Workshop Title: Body Books – Visual Journaling about the Body
Date & Time: Tuesday, September 15, 2015 – 10am to 4pm
Location: Canton, MA
Limited to 6 students
Tuition: $125 includes all materials, technique handouts and lunch
While many artists use a journal for collecting their thoughts, reflecting on their artistic process, or sketching ideas for future work, a journal can be the final piece of art as well. This one-day workshop will investigate the relationships between the artist, the journal and specifically, the human body. Whether your own body, someone else’s or even an imaginary one…humanity is wide open with its infinite diversity.
Several quick projects will get the morning off to a great start. Using a wide range of body-related materials, we’ll explore layering, found poetry, photo-realism, and the unique features that book structures can add to your artwork. Medical and high school sex ed textbooks, children’s science books, coloring books, flash cards, magazine clip art, and a wide array of thought-provoking, mixed media bits will be available.
The morning will begin with fresh brewed coffee and home-baked goodies at 9:45am, and we’ll break for a fresh, vegetarian lunch with homemade soup, salads and sandwiches.
After exploring different styles of journals, you’ll choose between store-bought journals, altered books, or your own handmade book to continue for the afternoon. Demonstrations will include packing tape and solvent image transfers, handmade stamps, and adding text.
How does the daily interface with a journal change the artist’s process, inform the artwork, and develop a greater meaning? When writing in a personal diary doesn’t resonate with you, perhaps going with a visual expression will. Journaling alongside a medical struggle, the birth of a child, documenting the family’s growth at a reunion, and even as a memorial or tribute to someone special – the personal, reflective nature of the journal can really expand one’s life.
Open to everyone ages 18 & up – who wish to expand their artistic process in a playful, supportive environment.
