Living here makes it natural. This weekend I'll be sharing techniques that start with nature, both as literal material and content for making artcloth -- form and process. The occasion is two short workshops that are part of a fundraising event for the Hill Country Arts Foundation in Ingram, Texas, near Kerrville. The event: Art for Artists. I will be one of about 20 area artists who will lead demos and share work with supporters and community members. This workshop is primarily an opportunity for me to meet people in the area and to reach people who might want to attend one of my workshop retreats this next year.
Here's the rundown -- I'll post examples and photos thoughout the weekend, creating, I hope, the first of a series of on-line demos and semi "live events." So check in when you can, and see if I have managed to pull it off.
The demos and hand-on sampler sessions I plan for each of the two hour workshops are:
Using limestone rocks as resists for microwave dyeing
Printing fabric with pressed leaves using textile inks
Setacolor solar printing using natural objects and textures to develop imagery and layering of colors
So much for nature as content and medium-- but within this context, I want to remind the artists -- and myself -- to look, listen and experience this thing we call nature, as if it were outside and objective, instead of the inner tide that is running the show.
This beautiful fall weather is time to connect, to own and be owned by wind and sun and earth. To be in and of the living beat of the world. All the techniques in the paint box, in the art store, in the schoolroom and studio don't turn us into artists. We become artists when we breathe.