Creative Classes

Class Description:

Flow State is a one-day workshop that explores the connections between intuitive painting, mindfulness meditation, and community. Participants will learn how to combine abstract painting and drawing skills with mindfulness meditation techniques and will explore how this hybrid practice can be used to hold space for our Selves and each other. Participants will work individually and as a group using acrylic paint, pastels, paper and canvas. This class connects to abstract works in the Denver Art Museum collection, including pieces by artists like Mark Bradford, Elaine de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, Sam Gilliam, Shinique Smith, and Sonia Gechtoff.

What to Expect:

Students will be led into the galleries at the beginning of the workshop to observe and discuss one work. The selected work will serve as an introduction to and inspiration for the exercises that will be practiced during the day, which will include guided meditations, gestural painting prompts, and group reflections. Students can expect to:

• Be guided through various meditations as a group with visualization and mindfulness-based techniques.

• Practice guided, individual meditative painting/drawing exercises on paper.

• Create a large-scale, group painting on canvas.

• Reflect on the day’s work in a group discussion at the end of each workshop.

Participants will walk away with a series of personal abstract paintings on paper, a set of creative meditations to use in everyday life, and the opportunity to co-create a large-scale group painting with others. The large group painting will require participants to work on the same surface at the same time in some instances.

No prior painting or drawing skills are required. No experience with meditation or mindfulness required. This class is open to all skill levels.

Class Make-up Day Policy:

If a class or workshop needs to be cancelled due to inclement weather or teacher illness, a “make-up” day will be scheduled on a FRIDAY or SATURDAY as the educator’s schedule allows.

Materials:

All materials will be provided for students and are included in the price of this workshop.

Educator:

Visual artist, Sarah Darlene, explores the functionality of abstraction through a feminine, queer, and contemporary perspective. Her work investigates the intersections of painting, social practice, and meditation and their collective ability to promote self-reflection, cathartic healing, and true social change. Palmeri holds a BFA in Painting and Drawing from Louisiana State University, and an Executive Certificate of Nonprofit Management from the University of Notre Dame. She has been a member of Strangers Art Collective since 2015 and is a former Artist in Residence at RedLine Contemporary Art Center in Denver. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and Iceland.

www.sarahdarlene.com

Class Description:

Students will learn how to make paper from recycled materials. The class will experiment with various mediums to create different textures and colors of paper that can be used for cards, tags, and artwork. Participants will leave class with a stack of custom recycled paper.

What to Expect:

This class will focus on small experiments with papermaking from various materials such as recycled paper, fabric scraps, newspaper, tissue paper, etc. Students will also experiment with add-ins like coffee grounds, pressed flowers, and crayon shavings. This will allow for a lot of experimentation. No prior knowledge is needed.

Class Cancellation Policy:

If a class or workshop needs to be cancelled due to inclement weather or teacher illness, a “make-up” day will be scheduled on a SATURDAY as the educator’s schedule allows.

Materials:

All materials will be provided for students and are included in the price for this workshop.

Educator:

Elizabeth Truskin is an artist from Denver who specializes in portraits and mixed-media paintings. Her work is featured in galleries along the front range and consistently at Next Gallery in Lakewood, CO. Truskin teaches art classes for Denver Public Schools, Redline Contemporary Arts Center, Denver Recreational Centers, and the Denver Art Museum.

https://www.instagram.com/elizabeth_truskin_studios_/

Class Description:

In this workshop, students will learn how to wet felt a surface using techniques of agitating wool with soap and water. Each student will create an image on their wet-felted surface, using wet felting and needle felting techniques. This imagery can range from abstract colors to a landscape, or an imaginary world. With the help of the instructor, the student is open to making an original felted piece with the option of working with a large range of colors.

What to Expect:

During class time, students will create from one to two wet felted and needle felted works. Students do not need any prior knowledge to attend this class. The project involves active movement and agitation of wool using various materials.

Class Cancellation Policy:

If a class or workshop needs to be cancelled due to inclement weather or teacher illness, a “make-up” day will be scheduled on a SATURDAY as the educator’s schedule allows.

Materials:

All materials will be provided for students and are included in the price for this workshop.

Educator:

Samara Johnson is a Laramie-based interdisciplinary artist and educator at University of Wyoming and various locations across the Front Range in Colorado. She was born and raised in Moose Pass, Alaska, and received her Master of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting at University of Colorado at Boulder and her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting at Sonoma State University. She currently creates dimensional wall works, which often include materials and imagery that speak to the interconnectedness of humans as emotional animals. This interconnectedness is portrayed as visceral revealing of the body, attesting to the importance of the body's vulnerable nervous system and how it becomes a translator for the body's environment to the inside of a person. Johnson's work has been exhibited across the nation at University of New Mexico - Valencia, Union Hall in Denver, Colorado, University of Colorado Art Museum, and Healdsburg Center for the Arts in Healdsburg, California.

samaratjohnson.com

 Class Description:

Flow State is a 4-week abstract painting class that explores the connections between intuitive painting, mindfulness meditation, and community. Participants will learn how to combine abstract painting and drawing skills with mindfulness meditation techniques. Each class will present different ways this hybrid practice can be used to hold space for ourselves and each other. Participants will work individually and as a group using acrylic paint, pastels, paper and canvas. This class will connect to abstract works in the Denver Art Museum collection, including pieces by artists like Mark Bradford, Elaine de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, Sam Gilliam, Shinique Smith, and Sonia Gechtoff.

What to Expect:

Students will be led into the galleries at the beginning of each workshop to observe and discuss one work. The selected work will serve as an introduction to and inspiration for the exercises that will be practiced that day, which will include guided meditations, gestural painting prompts, and group reflections. While each week will be a different experience, students can expect to:

? Be guided through various meditations as a group with visualization and mindfulness-based techniques.

? Practice guided, individual meditative painting/drawing exercises on paper.

? Create a large-scale, group painting on canvas.

? Reflect on the day’s work in a group discussion at the end of each workshop.

Participants will walk away with a series of personal abstract paintings on paper, a set of creative meditations to use in everyday life, and the opportunity to co-create a large-scale group painting with others. The large group painting will require participants to work on the same surface at the same time in some instances.

No prior painting or drawing skills are required. No experience with meditation or mindfulness required. This class is open to all skill levels.

Timeline:

Week 1

• Artist introduction and meditation intro

Week 2

• Intuitive drawing intro, individual practice and getting to know your materials

Week 3

• Intuitive drawing, individual practice continued

Week 4

• Individual practice continued, group painting

Class Make-up Day Policy:

If a class or workshop needs to be cancelled due to inclement weather or teacher illness, a “make-up” day will be scheduled on a FRIDAY or SATURDAY as the educator’s schedule allows.

Materials:

Students will purchase their own materials and should expect to spend $30-50. We partner with Meininger’s for local shopping, purchase a kit of your required materials online for in-store pickup, or purchase the items individually.

Educator:

Visual artist, Sarah Darlene, explores the functionality of abstraction through a feminine, queer, and contemporary perspective. Her work investigates the intersections of painting, social practice, and meditation and their collective ability to promote self-reflection, cathartic healing, and true social change. Palmeri holds a BFA in Painting and Drawing from Louisiana State University, and an Executive Certificate of Nonprofit Management from the University of Notre Dame. She has been a member of Strangers Art Collective since 2015 and is a former Artist in Residence at RedLine Contemporary Art Center in Denver. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and Iceland.

www.sarahdarlene.com

Class Description:

Students will learn the history of Cherokee basket making materials from pre-European contact through to contemporary Oklahoma Cherokee basket weaving. Following Sarah H. Hill in her book, Weaving New Worlds: Southeastern Cherokee Women and Their Basketry, we will meet some notable weavers and touch on different material traditions. The DAM Indigenous Arts of North America has a small selection of basketry from the Original Peoples of the Southeastern US and their descendants, and this class will both expose students to more examples of these traditions and give them an opportunity to weave their own round reed Oklahoma style Cherokee basket.

What to Expect:

Students will be given a presentation providing a close look at Cherokee basket weaving traditions and weavers, students are welcome to move around as needed during lecture and discussion. The instructor will spend 20-30 minutes providing a demo of starting, shaping/forming, and finishing a basket, and will begin work on single-walled baskets with students. The instructor will provide step-by-step instruction to the group, followed with one-on-one support. Each student will be able to finish at least one single-walled basket and begin work on a double-walled basket during the course of this class.

Timeline:

Week 1

• Lecture contextualizing this class within Denver’s American Indian history and what has happened on this land, to its ancestral caretakers, the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Ute. The lecture will include Cherokee basket weaving cultural history, as well as contemporary Cherokee weavers, and Q&A as time allows. Instructor will discuss materials, demo beginning of process, and begin baskets as time allows.

Week 2

• Continue weaving demo to include forming/shaping basket, and finishing. Begin/continue step-by-step and individual instruction. Demo double-walled baskets technique, and students ready can start double-walled basket.

Week 3

• Finish single-walled baskets, demo double-walled technique, ongoing individual support.

Week 4

• Finish all baskets.

Class Cancellation Policy:

If a class or workshop needs to be cancelled due to inclement weather or teacher illness, a “make-up” day will be scheduled on a FRIDAY or SATURDAY as the educator’s schedule allows.

Materials:

Students will purchase their own materials and should expect to spend $30-50.

We partner with Meininger’s for local shopping, purchase a kit of your required materials online for in-store pickup, or purchase the items individually.

Educator:

Salix is a 35-year-old two-spirit, multiracial creator and educator of Muscogee/Cherokee descent. Salix has had baskets on display at the Evergreen Center for the Arts, and they teach basket weaving for Colorado Native Org's Native cultural night. You can also find them at events such as the Harvest of All First Nations Corn Festival, and áyA Con Denver.

https://www.instagram.com/salix.weaves/

Class Description:

In this 6-week class, students will be introduced to weaving beyond the loom through techniques including book, card, and tapestry weaving. Students will learn how to construct simple, portable, “looms” using easy-to-find materials that can be adapted to any circumstance. Through each technique, students will learn about the basic elements of woven cloth and explore the design variations and possibilities offered by each weaving approach. The course will engage with the many examples of woven works from the museum’s Indigenous Arts of North America and Textile and Fashion Collections – many of which were created using similar techniques to those we will be using in class – as well as the work of contemporary weaving artists such as Sheila Hicks, Karolina Gnatowski, and Colorado-based artist Steven Frost.

What to Expect:

This class will include a mix of in-class demonstration, skill sharing, and making as well as group gallery visits and discussion. The compact and mobile formats of the looms will allow us to take our work beyond the classroom to draw inspiration from the galleries and the museum’s architecture while connecting with themes of space, place, and portability. Through observing works in the collection and learning new skills, we will take time to reflect on how weaving techniques are engaged across cultures and textile traditions, our positions as learners and artists, and our own relationships with textile histories. Students will leave the class with three sample weavings along with their handmade loom components.

Timeline:

Week 1 – Introductions + Book Weaving

• Introductions and class overview

• Lecture/demonstration: Intro to weaving

• Demonstration/activity: Tapestry weaving on a book loom

• Demonstration/Activity: Basic weave structures

• For next time: bring backstrap materials

Week 2 – Backstrap Weaving

• Re-introductions, questions/reflections from last class

• Demonstration/activity: Cutting off and finishing book weavings (15 mins)

• Slide lecture: Contemporary weaving artists + Backstrap Weaving

• Demonstration/Activity: Setting up the backstrap loom

• For next time: optional reading

Week 3 – Backstrap Weaving + Gallery Visit

• Gallery visits to woven textile objects

• Demonstration/activity: Weaving on a backstrap loom in museum space

• For next week: Bring materials for card weaving

Week 4 – Card Weaving

• Lecture/demonstration: Tablet weaving

• Prepare cards and card looms

• For next week: Optional reading

Week 5 – Card Weaving + Gallery Visit

• Welcome and gather

• Group reading discussion

• Demonstration/activity: Card weaving

• Gallery visit

Week 6 – Card Weaving + Conclusion

• Card weaving in museum space

• Return to classroom, finishing card weavings

• Share work and wrap up

Class Make-up Day Policy:

If a class or workshop needs to be cancelled due to inclement weather or teacher illness, a “make-up” day will be scheduled on a FRIDAY or SATURDAY as the educator’s schedule allows.

Materials:

Students will purchase their own materials and should expect to spend $50-70.

We partner with Meininger’s for local shopping, purchase a kit of your required materials online for in-store pickup, or purchase the items individually.

Educator:

Etta Sandry is an artist, educator, and facilitator currently based in Boulder, Colorado. Rooted in weaving, her interdisciplinary work is situated in the expanded material practices field between craft, contemporary art, and creative research. She has exhibited her work in the United States and Canada and was the 2022 Experimental Weaver in Residence at the Unstable Design Lab at the University of Colorado, Boulder where she now conducts research as a PhD student. Etta completed her MFA in the Fibre & Material Practices program at Concordia University where she also held positions teaching fiber structures and critical thinking & writing. She has over ten years of experience working as an organizer and administrator in arts communities, including roles as a board member at the artist-run centre articule in Montreal and as a volunteer staff in ACRE Residency’s fiber studio in Wisconsin.

www.ettasandry.com