Ken Aptekar -- During the four-day painting workshop, participants were encouraged to discuss the question of what paintings mean and how a painting produces a meaning. Ken explored his particular responses to these questions with the group and, through dialog, assisted participants in elucidating their own thoughts and reactions. A painting, in Aptekar’s view, produces meaning both from what the artist puts into the work and from the responses of the viewers. How can artists take this understanding into the work they produce? Ken Aptekar is a two-time National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship award winner in Painting. Other awards he has won include Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, Artist-as-Catalyst award, Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award, and a Rockefeller Foundation Artist Residency. Ken received his MFA in 1975 from the Pratt Institute. He has had numerous solo exhibitions and participated in many group exhibitions in the United States and Europe. His works are held in the permanent collections of the Denver Museum of Art, The Jewish Museum, the National Museum of Art, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, as well as many private and corporate collections.

Site-Specific Sapling Sculpture

The result of Patrick Dougherty’s visit to the Huntington Museum of Art was this site-specific sculpture titled “The Real McCoy,” which was a very popular temporary work of art. Many people in the community worked on building the sculpture.

Still Lifes

In this workshop, participants concentrated on still life. The format will be simple, dealing with only two or three objects. Students decided which of the following mediums they wished to work in: pencil, pastel, watercolor, acrylic or oil. Students selected and brought objects to use as subjects, or photographs of the objects already arranged.

Speaking Large – Speaking Small
Lesley Dill combined art and letters -- visual and verbal vocabularies. Her work is viscerally powerful and psychologically charged. It has been described as "visionary poetics." The images, though, are not meant to be illustrations of the poetry, any more than the poetry is meant to serve as an explanation for the visual image. Rather, the two are meant to amplify and inflect each other, giving rise to multiple interpretations that make them all the more mysterious and fascinating.

Perceptual Engineering: The Fine Art of Seeing

In this workshop, participants worked to cultivate a keen eye for shape and form, through exploring hidden forms in everyday objects. Those in the workshop challenged their sense of patience while heightening their ability to recognize cross-cultural similarities in forms and patterns. Participants arrived at the workshop with an intricate mechanical object that can be disassembled with hand tools such as a drill, screw driver, and pliers. The object was to be non-digital and could be an appliance or musical instrument no larger than 3' x 3' x 3'.

Monotype: The Painterly Print

Over the past century painters and printmakers have enjoyed the monotype process. Edgar Degas was the greatest innovator and practitioner of this painterly technique; creating images of the theater, dancers, brothels and landscapes. The monotype is an easy and spontaneous process with elegant results. This three-day demonstration and workshop given by the New York-based artist Nanette Carter covered several techniques in monotype printing. A printing press is not needed for this class, making this process user friendly. Ms. Carter brought along some of her own monotype prints to show the group. Participants experienced the immediacy and rich textures that are unique to this form of printmaking.

The Art of Pulp Painting

Participants began by creating beautiful sheets of handmade paper from different types of fibers. Demonstrations included how to make shaped sheets and watermarks. Next, the class learned to paint with finely beaten pulp on top of newly formed sheet, using brushes, squeeze bottles, and stencils. These sheets were either finished into works of art, or could be used later for drawing, printmaking, artist books, collage, etc.

Awakening the Creative Process: Working toward a Strong and Personal Expression through Clay

During the three days together, participants discovered and investigated the creative process and how important that is to making work unique. Through studio work, slides, critiques and discussion each participant had the opportunity to share perspectives on their own work, the work of others and where they want to go with it. Participants, who are makers, were asked to bring four to six finished pieces, tools for working and a haki brush. The emphasis of the workshop was on the creative process of making rather than on firing. What is it about clay that draws you to the material? How can you use the material as a means of personal expression? What is it that you want to say through the objects that you make? Participants worked toward achieving a clarity and confidence in the objects made which lead to original, personally expressive work

Pottery Form and Decorative Expression

Linda Sikora and Matthew Metz are both functional potters who have shared a studio in Minnesota for more than 15 years. Linda is also an Associate Professor at Alfred University School of Art and Design in Alfred, NY. While each follows individual artistic inquiries, commonalities in their work include a dedication to the expressive potential and potency of functional pots in visual culture, a love of working with wheel thrown forms and a passion for highly decorative surfaces. Their workshop included analysis of thrown form which is finished by turning and/or constructing (pouring pots, covered jars, vases, boxes) along with a consideration of approaches to decorative surfaces.

Pottery Form and Decorative Expression. Linda Sikora and Matthew Metz are both functional potters who have shared a studio in Minnesota for more than 15 years. Linda is also an Associate Professor at Alfred University School of Art and Design in Alfred, NY. While each follows individual artistic inquiries, commonalities in their work include a dedication to the expressive potential and potency of functional pots in visual culture, a love of working with wheel thrown forms and a passion for highly decorative surfaces. Their workshop included analysis of thrown form which is finished by turning and/or constructing (pouring pots, covered jars, vases, boxes) along with a consideration of approaches to decorative surfaces.

Reconsidering Form, Axis, Proportion and Expression in Vessel Making

This workshop included both demonstrations and hands-on efforts, in order to collaborate with participants on constructing new works by rethinking both functional and sculptural elements of pottery forms generated on the wheel. Along with the hands-on construction of work, participants were invited to bring in finished work of their own for critique and discussion. Slides of historical examples were also a part of the workshop discussion.

Color Woodcut Printmaking

The goal of this intensive, exciting workshop was to awaken the possibilities of the woodcut printing process for the beginning and advanced printmaker. This approach is not technically tradition-bound...but inventive, with contemporary, creative methods that can be spontaneous, simple and direct. This expressive medium was introduced and explored through demonstrations and discussions of cutting techniques, oil-base ink and modifiers, and printing by hand as well as using the press. Participants went from designing their images and cutting blocks, to printing several projects using a variety of methods and individual discoveries. The workshop covered hand-carving techniques, use of oil-base inks and modifiers, printing by hand as well as etching press, and safe use of tools and clean up. Clean up was done with alternative solvents - Soysolv or vegetable oil for no fumes.

"The Inward and Outward Gaze: Creating a Self-Portrait": "Critics invariably speak of the gaze in figurative imagery as a way of deciding intent. In this workshop participants examined the gaze and its function in creating resemblance. Making a self-portrait is at once a personal statement and a risk-taking venture. These are fine lines that cross back and forth through the drawing. For some, it is a liberating experience in which you find out how you truly feel about your self. For others the importance of likeness overwhelms everything. Although a photograph will be used, it is just a reminder for your beginning lines. The very strength of a portrait is often its lack of symmetry and the sense of the hand of the artist. A photograph can sometimes freeze the moment, where as a drawing can convey a period of time. I often ask the sitter how they feel about their portrait, as apposed to does it look like you. These portraits will be done in a realistic style that will be based on the decisions of each participant. There are far too many styles in realism to favor one over the other. You simply have to believe in what you are doing. I will demonstrate my style of drawing with color pencils, which is based on multiple layers of color. I have made many portraits of myself over the years and each one is profoundly different."

Lidded Vessels with Michael Connelly

In this three-day workshop, participants approached utilitarian forms of pottery by exploring the contradictions and continuities of mirrored forms. Students analyzed the interior of the ceramic vessel comparatively to its exterior. It is Connelly’s belief that energy in pots can be read in the balance of contradiction and extremes. This contradiction is most easily accessible by studying the relationship between throwing to trimming and the balance between expressing and compressing. In addition, there were discussions and demonstrations on the building of finials, handles, spouts and lids as well as many opportunities for students to develop their own work.  There were opportunities for students to exchange ideas and concerns about their work. All students took what they had learned from the workshop to apply it toward the building of bowls, lidded vessels and teapots.

The Poetic Forms of Video Art

This workshop was an investigation into the various expressive modes of video, from short form, single-channel tapes to large, immersive installations. Mary Lucier gave a brief historic overview, placing video in context of other Avant Garde movements in the ’60s and ’70s and its current status in an overheated international art world. Participants viewed and discussed certain key works by Bill Viola, Cecelia Condit, Gary Hill, and Mary Lucier, among others, and moved on to create their own short-form works. 

Scratching the Surface

This workshop was an introduction to intaglio printing through various methods of drypoint. Intaglio printing, which includes etching and engraving, is done on metal plates with the image held in the lower recesses, beneath the surface of the plate. Workshop participants explored non-acidic approaches to intaglio printing. Intended for beginners and advanced students, various methods were covered, including mezzotint, roulette work, and working with found objects. Emphasis was on linear and tonal approaches. Topics covered were plate preparation, printing press procedures, use of inks and development of content through the medium. Participants came prepared with sketches or photographs for inspiration but were also prepared to push beyond them.

Several Arguments with Photography:

Thorney Lieberman, Photographs 1968-2008 

This workshop examined aspects that are unique to photography, exploring for example the photograph as a slice of time, the translation of three-dimensional space to a two-dimensional representation, and the interpolation of scale (from the "big" world to the "small" print). Traditional issues of composition, framing, quality, and the use of light were addressed, as well as Photoshop®. Lieberman was available throughout - to both critique and coach.

Onsite Painting

In this workshop, artists worked from perception – but without preconceptions, in various available sites. Participants worked either in oils or acrylics as well as with whatever drawing materials they chose.  The goal of the workshop was to foster a directly perceptual way of responding to the site and to use outdoor studies as a basis for further work. There were individual as well as group critiques.

Expressive Figures in Clay

This workshop focused on construction and surface techniques for smaller-scale, figurative ceramic sculpture.  Students explored handbuilding, texturing, glazing methods, surface layers and colors through lecture, demonstration and hands-on participation.  Participants considered personal imagery and how to translate the struggles and joys of everyday life into the figurative form. From experiences as a busy artist and mother, Ms. Wunderlich discussed exhibiting and selling work, dealing with galleries and home studio set up.

Hopewell

David Ellis’ paintings and installations focus on the universality of rhythm and sound, while revealing a keen sensitivity to the work’s environment, and Ellis’ ongoing interest in the boldness and strength of street art’s visual vocabulary. His site-specific installation in the museum’s Switzer Gallery focused on issues pertinent to residents within the Tri-State region. Inspired by Huntington’s geographic location, Ellis’ installation included a stylized West Virginia mural featuring not only hills and hollows, but also the mighty Ohio River.  A 30-foot orchestrated catfish provided Ellis’ trademark emphasis on sound, while a large-scale gas price sign reflected the everyday concerns of people living in the Huntington area.

Poetic Objects

poem- n.

1) A composition designed to convey a vivid and imaginative sense of experience, characterized by the use of condensed language, chosen for its sound and suggestive power as well as for its meaning. 4) A quality that suggests poetry, as in grace, beauty, or harmony: the poetry of the dancer's movements.-The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language

What is a poetic object and why is it important to consider in our work as makers of objects? In this workshop, participants addressed how artists begin to create poetic forms. The work and approaches of various artists and how they create poetic imagery were discussed. Simple exercises were introduced, geared to help participants uncover potential poetic images incubating within their own imaginations. Through demonstrations of sculptural hand-building techniques, as well as technical handouts about earthenware clay and surfaces, a good basis was created for participants to begin fabricating and finishing small, hollow clay sculptures as explorations of their own poetic imagery. Options for the completion and installation of ceramic sculptural work were also addressed.

Capturing Moments with Porcelain – Wet Altering with Aysha Peltz

In this workshop, participants used the potter’s wheel as a tool to make pots that depart from their original, round, wheel thrown form.  Participants explored the possibilities of freshly thrown porcelain by manipulating, texturing and wet altering simple forms into pots.  They then searched for the clay moment when something about the beauty of clay was revealed.  During the three days, participants talked about inspiration, sources and developing ideas.  Demonstrations included: vases, bowls, cups, jars, plates and platters.

Going Into Abstraction

Workshop participants explored and experimented with any painting and drawing materials that lead deeper into abstraction, moving from works based on nature to works improvised after nature to works that are compositions without direct reference to naturalism.  Each workshop participant chose a theme, form, or a subject and followed it through a series of works that revealed the territory of his or her vision. A glance at art from post-impressionism to 20^th century works aided in discovering expressionism, where the non-logical, instinctive and subconscious mind takes over.  In addition, participants examined the techniques in painting designed to let go of the mind’s control over imagery. Each workshop participant discovered his or her own particular strength and what led to his or her own personal expression. Each participant worked toward finding his or her own visual language as it exists in form, line, shape and color.  By the end of the workshop participants understood the process of working in abstraction as a means toward visual thinking, guided by visual sense.

Printmaking: Polymer Photogravure Process

During this printmaking workshop, each participant learned to create his or her own film positives in the computer, burn images into a plastic plate with light and then etch the plate with non-toxic solution.  Finally, participants were able to pull one, two and three color images using the color method developed by the artist to create black and white and full color prints from their images.

Drawing Words & Writing Pictures: a Comics Workshop
In this intensive workshop, Jessica Abel and Matt Madden taught the principles of comics language – a mixture of drawing, writing, and design all marshaled in the service of storytelling. Making comics requires creators to think fluidly of words and images, to smudge the boundaries, and artfully blend the two usually distinct forms of communication to create a synchronized whole.  Drawing words means to think of the letterforms as a part of the visual language of the comic. Writing pictures means to think of the images as carrying meaning much like language does. Comics has been compared to calligraphy in the blending of word and image, and to music notation in the visual notation of time passing and emotion written in ink. Participants learned how to make comics through a series of short activities and exercises, reading, and finally writing and drawing a one-page comic.

Drawing Words & Writing Pictures: a Comics Workshop
In this intensive workshop, Jessica Abel and Matt Madden taught the principles of comics language – a mixture of drawing, writing, and design all marshaled in the service of storytelling. Making comics requires creators to think fluidly of words and images, to smudge the boundaries, and artfully blend the two usually distinct forms of communication to create a synchronized whole.  Drawing words means to think of the letterforms as a part of the visual language of the comic. Writing pictures means to think of the images as carrying meaning much like language does. Comics has been compared to calligraphy in the blending of word and image, and to music notation in the visual notation of time passing and emotion written in ink. Participants learned how to make comics through a series of short activities and exercises, reading, and finally writing and drawing a one-page comic.

The Wildness Within

This demonstration-only workshop gave participants of all skill levels a glimpse of how one can tackle elements of gesture and expression with subtle shifts in line and form. During the course of this large-scale demonstration in which the artist worked with tremendous amounts of clay, participants gathered a range of practical, technical information about working in clay as well as discussion on how to transfer ideas and meaning visually.

The Painted Photograph

As soon as the invention of photography was announced in 1839, people started to hand color the images to make the black-and-white photographs more real.  In an attempt to separate art photography from commercial craft, photographers in the early 20th century drew from traditions in printmaking and painting.  These are just a few examples of the flexibility of the photographic image, its inherent connection to the real and its intriguing relationship with painting.  In this workshop, participants explored that space between photography and painting, truth and fantasy, hand-made and mechanically produced images. Students brought in photographs or made photographs during class. Everyone worked with these images, converting them to a digital format to manipulate them in Photoshop® and then print them out on digital fine art paper. Then everyone used the images as a base for drawing and painting to create something totally new. They explored the history of adding paint and color to photographs and discussed the conceptual and cultural ramifications of these actions.

Boxes and Portfolios

Workshop participants followed a step-by-step process in learning to make the clamshell box and a four-sided portfolio.  These projects required no previous experience or special equipment and the workshop taught the fundamental skills of book arts in the use of tools and adhesives. Aesthetic considerations were discussed to encourage creativity in the use of color, proportion, imagery and materials.  Both bindings are practical solutions for photographers, graphic designers, artists and craftspeople at all levels.

Making Gestural Pots

Ron Meyers presented a three-day workshop and demonstration on making spontaneous and casual useful wheel-thrown pottery. Forms such as cups, platters, lidded jars and teapots were demonstrated and discussed.  Participants also experienced his use of slips and under glazes for surface decoration.

Exploring the Domestic Landscape: Form and Meaning in Pottery

This workshop focused on form and meaning in utilitarian pottery. The form of a cup communicates differently when viewed, when held in the hands in use, and when experienced over time in the home. Alleghany demonstrated numerous pieces and talked about ideas surrounding utilitarian pottery, contemporary issues, historic sources and the use of works in domestic spaces. Each day balanced demonstrations, discussions, and historical and contemporary slides with hands-on making time for the participants.

Visualizing our Memories, Dreams and Wishes: Collaborative Site-Specific Installation 

The workshop idea was to share memories, dreams or wishes and visualize them into a collaborative site-specific installation. The participants were invited to find and bring any abandoned  or discarded materials such as wood, fragments of glass,  broken jewelry or fabric, etc. – to find  their  intrinsic nature and transform them into something  which carried our shared memories, dreams or wishes. Participants explored the possibilities of creation, as well as the boundaries of destruction, rebirth, spirituality, materials, painting, sculpture, etc. This process was guided by the participants’ feelings and intuitions, and served as a way to discover and explore their own creativity. The participants were also encouraged to investigate and use local community tradition, its sensibilities or materials. During the installation process, everyone explored relationships, one with another, in harmony with the whole. The workshop participants’ collaborative work was installed in the Museum’s main hallway after the workshop.

A Sixty-Year Path in the Clay World

This workshop began with a discussion by the artist on his thoughts and feelings about the creative process and how a personal style and approach began to evolve in his work. The forms he made on the potter’s wheel ranged from the purely functional (useful), to more sculptural, decorative vessels. The primary emphasis in this workshop was to illustrate an approach to making pottery that attempts to embody intensive perception, idea development, skills and technical knowledge with materials, processes and the importance of a philosophical and/or aesthetic point of view. The artist encouraged participants to bring examples of their work for a group critique/discussion on the last day.

Conjuring Beauty

During this workshop, participants looked at, drew and painted flowers, plants and leaves. Working together, everyone examined and discussed ways to capture the lines and volumes of plant shapes using only line to define form and gradually adding shading.  The primary technique was ink and acrylic on paper. Everyone experienced drawing with a stick as well as with Japanese brushes. Participants were supplied with a wide variety of Japanese papers to experiment with and draw upon. After learning about varieties of line, everyone worked with ink wash and then moved into color using acrylic, pastel, oil pastel and whatever materials participants wised to bring into the studio. On the last day of the workshop everyone worked together to assemble their smaller experiments into a group collage, forming a larger composition. Both newcomers and experienced painters were welcome: everyone who participated was guaranteed to take home some beautiful drawings. Participants brought in their own houseplants, roadside pickings and flowers to work from during the workshop.

Creating Narrative in the Contemporary Quilt

The history of quilt making is a custom that encompasses many cultures and traditions. Quilts provide warmth, clues to the past, tradition and the opportunity for self-expression. The medium is continually evolving and many artists have pushed the boundaries of the form to explore a variety of new approaches. In 1979 the quilt as an art form was introduced and, as a studio art medium, has continued to intensify and become a part of the gallery and museum environment. How does a quilt become a form of contemporary artistic expression? This workshop considered this question. Workshop participants investigated the ways both subject matter and materials are used to conduct both thoughtful and visually intriguing explorations. Basic surface design, simple construction, image transfer and hand and machine embroidery were explored. Students came prepared with some form of meaningful subject matter. This included sketches, photographs, newspaper clippings, stencils, rubber stamps, small- to medium-sized flat objects (coins, keys, etc.) old fabric, postcards, letters, you name it. Participants were encouraged to take different directions during the course of this workshop.

Going Into Abstraction

Workshop participants explored and experimented with any painting and drawing materials that lead deeper into abstraction, moving from works based on nature to works improvised after nature to works that are compositions without direct reference to naturalism.  Each workshop participant chose a theme, form, or a subject and followed it through a series of works that revealed the territory of his or her vision. A glance at art from post-impressionism to 20^th century works aided in discovering expressionism, where the non-logical, instinctive and subconscious mind takes over.  In addition, participants examined the techniques in painting designed to let go of the mind’s control over imagery. Each workshop participant discovered his or her own particular strength and what led to his or her own personal expression. Each participant worked toward finding his or her own visual language as it exists in form, line, shape and color.  By the end of the workshop participants understood the process of working in abstraction as a means toward visual thinking, guided by visual sense.

Onsite Painting

In this workshop, artists worked from perception – but without preconceptions, in various available sites. Participants worked either in oils or acrylics as well as with whatever drawing materials they chose.  The goal of the workshop was to foster a directly perceptual way of responding to the site and to use outdoor studies as a basis for further work. There were individual as well as group critiques.

Still Lifes

In this workshop, participants concentrated on still life. The format will be simple, dealing with only two or three objects. Students decided which of the following mediums they wished to work in: pencil, pastel, watercolor, acrylic or oil. Students selected and brought objects to use as subjects, or photographs of the objects already arranged.

Ken Aptekar -- During the four-day painting workshop, participants were encouraged to discuss the question of what paintings mean and how a painting produces a meaning. Ken explored his particular responses to these questions with the group and, through dialog, assisted participants in elucidating their own thoughts and reactions. A painting, in Aptekar’s view, produces meaning both from what the artist puts into the work and from the responses of the viewers. How can artists take this understanding into the work they produce? Ken Aptekar is a two-time National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship award winner in Painting. Other awards he has won include Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, Artist-as-Catalyst award, Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award, and a Rockefeller Foundation Artist Residency. Ken received his MFA in 1975 from the Pratt Institute. He has had numerous solo exhibitions and participated in many group exhibitions in the United States and Europe. His works are held in the permanent collections of the Denver Museum of Art, The Jewish Museum, the National Museum of Art, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, as well as many private and corporate collections.

Visualizing our Memories, Dreams and Wishes: Collaborative Site-Specific Installation 

The workshop idea was to share memories, dreams or wishes and visualize them into a collaborative site-specific installation. The participants were invited to find and bring any abandoned  or discarded materials such as wood, fragments of glass,  broken jewelry or fabric, etc. – to find  their  intrinsic nature and transform them into something  which carried our shared memories, dreams or wishes. Participants explored the possibilities of creation, as well as the boundaries of destruction, rebirth, spirituality, materials, painting, sculpture, etc. This process was guided by the participants’ feelings and intuitions, and served as a way to discover and explore their own creativity. The participants were also encouraged to investigate and use local community tradition, its sensibilities or materials. During the installation process, everyone explored relationships, one with another, in harmony with the whole. The workshop participants’ collaborative work was installed in the Museum’s main hallway after the workshop.

Hopewell

David Ellis’ paintings and installations focus on the universality of rhythm and sound, while revealing a keen sensitivity to the work’s environment, and Ellis’ ongoing interest in the boldness and strength of street art’s visual vocabulary. His site-specific installation in the museum’s Switzer Gallery focused on issues pertinent to residents within the Tri-State region. Inspired by Huntington’s geographic location, Ellis’ installation included a stylized West Virginia mural featuring not only hills and hollows, but also the mighty Ohio River.  A 30-foot orchestrated catfish provided Ellis’ trademark emphasis on sound, while a large-scale gas price sign reflected the everyday concerns of people living in the Huntington area.

Speaking Large – Speaking Small
Lesley Dill combined art and letters -- visual and verbal vocabularies. Her work is viscerally powerful and psychologically charged. It has been described as "visionary poetics." The images, though, are not meant to be illustrations of the poetry, any more than the poetry is meant to serve as an explanation for the visual image. Rather, the two are meant to amplify and inflect each other, giving rise to multiple interpretations that make them all the more mysterious and fascinating.

Site-Specific Sapling Sculpture

The result of Patrick Dougherty’s visit to the Huntington Museum of Art was this site-specific sculpture titled “The Real McCoy,” which was a very popular temporary work of art. Many people in the community worked on building the sculpture.

Conjuring Beauty

During this workshop, participants looked at, drew and painted flowers, plants and leaves. Working together, everyone examined and discussed ways to capture the lines and volumes of plant shapes using only line to define form and gradually adding shading.  The primary technique was ink and acrylic on paper. Everyone experienced drawing with a stick as well as with Japanese brushes. Participants were supplied with a wide variety of Japanese papers to experiment with and draw upon. After learning about varieties of line, everyone worked with ink wash and then moved into color using acrylic, pastel, oil pastel and whatever materials participants wised to bring into the studio. On the last day of the workshop everyone worked together to assemble their smaller experiments into a group collage, forming a larger composition. Both newcomers and experienced painters were welcome: everyone who participated was guaranteed to take home some beautiful drawings. Participants brought in their own houseplants, roadside pickings and flowers to work from during the workshop.

"The Inward and Outward Gaze: Creating a Self-Portrait": "Critics invariably speak of the gaze in figurative imagery as a way of deciding intent. In this workshop participants examined the gaze and its function in creating resemblance. Making a self-portrait is at once a personal statement and a risk-taking venture. These are fine lines that cross back and forth through the drawing. For some, it is a liberating experience in which you find out how you truly feel about your self. For others the importance of likeness overwhelms everything. Although a photograph will be used, it is just a reminder for your beginning lines. The very strength of a portrait is often its lack of symmetry and the sense of the hand of the artist. A photograph can sometimes freeze the moment, where as a drawing can convey a period of time. I often ask the sitter how they feel about their portrait, as apposed to does it look like you. These portraits will be done in a realistic style that will be based on the decisions of each participant. There are far too many styles in realism to favor one over the other. You simply have to believe in what you are doing. I will demonstrate my style of drawing with color pencils, which is based on multiple layers of color. I have made many portraits of myself over the years and each one is profoundly different."

The Painted Photograph

As soon as the invention of photography was announced in 1839, people started to hand color the images to make the black-and-white photographs more real.  In an attempt to separate art photography from commercial craft, photographers in the early 20th century drew from traditions in printmaking and painting.  These are just a few examples of the flexibility of the photographic image, its inherent connection to the real and its intriguing relationship with painting.  In this workshop, participants explored that space between photography and painting, truth and fantasy, hand-made and mechanically produced images. Students brought in photographs or made photographs during class. Everyone worked with these images, converting them to a digital format to manipulate them in Photoshop® and then print them out on digital fine art paper. Then everyone used the images as a base for drawing and painting to create something totally new. They explored the history of adding paint and color to photographs and discussed the conceptual and cultural ramifications of these actions.

Several Arguments with Photography:

Thorney Lieberman, Photographs 1968-2008 

This workshop examined aspects that are unique to photography, exploring for example the photograph as a slice of time, the translation of three-dimensional space to a two-dimensional representation, and the interpolation of scale (from the "big" world to the "small" print). Traditional issues of composition, framing, quality, and the use of light were addressed, as well as Photoshop®. Lieberman was available throughout - to both critique and coach.

Printmaking: Polymer Photogravure Process

During this printmaking workshop, each participant learned to create his or her own film positives in the computer, burn images into a plastic plate with light and then etch the plate with non-toxic solution.  Finally, participants were able to pull one, two and three color images using the color method developed by the artist to create black and white and full color prints from their images.

Scratching the Surface

This workshop was an introduction to intaglio printing through various methods of drypoint. Intaglio printing, which includes etching and engraving, is done on metal plates with the image held in the lower recesses, beneath the surface of the plate. Workshop participants explored non-acidic approaches to intaglio printing. Intended for beginners and advanced students, various methods were covered, including mezzotint, roulette work, and working with found objects. Emphasis was on linear and tonal approaches. Topics covered were plate preparation, printing press procedures, use of inks and development of content through the medium. Participants came prepared with sketches or photographs for inspiration but were also prepared to push beyond them.

Color Woodcut Printmaking

The goal of this intensive, exciting workshop was to awaken the possibilities of the woodcut printing process for the beginning and advanced printmaker. This approach is not technically tradition-bound...but inventive, with contemporary, creative methods that can be spontaneous, simple and direct. This expressive medium was introduced and explored through demonstrations and discussions of cutting techniques, oil-base ink and modifiers, and printing by hand as well as using the press. Participants went from designing their images and cutting blocks, to printing several projects using a variety of methods and individual discoveries. The workshop covered hand-carving techniques, use of oil-base inks and modifiers, printing by hand as well as etching press, and safe use of tools and clean up. Clean up was done with alternative solvents - Soysolv or vegetable oil for no fumes.

Monotype: The Painterly Print

Over the past century painters and printmakers have enjoyed the monotype process. Edgar Degas was the greatest innovator and practitioner of this painterly technique; creating images of the theater, dancers, brothels and landscapes. The monotype is an easy and spontaneous process with elegant results. This three-day demonstration and workshop given by the New York-based artist Nanette Carter covered several techniques in monotype printing. A printing press is not needed for this class, making this process user friendly. Ms. Carter brought along some of her own monotype prints to show the group. Participants experienced the immediacy and rich textures that are unique to this form of printmaking.

A Sixty-Year Path in the Clay World

This workshop began with a discussion by the artist on his thoughts and feelings about the creative process and how a personal style and approach began to evolve in his work. The forms he made on the potter’s wheel ranged from the purely functional (useful), to more sculptural, decorative vessels. The primary emphasis in this workshop was to illustrate an approach to making pottery that attempts to embody intensive perception, idea development, skills and technical knowledge with materials, processes and the importance of a philosophical and/or aesthetic point of view. The artist encouraged participants to bring examples of their work for a group critique/discussion on the last day.

Exploring the Domestic Landscape: Form and Meaning in Pottery

This workshop focused on form and meaning in utilitarian pottery. The form of a cup communicates differently when viewed, when held in the hands in use, and when experienced over time in the home. Alleghany demonstrated numerous pieces and talked about ideas surrounding utilitarian pottery, contemporary issues, historic sources and the use of works in domestic spaces. Each day balanced demonstrations, discussions, and historical and contemporary slides with hands-on making time for the participants.

Making Gestural Pots

Ron Meyers presented a three-day workshop and demonstration on making spontaneous and casual useful wheel-thrown pottery. Forms such as cups, platters, lidded jars and teapots were demonstrated and discussed.  Participants also experienced his use of slips and under glazes for surface decoration.

The Wildness Within

This demonstration-only workshop gave participants of all skill levels a glimpse of how one can tackle elements of gesture and expression with subtle shifts in line and form. During the course of this large-scale demonstration in which the artist worked with tremendous amounts of clay, participants gathered a range of practical, technical information about working in clay as well as discussion on how to transfer ideas and meaning visually.

Capturing Moments with Porcelain – Wet Altering with Aysha Peltz

In this workshop, participants used the potter’s wheel as a tool to make pots that depart from their original, round, wheel thrown form.  Participants explored the possibilities of freshly thrown porcelain by manipulating, texturing and wet altering simple forms into pots.  They then searched for the clay moment when something about the beauty of clay was revealed.  During the three days, participants talked about inspiration, sources and developing ideas.  Demonstrations included: vases, bowls, cups, jars, plates and platters.

Poetic Objects

poem- n.

1) A composition designed to convey a vivid and imaginative sense of experience, characterized by the use of condensed language, chosen for its sound and suggestive power as well as for its meaning. 4) A quality that suggests poetry, as in grace, beauty, or harmony: the poetry of the dancer's movements.-The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language

What is a poetic object and why is it important to consider in our work as makers of objects? In this workshop, participants addressed how artists begin to create poetic forms. The work and approaches of various artists and how they create poetic imagery were discussed. Simple exercises were introduced, geared to help participants uncover potential poetic images incubating within their own imaginations. Through demonstrations of sculptural hand-building techniques, as well as technical handouts about earthenware clay and surfaces, a good basis was created for participants to begin fabricating and finishing small, hollow clay sculptures as explorations of their own poetic imagery. Options for the completion and installation of ceramic sculptural work were also addressed.

Expressive Figures in Clay

This workshop focused on construction and surface techniques for smaller-scale, figurative ceramic sculpture.  Students explored handbuilding, texturing, glazing methods, surface layers and colors through lecture, demonstration and hands-on participation.  Participants considered personal imagery and how to translate the struggles and joys of everyday life into the figurative form. From experiences as a busy artist and mother, Ms. Wunderlich discussed exhibiting and selling work, dealing with galleries and home studio set up.

Lidded Vessels with Michael Connelly

In this three-day workshop, participants approached utilitarian forms of pottery by exploring the contradictions and continuities of mirrored forms. Students analyzed the interior of the ceramic vessel comparatively to its exterior. It is Connelly’s belief that energy in pots can be read in the balance of contradiction and extremes. This contradiction is most easily accessible by studying the relationship between throwing to trimming and the balance between expressing and compressing. In addition, there were discussions and demonstrations on the building of finials, handles, spouts and lids as well as many opportunities for students to develop their own work.  There were opportunities for students to exchange ideas and concerns about their work. All students took what they had learned from the workshop to apply it toward the building of bowls, lidded vessels and teapots.

Reconsidering Form, Axis, Proportion and Expression in Vessel Making

This workshop included both demonstrations and hands-on efforts, in order to collaborate with participants on constructing new works by rethinking both functional and sculptural elements of pottery forms generated on the wheel. Along with the hands-on construction of work, participants were invited to bring in finished work of their own for critique and discussion. Slides of historical examples were also a part of the workshop discussion.

Pottery Form and Decorative Expression. Linda Sikora and Matthew Metz are both functional potters who have shared a studio in Minnesota for more than 15 years. Linda is also an Associate Professor at Alfred University School of Art and Design in Alfred, NY. While each follows individual artistic inquiries, commonalities in their work include a dedication to the expressive potential and potency of functional pots in visual culture, a love of working with wheel thrown forms and a passion for highly decorative surfaces. Their workshop included analysis of thrown form which is finished by turning and/or constructing (pouring pots, covered jars, vases, boxes) along with a consideration of approaches to decorative surfaces.

Pottery Form and Decorative Expression

Linda Sikora and Matthew Metz are both functional potters who have shared a studio in Minnesota for more than 15 years. Linda is also an Associate Professor at Alfred University School of Art and Design in Alfred, NY. While each follows individual artistic inquiries, commonalities in their work include a dedication to the expressive potential and potency of functional pots in visual culture, a love of working with wheel thrown forms and a passion for highly decorative surfaces. Their workshop included analysis of thrown form which is finished by turning and/or constructing (pouring pots, covered jars, vases, boxes) along with a consideration of approaches to decorative surfaces.

Awakening the Creative Process: Working toward a Strong and Personal Expression through Clay

During the three days together, participants discovered and investigated the creative process and how important that is to making work unique. Through studio work, slides, critiques and discussion each participant had the opportunity to share perspectives on their own work, the work of others and where they want to go with it. Participants, who are makers, were asked to bring four to six finished pieces, tools for working and a haki brush. The emphasis of the workshop was on the creative process of making rather than on firing. What is it about clay that draws you to the material? How can you use the material as a means of personal expression? What is it that you want to say through the objects that you make? Participants worked toward achieving a clarity and confidence in the objects made which lead to original, personally expressive work

Creating Narrative in the Contemporary Quilt

The history of quilt making is a custom that encompasses many cultures and traditions. Quilts provide warmth, clues to the past, tradition and the opportunity for self-expression. The medium is continually evolving and many artists have pushed the boundaries of the form to explore a variety of new approaches. In 1979 the quilt as an art form was introduced and, as a studio art medium, has continued to intensify and become a part of the gallery and museum environment. How does a quilt become a form of contemporary artistic expression? This workshop considered this question. Workshop participants investigated the ways both subject matter and materials are used to conduct both thoughtful and visually intriguing explorations. Basic surface design, simple construction, image transfer and hand and machine embroidery were explored. Students came prepared with some form of meaningful subject matter. This included sketches, photographs, newspaper clippings, stencils, rubber stamps, small- to medium-sized flat objects (coins, keys, etc.) old fabric, postcards, letters, you name it. Participants were encouraged to take different directions during the course of this workshop.

Boxes and Portfolios

Workshop participants followed a step-by-step process in learning to make the clamshell box and a four-sided portfolio.  These projects required no previous experience or special equipment and the workshop taught the fundamental skills of book arts in the use of tools and adhesives. Aesthetic considerations were discussed to encourage creativity in the use of color, proportion, imagery and materials.  Both bindings are practical solutions for photographers, graphic designers, artists and craftspeople at all levels.

Drawing Words & Writing Pictures: a Comics Workshop
In this intensive workshop, Jessica Abel and Matt Madden taught the principles of comics language – a mixture of drawing, writing, and design all marshaled in the service of storytelling. Making comics requires creators to think fluidly of words and images, to smudge the boundaries, and artfully blend the two usually distinct forms of communication to create a synchronized whole.  Drawing words means to think of the letterforms as a part of the visual language of the comic. Writing pictures means to think of the images as carrying meaning much like language does. Comics has been compared to calligraphy in the blending of word and image, and to music notation in the visual notation of time passing and emotion written in ink. Participants learned how to make comics through a series of short activities and exercises, reading, and finally writing and drawing a one-page comic.

Drawing Words & Writing Pictures: a Comics Workshop
In this intensive workshop, Jessica Abel and Matt Madden taught the principles of comics language – a mixture of drawing, writing, and design all marshaled in the service of storytelling. Making comics requires creators to think fluidly of words and images, to smudge the boundaries, and artfully blend the two usually distinct forms of communication to create a synchronized whole.  Drawing words means to think of the letterforms as a part of the visual language of the comic. Writing pictures means to think of the images as carrying meaning much like language does. Comics has been compared to calligraphy in the blending of word and image, and to music notation in the visual notation of time passing and emotion written in ink. Participants learned how to make comics through a series of short activities and exercises, reading, and finally writing and drawing a one-page comic.

The Poetic Forms of Video Art

This workshop was an investigation into the various expressive modes of video, from short form, single-channel tapes to large, immersive installations. Mary Lucier gave a brief historic overview, placing video in context of other Avant Garde movements in the ’60s and ’70s and its current status in an overheated international art world. Participants viewed and discussed certain key works by Bill Viola, Cecelia Condit, Gary Hill, and Mary Lucier, among others, and moved on to create their own short-form works. 

The Art of Pulp Painting

Participants began by creating beautiful sheets of handmade paper from different types of fibers. Demonstrations included how to make shaped sheets and watermarks. Next, the class learned to paint with finely beaten pulp on top of newly formed sheet, using brushes, squeeze bottles, and stencils. These sheets were either finished into works of art, or could be used later for drawing, printmaking, artist books, collage, etc.

Perceptual Engineering: The Fine Art of Seeing

In this workshop, participants worked to cultivate a keen eye for shape and form, through exploring hidden forms in everyday objects. Those in the workshop challenged their sense of patience while heightening their ability to recognize cross-cultural similarities in forms and patterns. Participants arrived at the workshop with an intricate mechanical object that can be disassembled with hand tools such as a drill, screw driver, and pliers. The object was to be non-digital and could be an appliance or musical instrument no larger than 3' x 3' x 3'.