Category Archives: art education

art, art education, fashion, Karen Tashkovski

School’s Out for Summer!

Image June 26, 2017 Karen Tashkovski Leave a comment

IMG_20170424_092029_390 — Banana Republic suit, Free People top, BCBGeneration sandals

IMG_20170426_084003_299 — Chan Luu choker, Free People cardigan and top, BCBGMaxAzria leggings, BCBGeneration sandals

IMG_20170508_100115_454 — Screw cardigan, Free People top, BCBGMax Azria pants, Nine West booties

I’m finally getting back to blogging now that I’m in summer mode. I will post soon about more new encaustic paintings, once I get around to mounting them onto the chalk boards. I have a dozen new heart paintings and a dozen abstracted baseball ones that I am loving. They are currently residing on my kitchen table – and on the surrounding counter space. No current plans for exhibiting them as of yet.

IMG_20170510_083558_259 — BCBGMax Azria dress and pants, Banana Republic top, Coach booties

IMG_20170503_105245_898 — Free People cardigan, Trina Turk top, BCBGMaxAzria leggings, Ugg boots

IMG_20170512_093255_400 — Honors necklace, BCBGeneration dress, Karl Lagerfeld boots

I still have artwork up at Kimberly’s Salon on James Street in Eastwood and at Syracuse Yoga down the street on Thompson Road. Not sure what is up next for me, but that makes the journey so special. I made the paintings for a purpose; just not sure what that purpose is as of yet, lol.

IMG_20170616_085742_357 — Free People top, BCBGMax Azria belt and leggings, BCBGeneration sandals

IMG_20170522_090124_547 — Banana Republic suit jacket, Syracuse yoga T-shirt, Inc pants, BCBGeneration booties

IMG_20170606_084605_371 — Honora necklace, BCBGMaxAzria top and pants, BCBGeneration sandals

If I can get my friends to put up with doing the photography, I will try to post #ootd pics on Instagram during July and August. Although I am usually the one who takes our obligatory selfie when we are all out and about, I am not a fan of those selfie pics where the fashion blogger cuts off her own head or shoots a foreshortened image from above. By not a fan, I mean I really don’t want to do that. So…we’ll see.

IMG_20170601_091629_426 — Free People top, BCBGMaxAzria pants, BCBGMaxAzria sandals

IMG_20170607_223124_083 — Free People cardigan, BCBGMaxAzria romper, Nine West boots

Here are some outfits from the past few weeks. Kinda fell off the wagon with posting them here. We were having technical difficulties with the lighting in the classroom. I had to double edit the pics to adjust the brightness, so there are inconsistencies – I guess I will hold to that excuse. We take dozens of pics in a short time and I swear I am always changing out the pose, but for some reason I like this crossed legged thing-a-ma-bob that I have been doing a lot. It feels like the most natural and most comfortable position for me especially when I am wearing a dress or skirt. My go-to vogue. My work colleague Brad calls it my stance.

IMG_20170612_084703_216 — BCBGMaxAzria dress, Nine West sandals

IMG_20170613_084112_937 — Hailstone Heritage dress, BCBGMaxAzria sandals

My new favorite things – Halston Heritage and everything by Rachel Zoe! OMG, I love her! I now own five pieces – two dresses and three tops. I am on her site literally every day. I want more!

IMG_20170620_195214_761 — Rachel Zoe dress, BCBGeneration sandals and clutch

I’ve discovered something called the Amazon wish list. It is a public list of things I desire. All I have to do is dream while on-line shopping and perhaps these things will actually materialize in my mailbox on the condition that fairy godmothers/Santa Claus/tooth fairy/Easter bunny/patron saints of fashion do exist. That is wishful thinking at its finest. How cool is this?

IMG_20170609_100928_978 — Banana Republic cardigan, BCBGMaxAzria top, Bailey 44 skirt, BCBGeneration sandals

I ❤ fashion. Love, love, LOVE!!!

IMG_20170623_085900_450 — Banana Republic top and skirt, BCBGMaxAzria sandals

IMG_20170518_084425_126 — Free People top, Bailey 44 skirt, BCBGeneration sandals

IMG_20170530_091947_271 — Free People cardigan, Rachel Roy top, BCBGMaxAzria skirt, Ugg boots

IMG_20170605_095250_743 — Free People dress, BCBGMaxAzria pants and sandals

art, art education, art exhibition, classroom, Karen Tashkovski

School Fair 2017

Image May 13, 2017 Karen Tashkovski Leave a comment

Last night Chittenango Central School held their annual School Fair at the high school. Each year, my colleague Katy and I spend several hours installing the middle school art show on the walls of the hallway between the two gymnasiums.

Then at 8:00 pm we take the whole thing down and pop the art into our cars to return it all to the middle school on Monday. We displayed around three hundred pieces of 5th – 8th grade artwork.

This was my twentieth year of said fair. Here are the pictures I remembered to take! It is pretty cool to see this visual representation of what we do all year.

art, art education, ceramics, Karen Tashkovski, sculpture

Fishing Derby

Image May 1, 2017 Karen Tashkovski 2 Comments

20170413_080034 — Ashlee – winner in 1st period A day

20170413_131438 — Owen – winner in 8th period A day (the 5th grade class)

My clay lesson this semester was the fish sculpture. I decided to do it with every class. My 5th grade, the 8th grade art students and the 8th grade Studio in Art students. It is such a great lesson because everyone starts with the same amount of clay creating a slab first that rolls up then adding the hand built elements.

20170413_135748 — Paige – winner in 9th period A day

20170424_114228 — Nathan – winner in 6th period Studio in Art

20170424_103929 — Lauren – winner in 5th period B day

They are all so beautifully unique! I decided to have a fishing derby. I weighed and measured every fish. Each class had a winner. The prize was a small bag of Swedish Fish, lol. Abraham’s was the biggest fish. He won a giant bag of Swedish Fish! So fun!

20170413_104207 — Abraham – winner in 5th period A day and overall winner!

20170413_124513 — Julia – winner in 1st period B day

20170424_133449 — Anthony – winner in 9th period B day

art, art education, art exhibition, art for sale, art gallery, art in restaurants, encaustic, found object, hearts, Karen Tashkovski, mixed media, painting

Genesis

Image April 23, 2017 Karen Tashkovski Leave a comment

20170423_110638 — Karen Tashkovski, Presence, 2017, encaustic on masonite, 8″ x 10″ (mounted on 11″ x 14″ chalkboard), $111

20170423_110042 — Karen Tashkovski. Magi, 2017, encaustic on masonite, 8″ x 10″ (mounted on 11″ x 14″ chalkboard) $111

I did not use any silver paint this time, but I did turn my house into an art factory (Warhol reference) this past week. I went at it full speed, tackling masonite boards with a sort of crazy frenzy. I guess I should have put a drop cloth down on the floor and on my great-grandmother’s old kitchen table, but it was wax and ended up coming up pretty easily with a heat source and a crap load of elbow grease and an inordinate amount of time.

20170423_104731 — Karen Tashkovski, Source, 2017, encaustic on masonite, 8″ x 10″ (mounted on 11″ x 14″), $111

Seriously, now my kitchen does not look like like anything had happened in there at all and yet, I have three dozen completed encaustic paintings floating around my living room, dining room and back porch. It’s just nuts.

20170423_104621 — Karen Tashkovski, Abundance, 2017, encaustic on masonite, 8″ x 10″ (mounted on 11″ x 14″ chalkboard) $111

20170423_105219 — Karen Tashkovski, Purpose, 2017, encaustic on masonite, 8″ x 10″ (mounted on 11″ x 14″ chalkboard), $111

Futura was born. It is this series of angel paintings. They are 8″ x 10″ encaustics. They are mounted on 11″ x 14″ chalkboard painted masonite but I cropped them here to show the detail.

20170423_104842 — Karen Tashkovski, Princess, 2017, encaustic on masonite, 8″ x 10″ (mounted on chalkboard), $111

20170423_104544 — Karen Tashkovski, Aphrodisiac, 2017, encaustic on chalkboard, 8″ x 10″ (mounted on 11″ x 14″ chalkboard, $111

I absolutely love the texture of the wax. It has the consistency of frosting. The house still smells of beeswax, so encaustic is this amazing phenomenological experience, affecting all senses. I am in love with this body of work.

20170423_104655 — Karen Tashkovski, Tapestry, 2017, encaustic on masonite, 8″ x 10″ (mounted on 11″ x 14″ chalkboard), $111

20170423_104439 — Karen Tashkovski, Lucky Duck, 2017, encaustic on masonite, 8″ x 10″ (mounted on 11″ x 14″ chalkboard), $111

20170423_105028 — Karen Tashkovski, Futura, 2017, encaustic on masonite, 8″ x 10″ (mounted on chalkboard) $111

I created a dozen angels. There are a dozen more on deck. I won’t get to them until the summer unless I spend another weekend yanking out the supplies and cordoning off that room from my cat. These paintings will eventually be available at Syracuse Yoga. I will let you know. It is opening sometime next month.

20170423_105109 — Karen Tashkovski, Camaraderie, 2017, encaustic on masonite, 8″ x 10″ (mounted on chalkboard), $111

It feels beyond amazing to have given life to these pieces. Sooooo incredibly satisfying! I will upload pics of the finished horseshoes soon. I must go back to work tomorrow and this Saturday from 1:00-3:00 pm is my closing party at Half Moon Bakery & Bistro. Hope to see you there! There will be cupcakes! ❤

20170423_104936 — Karen Tashkovski, Path, 2017, encaustic on masonite, 8″ x 10″ (mounted on 11″ x 14″ chalkboard), $111

art, art education, art exhibition, art for sale, encaustic, jewelry, Karen Tashkovski, mixed media

Kickstarting

Image April 17, 2017 Karen Tashkovski Leave a comment

I spent the weekend creating encaustic paintings of horseshoes to exhibit in my sister’s new yoga studio. Sophie Tashkovski will be opening the doors to Syracuse Yoga sometime in May. This is such an exciting time for our family! We are so proud of Sophie. She is an amazing yoga instructor and business woman.

Sophie’s logo is a quatrefoil of horseshoes. It is a combination of relaxed elegance, abundant positive energy and a pinch of luck.

The artist in me had been dormant of late – the facelift I gave the Honor Thy Master series kickstarted an eruption in me. The red hot magma (love saying that) is the passion/blood/desire flowing from me to paint again. On Friday, I purchased some supplies then spent all day and well into the evening on Saturday in production. I felt the electricity of luck flowing through me as I worked. Today I mounted the dozen piece collection onto chalkboard-painted masonite. Tomorrow I will do touch-ups and pick up some hooks to attach to the backs so they will be ready to hang.

I also plan to purchase a few more things from the art supply store. I have momentum now and I don’t want to lose it. I will continue to make progress. There’s a smaller series of horseshoes on deck and I hope to create angel paintings and maybe more hearts – they are my bread and butter. I love when I not only have an idea in the creating of work but in addition, a place to put them once they are done. Yessss!

Janine came over as I was painting and I gave her a lesson in encaustics. That was fun – she took these great photographs to document the process. (And, OMG – no make-up and junky paint sweats, lol!)

As much as I love teaching, I really wish this could be my life all the time. It is so much fun! I would need more than a kickstart of motivation though, in order to turn it into a real 24/7 business. I would need to be passionate about the business end and that is more dormant/inactive (really closer to extinct) volcano in me all the time. When Sophie and our friend Gina were talking spreadsheets over drinks at Kitty Hoynes last month, I kind of zoned out, as if they both sounded like the teacher on Peanuts. Blah-blah-woh-waah….

Gina operates Saunacuse, a sauna studio using infra-red technology. (At Christmas, I bought my sisters gift certificates to go there – it is amazing!) I wish I could be as business savvy as they are, and like our friend Michelle DaRin is.

She is the business woman’s business woman role model – artist, educator, wife, mother, jewelry designer, and…kickstarter.

Michelle and her husband are looking to expand their business, which has gotten a lot of press/national attention recently. I am in awe of her raw talent. Her work is infused with so much positivity. Wearing the copper-based enameled bracelets, rings, earrings and necklaces, you can actually feel the energy radiating from the collection and affecting you harmoniously as you dance your way about the day. And by you, I most definitely mean me. I LOVE wearing her jewelry!

img_20170202_103602_760 — Michelle DaRin jewelry bracelets, BCBGMaxAzria dress and leggings, Ralph Lauren boots

IMG_20160620_091110 — Banana Republic T-shirt and skirt, Michelle DaRin jewelry, Calvin Klein sandals

Michelle DaRin Jewelry has started a Kickstarter campaign. They are looking to fund a project in which Michelle has more studio space and in addition, a place to teach metal-smithing classes (She has an Art Education degree from Syracuse University).

https://www.michelledarinjewelry.com

Check out the link to the funding page at the bottom of this blog post – you aren’t just handing her money for the heck of it. It is a business transaction. You will receive jewelry – and basically get it for a lot less than the retail value. The more you give the more you get of her hand-made one-of-a-kind pieces. The money will also go towards the hiring of staff trained in the manufacturing of the goods, as there is a strong need to meet the demands of the increased interest in her work. Win-win!

I am so honored to know these beautiful, talented young business women! They are truly kickin’ it!

Click the link below to see how you can participate in manifesting this new and improved vision for Michelle DaRin Jewelry! I promise you will love it! ❤

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/392921309/jewelry-with-soul?ref=project_share

art, art education, art exhibition, classroom, fashion, Karen Tashkovski, mixed media, painting, sculpture

#fashionintherealworld

Image April 13, 2017 Karen Tashkovski Leave a comment

IMG_20170412_092007_305 — Banana Republic cardigan, Free People top, BCBGMaxAzria leggings, BCBGeneration sandals

IMG_20170404_092224_086 — Banana Republic cardigan, BCBGMaxAzria top, Trina Turk pants, BCBGeneration sandals

If you search Instagram for the hashtag #fashionintherealworld, you will find all of my posts. I invented it and #fashioninrealtime, and #fashioninreallife. I just checked them; I think there are only two or three posts on them from random fashionistas. The rest is all me.

IMG_20170406_195326_306 — Coach hat and jacket, Bailey 44 top, BCBGMaxAzria leggings, Karl Lagerfeld Paris boots

IMG_20170405_093322_309 — Free People cardigan and top, Calvin Klein jeans, Karl Lagerfeld Paris boots

IMG_20170406_093240_938 — Free People cardigan, BCBGMaxAzria top, Banana Republic skirt, Ralph Lauren boots

Here are my outfits of the day from the last two weeks. The landscape of my background keeps changing as I shift student work around the room. All of my clay projects are complete. The last batch went into the kiln today. The 5th graders are currently working on a three-dimensional wood sculpture, my Studio in Art students are learning watercolor techniques and the rest of the 8th graders are immersed in the various SLO test projects: Statue of Liberty paintings, “under the sea” landscapes with fish (mixed-media lesson), Japanese fan project (also mixed-media) and abstract paintings with realistic horses thrown in. So four additional different lessons for the six classes.

IMG_20170403_093033_877 — Banana Republic suit and leather shell, BCBGeneration sandals

IMG_20170407_094446_182 — Free People cardigan, BCBGeneration dress, Nine West booties

There is a lot going on, which will culminate in the School Fair set for May 12, 2017. I will have my hands full preparing for that exhibition and hopefully even with the upcoming state math tests looming, we will get everything accomplished.

IMG_20170410_093034_780 — Jcrew cardigan, BCBGMaxAzria dress, Nine West boots

But first – Spring Break!!! I will be working on the business of making art as soon as tomorrow. Can’t wait. Watching students make art is clearly a fun job, but nothing beats the guilty pleasure of creating my own artwork – even though it is super messy and therefore cannot be done in designer clothes. So…I will be sacrificing fashion for my art. I did buy a new dress for Easter though. It is Halston Heritage. ❤ OMG, I love it!

IMG_20170413_100219_951 — Michelle DaRin Jewelry ring, Banana Republic top and Free People top, BCBGMaxAzria pants, Guess sandals

art, art education, art exhibition, art for sale, art gallery, Karen Tashkovski, painting

Velatura Maria

Image April 4, 2017 Karen Tashkovski Leave a comment

I took a lot of pictures at Maria Rizzo‘s art reception, mainly because she was exhibiting quite a bit of art! Maria has been busy – she curates the art exhibits at Natur-Tyme in Dewitt, New York, teaches entrepreneurial courses at the Syracuse Tech Garden, is a wife, mother of two, a painter and – something I did not know about her until tonight – an art student.

She is growing exponentially as a person of this world – learning, knowing, loving, teaching, giving…. It is really incredible to know her. Her positive energy is magnetic. This show marks the culmination of her art degree at SUNY Empire State College. Maria’s art is currently on display in the Central Arts Gallery of the annex located at 6333 Route 298 (3rd floor) in East Syracuse, New York.

Yes! This for me, was another case of making the invisible visible. I had no idea there was an art college around the corner from my house. Thank goodness Penny drove this time. Like that last time with the SUNY Oswego annex campus in downtown Syracuse, New York, I had no idea where we were going, but Penny did! (Am I the only one who doesn’t know about these things?)

It turns out that SUNY Empire State College is the largest of the SUNY schools fractured into pieces around the state. Students have the flexibility to create their own programs of study to a degree with many of them non-traditional students, like Maria, who are embarking on their studies after spending time in the real world. Classes are held at night and on weekends in some cases. The art degree is a B.A. due to limited studio space according to her mentor.

The show will be up for the next two months. Am not sure of the hours and how easy-peasy it is to view. We will need to look that up on their web-site. Maria’s original paintings are for sale. She has smaller versions, prints that are available as well. You can find them at Natur-Tyme or visit her web-site for more information.

	Tiny Voice \| Karen T… on The Cuban Phenomenon
	Come This Way \| Kare… on Sums Me Up
	Passionate Union \| K… on Heart of the Matter
	Karen Tashkovski on Giving It the Boot
	Juli on Giving It the Boot

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Visual Artist