A new class for August 13 – FLIP OVER NYC. Get it? It's a flip-style book you will flip over. Ha! Super fun to work on this one. Come take the class with me at The Ink Pad. Call (212) 463-9876 to register. Then on August 14 we will be making a Frond Chronicle Journal. Learn how to make your own stencil/mask sets (from four different materials), then use them as tools with paint. This one is a favorite and often requested. See samples below. Hope to see you in class!
I will be at Pratt in June with one of my favorite classes: Roll With It. You can see a great evidence shot from this class below the announcement. I will also be teaching at Pratt this Fall. October 8: What a Relief, and November 19: Compose Yourself. See all current postings on the workshop page HERE.
In August I will be returning to The Ink Pad. Classes still to be determined. I have a few new ideas….working them out this week!
The January/February issue of Somerset Studio has arrived. If you've taken the Compose Yourself workshop with me then you've tried the exercise I illustrate and describe in my column. I first learned of it back in grade school – didn't know the term for it until a few years ago. Notan – the Japanese word for dark/light harmony. (I could insert a HIM reference here, as they have an album called Dark Light, but I will refrain.) You can see I used my chess stencil again. The full set of stencils/masks will be released in January.
Compose Yourself is on my schedule in 2016. It will be offered through Pratt School of Continuing and Professional Studies on February 13. Registration is open. CALL 855.551.7727 or follow link to register: HERE (type in Michelle Ward, using caps as shown)
Here is a sampling of my Pratt workshops this Spring. Visit my WORKSHOPS page for full descriptions and schedule.
And don't forget – if you plan on joining Creative JumpStart the $45 fee is good through 12/31. It will be $50 after that. Visit Nathalie's site HERE for all the details. My first video will be included!! HCIT?
This just in, November/December issue of Somerset Studio. My article "Creating Opportunities" is about making the commitment to dimensional elements on your page before you start adding your layers of paint and collage. One of my favorite mantras, as a teacher, is to tell you to "Commit". Just start with one thing, then each decision you make is informed by the previous commitment. That's easy to say when you are working on a painted or collaged foundation. But once you have invested time in making a background it may be a little stressful to cut into it. I've observed this in workshops – we start with paint, then I hope to encourage some slight-of-hand tricks with cutting and folding, but there is a reluctance. So I changed my method of teaching, and we begin with the deliberate cuts and folds, then add the paint, collage, and stencils. The commitment to adding cut-out shapes, and the placement of where they are positioned, is not influenced by anything since the canvas is blank. With dimensional features established, you've created opportunities for how to proceed. See the magazine for more details, and many other terrific articles.
Hey there. Just surfacing from my studio overhaul to talk about my next class. I'm really excited to be teaching at Pratt School of Continuing and Professional Studies in Manhattan this fall. It's such a cool place, and the studios are amazing. How cool would be to say you took a class at Pratt?
So first up is ROLL WITH IT, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4TH. I started teaching this one over ten years ago and it is still one of my favorites. It has evolved over the years to include new tricks. First debuting at Artfest 2004, then Artwerx, Valley Ridge, The Ink Pad, CREATE,…it's definitely a crowd pleaser. If you want a fun day of learning lots of painting tricks, or you want to refresh your view of using paint, come roll with me! (Scroll down for some evidence of past workshops).
ROLL WITH IT workshop, is fast moving class where I demo a technique and then you try it. In my own experiments with creating texture I have found the magic properties of gesso. Gesso affords movement, lifting, resisting, but most of all it allows forgiveness. We will learn why it's an important foundation. For example, on a section of roll, we will try a two-step painting process. Next, we’ll reverse the process with step two first, followed by step one. This will allow us to learn from our observations. There is no right or wrong way to lay paint, but hopefully these exercises will inform your future work. We will scrape, stencil, resist, stamp, and so much more. The swift pace will leave the inner critique out of the process as it's all about doing the work. The completed length will then be assembled as a journal. As you fold the page you end up with serendipitous compositions that you never would have planned as the techniques segue from one to another.
FORMAT: I will demo a technique then you will try it on your paper. Then I demo again, and you try it. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. We will be moving fast so we can complete many different things. It’s important to let go of your concern for perfect composition since this is not the focus of the class. There are no rules here, except to move swiftly so we can plow through the assignments, leaving time toward the end of class for the finishing touch of creating a book from our roll. It always amazes me, with each time I teach this class, how different each journal can look even though we all followed the same directions. Each artist has a different hand and an unique way of interpreting the exercises with their own color palette.
ORIGIN: When I was in college, one of my drawing classes began each morning with an exercise in gesture drawing of the nude models. The models made quick, thirty second poses, which we scribbled onto a roll of paper. After about five minutes(ten gesture drawings), we rolled the paper back up and continued with the day’s assignment. At the end of the course, we posted our rolls of paper onto a display wall, and it was amazing to chart our growth as sketch artists, across the length of the roll. Remembering the impact of this exercise, I began imagining how cool it would be to compose something similar with paint, for a short amount of time everyday, on a roll of paper. I could experiment randomly on the roll, and also use it to catch evidence of work-in-progress on my studio table (cleaning off my brush, clippings of collage, etc)…..then, the completed roll could be manipulated into a book, a foundation for journaling. I ended up finishing about 30 feet of painted roll and got excited to see what it would look like as a journal so I stopped and figured out how to fold the length into a book – and a class was born!
Hope you'll join me!
I've updated my Workshop page with details about my classes at Pratt this Fall. I'm so excited about this new venue! You can see the entire catalog HERE. To find my classes, type in Michelle Ward in the search box. Registration begins 7/27. To enroll, click HERE and insert course code number.
I shared this quote a long time ago and it's how I still feel about teaching. Being in class with other curious creative individuals who want to expand their visual vocabulary and experience is so rewarding – we all learn something from each other because we all have unique ways of interpreting the assignments. As Jefferson wisely speaks about light spreading rather than diminishing, so too do ideas multiply when we learn something in an enthusiastic, safe and nurturing group environment.
I will be getting back to my ongoing posts on The Evolution of an Idea. This week I have a few deadlines – both concrete and self-imposed so I'm tending to business. One thing I wanted to share – very exciting news…I will be teaching five workshops this fall in the big apple. I can't begin to describe the thrill of being invited to teach at Pratt Institute's School of Continuing and Professional Studies this fall. Thank you to my friend Karen for facilitating this connection. Below is an infographic with the dates. I will be uploading the class descriptions and photos to my Workshop page soon – they selected some of my faves plus a new one, Sticks & Stones, inspired by the current mindset I'm in. Pratt's fall catalog is in the works and as soon as I have details for registration I will post here.
There has already been some interest since I posted this on my workshop page a week or two ago. I'm collecting email addresses from anyone that wants updates on registration. If you want to be added to the list send me a note or comment below.
There are some mixed media courses available at Pratt this summer! Take a class with my friends Nathalie Kalbach (July 12, July 19) or Seth Apter (July 18-19) or both! See the Pratt CCPS summer catalog HERE. It is a fabulous venue and the classrooms are superb.
Hope to see you this fall!!
May is nearly here so that means the rose buds are starting to form, and the new Somerset Studio is showing up on shelves and in mailboxes. My column is about making your own songbooks, celebrating favorite lyrics to beloved tunes. I will be teaching Bohemian Rhapsody at The Ink Pad in NYC on Saturday, June 20th. To learn more see HERE, and to reserve a spot, call 212·463·9876 I'll provide the music, the lyrics, and the accordion book. Hope to see you there!
Consider making a song book as a gift – this one was made for Graham.
Don't you love that reading the lyrics makes the tune pop in your head? What song will you illustrate?
I've been working on some accordion folded songbooks. I will show more detail at a later time as they are for an upcoming article. Filled with lyrics and inspired by music, these are fun self-imposed assignments to keep practicing making art. Just as musicians need to continually pick up their instruments, artists should stay plugged in and work as often as possible. Turning up the volume in the studio gets me motivated, as does the gorgeous Spring-like weather we've enjoyed recently. This is a new color palette for me – first time buying purple paint!
Bohemian Rhapsody is a new class I will be offering with The Ink Pad in New York City on Saturday, June 20th. Visit their site for details on registration, www.TheInkPadNYC.com or call 212-463-9876. Hope you'll join me for some fun with music, paper, and paint!
I just received the lastest Somerset Studio! Inside you'll find a collaborative article by me and my friend Lynne Perrella. It's the third year of working in tandem, exploring a theme with our individual interpretations. It's also a sneak peek behind the scenes for some of the material we will cover during our workshop in May. For the pieces you'll see in the January/February issue we focused on the ever classic phrenology head diagram. The workshop will encompass much more – but we can't give it all away in an article 😉
I had a blast reinventing the image, and altering into a movable-parts object…think of the things you could have swirling behind within the mind!
When we were brainstorming about plans for the upcoming workshop, we easily reigned in the ideas about a concept but were struggling with a title. Lynne proposed that we consider incorporating two phrenology heads as graphic elements for the announcement. It was a perfect suggestion since we have a running dialogue each December about a pair of ceramic phren heads that appear together each year in the Bergdorf Goodman holiday windows in New York City. The talented designers adorn the twins in a festive manner and place them in the elaborately decorated vignettes. Every year it’s a hunt to find them among the countless extraordinary visual delights behind the glass. Lynne had another epiphany: to borrow the name Curiouser & Curiouser* for the three-day class – an ideal choice to accompany the double-head logo we devised, for a workshop offered by two teachers who love to encourage curiosity, especially when it comes to creativity. Here are some of the appearances in past years:
*Curiouser & Curiouser was the theme of the 2009 BG Windows, inspired by the works of Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Our workshop will not be related to Alice, we will certainly be advocating for all participants to adopt her sense of adventure.
We hope you'll join us in May! Three whole days with two teachers in an amazing studio space at a lovely location with other eager and enthusiastic artists! For details visit Workshops here, or on Lynne's site www.LKPerrella.com