Featured Artists' Remnants of Olde Kerin & Charley

Bio
Charley and Kerin are self taught artists who use wild experimentation resulting in many innovative techniques with resins and other materials. As heavy users of found objects, clays of all sorts, metals and optical glass, they make art jewelry and small scale sculptures. They have also been making mechanical and kinetic art pieces for several years and have discovered ways to make previously very complicated mechanisms quite simple to construct. Having recently left their school district and software development careers to relocate to the Southern Oregon coast, they now have more time to make and share art with others. Their creations can be seen in Somerset Studio magazine, 500 Pendants and Lockets by Lark Books and in galleries and shops. Kerin is currently working on a mixed media book featuring her very favorite art material, resin clay, which will be released by North Light Books in early 2010.

Charley and Kerin are changing their Creative Souls profile to fit with the other ning accounts they are using (which is under Kerin’s name). So if you see them twice you are not imagining things. : )

Background:

Charley and Kerin recently made a big move and life style adjustment because of a heartbreaking and life changing loss. Kerin's sister, Diana, lost a long battle with cancer a few years ago. Charley and Kerin met just as she was leaving to take Diana to get a second opinion and learn what ultimately would be the worst news possible.

Charley has since been a great source of strength and this was especially important since Kerin was her only caregiver. Diana had always encouraged Kerin to quit doing software and real estate and do art full time. So to honor Diana and life in general (which is far too short anyway!) they followed their hearts and moved to the southern Oregon coast.

The plan was to work doing art full time in whatever forms it took to make a living. The thing is that no one knew who they were because they really weren’t actively selling or promoting their artwork at all before moving to Oregon. Luckily all the ways they sought to make a living turned out to be immensely fun and rewarding (and definitely challenging as well!!!)

Here are some of the things they are doing now

Mixed Media Art gathering place— Kerin was led to build this site as a place for artists to learn and grow and reach their dreams whatever those might be. The site is just a month old and already has over 300 amazing talented and caring members. Simply put, there is a tremendous amount of love and inspiration on that site. In fact Isabella was member #300!! http://mixedmediaart.ning.com/

Blog and website—the first post is about why this journey to Oregon began and everything that’s happened since. http://remnantsofolde.com/

Online workshops – The first workshop they are offering for sale, Resin Clay Pendants, is open during “pre-registration” at a reduced price. There are currently two projects up and many more will be added. There has been great feedback from the students taking the workshops and they all are really enjoying what is up so far.

Live workshops – for only having taught at one workshop so far (Art & Soul in Hampton, VA) it has been a very good experience. There is already one class out of three that has sold out at the Art & Soul retreat in Portland, Oregon. And they have received a special invitation to teach at Art & Soul in Las Vegas which was huge since only sixteen instructors will be there. http://www.artandsoulretreat.com/

Charley and Kerin have worked very hard to add even more value to the live workshops by offering the same class on video. The “after class party” workshops are free to the students so they can really relax during class and not have to worry about remembering everything. Right now those are only available to the workshop students but they will be available in the future (most likely be when they are no longer teaching the live workshops). The after class party workshops are hosted on the Mixed Media Art ning site.

In addition to the Art & Soul retreats, Kerin is booked at Raevn’s nest this October to teach two classes. http://www.raevns-nest-art-retreat.com/workshops.html

Now that they’ve had a “taste” of how fun and rewarding it is to teach at art retreats they are planning many new workshops and are looking into doing even more venues.

Mixed media art book – Kerin’s book will feature resin clay based projects and is due to be released in early 2010 by North Light Books. She feels that resin clay (a two part self-curing clay) is a magical and wondrous thing! It has allowed her to make things as an artist that she never could have otherwise. So she wants to share this with everyone in the hopes that it will have the same benefit to many more artists.

Automata – One of the things they are known for is mechanical art or automata—a type of interactive hand cranked art that moves in different ways. The pieces they make are a new spin on the old mechanical that were popular in the 1800s and early 1900s. They both find this to be a fun challenge to come up with new ideas for art pieces that also are mechanical. Very few artists make automata and even fewer are teaching it. So they plan to offer a lot of workshops with that are kinetic and/or mechanically based.

Other plans – More collaborations with other artists, doing a lot more with metal clay (bronze/copper and silver), continuing to experiment with combining unlikely materials and finding new techniques, larger assemblage sculptures, seeking out more galleries that are a good fit for their work and most definitely a lot of new automata (mechanical art).

One more thing they’d love to do is make lots of friends on Creative Souls!!! Here is the profile that matches all the other ning accounts. : )
http://creativesouls.ning.com/profile/KerinGale