PORT TOWNSEND — There were a lot of journals being made in the warm, light-filled Commons at Fort Worden State Park, even though it wasn’t the focus of Tracy and Teesha Moore’s annual weekend freewheeling PLAY art retreat.
The art journal workshop is in October.
But their students love the process, as well as the purpose of art journals, a big leap up from scrapbooking.
It’s private art, just what a lot of artists need to feel safe and take chances without having to explain or even show where their ideas are leading or what materials and techniques they’re experimenting with.
“It’s a safe place to play,” said Tracy Moore on Saturday, as he helped Linda Mondloch stitch some journal pages together.
“The reason I started journaling is because I was afraid people would make fun of my art.”
The Moores have been drawing a mix of amateur and commercial students for a variety of art programs to Fort Worden for about 10 years.
Many are teachers of one sort or another, often offering classes in their own techniques but attending to learn from others as well.
Steve Salik’s day job is director of technology for the business school at the University of Arizona. He gets paid to help integrate teaching and learning with technology.
“I’d walk away from the high-tech world tomorrow. I just haven’t gotten the right lottery numbers yet,” he quipped.
Salik spent months assembling four journals for the PLAY weekend.
On Saturday, he bent over a page with a haunting portrait in an upper corner, working on a curling wave design below it, not unlike the way a written journal might juxtapose description of a daily detail with stream-of-consciousness speculation.
“That’s my Facebook,” he smiles, pointing to a little tome covered with darkly humorous, three-dimensional human faces that beg to be touched and caressed, maybe even consoled.
Salik, like others at PLAY, also offered a mini-presentation on one of his areas of expertise, the uses for two open-source software programs for graphic design and photography.
The Moores’ biggest event is Artfest, which this year will draw about 600 students for a four-day extravaganza of multiple workshops and teachers starting April 6.
“All levels come,” said Tracy Moore, from complete novice to active professional. “It’s a giving, sharing environment.”
More information about the Moores, their art and the retreats are on their Web site, http://www.teeshaslandofodd.com/1/temp.html .
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Julie McCormick is a freelance writer and photographer living in Port Townsend. Phone her at 360-385-4645 or e-mail juliemccormick10@gmail.com.
