Tag Archives: art journal

Remembering Frida Kahlo: Icon of Passion and Pain

Posted on Monday, December 7, 2015 | Comments Off

We ended the four-day Looking for Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera Art History Study Tour in Mexico City with a morning at Casa Azul and the Frida Kahlo Museum followed by an afternoon at the Dolores Olmedo Patiño Museum. (I’ll be setting 2016 dates soon. Contact me to be notified.)

Frida Kahlo is a great source of inspiration and admiration. I see Frida differently each time I visit her home and look deeper into her art. Many are self-portraits about her accident, deformities, wish to be a mother, miscarriages and marital infidelities. Her work is honest and vulnerable.

Evoking Frida Kahlo: Making Memory Altars and Shrines

Consider making a self-portrait altar — a visual memoir!

Art historians and her admiring public describe her work as intensely personal and something we can all relate to, which is why, even today, her following is immense. She is compared to a contemporary Virgin of Guadalupe.

On this visit I was most interested in capturing close-up photographs of some of Frida’s most important works that are on exhibit. I am also continuing to experiment with my new Olympus OMD5 Mark II mirrorless camera that I used to take all the photos here.

We will repurpose the images for a 4-day mixed media art workshop, February 25-28, 2016.

Evoking Frida Kahlo: Making Memory Altars and Shrines

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In this mixed media art workshop, led by North Carolina artist Hollie Taylor, participants will build an altar or shrine to remember loved ones or to honor Frida Kahlo, feminist icon of passion and pain.

You can also use the workshop to make a self-portrait altar, incorporating images and experiences from your own life, much like a visual memoir.

We look at Frida’s life as an example. She was a woman of strength and complexity. While she lived with intense chronic pain, both physical and emotional, her face to the world successfully hid her deformities and shaped her identity. We see this in the Casa Azul exhibit, Appearances Can Be Deceiving.

A new documentary film shown at Casa Azul tells the story of Frida, a woman who has become a contemporary role model, honored for her courage and honesty, and for her ability to paint with emotion as a tool for self-reflection and healing.

Evoking Frida Kahlo: Making Memory Altars and Shrines gives us a chance to personally interpret Frida’s life and employ it as a jumping off point to create our own art altar in memory of Frida or our own special someone. Frida’s courage and obstacles, successes and set-backs are a metaphor for all of us.

It offers us an opportunity, through art, to explore identity, image, impression, impact, intent. To create an art altar is to interpret and to understand, to reveal what is hidden, to emotionally connect in a very visual way, and to offer homage.

Akin to the Mexican approach to death and dying through Day of the Dead, by building a memory altar or shrine, we create a space where we embrace and examine a loved one’s life using photos and memorabilia.

Consider making a self-portrait altar — a visual memoir!

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Posted in Cultural Commentary, Mixed Media Art, Workshops and Retreats

Tagged altar, art, art journal, class, course, Frida Kahlo, Mexico, mixed media, photography, shrine, workshop

Telling Stories: Art Huipil Mixed Media Workshop

Posted on Sunday, January 18, 2015 | Comments Off

The Art Huipil Workshop in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico just ended. Our instructor Lena Bartula says, Textile is text, which is why she incorporates stories, messages, poems and other writing into the mixed media art workshop she teaches. Textile is also cultural subtext, telling personal stories of the makers through pattern and design.

Exquisite Corpse Huipil — Group Collaboration

The huipil is the oldest Mesoamerican clothing form worn by women. Each woman who weaves a piece of cloth on a back-strap loom has to tell that is incorporated into the cloth. No two garments are alike. They may incorporate similar materials and patterns, but they are arranged differently, reflecting our distinctiveness.

Each woman uses symbols that reflect her personal and village history, and place in the world. Each chooses yarn and thread colors important to her, mother, grandmother and village tradition. The way the symbols flow through the garment is a message about life. Our instructor La Huipilista Lena Bartula, guides along the creative pathway.

Arrepentimientos by Vicki Solot

We take this Mexican tradition and use the huipil concept to create our own stories. We bring cloth, scissors, thread, canvas, handmade paper, ribbons, photographs, paints, drawing pens, glue, memorabilia and our imaginations.

We take field trips to local markets to collect paraphernalia. We look down on street pavement and in gardens to incorporate found objects. We determine what to edit, what is more or less, what is meaningful. We make art.

We laugh. Dance. Eat. Sing. Rest and renew. We make an altar to bless each other and our work. We celebrate the creativity and spirit within.

We celebrate the completion of our work and time together with a spirited exhibition of our work, followed by a fiesta dinner complete with handmade chilis rellenos, roast chicken, tortillas, salsa verde, potato empañadas and a divine dessert called Pastel Imposible — chocolate cake topped with flan.

As we say goodbye, we lay out our huipils. The sun is shining. The air is clear and warm. The days have sped by quickly and each participant takes away an art piece to display, a memory of an unparalleled experience in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico.

Here is our work:

Workshop participants and our collage of huipils.

I Love Mexico by Carol Egan

Quierdos — Dear Ones, by Ellen Benson

Finding Teotitlan by Sherry Bone Peel

Bad Girl by Ellen Benson

Natural Grace by Vicki Solot

Gracias a la Vida/Yin by Ruth Greenberger

Let It Be by Sherry Bone Peel

Gracias a la Vida/Yang by Ruth Greenberger

More or Less by Norma Hawthorne

Let me know by email if you are interested in participating next year. I am starting an early notification list.

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Posted in Clothing Design, Cultural Commentary, Teotitlan del Valle, Textiles, Tapestries & Weaving, Workshops and Retreats

Tagged art, art journal, class, collage, huipil, Mexico, mixed media, Oaxaca, retreat, workshop

Art Book Binding Workshop: Capture Your Travel Adventures

Posted on Monday, August 22, 2011 | 4 comments

Make a Handmade Box within a Book: August 1-7, 2012

Using handmade local papers, and found objects and materials, you will learn to make a travel book with a self-contained box to hold your collected artifacts. Each participant will design a book, prepare the papers and artifacts, stitch the binding, and make the box enclosure. The enclosed box can hold art supplies, treasures, or spiritual talismans. This is a unique art book design created by our instructor Lisa Gilbert. It is portable, versatile and beautiful.

A box within a handmade book

First, we will visit the Taller Arte Papel Oaxaca in San Agustin Etla where local papermakers use the traditional methods and incorporate regional natural fibers into the paper. Here we will see the paper making process and then select text and cover papers for your personalized handmade book project.

During our travel adventures around Oaxaca as you explore the rich culture , you will collect personal treasures along the way. Your book will reflect your unique travel experience as you move from markets, to museums, to art galleries and artist studios incorporating the textures, colors, and artifacts that exemplify Oaxaca.

Front cover has optional pockets

Each day begins with a book making demonstration, followed by a learning and practice session. We’ll have daily discussion about how the project is progressing and have the opportunity to share our discoveries. The workshop will culminate with a book exchange, best of week show, and fiesta.

You will:

Explore the anatomy of a book and how to construct one
Understand the fundamentals of the craft
Construct a sturdy box integrated within the book
Use the pamphlet stitch to bind the signatures
Make the finishing closures (e.g., paper beads, braided cords, etc.)
Insert envelopes to hold extra treasures
Apply foldout pages to extend your writing surfaces
Collect ephemera to be used for decoration (photos, collage elements, yarns, threads, buttons, beads, etc.)
No prior bookbinding skills are needed.

For:

Book artists
Art educators
Calligraphers
Artists and artisans
Printmakers
Anyone who wants to have fun and learn a new form of creative self-expression

We will provide you with a list of equipment and materials to bring with you upon registration. You may want to bring your own ephemera (decorations) or purchase ephemera during your travels around Oaxaca. We’ll provide basic supplies such thread, needles and glue and give you a shopping allowance to select handmade papers from Taller Arte Papel Oaxaca.

Your Itinerary: Each day includes plenty of time to work on making your book!

Use the box to collect milagros + embellishments

Day One: Arrive and settle into your Oaxaca city hotel.

Day Two: Travel by van to San Agustin Etla to the papermaking workshop; select your handmade amate papers; discuss components of bookmaking; overnight in Oaxaca (group breakfast, lunch and dinner).

Day Three: Visit the innovative textile museum, graphics arts institute, and go on an ephemera treasure hunt; discuss project design and paper preparation; overnight in Oaxaca (group breakfast; lunch and dinner on your own).

Day Four: Learn box making; project making and free time; overnight in Teotitlan del Valle (group breakfast, dinner).

Day Five: Visit the famed tianguis Tlacolula Market; discuss sewing the signatures; overnight in Teotitlan del Valle (group breakfast, lunch, dinner).

Day Six: Finish your book, book exchange, Best of Week Show and Fiesta; overnight in Teotitlan del Valle (group breakfast, lunch, dinner).

Day Seven: Depart OR stay on for an additional day and night to take a cooking class with renowned local teacher (9:30 a.m. -2:30 p.m.—includes lunch)

Select your own papers, cover design, colors

Your Workshop Leader is Book Maker Lisa Gilbert

Lisa Gilbert has been an enthusiastic book artist since childhood. She has been illustrating professionally, and teaching art and/or health for the past 20 years. Known for her use of color, finely tuned creativity, and excellent technical bookbinding, Lisa has been invited to show her work in two North Carolina exhibitions. She has studied bookbinding, papermaking, and box making at programs across the U.S., and most recently completed a Penland School of Crafts program. She has taught bookmaking classes throughout North Carolina, and has a reputation as a patient, encouraging, imaginative, and effective teacher.

Lisa considers herself to be a “cultural navigator” – a well-deserved designation since she has traveled to more than 25 countries. She purchases, collects, and uses exotic papers on her travels, most recently from Panama, Scandinavia, and India. Lisa has visited papermaking facilities and bookbinderies across India and has fashioned books from wood, papyrus, metal, mica, fabric, plastic, vinyl as well as from traditional materials such as handmade and machine-made decorative papers.

She attended Colorado Institute of Art, holds degrees in art and business, and the PhD in health education from University of Maryland. Her background is versatile and inventive.

Insert envelopes to hold extra treasures

Lodging/Accommodations. To keep this experience affordable, we have selected accommodations that are clean and basic. We will spend three nights in Oaxaca and three nights in Teotitlan del Valle. If you prefer luxury accommodations, please let us know and we can customize your accommodations for an added cost.

Cost: The basic cost for the trip is $1,295. USD. This includes six nights lodging double occupancy with shared bath, six breakfasts, three lunches, four dinners, transportation to the villages, all instruction and most materials. Travel workshops of this type and length cost more than twice as much!

The program costs do NOT include airfare, taxes, gratuities, travel insurance, liquor/alcoholic beverages, some meals as specified in the itinerary, entry fees, and some transportation.

You will have the option of sharing a double room with shared bath for the base price of the trip. Please indicate your preference.

Option A: Shared room with shared bath; $1,295. Deposit to reserve: $650.

Option B: Shared room with private bath; $1,495. Deposit to reserve: $750.

Option C: Single room with private bath; $1,645. Deposit to reserve: $823.

Option D: Add additional nights lodging in Oaxaca, +$125 each night.

Option E: Add one night lodging and cooking class in Teotitlan del Valle, $110 on Tuesday, August 7 (depart August 8)

Reservations and Cancellations

A 50% deposit is required to guarantee your spot. The final payment for the balance due (including any supplemental costs) shall be postmarked by May 30, 2012. We prefer Payment with PayPal. We will be happy to send you an invoice.

Please understand that we make lodging and transportation arrangements months in advance of the program. Deposits or payments in full are often required by our hosts. If cancellation is necessary, please notify us in writing by email. After May 30, no refunds are possible. If you cancel on or before May 30, 2012 we will refund 50% of your deposit. We strongly recommend that you take out trip cancellation, baggage, emergency evacuation and medical insurance before you begin your trip, since unforeseen circumstances are possible.

To register, contact: normahawthorne@mac.com or call (919) 274-6194. Thank you.

This workshop is produced by Norma Hawthorne, Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC. We reserve the right to alter the itinerary and substitute instructors without notice.