So excited about this upcoming workshop that I’ll be teaching at the studio! I’ve never really articulated why I want to teach this class or why it’s so important to me to share it with others. But talking with a dear friend about it the other day made me realize that the workshop is a way to share my way of reaching out to touch the presence of our Angels.

Our Angels are always there, beside us. But as humans we do doubt a lot and wonder a whole lot about if they are really there in the first place. By setting an intention and through gentle connection through a workshop such as this one, we are consciously becoming aware of their presence. You know how sometimes when you have something in mind, you start seeing and hearing it everywhere? It’s kind of like that – almost like an antennae being tuned. So by setting aside some sacred time to tune in to what our hearts want for the year and and asking our Angels for help with it, we are becoming aware of their presence in our lives and solidifying the path to our heart’s desire with their gentle help.

Come join me this Saturday! I can’t wait to see the Angels come alive on canvas. It is going to be such a gentle but empowering process for everyone present.

Intuitive Angel Workshop

30 January 2016, 10.00 am – 2.00 pm

Cost: $85 per person (includes all art materials and light refreshments)

Venue: Artist studio, 1005 E. Colorado Blvd, Suite 205, Pasadena, CA 91106

 

This summer flew by so quickly!

The students, our guest teacher and I all had a blast with the creative camps!

Students at our Magical Creatures Camps dreamed of magical creatures all week long and built homes for their special creatures. I was so happy to see the creativity that building a home/environment for their creature inspired. Everyone had their favorite creatures before camp but found new ones to love by the end of camp. Stories were written about their creatures’ homes and underwater volcanoes were built, as were molten lava cores. Little caves were created, so that their Magical Creatures had a place to rest, as were cool trap doors and magical slides! We sewed, painted, wrote, sculpted and drew magical creatures all week! It was so great to see how the students inspired each other too – that’s when you know that creativity is flowing like magic all around.

At our Magical Treasures Creative Camps, we learned about heroes and bravery, about treasures precious, magical and intangible. We made our own chalices inspired by King Arthur and the Holy Grail, created our own Zuni Fetishes inspired by the sacred relationship between Nature and the American Indians. We made our magical wands that could “rainbow anything” or create flowers and built our very own story chests to inspire us to keep telling and creating great stories.

We loved the stories that grew from creating our own magical trees, from a tree where stars went to rest when they were tired of shining in our night skies to a tree where time went when it was bored to a lovely tree filled with vanilla gumdrops of snow. Everyone  loved creating their own little Zuni animal totems that represented a trait they wanted – like being gentle, or brave or strong.

All in all, it made for a wonderful summer of creativity and art and I loved the pride on each young artist’s face when they got to showcase their works in a final exhibition!

 

More pictures will be added of students’ work coming up soon. 🙂

 

 

 

 

Summer Creative Camps are off to a great start! Camp participants are having a great time dreaming up stories about Magical Creatures and creating them!

Here are some pictures from camp so far. To sign up for camp, go here.

Or try your luck and win a free week of Magical Creatures Camp with the promotion we are doing with The Orange Cat, an awesome family newsletter about activities and events around the San Gabriel Valley area. Just sign up for their newsletter and you will be entered into a draw automatically. The wonderful folks at The Orange Cat are great believers in art being wonderful for kids and are generously sponsoring one child for a whole, wonderful magical week of camp! Thank you Orange Cat!! To read more about it and to sign up, go here.

You can also get a special 10% off Creative Summer Camp if you use the code ORANGECAT on this website when you check out.

I’m so excited about the upcoming Summer Creative Camps (Magical Creatures and Magical Treasures)  at my studio! This series of creative camps are for ages 7-12 and they were dreamed up because they combine 3 of my favorite things – stories, writing and art!

As a child, I was an avid reader of all kinds of books – I loved reading and my favorite kinds usually had an element of mystery or magic in them. Dragons, wizards, enchanted woods, talking animals and powerful, magical treasures and magical spells. Then I would spend just as much time drawing and telling my own stories with and through art.

As an artist and writer, my vision is to design creative classes and art camps that I know would encourage a child to explore both disciplines in a fun and creative environment. More than just a combination of art projects, techniques and writing prompts, I wanted to inspire children to tell their own stories and find ways to expand and explore their worlds on the page and through art. When children see how theirs ideas are translated into something tangible, it will empower them and give them a sense of their own abilities and gifts. In the process of exploring and bringing their ideas to life, they are  developing real life skills in conceptual thinking, the creative process, story crafting and art making.

I’ve been prepping the content and materials for the workshops for the past few months but the inklings of these workshops and camps had their beginnings in a childhood filled with books and art. I am having so much fun putting it all together and will be giving updates on the prep process in the weeks to come. To sign your child up for the Magical Creatures and Treasures Creative Camps, please go here.

These journals are a dream! Great paper quality and thick enough for mixed media work and writing. Looking forward to presenting each child with one so that they can personalize it and make it their own!

Prepping some of the materials for camp! More to come!

From September till the end of October, the wonderful Hastings Branch Library in Pasadena, CA. will be hosting a 10 year retrospective on my paintings of trees. I’ll be unveiling the latest painting as well. I’m calling it “The Story Tree” because the seed of its birth begun in this very library when we were all enthralled by the wonderful stories told to us by the amazing Laura Simms. Here’s the write-up from the exhibition materials:

About the exhibition:

“My affinity with trees began in childhood. I would notice trees wherever I go, finding deep peace and happiness in their presence. It seems only natural that when I started painting, my art would be filled with Trees.

Trees often take center stage in my work, a symbol of strength and perseverance, rooted deeply into this Earth yet with arms reaching up high to dreams, hopes and inspiration. Sometimes, they form a background to the stories I have to tell – of love, intentions and the journeys we take through life.

This collection of paintings is a celebration of my favorite muse in Nature – the trees I see everyday.”

~ Sherry Giang

Trees are one of my favorite things to paint, and I’ve been blessed to be surrounded by gorgeous trees around my Pasadena studio. If you love trees like me, make sure to visit Eaton Canyon, the Los Angeles Aboreteum, Huntington Gardens and Descanso Gardens in the area.

I’ll also be doing two fun workshops at the library on my kind of tree paintings! Please join me to create your very own tree painting! RSVP is required for the adult workshop. Please call the library at (626) 744-7262 to RSVP.

Venue: Hastings Branch Library, 3325 E Orange Grove Blvd, Pasadena CA 91107      Cost: Free

More information about the workshops:

Adult Workshop: Create Your Dreaming Tree
Explore your artistic side and create your very own Dreaming Tree painting in this art workshop inspired by the artist’s Dreaming Trees series.  Sept 20th, 2014,  2:00 – 3:00 pm

Kids Workshop: Fingerpaint Trees
Using just your fingers, learn to create layers of color and textures for your tree. Oct 16th, 2014, 4:00 – 4:45 pm

 

Last weekend, a lively group gathered at Sacred Spark Studios for a Scupley Angel Workshop. Our youngest participants were 5 and we had such a great time crafting Angels from a very forgiving and fun medium. Any kind of clay tends to bring the child in us out to play! It was very satisfying crafting something so easily and quickly.

 

ORIGAMI CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT WORKSHOP
Saturday, 16 November 2013, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm

Origami is the art of folding paper into beautiful paper sculptures. This workshop will show you how to make some exquisite Origami Christmas Ornaments for gifting or decorating your Christmas Tree.

This workshop is suitable for kids and adults aged 12 and up.

$35 per person (includes all art materials and light refreshments)
Instructor – Yuko Houston

 

INTUITIVE ANGEL PAINTING WORKSHOP
Saturday, 7 December 2013, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm • Open to non-artists and artists.

Come discover your innate creativity as we explore intuitive painting in a nurturing and gentle environment. We will discuss Angels in our culture and share Angel stories. Then spend time creating our own Angel paintings focused on our intentions and blessings for the new year. We will use mixed media techniques and collage on an 11 x 14 inch canvas.

The workshop is a great introduction to painting from your hearts, and the techniques you learn will support and encourage this very freeing way of creating paintings. Keep your special painting for yourself or give it away as a meaningful gift for someone special.

$65 per person (includes all art materials and light refreshments)
Instructor – Sherry Giang

All workshops will be held at our studio: 1005 E. Colorado Blvd. Suite 205, Pasadena, CA 91106
Your payment will be your reservation for the workshop. Please make your check out to Spirit Life Art Studios,
and indicate which workshop you will be attending. Please send your check to the above address.

I recently went into the studio just bursting to paint. The past few months had been filled with travel, festivities and family stuff. No time to paint, to create. Now that that was all behind us, the ordinary rhythm of work and school has brought some semblance of calm to our lives.

These huge canvases have been sitting in my studio for months, just waiting, calling to me.

I put on Groove Armada and Suede and get to work.

The joy of paint flowing, and colors dripping on canvas felt like my soul finally breathing again. It felt so good.

And here they are – two paintings from the corner of my world.

 

Flowers in the mist

a vision of rain,

on a misty mountain day,

flowers blooming, glistening, yet hidden,

like undiscovered treasures

half buried, almost discovered

what treasures of our souls

will we find if we look within?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A thousand petaled blessing

May your life bloom like a thousand petaled blessing

Fragrant with the sweetness of things coming full circle

May the petals of love fall gently on you,

Blessing you with swift, soft miracles

May tender goodness be with you

As many as the petals of a thousand petaled blessing

 

I cannot stop painting flowers of late. Flowers in full bloom, flowers lush and open in their fullness, open to the sky and the earth. A sense of embracing, being fully able to receive all that life has to offer now. Flowers like dancers, graceful in their beauty, stems flowing where the elements gently nudge it. Flowers in layers of colors and textures – one part dream, one part life.

Even my Tree paintings are coming up full of blossoms and color, just like the trees outside, drinking in the sunshine and gorgeousness of warm days and birds singing.

Perhaps, it’s because it is Spring. Perhaps, it’s all of the new beginnings that are worth celebrating. A new year, new resolutions, new studio, new commitments to myself – to be better as a human being, a mother, a friend, a wife – to live fully in the present, receiving and giving gracefully and joyfully.

Whatever it is, this energy inspires my latest works. A flow and wash of colors, vibrant as Spring, tender as the newness of Life forming. There is so much more where this comes from, I am obsessed. All I see are colors, and flow in my mind’s eye. All I want is to paint broad swashes that meld into flowing colors, to create petals and blooms, a dance of brush and sponge on canvas – put on paint, take it away, leaving behind delicate lines, streams and rivers of light. I am intoxicated. I might never leave this Season behind…

For now, enjoy a sampling of this flowering with some of my latest works below. Drink in the colors and brightness and in return, may it inspire a gentle flowering of sorts for you too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Flowering Prayer

Spring, a celebration,

A Flowering,

New beginnings.

Everything is blooming,

Faith, Love, Courage, Joy

They blossom,

In our hearts and our souls

And Flow

From our eyes and hearts

May this Unbridled Newness

And Joy For Life inspire All

 

Peace and Blessings.

 

Namaste.