Painting on Silk
Silk endlessly accepts color. What is required from us? To begin, we need to find a balance between honing our skills and knowing when to let go. Many techniques will be demonstrated, but always the question remains: when do I push on and when do I let the materials speak for themselves? Full support will be given during the process of exploration. The goal is for each student to find their own artistic uniqueness in this ancient painting medium. Registered students will be given a list of materials to bring. Fee for additional materials: $20.
Suzanne Punch BFA in Painting from Cleveland Institute of Art in 1984, has taught workshops in Santa Fe, NM, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz and Mendocino in California, and at the Society of Illustrators in New York. Painting for the fashion industry in New York, Suzanne has done prototypes and production for Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan, Marchesa, Tracy Feith, Theory, JF and Son, as well as Premiere Vision in Paris. Her work has been exhibited in Tokyo and in galleries across the USA and may be seen in Susan Louise Moyer's books on silk painting.
www.suzannepunch.com
Pottery: From your own Hand
Simple mud, formless potential, waiting humbly to be transformed. Touch the clay, listen to the clay, move the clay. There is a way where the hand, head, heart and eye are connected as a whole. Pinch a bowl with your eyes closed, center the clay on the wheel with your heart open, build a world from the touch of your hand. For students of all levels.
Sylvia March, BA, Sarah Lawrence College and MA, Kyoto City University of Fine Arts, Japan, taught ceramics at Sarah Lawrence for many years. She has conducted craft exhibitions and has sold her works in NYC and nationally. Sylvia, retired from teaching Ceramics at the Brearley School for 25 years, now has special classes in her home studio in Palisades NY.
www.sylviamarch.com
Still-in-Life: Oil Painting
Representing the "Still-Life" may hint at the wish behind this painting exploration. To paint what is in front of us whether a flower or its vase, what questions, help us find our way? Is it the color, the value, the drawing, an edge? Is it how I am at this moment? Am I really looking or am I painting what I think it looks like? This oil painting workshop will use the reflective quality of still-life painting to both exercise the practice of oil painting and the quality attention necessary for a sensitive representation of our world.
This class will be co-taught by life long friends Nancy Guzik and Rose Frantzen. Both artists will demonstrate and paint alongside students, in that way, allowing a sharing of their choices and struggles in the moment. In addition, Rose and Nancy will be sensitive to connecting to each student with their needs and problems. Sometimes individual attention will be given with words and new questioning, at times visual demonstrations, and sometimes the needed time and silence.
*Students at all levels of development are welcome. There is both a materials fee of $75 and a supply list for this class. Supply lists will be sent after the initial deposit or registration is finalized.
Materials Fee: $75
Rose Frantzen is regarded by her peers as an Artist's Artist. In her 25 years as a full time artist, she has also gained the attention and respect of collectors across the United States and overseas. Her community project, "Portrait of Maquoketa", which is comprised of 180 portraits of her townspeople, was exhibited at the Smithsonian Institute's National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C., from November 2009 until July 2010. The project is the subject of a hardbound book that was created to accompany the exhibition. She is currently being represented by Old City Hall Gallery, Maquoketa, Iowa. You may see her work on the internet at www.OldCityHallGallery.com.
Nancy Guzik,
an award winning artist whose background developed in the classical style of painting continues to search and explore new ways to celebrate her experience of life through art. In addition to appearing in noteworthy exhibitions, her paintings grace both private and public collections, and captivate art lovers worldwide. As one of the directors of the Putney Painters in Vermont, she has helped transform the careers of many aspiring painters.
Nancy invites you to visit her website -- www.NancyGuzik.com
Acting: Creating a Character
The inner/outer nature of character is explored using exercises in observation, line-learning, script analysis and group work. Performance is not required but, for those interested, the weekend could culminate in the showing of short scenes and monologues. Actors and non-actors of all levels are welcome. Telephone interview with instructor is requested.
Barbara Spiegel, a NY-based veteran stage/television/film actress, currently plays Judge Doremus on the television series Law & Order. She is a former member of Lincoln Center Repertory and had her own theater program for 17 years at the New School. She continues private coaching for acting professionals and nonprofessionals She is a lifetime member of the Actor’s Studio.
Seeing with Digital Photography
How does an image come into being? Where does it come from and how does it make itself known? Does it find its own shape? And once a print has been made, how do we explore the image further? Digital photography is the means. A basic discussion of technical digital concepts will be covered and each participant will need a digital camera. To qualify, a conversation with one of the instructors is required.
Lee B. Ewing is the Sculpture Photographer for the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and studied with Minor White.
David Heald is the Chief Photographer for the Guggenheim Museum in New York, NY; his photographs of the Cistercian Abbeys in France were published in 2000 in the book Architecture of Silence by Harry N. Abrams, NY.
The Art of Storytelling
Peggy Pettitt teaches a step-by-step process of creating, writing, and performing original material. Students can transform real life experiences into rich theater skills that bring value to cultural traditions and/or historical information gathered through folklore, songs, and improvisations. Explore your own story from many points of view, or find the way you wish to express it.
Peggy has been honored by the William Hodson Senior Center, and Elders Share the Arts for her "Commitment to the Art of Storytelling that transforms lives and communities".
Peggy Pettitt/Master Teacher facilitates scores of community-based, university, and public school groups working in partnership with arts organizations to present their original stories in performance.
As performance director of Elders Share the Arts, she founded and presented a group of New York City's finest older adult storytellers, the Pearls of Wisdom. Recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and New York City's Arts-In-Education Roundtable Award for Sustained Achievement, she continues to create theater and storytelling work with diverse groups of all ages for numerous organizations, including Age Exchange of London, New York University, Naropa, Touchstone Theatre, Performance Space 122 and Central Park East 1 Public School. A Fulbright Fellowship to Senegal, West Africa culminated in orignial plays entitled The Spirit Factor and In The Spirit - For Real based on living history in West Africa and the art of story. Voyage , Ms. Pettitt's most recent work traces American history through its blues and spiritual heritage, and will be presented in French Guyane in 2011.
Listening to Bach
A hands-on exploration of selected piano music written by J.S. Bach
We will immerse ourselves in individual melodies and combinations of melodies until the whole emerges. We will be practicing alone and together, listening to ouselves and each other, improvising, reading about Bach's life, and discussing our thoughts and experiences. We hope to shed light on such subjects as: Listening for the will of the tone. What is the relationship between listening and expression? Can we allow the music to speak, without imposing anything?
Some piano skills are required, although other instruments will be considered. Please email fbicket@gmail.com before signing up.
Fiona Bicket is a pianist and piano teacher whose background includes classical, jazz, and Dalcroze Eurythmics training. Currently she teaches with an emphasis on listening and touch, and studies with Sophia Rosoff. Her approach has been shaped by a long period of study with James Chrestensen.
Jewelry Design
Jewelry making is an ancient art form The desire for self-embellishment stretches back to our most ancient cultures. The Sumerians and then the Egyptians back in 3,000 BC began transforming natural materials into objects to wear. They developed styles and techniques, many of which are still used today.
In this class we will study form, color and texture, while exploring their relationship, as each of us creates a unique piece of jewelry
A variety of materials in stone, glass, fiber and silver will be available and each student will be encouraged to develop and search for his/her own style.
No experience necessary Materials fee $55
Joanne Espinosa is an experienced weaver, beader and teacher. She is skilled in hand and machine knitting, crochet and embroidery incorporating the use of beads. She has a BA from the University of Virginia and an MA in Education from NYU and has operated Joanne Designs since 1995.
www.joanneadorns.com/
Color
What do you want to learn about color? In this class you will be offered a possibility of learning how to feel colors not just through intuition but through understanding the components of color as well. This experience makes one realize how one's level of perception can be expanded. For ease of study, we will all work together using acrylic paint which I will supply.
William Tapley did post-graduate studies at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris and The Royal Academy of Art, London. He has taught Color at The School of Visual Arts in NYC since 1966 and continues to paint in NYC and NY State.
Haiku
Haiku, from its Japanese origins in the Zen koan to its embrace of nature, is the practice of being in the moment and crafting the experience into words. This three line form can become an avenue for renewing our connection and intimacy with ourselves and the world. We will study the structure of haiku by making haiku with an eye toward bringing this practice into our daily living.
Jim Handlin, Ed.D., a classical language scholar, wrote his doctoral dissertation at Columbia University on haiku and creative leadership. He has a poem in marble in Manhattan's Penn Station alongside poems of William Carlos Williams and Walt Whitman. His haiku have been internationally published and he has received many haiku awards. Author of two books of haiku (one of them a prize winner), he is a former judge of Japan Airlines Children's Haiku Contest, the largest haiku contest in the world. Jim is also the recipient of three New Jersey State Council on the Arts Grants for his poetry which has been published in numerous anthologies and journals. In his spare time Jim has been the Headmaster of numerous schools, and now he guides the Woodstock Day School in Woodstock, New York.
Landscape Painting
With just a little pigment and a lot of water, watercolor provides remarkable fluidity, economy and spontaneity. A few brush strokes with graded wash... and land, water, and sky emerge into a landscape of great depth and space. As the paint dries, dry-brush details in the foreground secure the sense of being there in time and place. A nature walk will begin our exploration.
Materials Fee: $36
Benton Grant, BS, University of Pennsylvania and MFA, Columbia University, is a painter and a landscape architect. He finds an almost symbiotic relation between these two fields and experiences. Landscape painting is a tangible way of appreciating both.
Tanning and other indigenous skills
Reaching back in time, we learn to produce soft, supple, water-resistant hides without the use of toxic chemicals. Using all natural materials, we will rediscover the skills of indigenous peoples around the world who relied on tanned hides for clothing, footwear, bedding, shelter and more. Today, we can revive the tradition of brain tanning, honoring the spirit of the animal by the respectful use of its remains.
Tom Manning is an Agricultural Engineer who designs greenhouses and renewable energy systems. He and his wife Ruth now engage in this ancient craft together and with their children.
Singing: Beatles and Ballads
Our time together will be an exploration of the body and how sounds are produced. We'll work to feel more about how harmonies are created and how chord structures and melodies affect us. We'll try to capacitate feeling as we express songs in several genres, as well as Beatles and Ballads. As a group and in front of others, we'll support each other in multiple part rounds, cannons and songs.
If you can hold a tone, and want to relax, come and join us.
Andrea Cohen-Kiener is the spiritual leader of Congregation Pnai Or of Central Connecticut and the director of a roving band of singers known as the Occasional Chorus. She is also a community organizer and rabbi from West Hartford, CT.
Body/Mind Integration
Through the Alexander Technique, Authentic Movement, Qigong, and T'ai Chi, here is an opportunity to experience four paths of mind/body integration that can provide a new sense of balance and presence in our hectic lives. This is a chance to delve deeply into a specific modality, or try a few different forms while having a nurturing/ relaxing experience. Individual attention will be given.
Germaine Fraser is a Registered Nurse, holistic board certified Reflexologist, Authentic Movement (AM) facilitator and clinical Aromatherapy practitioner. She has been practicing QiGong for 17 years and uses it and other bodywork skills in a hospital setting and in private practice. Classes will delve into learning well one form and working with Qigong healing sounds, breathing techniques and visual meditations. Some history and Qigong's relationship to 5 Element Theory will be reviewed.