginative and patient. 

Momoko came for a number of lessons during the year. 
She is a pupil at John Paul College has exceptional artistic skills and is a methodical and focused person.
 She bought one of  the homestay Japanese girls with her from John Paul  College for a lesson and she made this little flower which she took back to Japan. It had old New Zealand coins on it. 

Keiko bought her mother who was staying with her from Japan for a series of mosaic lessons while she painted native birds. 

 They also bought Keiko's adorable Japanese Spitz dog Spooky.

That beautiful dog is a heart stealer. 
I love  him and I will be getting one of my own I'm sure when my cat is no longer with me.

My cat Gary  seems to not be concerned about him, but there is no way that Graham (husband) is prepared to upset him by having his position of top animal jeapordised.

Sepsuko did a lovely job and took back five mosaics for her 
grandchildren. 

Keiko has great attention to realistic detail.

This is Kyra. 
We use these sessions for her to express herself in whatever way she feels like. 

Art can be used as therapy which is a great outlet.

Kyra has a lot of general knowledge about foxes and wolves which she shares with me.

She wears some wacky costumes which are fun and creative

 She's a gentle, sensitive and  spiritual person and her work is often based on fantasy.

She made a couple of steam punk posters after seeing mine plus she has made many water colour pieces with water colour pencils.

 

Cool sox, great steam punk work 

Kyra made this owl with a wood burning tool at a Queen Elisabeth health course

 

 Kyra with fox painting out of her head

Finn with his mosaic car. 

Finn came for around six months and completed some creative projects. 

He was a sweet young, sensitive, person.

 

 Kyle with  one of his fish paintings.

 He is focusing on realism.

He is going to Waiariki and enjoying the variety  of art and sculpture he is learning there and friendship with other class members.

This year I have had a variety of different students, both adult and yonger people.

Instead of grouping everyone into one or two days I opened it up to four days. 

I have had small relaxing classes where I have been able to really get to know people and they have been able to express themselves.

Adults have come in to learn mosaics and beginners painting lessons during the day