CAEA State Conference (Guenter)
It is a week later since posting on the experiences at the Art Educators of Minnesota (AEM) state conference. I am now in Burlingame, CA just south of the San Francisco Airport at the California Art Education Association (CAEA) state conference. (If one had the time and money, it would be very interesting to travel to all of the conferences held by the state, province, and region members of NAEA.) The turnout for this year's conference was higher than expected. Our three keynote speakers included Harriete Estel Berman speaking on her metal sculpture, Tony Natsoulas sharing his thoughts and work in ceramics and sculpture, and Mike Venezia, author and illustrator. His chidren's series, Getting to Know the Worlds Greatest Artists is Childrens Press' number one best selling trade book series, and is a top seller in school and library sales.
Besides workshops and tours, CAEA offered a wide range of master classes that you could take for an additional fee. These sessions ran three hours in length and were open to a set number of folks so you had time and space for more indepth work and exploration of the particular medium being presented. One of the sessions I attended was Introduction to Bookbinding by Peter Thomas, author of More Making Books by Hand. In this session we learned and constructed both accordion and case bound books along with some very practical tips and resources from this experienced bookmaker.
This Monthly Mentor Blog allows you to get an inside scoop on some of this information. Here are the web links for these artists should you wish to know more:
Harriete Este Berman
http://www.harriete-este-berman.info/home.html
Tony Natsoulas
http://www.tonynatsoulas.com
Mike Venezia
http://wwwmikevenizi.com/mikevenezia/About/
Peter Thomas
http://www2.cruzio.com/~peteranddonna/