creativelenna.com

Who is creative Lenna?

Lenna Young Andrews describes herself as a passionate, creative mixed-media artist and instructor. She lives in Florida now with her husband, Steven Deming and their two dogs Asia & Chloe. They sold their house and moved from Avon, Connecticut to Palma Sola, Florida at the end of 2009.

Lenna loves to create, teach mixed media art classes and share the art that she creates on her blog. This is where you'll find Lenna's most recent artwork. She also enjoys making sample art and has made many sample pieces for both Alpha Stamps and ARTchix Studio -- internet based companies that carry awesome supplies for the mixed-media artist.

You are looking at Lenna's original website, which was developed by her son Decklin Foster in 1996 when he was only 14 years old - yikes! At that time the internet, email, websites, and let's face it - even Decklin, were just babes. The creative lenna website has grown and changed over the years and is now updated by Lenna. She tries her best to keep up with it! Here you'll find many examples of Lenna's fabric art - collage - altered book pages - fabric books - ATCs - fabric stamping - rubber stamp art - and many of Lenna's published pieces (1994-2008). For more of Lenna's current art, writing and her instructions that can be found on other websites, check out the "Find Lenna Online" links located in the sidebar to your right. >>>

For the latest art and news, hop over to Lenna's art blog - or visit her online teaching website: A Little Creative Space. This other site includes Lenna's free tutorials on fabric stamping and quilties plus her on-line/email workshops which are available for purchase. You'll find these workshops published as PDF files, making it very easy to work at your own pace. The tutorials are free! All instructions are very complete. Enjoy your visit there.

Below, find some of Lenna's favorite music on a playlist -

The about Lenna page on this website will tell you more about Lenna, her family, and how she got started art-ing at a very young age. Lenna's great uncle is the renowned William Glackens. At the turn of the century Glackens was an influential Illustrator, American Impressionist painter, and part of a group who called themselves: The Eight. This group of artists were associated with the important 'Ashcan' movement in the early 20th Century. You can find William Glackens's artwork in many major museums and collections. Lenna is very proudly named after William's daughter, Lenna.

A note from Lenna:

Steve and I are sometimes asked why we have different last names even though we are married? Well, I would have happily taken Steven's surname, but Steven had other, definite ideas. He actually insisted I keep my maiden name when we got married. If you are curious, visit this page for the whole story! Steven is my biggest supporter and largest fan of my art. For 17 years he worked as a technical consultant and systems architect for the Farmington CT company Innovative Computer Systems but left his job at the end of October, 2009 to move to Florida with me to be near my parents. Steven is also an artist. He has created award winning graphite drawings and many very funny cartoons plus even a few collaborative paintings with me! Now, he will deny he is a true artist if you ask him, and instead starts to talk about my art . . . huh? I disagree! Below is an ATC we worked on collaboratively - a "Jam" ATC (March 2010). On the left is how the ATC came to us from Misti Ko and on the right is what Steven added to it:

How I finished it -Click on any picture for details:

I hope to be sharing more art with Steven in our new home in Florida. His last job consumed his time and energy so that he didn't have the inspiration to create very much these past few years. Except for Christmas 2008 - he created two beautiful etched wine glasses for us. He also made a fantastic card for my birthday in 2009, a wonderful cartoon of our 2 cats, Star & Farfel. The cats were adopted by a new 'mom' before we moved to Florida. It took us five and half months to sell our home in CT but at the very end of October 2009, we did! In early December, we joined my parents in the Florida and we are so happy to be here. You can contact us via this email anytime if you have any questions or comments.

more about what you'll find here:

The Photo Gallery is where you can look at ATCs, altered books, collage pieces, mixed media art, and fabric art. Look at the right hand side once you are there for links to specific pages. Lenna has also made a page on this site for her husband, Steven Deming to showcase his talent. Drawing by Steven Deming (click for more detail)

Personal photos celebrating Steven and Lenna's wedding in June of 2005 are also found in the Photo Gallery. View the happy occasion and take a peek at all the art sent to Lenna and Steven from family and many on-line friends around the world and incorporated into their wedding. Lenna made her hand-stamped wedding dress and stamped the back of Steven's vest at his request!

Family photos, including a photo diary on how Lenna's father creates his handmade wooden cedar strip boats are in the Photo gallery. Lenna's mom claims that Lenna has received all her creative talents from her dad (smile) but her mom is very creative too!

The collaborative art gallery page is where you'll find a number of paintings done together by Steven & Lenna. Here is Steven standing with one of our paintings. This 2007 photo was taken at the West Hartford Art League's Juried Art Show. Steven & Lenna love this painting and both agree it was quite a thrill to get into a juried art show with their piece.

ART SWAPS and Exchanges shares swap related art from the past - 2007 and prior. This is where you can view the results of completed swaps Lenna hosted and all the wonderful art. You'll find lenna's art and the art of many other creative and talented artists to inspire you!

Visit my gallery of custom-made U.S. Postage Stamps created from art and photos by my husband and myself. The postage stamps are produced through Zazzle.com. You can personalize our designs for your own use by changing the text or you can create your own stamps and other items from your own art.

These art postage stamps are great for Mail Art.

make custom gifts at Zazzle

Here are some favorite photos of ours from Wolfe Island in Ontario, CANADA.

We visit beautiful Wolfe Island, Ontario every year -- Steven's grandmother was born on this island and his family still owns the farmhouse she was born in and the surrounding cottages on the banks of St. Lawrence River across from Kingston, Ontario. Wolfe Island is the largest of all the Thousand Islands, and very beautiful and peaceful.

To the right is a photo of Steven motoring the sailboat he named 'Nimda' after a computer virus (!) around the island. Kingston, Ontario is in the distance. Click on the photo for a better look; we sold this boat in 2009.

Below, I'm walking with Asia on Wolfe Island. This rural, farming island is very beautiful and I am so happy Steven introduced me to it!

Many more photos of beautiful Wolfe Island, Canada are here and here-2009!

"Art when really understood is the province of every human being. It is simply a question of doing things, anything, well. It is not an outside, extra thing. When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing creature. He becomes interesting to other people. He disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and he opens ways for better understanding."

Robert Henri, The Art Spirit (1923)

My great uncle, William Glackens was a protégé of Robert Henri and shared a studio with him in 1894. I especially admire Mr. Henri as an artist and a teacher after reading more about him.

Check out my favorite quotes page!

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