How many yellows can you find on a walk to the beach?

The first portion of this class will help train your eyes to use color as your primary resource for collecting found materials.  The light here in Costa Rica is much more intense then you might be used to which makes the colors around you come alive.  The use of color schemes inspired by this beautiful sea coast will be introduced and guidelines on how to organize  choices of materials using color intensity, gradation and contrast to create compositions.  Close consideration to design elements such as unity, dialogue, emphasis and proximity will become renewed concepts when relating them to found objects integrated with paint.  Follow your artistic instinct to create a dialogue between collage and painting and take time to soak up the radiance around you.

Experimental Layers:  Surface Design, Photo Transfers and Collage  with Paper and Fabric

This is my signature collage class offering artists experimental approaches to combining paper, fabric, photography and collage.  We will begin with producing  a variety of patterned and layered papers using Surface Design techniques that are commonly applied to fabric such as Batik, Shibori, application of Dyes and discharge, printing and stamping.  We will incorporate  photo transfer techniques on paper and lightweight fabrics utilizing an ink jet printer.  You will then be introduced to a variety of collage techniques  combining fabric and your patterned papers using acrylic medium. Demonstrations of a unique process of stiffening stretched silk to collage on a transparent surface as well as the creation of small “design packages” that can be combined together in innovative ways.

Text as Image – Image as Text

This class is for people interested in the possibilities for combining type, writing, and images into cohesive projects.  We will work with text both as image and as concept.  Working with stencils and scale, we will construct  spontaneous compositions with words and letters by drawing upon what lies beneath normal cognition in an uninhibited way .  Given language that is unfamiliar, such as spanish allows intuition to enter your work.  Text will also be approached in a 3 -dimensional form using mixed materials to build letters and words. Follow your inspiration and create individual projects incorporating text, language and image amongst the beautiful natural environment of Tamarindo

Begin with directed drawing exercises using unusual new art materials such as wax with a tjanting tool, scratch board paper,  carbon paper and natural objects with  ink onto surfaces like waxed paper, frosted and clear acetate, tracing paper, plexiglass, gampi paper, vinyl, china silk and silk organza.  Gestural mark making exercises will respond to the beautiful landscape surrounding you in Costa Rica.  Experimental Collage methods will be the next step to combine drawings with acrylic medium, clear or frosted tape, glue, staples or stitching to create unexpected and layered images.

An ipad or similar tablet device will be used with the artist APP called “brushes”.  This will be the initial tool used for generating imagery in this workshop. The ipad will be used as a camera to capture the beautiful landscape around you in Tamarindo.  No experience is necessary to engage in the photography, drawing, painting, layering and collage applications that “Brushes” can offer you to combine. Images from your ipad.  The designs will then be transferred on to  paper, fabric and other surfaces using photographic transfer paper.

Come share my studio with me! Use this experience of “art making decadence” in this exotic location to rejuvenate and inspire, a place of restoration to generate fresh ideas and offer new approaches to thinking intuitively and making art within a small group of artists.  Come with projects in mind that you would like to work on and have the opportunity to develop your vision and receive input from others that may inspire new directions.  Soak in the environment and make art!  Group discussions sharing our art making processes and inspirations will promote dynamic creative dialogues that will be integrated in to each day.

for 2015 schedule click here