Community Performances and Collaborations
My performances of my monoprint silkscreen process is very effective in creating community at exhibitions and talks I have given in a variety of location. I have done this performance 3 times at the Stat Museum (Nabburg, Germany), at Western Kentucky University, and at Rebel HQ Providence, Rhode Island. First, I demonstrate my multimedia mono-print silkscreen process in which I use watercolor, water-soluble crayons, transparent silkscreen medium, and mylar stencils. This demonstration illustrates how abstraction (which can be aloof and incomprehensible at times) is in dialogue with representation and how I work with this dialogue to build deep, layered atmospheres. Second, as the ink is drying on the silkscreen, I make an urgent call to the audience for help. This has worked very well with diverse communities, as it inspires the audience to collaborate, take risks freely, and to make as many prints as they want to take home. Within one hour, this performance functions simultaneously an artist talk, class, demonstration, and workshop. The participants gain accessible skills and cross-disciplinary insights that they can use in a multiplicity of ways. They experience first-hand the ways in which chance and a sense of urgency become significant drivers in the creative process. In the past, I have encouraged participants to see their take-home prints as seedlings that may be further grown and developed. My goal would be to develop this stage of the process more fully. Either in face-to-face meetings or in a virtual environment, I propose to work with community members after they take their work home, guiding them to develop their prints into mature pieces. I would then curate a show of these works by people who may or may not think of themselves as artists. People who already consider themselves artists would be exposed to new and unique techniques, and those who do not think of themselves as artists would perhaps be inspired to become more curious about, and nurture, their own creative potential.
To schedule an Art Performance for a school or community center please call 401-270-7623.
Offspring: Western Kentucky University collaboration March 17, 2010.
A progression of 6+ mono print screen drawings.
The first set are the beginning stage drawings.
