Workshop | Gesture and Matter : Reclaiming Creative Agency

This course is part of a long-weekend workshop, beginning on Thursday, April 16th and ending on Sunday, April 19th. Class sessions run Thursday 7-9pm, Friday 9:30 am – 12:30 pm & 2 pm – 5 pm, Saturday 9:30 am – 12:30 pm & 2 pm – 5 pm with Open Studio Saturday 6pm – 9pm and additional programming Thursday and Sunday.

Gesture and Matter strips creativity and artmaking down to its essences – your body, your imagination, and whatever you find in front of you to work with. This rigorously playful workshop invites participants into a way of making that begins in your intuitive knowing and stays connected to the material world. Through embodied mark-making, the use of reclaimed materials, and our own innate spirit of meaning-making, we’ll practice art as unfettered play.
This workshop seeks to loosen the grip on preciousness and perfection, to gain a deeper relationship with our creative selves. We’ll explore the works of artists who explored materiality and relationship between body and landscape, and make connections to our own creative work as we re-envision our artistic expressions as in the flow of all creative life. We’ll work with reclaimed and unconventional materials, rethink our relationship to “failure,” and utterly reconsider what makes an art-making instrument. A torn crumpled piece of paper becomes our “fresh sheet.” Walking becomes a form of drawing. The landscape becomes a surface. Frustration becomes information. Come ready to get your hands dirty. To break your medium before you use it. To taste and see what happens when we invite the Unknown into a co-creative relationship.
This workshop is an invitation to step outside our old and frustrating ideas of what art is supposed to look like or otherwise conform to be—and remember creativity as a lived, embodied, playful act of being.

What creative modalities are used in this course?

Several quick sketches and drawings, collage and assemblages, an earthwork (objects made with natural materials), messy paintings made from whatever, photos as documentation, and perhaps a short video performance.

What will class time be like?

Each session will begin with a short (10-15 minute) presentation on some really fascinating artists (Cy Twombley, Eva Hesse, Richard Long, Ana Mendieta) and art movements (Post-Minimalism, Arte Povera) and focus on their creative process. Then we’ll start making – Short creative exercises playing with materials at hand, trying things, making sculpture from found material based on improvised doodles, lots of variety!

Will I need to work outside of class?

Participants should be able to finish their projects during the class sessions.

Do I need experience to take this class?

Nope! The kinds of “artist” experience one typically thinks of can actually be a hindrance to our creative flow. We set aside these notions to invite a sense of emergence and co-creating.

What do I need to bring to class?

Participants can bring a journal and any materials they’d like to experiment with. Comfortable clothing and outdoor shoes that will get dirty. Phone for documentation/video making. Optional: a “failed”, stalled, or frustrating artwork or project.