The road to Jamestown is complete. I have spent this week in my home away from homes; Jamestown, North Dakota. I love the kids of this town, and I walked into the art center to an awesome group of students.
The class is only half over and I am teaching these 14 students, linoleum cuts, stamp printing, gyotaku fish printing, screen printing and mono printing. I could write a series of blogs on each printmaking technique, and write even more about the strategies of teaching these techniques to kids of all different ages. My strategy is to teach the concept and explain the potential uses and the potential visual outcomes for each method and then turns the kids loose. There would be benefit in also hand holding kids through a very step by step process to achieve a particular outcome as well.
Enjoy the photos. I am glad to swing back into Jamestown. Next week I attend the International Music Camp, and teach an art program to middle school ages kids. The week following I return to Jamestown to paint a huge mural at the old nearby folks home.
A special thanks to everyone who took pictures, video and participated. The Maine Draw A Thon 3: Bring our war dollars home was a great event. I posted a very detailed report about my thought about the third Draw A Thon. This follow up post includes video and pictures posted from other members of the draw a thon effort.
The next phase of the draw-a-thon series will feature a mass production of images/posters. I cannot wait to continue the process. I am hoping to have some new designs cut and ready to be screen printed. Enjoy the photos. All of this media has been added to first Draw A Thon post.
It is quite clear that Draw A Thon events are my favorite days of the month (if not the entire year). Luckily for me, Kenny Cole, Natasha Mayers, and the other artists have accepted me into their events with open arms here in Portland. Why do I love draw-a-thon events? First of all, I get an excuse to spend an entire day creating art with other talented artists, second of all lunch and breakfast is provided and usually consists of incredible food from Local Spouts (this time included the best roasted beet sandwhich I've ever eaten), third of all I get to interact with really inspiring people, and fourth all of the creation is in support of something I really believe in: BRING OUR WAR DOLLARS HOME.
There is a handful of younger artists like Oran Suta and Brian Reeves who I have really enjoyed getting to meet. Brian, like myself, is big into political controversies and every time I happen to be in earshot of him he is talking passionately about something I am also interested in.
I am also surrounded by a number of successful well-known artists like Robert Shetterly, Natasha Mayers and Kenny Cole. All whose work is incredibly inspirational to me since moving to Maine and discovering their work. I was fortunate to flip through a book of Natasha's work at the Draw A Thon and was simply blown away by her work. As we transformed the Portland Public Library into an art factory, we were surrounded by a gallery of Robert Shetterly's amazing portrait works. You can see a few in the background of the photos below, and they are simply fantastic. Kenny Cole is an artist who I look up to both for his visual work, and also for his ability to turn his ideas into larger events and spectacles.
Barbara Loring, a teacher and an artist that works both 2-d and digitally, has been a great person to meet for her diverse skills and ability to pass on her knoweldge. I expressed interest in kombucha last draw-a-thon and she brought a kombucha mother and a list of hand drawn instructions for me to this draw-a-thon. I am so excited! I got to speak with Al Crichton from Waterfall Arts, and we talked about my proposal to do an art hunt in Belfast, Maine. Nora Tryon helped run the screen printing process and made my first screen printing experience smooth and educational...she knows her stuff! And I cannot forget my collaborator for this Draw-A-Thon Laurie Proctor-Lefebvre, who also drew my portrait last draw-a-thon. Laurie has an inspirational passion for art and is a really fun person to create art with. We made some really neat screen prints together.
The more important thing about all of these inspirational people listed above is that beyond being talented; they are kind, funny, and great to be around. I also apologize to the people whose names I forget, like the gals from Code Pink and a handful of other talented people. I just love spending my time with these people.
Here are some photos of the event:
Working backwards, here was the end result of my screenprint/hand painted poster I painted about 12 different posters in different ways Brian Reeves working on his Toxic Waste poster Barbara Loring (left) and Nicole pulling off a great print Photos of photos were taken, to make sure we didnt miss anything Nora and Laurie work on setting up the screenprint Robert Shetterly drawing his composition Barbara and her teammate cutting out positives for the relief block Oran Suta exacto knifing his great 'money for solar power, not for fire power' design How it looked to the Library goers A room full of motivated and hard working artists = progress
