Yesterday I spent the afternoon playing with the lovely Corrine at Sparkle Days Studio. I signed up for her "Collage Combustion" class and was honored to help christen her brand new studio space. If you live anywhere near Amesbury Massachusetts I highly recommend you sign up for one of her sessions. I had SO much fun.
Part of why I signed up for the class was so I could practice making art in front of other people. I've only ever taken on-line classes, and it's a little intimidating to think about creating in a room full of other artists. Corrine's class description said "we are all about the process, joy and expansion, not the product. We are building a community without judgement so we do not comment on the paintings to create a safe space for free expression". Sounded perfect. Plus I love collage, but can really get caught up in over-thinking it.
It turned out that I was the only participant in the class, but that was just fine! Corrine played along with me, and we chatted and ripped, and glued, and scribbled and painted. The studio space is lovely and well-stocked. Corrine is supportive, encouraging, helpful and fun to talk to. I found that being in a social setting, rather than making me self-conscious, really took my head and critic out of the process. I was playing freely with materials and because I was also engaged in conversation it locked the critic out of the room. I wasn't thinking and judging every step, I was just having fun.
It was great to have so much space to work in, and great to not worry about the mess. I started out working on the table top, and ended up tacking my collages to the walls and flinging paint all over them. My studio at home just isn't set up for that kind of fun.
I came home with 2 gloriously messy, chaotic collages. I will most likely cut them up and use them for mail art or backgrounds for journal pages.
Right before bed, when I could barely keep my eyes open, I remembered I hadn't made an index card. I cut a 1 inch strip from my new collage, cut the strip into little squares, dropped them on a freshly painted index card, and stuck them down with gel medium. Went to bed tired, messy and happy (as the card says).
Very nice -- hope you use them for mail art and I get one! And you know Corrine! Lucky you. I love how the art world, mail artists and postal lovers all connect via cyberspace. And visiting when traveling too.
ReplyDeletePamela - a postcard will go out to you tomorrow! Thanks for visiting. And yes - it's so fun to bump into the same people in different places. What did we do before the internet?
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