OIL AND COLD WAX COLLAGE: WHAT WILL YOU CARRY THROUGH THE PORTAL? — August 6, 2022
OIL AND COLD WAX COLLAGE: WHAT WILL YOU CARRY THROUGH THE PORTAL? — August 6, 2022
(IN PERSON)
SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 2022, 10:00AM - 3:30PM
Registration closes at 6:00pm the evening before the first gathering. Be sure and reserve your spot!
LOCATION:
TREESONG
INSTRUCTOR:
ANNA FIGUEIRA
Since the spring of 2020, something very large and impactful has been happening to us… to all of us. It is global in its effect but felt in the most personal and individualistic ways by each of us. This thing called COVID-19 has certainly seeped into my own art over the past two years. Sometimes thoughts about it fly around my studio on hopeful wings and other times they land with thuds of despair on my canvas. Arundhati Roy, author and human rights activist from India speaks of COVID’s impact on our lives in this way:
“What is this thing that has happened to us? It’s a virus, yes. In and of itself it holds no moral brief. But it is definitely more than a virus. Some believe it’s God’s way of bringing us to our senses. Others that it’s a Chinese conspiracy to take over the world. Whatever it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to “normality”, trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality. Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.” *
In this workshop we’re going to explore this phenomenon and our reactions to it through the use of collage with oil and cold wax painting. The words of Arundhati Roy will provide the focus for your work as you create one or more collages containing words, printed images, stenciled or drawn figures, marks, and organic materials or other findings embedded into an oil and cold wax substratum to represent those things you will carry through the portal.
*Rethinking Schools, Volume 34, No. 4, Summer 2020
No prior art experience necessary.
What to bring: All materials will be supplied. You might want to bring special findings or artifacts that you would like to collage into your work. These will need to be relatively thin and if they are organic, for example leaves or grasses, they must be completely dried. Be sure to pack an apron, smock, or old shirt to cover your clothing, as we will get beautifully messy, and don’t forget to bring some joy, hope, and whimsy to share with all on this journey.
NOTE: If you are taking the second Oil and Cold Wax Collage class on August 27th, you will have the opportunity to expand and enhance the works you create in this class with additional techniques and materials.
Space is limited to 10 participants.
COVID-19 PRECAUTIONS: Starting March 15th, 2022, we are no longer requiring masks for instructors and participants at our outdoor programs. This may change depending on the state of the pandemic. As we have throughout the pandemic, we closely follow the specific guidance for our programs.
TUITION: $85 - $105 SLIDING SCALE (plus processing fees)
Tuition amount includes materials.
SUPPORT NATURE CONNECTION: Please consider making an additional donation to help TreeSong, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Anything helps and we thank you in advance!
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has." — Margaret Mead
Processing fees are only applied to tuition amounts, never to donations.
About the instructor:
Whether in Portland, Oregon, USA or the Northern Beaches of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia—both places that I call “home”—the largest measure of my days is spent in great happiness at my studio bench. I enjoy working in a variety of media—encaustic, acrylic, oil and cold wax, and natural fibers. Currently, my primary focus is oil and cold wax in a style ranging from impressionist to abstract and utilizing an intuitive technique. My work emerges from the seed of an idea or image that brushes past me in my daily goings-about. It’s often from nature: a color revealed when an azalea opens full throated, the texture of lichens on a stone wall, the pattern of fallen Norfolk pine tips above the tide line of the beach. These pictures are lodged somewhere in my head and get carried into my studio to co-mingle with thoughts and concerns in the contemplative part of my brain. The process is ruminative and introspective and while I don’t have a desired image in mind, the resulting work is intentional. It holds a story that helps me make sense of the world and how I fit into it. The story gives shape to sensations, memories, feelings, and hopes that I want to share. It may be a story of healing, of anger or sadness, of grief or joy. It may hold a prayer of hope for my children, my grandchildren, or the many people I love.
I have had the good fortune to study with several accomplished artists in both Oregon and Australia. Through them I’ve gained skills in the practice of art and have learned about new media, techniques and methods. I’ve also taught workshops and classes in oil and cold wax and encaustic in the Northern Beaches of Sydney and in Oregon and Washington. Each time I “teach” I “learn” and gain inspiration from being in communion with others who practice art as a way of seeing beauty in the world and telling their stories.
— Anna