January 20 -- collage workshop

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On to the actuall collage workshop with Laura Cater-Woods.  Laura is an enthusiastic, engaged, and interesting teacher.  She does a good job of connecting with her students, and has a knack for putting her finger on what they mean to say, and helping them say it clearly.

My buddy K. bought this excellent long length of sewn-together sari scraps when we were in Cincinnati last spring.

She shared!

The text is about going to a yoga retreat where they had great food.  I thought that was appropriate, as I have started a yoga class, and I love great food....

Don't you love this scrap of silk?  Nothing better than hot pink and orange, in the depths of January!

Laura brought all sorts of interesting materials for us to use, including some tea bags. The tea dried in the bags, and then Laura took them apart and ironed them.

I chose one I liked, and glued it (just across the top edge) to a 4x6 card, and it was done. Laura thought so, too. When she came around looking at what we'd been doing, she picked it up and said "This is perfect! Mat it, sign it, frame it!"

Her own work is very much more dense and layered. I think it is excellent that she has the capacity to appreciate work that is not in the vernacular she prefers. This is a rare and wonderful quality in anyone, and is especially to be hoped for in a teacher (but not always found, alas).

I'm not fond of working in an en-masse and public setting, but I diddled a bit.  I'd thought I would work just with black and white, with different densities of print for different values, but somehow the orange found its way in......

The text in the prev NOT significant.  :-)  I was looking for dense print, and this drug warning thing was what I found...........



You know how I love light and shadow. This sliver of paper, snipped from the side of a little collage, curled beguilingly.......

(as always, click on an image to see a larger version -- the shadows show up better in the bigger image)

Laura liked this, too, and after I'd talked to her just a little about how I like light and shadow, she told me that was my bliss, and that I could work with light and shadow for the rest of my life and never plumb them.  (You can see what I mean about her deftly putting her finger on a student's pulse point....)



This is tiny -- it fit handily on a 4x6 card. I am pondering how one would manage to get this sort of effect in a size big enough to be seen more easily...........  The multiple light sources really enhance the appeal of the shadows.............

It may be the case that I "just" photograph these.  Though then the potential added attraction of motion is lost................

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