Andrea Mulder-Slater

by Andrea Mulder-Slater Part of the fun of back-to-school, is all the fresh new supplies! This month, I was thrilled to receive a box of goodies from the Dixon Ticonderoga Company , featuring several of their art supplies (as well as a group of competitor's products) for me to put to the test. I began with a set of Prang Large Triangular Colored Pencils ... These colorful pencils have a unique, chunky triangular shape which makes them easy to hold - for both big and small hands.   OnceI  started working with the pencils, I noticed immediately how "creamy" they were... they seemed to just glide on the paper. By comparison, a leading competitor's brand was kind of "scratchy". The Prang colors were rich and bold and the variety was fantastic. I'm a big fan of metallics so I was especially taken with the inclusion of silver and gold. The pencil sharpener (two pencil sizes) was a nice added bonus. All of that aside, I wanted

by Andrea Mulder-Slater It should be fairly obvious to everyone by now, that I am not a people person. It's not that I don't like people (well, most people), it's that I'm just really, really uncomfortable around them.  If you don't believe me, just go ahead and try to strike up a conversation. I'll want to chat (I really will) but in the end, we'll both be hearing crickets. ( Or worse. ) And the thing is, the thoughts in my head are often far more interesting (albeit more inappropriate) than what comes out of my mouth. It is for this reason that painting in public is excruciatingly painful for me. Because, you know... people. And while most folks are delightful, some are less than sublime and others are downright offensive. I get it, they don't know what to say either. I mean, artists are weird and you never know when one of them is going to cut off an ear or develop syphilis, right? Trouble is, I don't have the nerve to speak my mind