Happy Birthday Mitch!

I don't like Facebook much, it's not arty enough for me, even though I have it. So I am
using the blog to say happy birthday to my cutie brother Mitch!! Happy 42 Birthday right Mitch?:) Love you!!-stace
Ok now Im done, Bali here I come!

Just One Last Little Post...

I forgot that I wanted to mention the activity of this last week. I convinced my family to go on a raw foods 7-day cleansing fast. I loved it. Rob hated it. Jesse is somewhere in the middle. Corey refused to do it.
I could eat this way eat for ever, it is heaven for me. It's all about slimming down, always has been.
So anyway, we ate only raw fruits, vegetables, juice and a few sprouted almonds thrown in for good measure. Just look at this mouth watering meal.
And doesn't Rob look so excited to be indulging in this food fest?Although I felt great all week and did not miss food, I did really miss my coffee and by the last few days all I could think about was coffee and I looked and felt like this:

Bali Bound

I am madly getting ready for the Anahata, Michael and Judy workshops in Bali,
I leave this week and I am taking way too many things, including art supplies. I must have every color Golden makes. And I havent even begun to pack the ephemera yet.
That will be a suitcase in itself. You never know when you might need that perfect piece of trash!!!!!!!!!
I dont know if I will be posting while there, Internet is pretty slow, so it may be when I am back...Ill have lots of photos and stories!
Here I am in my new Bali outfit, what do you think?
See you all soon! oxo stace

Postscript Mexico City

I downloaded the rest of my pictures just now so I wanted to post some.
I stumbled upon a street with shops that carried all bridal ware, it was pretty cool, very
1050's.
I love manequins, older ones like in these bridal stores. There is something kind of wierd about them, like the discarded dolls I suppose.
I hit a field day when Michael took me to an inside complex of stores, 3 levels high all religious stuff for sale. It was pretty great! I have loved statues of saints forever and have a nice little vintage collection of them, Ill post them along the way.
Here is what I found:
Along with this fascination for saint statues, discarded dolls, and manequins comes my obsession with saint statues IN churches. I hit 'em all when I can. I have 100's of
photos...this was a good one:
Did I mention I was obsessional? These are just but a few...

Valentines...

I made 2 valentines; one for fabulous husband, and one for my sweet mom.
I found this book, CUORE, (heart in Italian)last year in Italy during Michael deMengs Alchemist Book Workshop we held. I knew it would be a good future valentine. I also
credit Judy Wilkenfeld and Ruth Rae for fabric layered inspiration, thanks you 3!
After this one, I burned the midnite oil in the studio and did this one for mom.

oXo

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!

Love from Stace

The Road to Bali; Michael and Judy

My Doll Island co-hort , Michael deMeng and the exceptionally talented Judy Wilkenfeld are doing their first collaborative workshop together with us in Bali. I am so looking forward to seeing what this dynamic duo will offer. If it is anything like past workshops, I know it will be over the top! They are 2 of the most inspiring, incredible artists that I have met.
We will be creating a two-fold project called: Temple of Dreams.
Michael will be creating an exterior Balinese Temple structure, consisting of several layers which will open up.
Inside these Temples, we will create containers and house our "Dreams". This part of the project will be facilitated by Judy. We will place our "dreams and treasures" that we bring from home or find in Bali. This piece is so intricate and detailed, the richness of her work never ceases to amaze me! I am so happy to be learning with her!
One of the things (among many)that I love about hosting these workshops is that I often am able to do the project along with the class. Not only to I get to expand creatively, I also have the privilage interacting with the students and instructors in their creative processes. These foreign workshops lend themselves to becoming intimate quickly with all the participants and sharing a common love of art, the instructor and their work, and all being in this "cocoon" together in a foreign land.

Anahata in Bali

Anahata Katkin and I connected about a year ago, I had recently come across her work and fell in love with it. I emailed her and asked if she would be interested in doing a workshop in Bali. She immediately said yes and now one year later, it is becoming a reality! It has been a joy for Rob and I to get to know her over this past year, and I can
not wait to meet, work, create art and have fun with her in Bali! We have a wonderful
group of women that are coming to join us, and I know it will be an amazing week!
Anahata will be teaching us her creative process and techniques, below are some samples of what we will be doing.
In searching Anahata's site, I am inspired all over again! I am tremendously
grateful to have this opportunity...

We are trying to arrange for everyone to meet with Ketut Liyer, the Balinese Medicine Man that Elizabeth Gilbert wrote about in Eat, Pray, Love. For any of you who have not read it, it is a must!
Last year, Rob hosted our first workshop held in Bali for Traci Bautista, and by chance they were able to meet with Ketut in Ubud. They all had great fun having him do life readings on each them!

Bali

Bali is upon us at Arcangelo Productions! We are pleased to be hosting our 2nd year of
Art and Life Workshops in Bali. Our upcoming artist will feature Anahata Katkin followed by a collaboration with Michael deMeng and Judy Wilkenfeld. We are so honored to be hosting such incredible artists and so excited to meet the wonderful students that will be joining us for this experience!
What it really fun for me is that I get to go to Bali for the first time on my own. Husband Rob is the Bali man, he has gone there every year for the past 10 years and I have been with our kids several times.
Rob discovered his love for Bali 10 years ago on a trip with some friends. He was led to a little fishing village on the east coast of the island, where he met Wayan, a young, talented 20 year old kid who was working at a beach bar. They struck up a close friendship and Rob invited Wayan over to America a few months later to live with our family. We all loved him and the following year, Rob returned to Bali to visit Wayan and ended up buying a piece of land on the beach in Wayan's village of Amed with 2 partners. Rob initially did this so that he could build a little hut on the beach to escape the Portland rain in the winter. What ended up happening, thanks to the tremendous vision of Wayan and Rob and many others, was the creation of Apakabar Villas, a beautiful mini boutique hotel. It began with 2 beautiful villas and a pool and over the years, they have added several cottages, a full service restaurant and Wayans home. Rob has sent hundreds of people there over the past several years and not only is it a wonderful haven for people to experience but Apakabar employs over 25 people on staff, and provides them a nurturing and positive enviornment in which to work. The staff there has become our Balinese family.

I am so in awe of Rob, Wayan and his partners who have created this very special place.

Wayan

Wayan and Rob

The Continuing Saga of Dead Dolls

I took about 400 photos of this island so it was challenging to choose the best ones to post. I will post them on Flicker at some point for any of you who are as obsessional as
I am over discarded dolls (there must be a few of us out there?)
Check out Michael's video of our journey here.

Holga + the Dead Dolls

I was ready to photograph these dolls, equipped with not only my new Nikon p60, but my cheapo plastic toy camera, the Holga, which I love dearly. Holga's were invented in Hong Kong in the early '80's as a cheap alternative to the expensive cameras that were now in big demand. It uses medium format 120 film, and whats really fun is that since it is made of plastic, there are light leaks which give you totally unpredictable results.
You can also do also sorts of manupulations to get wild results like double, triple exposure, using colored flash filters to cast a color over your photos, all sorts of crazy stuff. You never know what you will get with a Holga til the film comes back.
Check out the official Holga site here.
You can order them through this site, or Urban Outfitters has started carrying them too. I highly recommend it but it is not for the photographer that is precison minded.

I knew the dolls on Isla de las Munecas could respond well to my Holga.