cullowhee mt. arts wrap up
I've just finished my two weeks at Cullowhee Mountain Arts, and posting a few photos from last week when I had 14 students, my largest class ever. (Quite a change from the week before, when I'd had only 4 in my class.) At first the numbers were daunting, but everyone seemed to settle in and find personal space by the end of the first day--fortunately, we had a very large painting studio and access to hallways and another studio next door. The photo below was taken in the hallway and also shows the 60-second drawings that the class did the first day. (The idea for that exercise is courtesy of
Lisa Pressman.)
Overall the facilities that we had at Western Carolina University were outstanding--what a pleasure, for example, to present my power points and slide talks in a conference room instead of to a group of people huddled around my laptop, which is often the case!
It's obvious to me after this week the advantages of having four full days of work time (at CMA, the fifth day is for wrapping up and open studio visiting time.) The longer work time facilitated individual styles to come forward in the work, in a way that shorter sessions often do not--and in a large class, the variety was striking and delightful to see. I am posting a few of the better photos I took--I'm sorry not to include everyone and their work, but here's a sampling, starting with a painting by BJ Lantz--the white at the bottom is more luminous than I was able to capture.
This painting is by Judy Schwartz, who commented that painting in this style brought back childhood memories.
Jeanne Garant with her beautiful minimalist work. She is holding a strip of rusted metal she plans to attach to the painting.
Lisa Boardwine talking about one of several of her paintings that were richly developed by the end of the week.
A complex, elegant composition by Linda Benton-McCloskey.
A richly colored and textured diptych by Colleen Lineberry (excuse the weird angle at which it is photographed, please!)
Finally, a shot of the class at work on the second day. I really enjoyed the energy of 14 people hard at work...the ideas, the questions, the "ah-ha" moments. I hope and plan to return to Cullowhee Mountain Arts next year.