About Aisling
Aisling D’Art is a third-generation artist. (Her name is pronounced “ASH-ling Dart.”)
Her name is almost synonymous with art zines, art shrines, artists’ journals, ATCs and wild art dolls.
Aisling’s family history: Aisling’s grandfather developed acrylic paints for artists, called “New Masters” paints in the 1960s. Aisling’s mom graduated from Mass. College of Art, and is known for her landscape paintings as well as her portraits. (She also modeled for several New England artists, including Ernest Major.)
Aisling was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and grew up in nearby Belmont, MA. She attended Colby-Sawyer College (New London, NH) and then Harvard University. From there, Aisling moved to Los Angeles, working as a fashion model when she wasn’t running one of Hollywood’s largest and most innovative fine art schools.
Several years (and moves) later, Aisling became the mother of three wonderful children. During those years, she taught workshops and wrote several popular books about fabric art, costuming and quilting.
When divorce threatened Aisling’s ‘happily ever after’ view of life, she began writing about her life at her first website. That was in 1995, when Aisling was considered a little weird for sharing her diary online.
The pen name, Aisling D’Art, gave her (and her family) anonymity.
But, Aisling’s unique and original ideas have always attracted attention. Before long, Aisling.net attracted hundreds (then thousands, and sometimes tens of thousands) of visitors daily.
Friends and fans followed Aisling’s life through the inevitable divorce, and then genuine happiness with a wonderful man from Texas.
Today, Aisling and “HT” live a somewhat quiet life in New England. She’s still working on art, writing for magazines, books and the Internet, and pursuing a variety of eclectic hobbies.
About this website
This website began in the mid-1990s as Aisling’s online journal, long before anyone used the word “blog.”
When readers saw photos and scans of her art, they asked, “How do you do that?”
A few how-to articles in 1996 grew to hundreds of webpages about art materials and techniques by 2000. Aisling.net has always been among the leading websites of the art journaling community.
But, as this site outgrew its simple HTML navigation, Aisling split the information into smaller sites. Now, many years later, with new software and navigation tools, Aisling is reintegrating the full range of articles at Aisling.net.
Until this site is complete, the best access point is the sitemap and mini-sitemaps: http://aisling.net/sitemap/ [Link]
Aisling and Yahoo Groups
In the late 1990s, Aisling D’Art founded the Yahoo Group, AJ2 (Artists Journals 2). It’s still thriving — managed by the talented Red Dog Scott (of Capolan fame) — as WAJ2 (Writers and Artists Journals 2).
Aisling is also the moderator of the original Artists Journals group, AJ, recently re-energized as a discussion group.
In April 2010, Aisling launched a short-term discussion group, AJ – Vein of Gold, for people working through Julia Cameron’s book, Vein of Gold.
In addition, Ais started dozens more hugely successful Yahoo Groups. They include WildArtDolls, AJ-marketing, and ExtremeArtJournals. All of them are now moderated by other talented artists, so that Aisling has more time for art.
Aisling’s Classes
For many years, Aisling taught at some of the country’s top arts events, including Artfest, Art and Soul, Art Unraveled, and her own DisneyWorld event, Celebrate Art!
However, when some arts events became too expensive and profit-oriented, Aisling objected loudly. Retribution from event organizers was swift, impacting the quality of Ais’ classes, and Aisling quit the national events scene after 2003.
Instead, she taught free full-day workshops during the five years (2003 – 2008) that she lived near Houston. (She’s back in New England, now, with her wonderful husband from Texas.)
If you see Aisling teaching anywhere, you’ll know that the event is well-managed and it’s a worthwhile event for students.
Aisling’s zines and products
For many people, Aisling D’Art’s name is almost synonymous with art zines. Aisling pioneered handwritten art zines in the mid-1970s. She was one of the first to offer art zines on CD in 2001, and was also an “early adopter” of digital zines.
Today, her zines are published irregularly. Past subscribers still receive copies, and new fans are able to download them — when they’re available — through this website (Aisling.net) and Santa Flamingo.
Since the 1970s, Aisling’s decorated envelopes and cards — and her artistamps — have been an important part of the mailart scene.
Aisling was also one of the creators of torn-paper collage journals, which evolved into what are now called gluebooks.
Her whimsical pocket shrines are still collected by friends, fans and art enthusiasts.
Her mixed-media and cloth dolls are generally zany and wildly popular. Her paper art dolls were featured in Art Doll Quarterly‘s second issue.
Aisling’s podcasts
In 2004, Aisling began podcasting about art and creativity. She’s still working on a format and schedule that fits her style.
You can listen to many of Aisling’s past podcasts, including Views from Santa Flamingo. [Link]
Aisling’s online diary
Aisling remains committed to her original online vision, sharing a creative life with friends and fans. You can read her past journals, online, among the pages of Aisling.net. Her online diary (blog) — the one about her personal life, the backstory to her art — also appears at this site.
Aisling D’Art is the pen name of painter Eileen (Eibhlin) Morey, whose work appears at EileenMorey.com.
