Superman wears Tim Holtz underwear.

How fortunate am I to be posting to my blog for the first time on the week following classes with Tim Holtz? If you have somehow managed to miss him, Mr. Holtz is an absolute ICON in the world of mixed media art. I had the good luck to have met him many years ago when he was working as a buyer and instructor at Ben Franklin in Prescott, Az. I can only say that all his many and varied successes have only made him a better guy. He is fun, funny, generous, helpful, humble and, of course, amazingly talented. He taught 2 classes. The first one was the altering of a wooden bird decoy. Sound interesting? It was unbelievable, and I learned so many new techniques that I have already put into practice in some of my current projects. Here is my little bird, whom I have aptly named "Penelo-peep". I am so taken with her and I was very excited to see all the wonderful work of those in our class.

Later in the day, Tim taught another fun class. In brief, we were to make a canvas holding words that are inspirational to us. He was quite specific in suggesting that we make this project for ourselves rather than as a gift for someone else. It was interesting to see the different words that each person chose. Everything from ART to ZAMBONI. OK...no zamboni, but there were as many different themes in the chosen words as there were people in the room.