Once we all got on a roll, much of our time is spent generating elements of the artists’ installations. The groups have each appointed a facilitator, not necessarily a group leader, but someone who keeps them on track, makes punch lists, takes notes, makes sketches and meets with me about their progress. These artists are so self-motivated, and a vibrant group to work with!
We’ve been given permission by the park to create our installations on an upper plateau over looking the water. It’s about a 15 minute hike through the woods, and some old roads to get there. One collective is already hauling large branches up to the site to begin creating a small structure.
Our little loop trail that we are working in looks like an grassy meadow, but when we go deeper into the grass and the trees, we find old foundations and remnants of the military base, crumbling and disappearing back into nature. As a group, we’ve talked a lot about creating a sense of discovering, pulling the hiker/viewer into hidden places with little tell-tale art pieces that can lead them to the artists’ larger installations.
I’ve always found that teaching crocheting is a very easy process. Teaching a group of four year olds last year really taught me the easiest, most basic way to get people doing it. Two of these high school artists knew how to crochet when they arrived, but everyone took to it, dove in and began to generate things for their installation plans. Again, I’m so impressed and thrilled with the adventurous choices these artists are making. Each group already seems to have a strong aesthetic that mirrors something of their personalities.
Yarn made from old clothes
We get going pretty quickly. First, the young artists formed their groups by drawing their name tags out of box. I did a quick demo on how to make “yarn” from old clothes, and they got to work.
Hideous fabric can sometimes make the best yarn
After that, I put them through an onslaught of images in a “slide show” (I can’t stop calling it that) of Eco artists, site-specific installations, DIY projects, guerrilla art, and Craftivism. I’ll be posting links to all the artists I shared with them in the blog roll. A lot of these movements have overlapping concerns, and I want these students to grasp that just by taking the time to make something by hand, they are making a statement. They also have been given a really strong platform to express their ideas, working in public at a state park. Most important to me is that they also understand they don’t have to interject a message artificially into their work, that just by getting the viewer to slow down, observe their surrounding, to experience the site in an alternative way, that is enough and important.
Then the collectives met and were coming up with fantastic ideas, even before we had been to the site! I was blown away. Sketches were happening even before I could make the suggestion that they would be a good idea!
Studio 205
The Studio is filled with materials, giant bags and bags of old clothes I culled from the Goodwill outlet in Seattle, as well as many many bags of scraps from previous classes, and donated yarn. Yarn is un-knotted from the massive knots that happen when yarn seems to mingle. And I can’t help but put the fabric into monochromatic piles. I think it makes the clothes look less like a thriftstore and helps reveal the luscious possibilities of the abundance of fabric.
